The resistless combining of a wooden-headed hunk ofbattered codresting atop a mound of steaming raging chips ( known as french fries in America ) is the quintessential British comfort food . Whether eaten on a plastic lap tray in front of the " telly , " or bolt down from a makeshift paper cone on the fashion home from the pub , a repast of fish and chips is like a portion of deep - fried nostalgia with a scattering of salt andvinegar .
At the dish ’s peak popularity in the previous twenties , there were 35,000 fish and chip shops in the United Kingdom ( England , Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland ) . Today , there are still 10,500 " chippies " in the U.K. serving360 million mealsof Pisces the Fishes and chips every twelvemonth , the equivalent of six service of Pisces and chips for every British man , woman and child .
The golden - fried jazz group is so deeply entrenched in British culture that it ’s hard to conceive of a time when there was n’t a fish and chip shop in every locality . But travel back a simple 200 year and you ’d be intemperately - pressed to find deep-fried fish or chip potatoes anywhere in the British Isles . The delicious duo make out together in the mid-19th century thanks in large part to the culinary contributions of immigrant .
A Sephardic Fish Fry
The practice of breading and electrocute Pisces iscredited to Judaic communitiesoriginally dwell in Spain and Portugal . roll in the hay as Sephardic Jews , the Judaic biotic community of the Iberian Peninsula thrived there since the 8th century , much of it under Moorish Muslim prescript .
The state of affairs changed dramatically in the 15th C . First , the Spanish Inquisition illegalize Judaism , sending Spanish Jews fleeing to neighboring Portugal . Then , in 1496 , the Portuguese King Manuel I married Isabella of Spain , who insisted on the changeover or riddance of Jews from Portugal , too .
Some Jews chose to remain in Spain and Portugal , many of them feigning conversion but exist in secret as " crypto - Jews . " But others chose to flee to other parts of Europe where they could hold out their faith freely . And wherever the Sephardic Jews traveled , they brought their rich culinary custom .
Cooking is not allowed on the Jewish Sabbath ( Shabbat ) , which begin on sundown Friday night and ends on sundown Saturday . So Sephardic Jewish menage would gear up food on Friday good afternoon that would last the next 24 hours . Fried Pisces , lightly battered with flour or matzo repast , taste just as good a day later .
According to the author and solid food enthusiast Simon Majumdar , Judaic immigrants to England acquire toselling fried fish in the streetsfrom tray hung from their neck by leather straps . As early as 1781 , a British cookbook author mention to " The Jews ' way of preserving Salmon River and all sorting of fish , " and Thomas Jefferson , after a visit to England , wrote about try out " deep-fried Pisces in the Jewish fashion . "
Even today , some hint of the Judaic origins of British fried fish remain . The foretoken hang aboveBooba ’s Fish and Chipsoutside of London advertises " Matzo Meal , Batter , Grilled . "
But it was n’t until the mid-19th hundred that Judaic - fashion fry Pisces to the full made the cultural transfer from the street of East London to the broader British public . And for that , says historianPanikos Panayi , you may give thanks the railroad .
" For people without diachronic perspective , the internet is radical , but the railroad line changes everything , " says Panayi , generator of " Fish and fries : a account . " " Now you could carry fresh fish from the ocean to anywhere in Great Britain within a few 60 minutes . That ’s when fried fish really choose off . "
The Chip Mystery
Nobody is entirely sure how deep-fried Irish potato became a staple part of the European diet . We do love that it took a really long time for fried potatoes — or murphy of any form — to make their way to England . The exotic tubers , first brought to Europe by South American Explorer in the 1500s , were look at inedible for centuries .
In Belgium , the story is that fried potatoes also originated in Spain in the 16th 100 and were brought north to a region call the Spanish Netherlands , which is near modern - solar day Belgium . There , in the 17th - century , fisher who walk out out at ocean would carve Irish potato into fish shapes and fry them up for a brook - in supper .
Payani was n’t capable to pinpoint the exact arrival of electrocute white potato vine to England , but it was unquestionably much later than the Belgian accounts . He believes that fry murphy did n’t really take off in Great Britain until the 1860s , which is right around the clock time that we see the very first Pisces and chip shops .
‘The Good Companions’
So when exactly did these two fried admirer get together ?
There are competing title for being the first British Pisces the Fishes and Saratoga chip shop class . A Jewish immigrant namedJoseph Malinsis believed to have open his chippy in the London neighbourhood of Bow in 1860 after trade the classical jazz band in the streets for years . And up northwards near Manchester , the Pisces and chip stand have by John Lees in the town of Mossley was already doing tonic business by 1863 .
Panayi say that by 1900 fish and chips were a staple food in the U.K. Their widespread appeal was about monetary value and convenience as much as flavor . The advent of industrial - scale trawl fishing in the North Sea meant cheap unused fish could be sent by rails to all corners of Great Britain to feed hungry factory worker and their families .
By 1910 , there were25,000 fish and chip shopsin the U.K. , and they even stayed open during World War I. In an effort to supercharge morale at home base , Prime Minister David Lloyd George made sure that Pisces and chips stayed off the ration list . The same pattern was observed during World War II , when Winston Churchill famously advert to a hot meal of Pisces and chips as " the honorable companions . "
concord to theNational Federation of Fish Friers(yup , that ’s a thing ) , British soldiers storm the Normandy beaches on D - Day would describe each other by yelling out " Fish ! " and waitress for the hardly cod response , " flake ! "
Mushy Peas and Malt Vinegar
In the advanced , multicultural U.K. , there is plenty of competition for the " interior lulu " — poulet tikka masala draw a strong claim — but London - born Panayi says that Pisces the Fishes and chips is " still regarded as a culinary symbolization of Britishness . "
Some chippy traditions have changed over the years . For example , during the war years , newspaper rations meant that Pisces and chips were wait on in cones of yesterday ’s newspaper . That practice went out of favour in the 1980s . And traditionally , Pisces the Fishes and chips were accompany by common salt and malt acetum , but immature generations have turned to curry sauce and even ketchup .
" I would n’t dream of doing that , " says Panayi of the American fast - food condiment .
In Northern England , the classic side dish at the chippy is maudlin peas , a gray - unripe concoction of well - moil arena peas that sample much better than it looks . And any chippy worth its salt will thrust in a sprinkling of " scraps " for customers savvy enough to ask . Those , of course , are the crispy piece of loose batter float around in the frier .
