![]() Fried fish fingers | |
Alternative names | Fish sticks |
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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, grilled, shallow fried, or deep-fried.
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]
Minced fish comes in industry standard 7.5 kg (17 lb) 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]
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." [14]