SIMON'S FOOD SCHOOL:
Stuff You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Food
On a recent visit to London, my wife and I indulged ourselves in one of our favorite British culinary treats, a huge plate of “proper” fish & chips. It was everything that good British fish & chips should be. The fish (traditionally cod in the South of the country and haddock in the North) was protected by a thick coat of crisp batter, which had come away from the fish during frying, allowing it to steam inside to a perfect flake. The chips were finger thick and, with a sprinkle of salt and a good splash of malt vinegar, the scent wafting up from my plate reminded me of my childhood days when our parents would treat my siblings and I to a visit to our local fish & chip shop or “Chippie.” It might be hard to believe then that such a quintessentially British dish (a dish that was one of the few not rationed during World War II because Winston Churchill understood the negative impact this would have on British moral) actually owes thanks for its origins to religious
persecution in Portugal and a bad winter in Belgium.
In the 16th Century, Marranos Jews in Lisbon were undergoing a tortuous inquisition from Catholic Christians and, while some converted to Christianity to escape persecution, many pretended to convert while still maintaining their Jewish traditions behind closed doors. It was a Catholic tradition to eat fish on a Friday and the Marranos would fry theirs in oil protected by a batter made of egg and flour. This allowed those who were still following their Jewish laws,which precluded work on the Sabbath, to keep some of this fish to eat cold on Saturday. Many of the Marranos Jews fled Portugal for other more tolerant nations, and many ended up in east London in the 17 th Century. There, they continued to keep to the culinary traditions from their homeland including the cooking of fried fish on Friday to eat during the sabbath. This Jewish style of preparing fish became well known and even appeared in cookery books of the time. President Thomas Jefferson even referred to enjoying “fish fried in the Jewish style" while
on a visit to London.
The origins of “Chips” or fried potatoes is more difficult to trace, but is thought to have its origins in the 17th Century when a cold winter froze the rivers in the Liege area of Belgium. The people of that region loved to eat small river fish which they fried in oil. When the river froze over, they were unable to do this so, as the story goes, the housewives began to cut small fish shapes from potatoes and fried them instead. Belgium’s regular trade with Britain meant that this trend soon came to London and in 1859, Charles Dicken’s referred to “husky chips of potato fried with some reluctant drops of oil” in his novel “A Tale of Two Cities.” The first recorded reference to potatoes to “Chips” that we know of.
Inevitably, the two traditions soon began to merge in London and in 1865, an Ashkenazi Jew by the name of Joseph Malin is said to have opened the first fish & chip shop in London’s east end, from where it spread across the country to become Britain’s most popular dish and its most famous contribution to the world’s culinary menu.
So next time you are splashing a good dose of vinegar on your fish chips, remember to give a nod of thanks tenacious Portuguese Marranos Jews who refused to be dissuaded from their faith by persecution, and resourceful Belgian housewives who would not let a cold winter stop them from putting dinner on the table.
If you want to learn more about the history of fish & chips, you should check out Claudia Roden's "The Book of Jewish Food" and Panikos Paniyi's "Spicing Up Britain: The Multicultural History of British Food."
