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

@Ponoka7

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.

This is an excellently high-value contribution and so mumsnet.

Here in the Tamar Valley, there were rules prohibiting feeding apprentices salmon or oysters more than four meals a week in the 19th century. Both salmon and oysters were abundant in the estuary then, but are not now. These days the land owners control access to long stretches of the river and fishing is very tightly controlled.

Because cooking fish and seafood well is an art form. If you're like me and don't like it much then the only way to eat it is when it has been cooked professionally.

Seaspiracy was the final nail for me.

The local fishing club/riparians sounds inclusive but it's all about game salmon fishing rather than cod or pike, which obviously don't inhabit tidal water.

It eat a lot. My mother used to bring home crabs, shrimps, other sea food and fish from the fish market and I have always liked it. I had salmon today for lunch and in fact just had sardines on toast just as I type this. It is fish central here. I have prawns in the fridge for the next day or two.

I don't think it is an art form at all. I just bung it in. Eg lunch time was salmon with some veg in the olive oil - dead easy, delicious.

Ok Xenia I concede that cooking fish and seafood may not have to be be an art form to those that love it. But I don't, so for me it really does have to be cooked skilfully in order for me to enjoy it.

I like cooking fish and eat cheap stuff like mussels, hake, skate etc several times a week. Love fish curries. Fish takes a few minutes to cook. Technically 5 minutes per inch of the thickness of the fish. It's so easy, but I also love sashimi so it doesn't bother my family if it turns out near raw.... as long as the fish is sparkling fresh, and it won't be if you are buying it at Tesco.

@MrsMangelsPortrait - does not all food need to be cooked or prepared skillfully? I don't particularly enjoy a greasy chilli con carni, served with stodgy rice.

I love fish and seafood but it's always crazy expensive in the supermarket, not local, very little choice. Can't remember the last time I could find fresh tuna. I love hake and skate but never see them.
There is no fishmonger that I know of within waking distance and I live by the sea! Disgraceful.

@MrsMangelsPortrait, fish is the ultimate fast food and you don't need to be a chef. Roll a fillet of anything fishy in egg and then in breadcrumbs and shallow fry it, fairly hot. Season to taste. Take a cleaned gutted whole fish, or two fillets and wrap them in baking paper with a few herbs/seasonings and a glug of liquid and bake it for 15 minutes. Make a vegetarian curry sauce to your taste and throw a few bits of generic frozen white fish from the freezer cabinet in and give it time to thaw plus two minutes.

Landowners restricting access rights to rivers etc would definitely be a factor in limiting the availability of inland fish in Scotland. If it wasn’t, they wouldn’t need gamekeepers to deter poachers. There’s a lot of money to be made in salmon fishing.

@louderthan, there's more tuna now in UK waters than is traditional/expected but it's not really common here as it prefers warmer water. The UK excels at the cold water North Atlantic fish. Cod, haddock, hake, pollock, ling are all caught in abundance and considered sustainable. UK waters are also good for scallops (delicious but expensive), lobster, crab ((brown is commonly sold but spider crab is nicer and has been renamed Cornish king crab, and has traditionally been sold overseas to countries that appreciate it). In shore fisherman catch sole, dab, brill and bream -- any will give you a delicious meal. Dover sole are very expensive and mostly go into professional kitchens where they will be fried very carefully in butter.... which is not difficult.

I don't because I think fishing is very cruel .. I love the taste of fish and seafood though .. or at least did as a child .

I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but it makes me absolutely stink.

I know I'm not the only one.

We do and have fish/shellfish at least twice a week

To be a bit opinionated here, I think that a lot of people don't feel confident asking their fishmonger to prepare the fish for them. They weigh the fish to sell, and then you say, I would like it filleted, or cleaned and gutted, head on or off. And when you are a customer, you can ask for frames (the bones from flat fish, except plaice) to make fish stock, which will usually cost you nothing.

Fish only stinks if it's too old to eat. If it smells fishy, don't buy it. Fresh fish smells slightly salty or of nothing.

Can I smell it is a legimate question in a proper fish shop. In a small fishing town, most of what's on sale will have been landed a few hours.

[quote SunshineThelma]Getting curious on this, I've found the following from Felicity Cloake -
www.newstatesman.com/culture/food-drink/2021/09/britain-is-surrounded-by-fish-so-why-do-we-eat-so-little-of-it[/quote]
That article is literally in the OP.

One of the other issues is that if you're buying from a fishmonger you have no idea how much something's going to cost. So you see a nice-looking bit of fish and say you'll have that and they throw it on the scale and wham — it costs three times what you expected and so you either have to say you don't want it because it's too expensive or fork out half the week's food budget for it. Same with our good local butcher who sells only locally reared meat. You point to a nice looking bit of sirloin or the lamb chops and you have absolutely no idea what it's going to cost you. It's an extremely uncomfortable way of purchasing for anyone on a budget.

I think that if you went back to pre industrial britain, that you would find that fish/ aquatic food was eaten all round the coast, and close to rivers - elvers, eel, pike, freshwater mussels inland for instance. But its not very transportable at horse pace and so it wouldn't be very far before normal people would never eat it. Post industrial revolution as the rivers got so polluted, this inland source would have dried up, and probably that it was very time inefficient to fish for food unless you lived somewhere very plentiful compared to farming. So then fish went away from the inland culinary tradition

This is a really interesting question! I grew up relatively poor in Norfolk. A sea area. I remember eating shell on shrimps when I was younger and really loving them. I also remember Norfolk smokies. Which is smoked haddock. And of course Cromer crab. But I would never have eaten salmon, sea bass or lobster. I remember going abroad for the first time age 14 to France and seeing mussels for the first time ever. My first oyster was age 30. Ditto lobster. Yet we have oysters in Norfolk. Crabs. Lobsters. Fast forward a few years and a good degree and finally some money and living in Italy. Oooooooo the seafood!!!!!! My kids grew up on vongole (clams), mussels, sea bass, langoustine (from Scotland oh the irony), crab and squid. We went camping and were cooking local fish over a camp stove and a little boy ran over and thought fish was fishfingers. Why did our fish have eyes? Why do we sell the best of the best abroad. I don’t know so will follow this thread.

Yesterday I made Cullen Skink (with smoked haddock). The day before we had scallops.

We eat fish or seafood at least twice a week and often more; I can buy wonderful fresh fish here (Scotland) and love it.

Coyoacan
It's historical. Eating fish was seen as a Catholic practice when being Catholic was dangerous
Just like the Spanish eat huge quantities of pork as a hangover from when the inquisition would arrest anyone suspected of being a disguised Muslim or Jew

Thats really interesting and these ideas soon become cultural and the norm

I think another point already made is if you do not cook fish often you are not sure how much it shall cost at a fishmongers and then not sure should you ask for the bones to be removed. I haven’t bought fish at a fishmongers for years but I shall go and buy some maybe monkfish it’s really nice, not a fishy taste (like say sardines) and easy to cook

We have fish Fridays - my kids school have only fish (vegetarian potions always) on Fridays. I love it and eat it every day for breakfast (smoked salmon, but 50gr max).
We sometimes have fish pie and clam chowder is a favourite too. And if moules is on the menu when eating out I always have that. In fact there's always at least one fish choice at restaurants so I'm not sure you're right - most people I know eat it most weeks.