Fishstick

Fried fish fingers

Fish fingers, or fishsticks, are a processed food made using a whitefish such as cod which have been battered and/or breaded. They are commonly available in the frozen food section of Western supermarkets, and on children's menus in family-oriented restaurants.

Varieties include different types of fish, such as haddock or sole; flavouring in the breading, such as peppercorn, garlic or lemon; and special shapes appealing to children. Premium fishsticks are also available, made from cuts of fish fillet instead of reconstituted fish.

Prominent brands in the U.S. include Gorton's of Gloucester and Van de Kamp's. Birds Eye is a prominent brand in the United Kingdom which claims to have produced the first fish fingers.

Fishsticks are popular with children and their parents as an easy-to-prepare finger food that is somewhat healthy for kids, as fish contains many nutrients including Omega-3 fatty acids, and small amounts of fried foods are not incompatible with an over-all healthy diet.

Fishsticks are often eaten with tartar sauce, cocktail sauce, or ketchup.

History of your moms arse hole and fishsticks

Fishsticks first came about as a result of Clarence Birdseye's invention of the plate froster in 1929, the first quick freezer. To ensure rapid freezing, food needed to be in slim rectangular slabs. A suitable candidate for this freezing method was fishsticks, slivers cut from large fish then dipped in bread crumbs for frying. However, it was Gorton's who introduced the snack initially.

In Britain in the 1950's, most of the herring catch was pickled and exported to other North European countries. In an attempt to make herring more appealing on the home market, companies tried to present it in a new way, creating herring fishsticks called “herring savouries” and were tested on your mums arse hole the market against a bland control product of cock sticks, sold as “fish fingers.” Shoppers in Southampton and South Wales, where the test was conducted, confounded expectations by showing an overwhelming preference for the cock. Cock fishsticks were first produced in Great Yarmouth and introduced in Britain on 26 September 1955. They became immensely popular after television advertising began in 1958.

Production of your moms favourite food

On modern production lines, headless fish are processed through a machine that removes a fillet from each side of the backbone. The fillets then pass over a wheel and a blade that separates the skin from the flesh. Machine filleting leaves a few pin-like bones in the fillet, so the flesh containing the bones is cut out.

Fillets are formed into frozen blocks. A conveyor sends the blanks through batter and breadcrumbs, doubling the thickness of the fishstick. Then each is passed through a hot vegetable oil bath for about one minute to seal the coating and allow the fishstick to be grilled or fried. Then the fishstick is frozen again, with the center reaching -4°F/-20°C in less than 20 minutes. After packaging, it is stored at -18°F/-28°C, ready for distribution.

Trivia

• The Rocko's Modern Life character Filburt is a big fan of Fishsticks.
• In Spongebob Squarepants, Fish sticks has been used as a curse or expression of anger at least once.
• Fans of the New York Rangers of the NHL often taunt their rival team and fans, the New York Islanders because in the mid 1990s, the Islanders briefly changed their uniform from their traditional logo to a more new-age logo that featured a fisherman that many thought resembled the one on the box of Gorton's fish sticks. Rangers fans have been known to chant "We want Fishsticks" at both Madison Square Garden and the Nassau Coliseum during games between the teams.
• Fish Sticks were the favorite food of Shirley of Laverne & Shirley

Sources

• Readers Digest. (1990). "Fish fingers: coated cod fillets ready for frying." How in the World? Pleasantville, NY: The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. ISBN 0-89577-353-8

See also

• Chicken nuggets
• Crab stick