Fish finger
 Fried fish fingers | |
| Alternative names | Fish sticks |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | United Kingdom |
| Main ingredients | Whitefish, battered, or breaded |
Fish fingers (British English) or fish sticks (American English and Canadian English) are a processed food made using a whitefish, such as cod, hake, haddock, or pollock, which has been battered or breaded and formed into a rectangular shape. They are commonly available in the frozen food section of supermarkets. They can be baked in an oven, cooked in the microwave, grilled, shallow fried, or deep-fried.
History
[edit]The term "fish finger" is first referenced in a recipe given in a popular British magazine in 1900,[1] and the dish is often considered symbolic of the United Kingdom by British people.[2]
The food restrictions during and after WWII expanded the consumption of fish fingers, but companies struggled to maintain decent quality.[3][4] The commercialization of fish fingers may be traced to 1953 when the American company Gorton-Pew Fisheries, now known as Gorton's, was the first company to introduce a frozen ready-to-cook fish finger; the product, named Gorton's Fish Sticks, won the Parents magazine Seal of Approval in 1956.[5][6] The developer of those fish sticks was Aaron L. Brody.
"In 1929, Clarence Birdseye...sold his company and name...It was the grey-suited marketing men of Unilever who brought the fish stick concept to Britain."[7] - Shelagh Wilson,[8] University of Northumbria, Newcastle
There was an abundance of herring in the United Kingdom after World War II. Clarence Birdseye test-marketed herring fish fingers, a product he had discovered in the United States,[9][10][11] under the name "herring savouries". These were tested in Southampton and South Wales against "cod fingers", a comparatively bland product used as a control. Shoppers, however, confounded expectations by showing an overwhelming preference for the cod.[12] The snack was nearly called Battered Cod Pieces, until a poll of Birds Eye workers opted for the snappier Fish Fingers.[13][14]
Varieties
[edit]
Minced fish comes in industry standard 7.5 kg (17 lb) frozen blocks for further slicing and battering.[15] These are more commonly used in store brand economy products. They may have either batter or breadcrumbs around the outside as casing, although the coating is normally breadcrumbs.[16]
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Sweden frozen food brand Findus released a fish finger product with a coating of chips in place of breadcrumbs under the name "Crostinos".[17]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ↑ "History of Fish Fingers". Foods of England. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
- ↑ Cloake, Felicity (2015-09-15). "Fish fingers at 60: how Britain fell for the not-very-fishy frozen sticks". the Guardian. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
- ↑ Josephson, Paul R. (26 November 2015). Fish sticks, sports bras, and aluminum cans : the politics of everyday technologies. ISBN 978-1421417844. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- ↑ Novak, Matt (12 August 2016). "How Fish Sticks Became the Food of the Future That Nobody Asked For". Paleofuture. Gizmodo. Archived from the original on 24 December 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- ↑ Pacific Fisherman 54 (1956) p. 55.
- ↑ Josephson, Paul (2008). "The Ocean's Hot Dog: The Development of the Fish Stick". Technology and Culture. 49 (1): 41–61. doi:10.1353/tech.2008.0023. ISSN 0040-165X. JSTOR 40061377. S2CID 110903114.
- ↑ Wilson, Shelagh (27 August 1994). "Letter". The Independent. Retrieved 1 June 2026.
- ↑ "about me". Shelagh Wilson. Retrieved 1 June 2026.
- ↑ Dixon, Cyril (21 August 1994). "The facts of fish fingers". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2012-10-07. Retrieved 1 June 2026.
- ↑ Cyril Dixon, "The facts of fish fingers", The Independent, 21 August 1994 (archive.today[link removed][dead link] archive.org [dead link])
- ↑ David Hillman and David Gibbs, Century Makers: One hundred clever things we take for granted which have changed our lives over the last one hundred years, London: Weidenfeld, 1998 / New York: Welcome Rain, 1999, ISBN 9781566490009
- ↑ "Teatime staple marks half century ", BBC News, 26 September 2005.
- ↑ "Fish fingers 'surprisingly sustainable'". BBC News. 2018-11-02. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
- ↑ Clayton, Hugh: "Constancy of fish fingers a symbol of calm in a trade of frequent change" in The Times, 9 May 1980, p 17.
- ↑ "7.5kg fish block production" (PDF). May 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-02-22. Retrieved 2019-04-23.
- ↑ "STANDARD FOR QUICK FROZEN FISH STICKS (FISH FINGERS) - CODEX STAN 166–1989" (PDF). Codex Alimentarius. WHO. 2017.
- ↑ FINDUS Suisse (2013-11-26). FINDUS 1987 - Crostinos. Retrieved 2024-10-22 – via YouTube.
Bibliography
[edit]- "How in the World? A Fascinating Journey Through the World of Human Ingenuity", Reader's Digest, 1990, ISBN 978-0-89577-353-1
External links
[edit]
Media related to Fish fingers at Wikimedia Commons
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| Processed seafood | |
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