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

It doesn't matter what fish it is or how it's been cooked, to me, it all tastes the same, other people may notice the difference but I can't. It's not something I enjoy eating so I don't.

I was just saying yesterday that I love fish such as salmon and shellfish but it's so expensive for a single mum on a budget....I'd personally like to eat more of it

I suppose because of our climate and terrain meaning we can also produce large amounts of meat, our cuisine has grown up around that instead.

I really like fish and would like to eat more of it, but it’s just so expensive to buy it for 4 of us when compared to things like chicken or mince. I try to cook something like salmon once a week, but just can’t afford to cook fish more often than that.

Decline in cookery skills and knowledge of nutrition. This leads to decline in numbers of fishmongers, which leads to lower availability.
Fish, as PPs have said, is then exported.
Also supermarket dominance means that what is available is what the large chains want you to buy.
I am all for go local and seasonal. Let the big supermarkets get me the best deals on loo rolls, kitchen towel and dishwasher gel, if they like, but I would far rather go back to getting my food from local producers (and I am prepared to pay for it).

When I was growing up in London every pub had a seafood stall outside and Sunday tea was always from one of them. it was all gross (whelks, cockles, winkles) and I would never touch any of them. I have started eating more fish later in life, but think that put me off for years. Also I think fish needs to be majorly fresh (it does not smell bad if it is) but a lot of stuff we buy is not particularly fresh.

I love seafood and would happily eat it for every meal. Put a platter of shellfish in front of me and I turn into a sea lion. It's very expensive though, so I can't do it every day. Lovely treat though.

I love fish, but don't like the house smelling of fish, so I rarely cook it at home.

I absolutely love fish and seafood and would eat it daily if it wasn't so expensive!

Interesting question

Maybe because it’s not as substantial but then again meat would have been eaten in much smaller quantities unless you were wealthy until recently

We did used to eat a lot of oysters it’s was a common street food and cheap

In those what would you eat every day questions I’d choose sashimi

But it’s very ££ so a treat if anything

It's expensive, yesterday I bought 4 hake cutlets which were each about 2cm thick. They cost me £10 from our local market.

I like lots of types of fish, shellfish I only like prawns and calamari. I won't eat mussels because I think they look like female genitalia except the colour of course .

It's so expensive.
A tin of salmon used to be a cheap way to add protein to a salad.

But also supermarkets killed off the fishmongers, then closed their fish counters and left us with sad salmon and greying white fish as the only 'fresh' options.

Seafood is grim. Mucusy shellfish and vile crustaceans. No thanks! Offal food.

Strange question.

Some people eat lots. Some people none or hardly any. Presumably some people like it more than others.

I think fish is quite expensive here.

I eat fish about 3x per week but I tend to use more "Mediterranean" recipes.

The only traditional way it's made here is battered I agree which I couldn't eat often even though I grew up in a seaside town.

Oysters used to be sold on the streets as early "street food" or "fast food" in the 18th century etc, then now they are associated with more fine dining which is funny.

@CrowAndArrow

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

Conspirasea would have been a much better name for that documentary.

We have loads of fishmongers and markets where I live, and you don’t have to go to far to find a cockle van!! Despite being in a city, I think it’s very popular here, but the price puts people off. I made a lovely fish/shellfish/rice dish and it cost £25 for the two of us!!!

It's really expensive and I'm not a huge fan of the flavour either.

Smoked fish like kippers was quite popular I think more so than now

My Nan also cooked fish on a Friday (not catholic) and we had fish at school on a Friday (not a catholic school) I think just one of those traditions that many followed

@FelicityFlops

Decline in cookery skills and knowledge of nutrition. This leads to decline in numbers of fishmongers, which leads to lower availability. Fish, as PPs have said, is then exported. Also supermarket dominance means that what is available is what the large chains want you to buy. I am all for go local and seasonal. Let the big supermarkets get me the best deals on loo rolls, kitchen towel and dishwasher gel, if they like, but I would far rather go back to getting my food from local producers (and I am prepared to pay for it).

To be fair, it's a UK supermarket thing rather than a global one. The supermarkets in Spain, France and Italy all have amazing fish counters.

Also until recently refrigeration wasn't a thing so noone except coastal areas would eat substantial amounts of fish.

Seriously? Because it's too fucking expensive.

I love fish and seafood. So do the family - but we can't afford to eat it more than very occasionally. I'd eat it several times a week if I could afford to.

It's far cheaper to eat chicken or mince.

I'm vegetarian so I don't eat any, but I was also surprised when coming to the UK from Spain, where I'm from, at the lack of fish and seafood counters in shops. Every regular-sized supermarket in Spain has a fish and seafood counter, it's bigger than the ham one, and that's saying something.

The diet over there is also a lot more fish-based and children are more used to hake fingers than they are to chicken nuggets.

Evidently

Related to not eating warm blooded animals on Fridays, so it's OK to eat a cold blooded fish

"an enterprising McDonald's franchise owner in a largely Catholic part of Cincinnati, found himself struggling to sell burgers on Fridays. His solution? The Filet-O-Fish"