Fish finger
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Fish fingers (British English) or fish sticks (American English and Canadian English) are a processed food made using a whitefish or pinkfish, such as cod, hake, haddock, shark, salmon, 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, grilled, shallow fried, or deep-fried.
History
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.
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,[7][8] 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.[9] The snack was nearly called Battered Cod Pieces, until a poll of Birds Eye workers opted for the snappier Fish Fingers.[10][11]
Varieties
Minced fish comes in industry standard 7.5 kg frozen blocks for further slicing and battering.[12] 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.[13]
In addition to white fish, fish fingers are sometimes made with salmon.[14]
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."[15]
See also
References
Bibliography
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External links
Template:Cod topics Template:Seafood
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- ↑ Pacific Fisherman 54 (1956) p. 55.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ Cyril Dixon, "The facts of fish fingers", The Independent, 21 August 1994 (online)
- ↑ 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, Template:ISBN
- ↑ "Teatime staple marks half century ", BBC News, 26 September 2005.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Clayton, Hugh: "Constancy of fish fingers a symbol of calm in a trade of frequent change" in The Times, 9 May 1980, p 17.
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- ↑ "10 fish sticks zalm" Template:Webarchive, IGLO 27 Juli 2014.
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