Fish and chips, wrapped in newspaper
Eaten with mayonnaise, salt and pepper, lemon
The development of the steam powered trawler brought fish from all over the North Atlantic and Iceland, then the steam railways ensured fast distribution of produce around Britain. The earliest purpose-built fishing vessels were made in Leith in 1875 when they converted a drifter to steam power.
The origins of British fish and chips were uncertain. Originally Western Sephardic Jews, who settled in England in the C17th, liked preparing fried fish. The fish was coated in flour and dipped into a batter i.e flour mixed with water, or even beer. London’s East End Jews sold fried fish from their shops.
The potato came to Britain from the New World in the C17th by Sir Walter Raleigh. While there was disagreement between France and Belgium about where chips were invented, fried potato chips have long been popular in Britain. William Kitchiner's book The Cook's Oracle (published 1817) included the earliest known recipe for potato chips which first took off in Lancashire and Yorkshire.
Who brought the combination together to create this essentially British dish? Some said the first fish and chip shop was opened in the East End of London in early 1860s by the Eastern European immigrant Joseph Malin who sold Jewish-style fish fried. Others believed that in 1863 entrepreneur John Lees was selling fish and chips out of a Mossley market hut in Lancashire i.e it was the cheap, staple food of the Industrial North. Lees sold fish and chips from a wooden market hut and later moved the business to a proper shop.
Whichever came first, both sites helped people decide that putting fried fish & chips together was a tasty combination; the national (working class) dish of fish and chips was born! Soon fish and chip shops were small family businesses, often run from the front room of the house and commonplace by the late C19th. It must have worked - by 1910 there were c25,000 fish and chips shops in Britain.
The fish and chip shop was invaluable in supplementing the family’s weekly diet during WW2, once ministers of the crown ensured that fish and chips would never be rationed! So long queues quickly appeared when people heard that a chip shop had fish!! Fish and chips were a valuable source of protein and iron. The problem was the oil, such that fish and chips were censured by healthy food experts. [So I warmly recommend grilled and not fried].
Freshly cooked hot fish and chips, eaten on the beach
Fish, chips and mushy peas; very British! Freshly cooked hot fish and chips were smothered in salt and vinegar and wrapped; great when eaten out-of-doors on a cold, wintry day! Servings were wrapped in old newspaper to keep prices down. This practice survived as late as the 1980s when it was pronounced unsafe for food to come into direct contact with newspaper ink.
In 1999, the British averaged six servings for every man, woman in the country. There are now 10,500 fish and chip shops across the UK i.e 8 for every one McDonald’s outlet, so Fish and Chips are the nation’s favourite take-away. To move away from its working class origins, shops smartened up and the selected pieces come from better quality fish.
Australia
Athanassio Comino arrived in Sydney from the Greek island of Kythera in 1873. And after arriving in Australia as a sailing ship sailor, Comino worked in a Balmain colliery. He was walking down Sydney’s Oxford St when hunger drew him to a fish and chip shop operated by an Welshman. He saw the chance to start a business and, in 1878, started his own in Oxford St. The 1870s date sounds reasonable, given that fish and chips had become popular in Britain in the 1860s.
As well as the fish and chips, Comino serviced Australians’ love of oysters, expanding his business into a chain of oyster saloons. Brother Ioannis migrated to Australia in 1884 to join him and, after Athanassio’s death in 1897, expanded the Cominos Empire. Family members followed the brothers to Australia and into the seafood business. Ioannis became known as the Oyster King and the Comino name was attached to businesses across NSW and Qld.
After the excitement of Federation in 1901, when Australia was developing its own identity, fish and chips became one of the most popular meals. The peak of their popularity was during the interwar years when there must have been a fish and chop shop on every street. For many working class families, the shops functioned as an affordable escape from the monotony of bread, dripping, jam and tea, as in Britain.
The tradition of buying and sharing wrapped bundles of battered fish and fried chips is deep-rooted in Australian culture. Many families had picnics on the beach, children’s birthday parties or Friday night family dinners. In Australia today, there are c4000 fish and chip shops, as well as this meal being an essential menu offering in many Australian pubs and restaurants. The most popular fishes nowadays are more expensive: barramundi, snapper, trout, flathead, john dory, blue grenadier, hake, gemfish, red emperor, salmon and ling.