did fish and chips used to be working class?

[Marshtit]

i never had fish and chips growing up
and only have it once in a blue moon now

it used to be a really common meal, i believe, particularly on fridays

Chippies are always packed on Friday and Saturday teatimes where I live (North). It doesn’t seem to be particularly posh people buying them. It’s 8.95 for haddock (always haddock round here) and chips and you get a massive portion, and 6.95 for a pensioners I think.
We get it a couple of times a month.

Before refrigeration, fish needed eating within a couple of days of being landed, Cod and haddock were the best so most costly, then plaice then less tasty fish like hake and coley were cheaper.

Now fish has a longer shelf life and so there's no rush, prices can rise to compete against meats and cheeses.

Plus fish stocks are down, so prices rise. And business rates, minimum wage, NI etc push up shop costs.

Haddock and chips is £9.50 here (south) but you can still buy 500gm of frozen hake to cook at home for £3.50.

It's because it was sold wrapped in newspaper and you could eat it walking down the street rather than on a plate with a knife and fork. My middle class parents prederred Wimpy to McDonald's in the 80s because you got cutlery to eat it with!

We had it weekly growing up in the north west- richer mates didn’t have it as much and I remember my friend who’s dad was a posh/rich MP said her family thought it was a bit “lower class”.
Had F&C last night- now live in an affluent Home Counties area and it cost £23 for one large fish, large chips and curry sauce (including a few quid delivery). It’s probably more of a 3-4 times a year treat due to the expense.

It was probably the only takeaway meal on offer.

chinese and Indian restaurants only appeared in 50’s and 60’s. ( I think! )

theres there’s the religious thing with fish on Fridays, but probably also knackered mums who wanted a day off cooking!

Yes I suppose so

I grew up in a rural area bordering Wales. Fish and chips was a rare treat in the 60s & 70s because even then it was comparatively expensive for a family of 6.

More likely to have (home made) egg & chips.

We had 2 large cod and 1 large chips delivered yesterday. It cost £29! It was delicious though 😬

In The Road to Wigan Pier George Orwell wrote about Friday fish and chips and the working class. How making chips is one of the most expensive ways of cooking potatoes, but still relatively cheap, and you can get a lot of chips for your pennies. Warm, filling food, not necessarily very nourishing, but fills you up and a bit of a treat. He explores the eating habits of the Wigan miners of the time a lot.

Fish was traditionally eaten on Fridays in Christian, particularly Catholic, households, as a form of penance or fast (ie: it's not meat). Fried fish was actually a Jewish tradition, associated with other religious dietary restrictions.

So alongside being paid on Fridays, it's easy to understand how fish & chips on Fridays became a popular treat amongst the working classes.

In fact, one of the earliest fish and chips shops was in Mossley, about 30 miles from Wigan.

Yes it was. I used to work for a semi-aristo family and they had fish and chips while I worked for them once. And the mum declared they wouldn't eat them again, not really suitable food for them. Their teenage son was gutted!

I grew up in a fairly MC household. We only had f&c on August bank holiday Monday, and the time DDad brought some visiting American colleagues over unannounced. 40 - more - years later, my siblings and I remember this great day in family history as the pinnacle of our childhoods.

I don't think I've ever seen a fish and chip shop that does delivery unless it's a workplace order where its worth someone going out with a car full.

£23 for one large fish, chips and curry sauce where we are. Easily fed us both though so not too bad as an infrequent Friday treat.

Harry Ramsden’s in Guiseley, was supposed to be the best fish and chips ever. People would go from miles around.

To begin with yes. Fish and chips has quite a lot of cheaper bulking agents. The batter makes the fish look twice as big. The batter, chips and mushy peas are all cheap and filling. Chopping potatoes and mushing peas means you don't need the better quality ones, you just remove the bad bits. They store well too. It's only more recently that the prices have rocketed.

@Walkinginthesandagain rock salmon is huss, which is a term for a number of sub species. Essentially a good name to cover up what it really comes from.

@Runnersandtoms yep mine too. My Dad sat looking around in disgust in McDonald's, really struggled with no table service like he's never been in a chippy in his life. Then he walked up to the counter and asked for the wine list. My cheeks are still burning 40 yrs on.

Yes, it was cheap when I was a kid (61 now). So was cheese. Remember mum and dad complaining that they wished they could afford to eat more than cheese sandwiches from home at work each day.

we had two medium fish and one small chips between us, £18 but left nothing, not even for ddog!

Most places use UberEats or JustEat these days.

We had fish on Fridays (when I were a lass) because that's when the boats came home.

No time recently obviously.

Lots of fish and chips shops deliver via Just Eat where we are.

They don't usually do their own deliveries though.
It's those ubiquitous men on small motorbikes who've never passed their test darting in and out of the traffic.
Deliveroo. Uber eats.etc.
You must have seen them.
They deliver anything.
Even groceries from the Co OP.

Never seen them in any fish and chip shop round here.

We tended to have fish and chips at my dgps and the fish and chip shop in the town had been going for a long time, fish was fresh as they lived near the sea

I am honestly gobsmacked at the prices some of you are paying for fish and chips!

Up here in Yorkshire there are queues out the door on Thursday, Friday and Saturday teatimes. A large haddock and chips is £8.70 in my local. Cooked in beef dripping and a big enough portion to feed two adults!

We tend to have it once a month (for health reasons more than cost)! But there are so many more options for takeaways now so it’s not as popular as it once was. There’s a mix of MC and WC people in there.