Why don’t we eat more fish and seafood?

[KhansMambo]

A friend and I were chatting about fish and seafood (it’s Easter, after all), and wondering why the U.K. doesn’t have more of a fish/seafood culture or seafood based cuisine. Apart from the occasional bit of battered and deep fried fish, it doesn’t feature largely in a lot of people’s usual diets. And we consume markedly less than other countries with similar access.

As we’ve had so much access to it, historically, it’s interesting that it’s not the core of our traditional diet. Why don’t we have hundreds of razor clam recipes? Why didn’t everyone grow up eating an array of fish stews? Or using different kinds of seafood and seaweed as seasoning? I’m sure there’s all sorts of interesting anthropological reasons. I was wondering what everyone thought they were.

A quick Google dig up these, which I thought were really interesting.

• www.spectator.co.uk/article/britains-strange-aversion-to-seafood/amp

• www.newstatesman.com/culture/food-drink/2021/09/britain-is-surrounded-by-fish-so-why-do-we-eat-so-little-of-it

Because people can’t be arsed

I often wonder this. I lived in Madrid in my hirties which is miles from the sea and seafood was available.everywhere. if I pass a fishmonger here I know all the names.of the fish in Spanish but have no idea of th English word for it. Fish here always seems to be prohibitively expensive

We're in the Channel Islands so we eat loads (I'm waiting for my crab sandwich as I type) but I think you're right, outside of coastal areas in the UK it's not as common.

In the past I've hosted groups of people from the UK visiting Jersey and we've taken them to a seafood buffet. Learned very quickly that average folks from inner-cities are usually ok with salmon, cod etc often appalled by oysters, shell-on prawns, whitebait, unpicked crab etc, that are pretty normal and everyday here.

That said, I was probably the same 20 years ago when I moved here from an inland city.

I quite like fish but don’t have it as often as I should. I like salmon, tuna steak, swordfish, sea bass, whitebait, calamari, king prawns, scallops and cod. Not a fan of haddock or trout though. I’m having baked salmon and pesto with veg tonight.

I grew up near the coast but there wasn’t a local harbour when fish were brought in.
In fact when I was young it was pretty common for the sea to be so polluted you wouldn’t want to eat anything caught locally!

I don't like fish that much. I do eat salmon very occasionally and tuna. But wouldnt care if I never ate fish again.

I don’t eat any seafood I just think its horrible the smell is enough to put me off.

There is an English tradition to eat fish on a Friday

The last place I worked, there was always fish in the canteen on a friday

Yes we recently moved to Paris and there's a market right outside our flat three times a week with an amazing range of fresh fish. It's not that expensive either. I cook much more fresh fish here as a result. But the French have put a lot of effort / money into preserving their fishing industry.

I've often wondered this too

I find fish can be tricky to cook - easy to overcook, falls apart easily

Price?

I love it personally and eat it a few times a week but some types are expensive

I don’t like fish that tastes overly ‘fishy’, as silly as that sounds, and the texture of some seafoods doesn’t sit right with me. Mussels

Also, the faff of cleaning and preparing fish outweighs the pleasure of eating it, for me.

I gave up eating fish and sea food after watching Seaspiracy, I'll never eat it again.

@YryBuyTry7295

There is an English tradition to eat fish on a Friday

The last place I worked, there was always fish in the canteen on a friday

I think that's a Roman Catholic tradition

Have you seen Seaspiricy, OP? There was a backlash against this documentary but I did a bit of research and it does raise some really converning points. I am cutting back for environmental ethical and health reasons....

*concerning

I don’t like seafood especially stuff with shells where you have to crack it’s legs off or whatever.
Hate the smell too.
A tuna mayo sandwich is my limit.

I eat quite a lot as good for low carb but I think it’s quite pricey

For a former job I spent a lot of time reading sixteenth century account books (yes, really) and they were buying lots of fish but it was all fish that we consider essentially inedible today - lots of river fish, stuff like carp. I sort of assumed without thinking about it that people stopped eating those but replaced it with meat rather than more palatable fish. I do think it's something that a lot of people struggle with if you don't acquire the taste. I love fish, but can't stand most seafood for texture reasons, and I think that's to do with what I was and wasn't exposed to as a child.

I think that there used to be. There used to be fishmongers in every area and people going around the pubs, standing in the street selling pots of cockles, welks etc. A lot of people thought that fish was a waste of money because it was priced similarly to meat and they'd rather eat meat. When it was cheaper, poorer people would eat it and of course it was freely available, like rabbit. But fish doesn't keep well.
A fun fact that I found out was that Queen Elizabeth 1 made a law that fish has to be eaten on Monday, Wednesday and Friday or three months in jail. People rebelled so the Church did the fish on Friday thing. It was all to help the fishing industry in the 1500's.

It's not very filling. It's a lot of faff for not much reward really, although I love prepared shellfish.

I ate loads more fish when I lived in a poorer inner city area with an amazing fish monger. Now I live by the sea and there's literally nowhere to buy fish apart from the supermarket - where I wouldn't give them the money for their old, frozen, farmed 'produce' - and the 'fish van man' where you need a mortgage for four wee bits of salmon. It upsets me hugely actually, I'd love to eat more fish.

I work a little bit in food too and am aware of the huge amounts we export. The pp talking about Madrid - a lot of the fish there is from Scotland!!

I love fish and shellfish. I could eat it every day. I probably have some thing fishy 3/4 times a week.

It’s strange for an island nation not to eat much fish. I’ve always been confused by this.
It’s very expensive too. I feel really extravagant if I make a fish pie let alone getting nice filets for a main part of a meal.