7/7/2019 Fish finger - Wikipedia

Fish finger
Fish fingers (British English) or fish sticks (American English), are a
Fish fingers
processed food made using a whitefish, such as cod, hake, haddock or
pollock, which has been battered or breaded. They are commonly available
in the frozen food section of supermarkets. They can be baked in the oven,
grilled, shallow fried, or deep-fried.

Contents
History Fried fish fingers
Varieties Alternative fish sticks
See also names
References Main whitefish, battered or
ingredients breaded
Bibliography
Cookbook: Fish fingers
Media: Fish fingers
History
The term "fish fingers" is first referenced in a recipe given in a British
popular magazine in 1900,[1] and the dish is often considered symbolic of
the United Kingdom.[2]

The food restrictions during and after WWII expanded the consumption of
fish sticks, 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,
Baked fish fingers on baking paper
named Gorton's Fish Sticks, won the Parents magazine Seal of Approval in
1956.[5][6]

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 sticks", 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] Filling inside a fish finger

Varieties
The fish used may be either fillets cut to shape or minced/ground fish reformed to shape. Those made entirely from
fillets are generally regarded as the higher quality products and will typically have a prominent sign on the box stating
that the fish is 100% fillet.

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Minced fish comes in industry standard 7.5 kg frozen blocks for further slicing and battering.[11] 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.[12]

In addition to white fish, fish fingers are sometimes made with salmon.[13]

See also
Crab stick
Chicken fingers
Chicken nugget
Fishcake
Fish finger sandwich

References
1. "History of Fish Fingers" (http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/fishfingers.htm). Foods of England. Retrieved 1 April
2013.
2. Cloake, Felicity (2015-09-15). "Fish fingers at 60: how Britain fell for the not-very-fishy frozen sticks" (https://www.t
heguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2015/sep/15/fish-fingers-60-britain-taste-of-childhood). the Guardian.
Retrieved 2 December 2018.
3. Josephson, Paul R. (26 November 2015). Fish sticks, sports bras, and aluminum cans : the politics of everyday
technologies (https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1421417847). ISBN 978-1421417844. Retrieved 23 April
2019.
4. Novak, Matt (12 August 2016). "How Fish Sticks Became the Food of the Future That Nobody Asked For" (https://
paleofuture.gizmodo.com/how-fish-sticks-became-the-food-of-the-future-that-nobo-1725388138). Paleofuture.
Gizmodo.
5. Pacific Fisherman 54 (1956) p. 55 (https://books.google.com/books?ei=jm3GT9D0C4Gy2QWY453eAQ&id=AhP9
AAAAMAAJ&dq=fish+sticks+Gorton+Parents+magazine+seal+of+approval&q=Parents+magazine#search_ancho
r).
6. 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 (https://doi.org/10.1353%2Ftech.2008.0023). ISSN 0040-165X (https://w
ww.worldcat.org/issn/0040-165X). JSTOR 40061377 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/40061377).
7. Cyril Dixon, "The facts of fish fingers", The Independent, 21 August 1994 (online at Highbeam; subscription
required (https://archive.today/20130125113851/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4669873.html))
8. 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 (https://books.google.com/books?ei=b2fGT4-5M6LE2wX-ppz1
AQ&id=qWJFAAAAYAAJ&dq=Fish+fingers+herring&q=frozen+fillets+of+fish#search_anchor), London:
Weidenfeld, 1998 / New York: Welcome Rain, 1999, ISBN 9781566490009.
9. "Teatime staple marks half century " (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4282290.stm), BBC News, 26
September 2005.
10. "Fish fingers 'surprisingly sustainable' " (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-46071019). BBC News. 2018-11-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-02.
11. "7.5kg fish block production" (https://www.seafish.org/media/Publications/FS28_06_09_MinimisingVoids.pdf)
(PDF). May 2009.
12. "STANDARD FOR QUICK FROZEN FISH STICKS (FISH FINGERS) - CODEX STAN 166–1989" (http://www.fao.
org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/sh-proxy/en/?lnk=1&url=https%253A%252F%252Fworkspace.fao.org%252Fsite
s%252Fcodex%252FStandards%252FCODEX%2BSTAN%2B166-1989%252FCXS_166e.pdf) (PDF). Codex
Alimentarius. WHO. 2017.
13. "10 fish sticks zalm" (http://www.iglo.be/nl-be/assortment/vis/10_fish_sticks_zalm/), IGLO 27 Juli 2014.

Bibliography
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7/7/2019 Fish finger - Wikipedia

How in the World? A Fascinating Journey Through the World of Human Ingenuity, Reader's Digest, 1990,
ISBN 978-0-89577-353-1

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