Classic British ‘chippy’ could have Jewish origins

JORDAN MOSHE

By 1935, there were about 35 000 fish and chip shops in business on the island, and at the height of World War II, the dish was even exempted from rationing by Winston Churchill himself. But, according to recent research, fish fried in batter is not inherently English but the creation of Jews maintaining culinary custom.

Opinion on the origin of the dish is divided. According to one theory, the recipe for fried fish arrived in the United Kingdom with Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe in the 1800s. In a recently aired BBC programme, historian Denise Phillips explained that these enterprising Jews founded small eateries, which became known as fried fish warehouses, where an original recipe for fish coated in breadcrumbs and cooked (a dish popularly eaten cold on Shabbat) was adapted slightly for the British public. These establishments gained considerable popularity, even appearing in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist in 1837.

According to another theory, the dish is, in fact, the legacy of Portuguese Marranos. Considered the ultimate authority by some, Claudia Roden’s 1996 The Book of Jewish Food maintains that certain nominal Christians who were secretly practising Jews fried their fish on Friday (the Christian world’s fish day) and ate it cold on Shabbat.

There is a wealth of references to support this theory. From Manuel Brudo, who wrote in 1544 that “the favourite diet of Marrano refugees” was fried fish, sprinkled with flour, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs; to Lady Montefiore, who anonymously wrote the first Jewish cookery book in English in 1846; and even American founding father Thomas Jefferson, whose niece collected his favourite recipes, including instructions in 1855 for “fish fried in the Jewish manner”.

British-born food and travel author Simon Majumdar supports this theory. In his podcast, Eat My Globe, Majumdar says that Peshkado frito, one of the culinary treasures founded in Sephardic cuisine, is the dish we know today as fish and chips – though without the chips. The dish of white fish, typically cod or haddock, fried in a thin coat of flour, was a favourite among Sephardic Jews, who allegedly maintained that the batter preserved the fish so it could be eaten cold and without losing too much flavour the following day.

Its popularity was immediate. Fish prepared “in the Jewish manner” was sold on the streets of London every day of the week. Moreover, eating fish on Friday was a part of religious custom for Jews and Catholics alike, with fish being a traditional preference for Jews on Friday nights since the days of the Talmud, and Catholics avoiding consuming warm-blooded animals on that day for centuries. Though both groups were religious minorities at the time, fried fish gained popularity as a secular dish as well.

As for the addition of potato chips, it wasn’t until the late 1800s that the fruit of the earth itself became a recognised food. There are as many theories of how the potato came to England as there are competing theories about who paired it with fried fish.

Some maintain that Jewish Eastern European immigrant Joseph Malin was the first to serve fish with chips in his warehouse in London’s Bow neighbourhood in 1860. Others, however, credit John Lees, an Englishman who ran one of the first fish and chips huts in Lancashire in 1863, and offered “chipped potato” alongside fried fish. Regardless of the origins of this famous pairing, the combination known as “good companions” by Churchill soon became every Englishman’s dish.

Locals and immigrants alike quickly took to slathering their cod in batter, and frying up thickly cut potato chips. Industrialisation in the 19th and early 20th centuries propelled the iconic dish to even greater heights, making it a favourite for factory and mill workers in London and further afield.

While its murky history and religious connotations continue to be explored today, admirers in Britain and elsewhere alike remain devoted to this beloved English dish.