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

How have we got to a place where the fish in supermarkets is boring and limited and we’re exporting all our good stuff because Brits won’t eat it?

I'm not sure. Maybe something to do with the popularity of fish and chip shops meaning that became the type of fish we were most likely to eat? But I don't know anything about why fish and chips became so popular here!

I love fish and seafood but now almost never eat it. It causes terrible environmental damage. One good thing about Brexit might be the death of the UK fishing industry.

@Onionpatch That’s probably a factor. However, you’d think there would be a glut of traditional oyster dishes (for example). And there doesn’t appear to be. Many countries’ cuisines are born from poverty and ‘struggle’ foods.

@artisanbread Oh, that’s an interesting idea! Will look into the history of fish and chips.

I grew up poor on a remote Scottish island.

Catch it, kill it, eat it with potatoes.

Fish, eels, seafood, crab etc as well as rabbit, pigeon game birds, - anyone could get a mug of cockles or a few razor clams, or dangle some gristle off a pier to catch crabs or mackerel.

Remember my brother saying on one infamous occasion "oh not lobster again...."

So I guess it depends what part of the UK you grow up in, and whether free food is a necessity.

I’m Jewish, so grew up eating copious amounts of smoked salmon on Sundays and cold fried fish (usually haddock) and fish balls (much nicer than they sound). However, we did not eat any kind of shellfish as it is not kosher. I have tried it as an adult but don’t like the texture or taste. Love most other fish particularly flat fish (specifically dover sole), haddock and bream, loathe trout and tuna (unless the latter is canned).

Amongst my circles of friends, for the most part, it is only those who grew up eating fish who eat it, those who did not have always been somewhat reticent to try it. I have always found this strange that many can write off an entire family of food without even sampling it.

You have to remember as well that historically most Brits were subsistence farmers, so unless you lived on the coast you'd be eating mostly potatoes with some vegetables and occasional meat that you or your neighbours had reared. They didn't have the money to buy fish. If you look to coastal areas there are many traditional seafood dishes, but those populations weren't representative of the majority, hence why most of what we think of as traditional British dishes aren't fish-based.

@amicissimma

Strange question.

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

It's not really. It is a bit bizarre that this island nation, with plenty of rivers doesn't eat more fish. Look at Japan, 1.6 times the size of our island nation, but eats 3 times as much fish.

Love fish and seafood but don't live on the coast - produce in local fishmonger and fish counter at local supermarket never looks fresh, fillets are breaking open and 'white' fish looks greyish. Do use frozen fillets, salmon, pollack, cod, tuna, prawns, squid, scallops (Costco do good frozen fish).

We used to buy off the boat in Lochinver on holiday and the fish and seafood was amazing.

Good fish and seafood is also really expensive.

www.theguardian.com/world/2005/apr/10/japan.foodanddrink

We eat less seafood since the DC went off it . We all used to eat loads of it but it's a pain to have to cook different meals.

I think we'd need to look at population densities and proximity to the coast. We have some communities which became famous for their methods of preserving their catch (Arbroath smokies, Whitby etc), but while we have lots of little fishing villages, unless you lived near one you'd be unlikely to be able to easily access seafood quickly enough for it to be fresh. Then consider our typical costal topography - not very easy to access, and sea fishing itself would have been even more dangerous than it is now. As far back as the medieval period, mutton and beef were more popular - probably because of the ease of access for the majority of the population.

It's a very interesting question OP!

@Viviennemary

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

Me too. Salmon and fish fingers is my lot. I just don’t find most fish and seafood palatable.

To the posters that feel that fish is not substantial or that it falls apart I would recomend mackerel, turbot and monkfish. The thing with fish is that there is a huge variety - in that sense it cannot be compared with meat.

More generally I feel that most people in the UK have an inland diet - think of what the Saxons would eat before migrating and it's probably not that different.

It's obvious from people's comments that most people are not exposed to the available variety of fish on a regular basis, so they find the texture / taste / look gross and unfamiliar. In the meantime the texture of cheap ham or the smell of black pudding are OK. Most people only know very few species of fish / shellfish, cooked in a few ways. Meanwhile the surrounding sea is teeming with high quality protein. I guess the UK's loss is other countries' gain.

We'd eat a lot more if good quality fish here was cheaper. I pointed to a lovely hake fillet the other day. It would have made two reasonable but not huge portions. £11. A lovely plump piece of smoked haddock was nearly £14 for two portions. Okay maybe once a week, but although we're not hard up we have a limit to our food spend.

It's so different from Portugal or Spain, where in a couple of our favourite beachside restaurants we were served huge portions of fresh hake, good chips and salad and bread for no more than a tenner each in 2019.

I was looking for salmon today and two small bits cost £6.50, I love seafood but can’t justify the cost.

Researching my family tree I came across someone who was an oyster seller - lived in Whitby but at the time of the 1871 census was in Wakefield on an oyster selling trip. Don't know if I'd be keen on eating oysters which had travelled from Whitby to Wakefield in 1871 - I suppose he could have caught the train?

Oysters used to be poor people's food - there are recipes where beef pies and puddings were padded out with oysters because they were so cheap.

I though fish n chips came out of the fish not being quite fresh so it was seasoned and batterred to hide that a bit. Which could tie in with getting.fish in land a bit.

If you want to buy salmon that hasn't been farmed, you might as well take out a bank loan.
Even fish and chips, which used to be relatively cheap, has rocketed in price.
I buy salmon from a local market, and even that is expensive and it's the farmed variety.
The taste of meat is better too.

I’m not a big fish eater partly because l don’t like the smell. DH is very partial and regularly cooks some for himself. The smell is horrendous and enough to give me a migraine. He knows this and is as considerate as possible in cleaning up after himself and opening windows but a fishy smell seems to linger for a very long time.

Love fish and eat loads; never eat shellfish of any kind - OH (a doctor) used to call them mobile shit filters. Put me off a bit.

Price. a family of four adults who want two salmon fillets each works out very expensive for one meal. So we have pasta instead🤷🏻‍♀️

If you have to ask this then you really don’t realise how expensive fresh fish and seafood is and for a lot of families it is not on the weekly menu because of the price.

Ireland also doesn’t have a big fish culture- my Mum is convinced the Irish famine was because fish was not seen as food. I have memories of my grandparents being appalled that my Dad wanted some of the salmon my Granda had caught, instead of good Irish beef.

Also I think fishing is a skill - for cod etc you need deep water fishing skills. I don’t know if shallow water fishing in the U.K. is as productive/worthwhile in preindustrial times.

The U.K. has always had reasonable access to lamb, game and red meat, so combined with snobbery towards fish and shellfish, it’s not impossible to see why it’s never been a core foodstuff.

I love salmon, enjoy prawns, tuna, fish and chips, mackerel strips. But I haven’t bought fish for cooking since I watched Seaspiracy (have eaten it still at work though when it’s been available).

I wonder if the aversion to faces, bones, the skin is too much for modern British culture? I love my meat but would never order fish in a restaurant is it often comes ‘whole’ and I wouldn’t trust the bones to be removed- which I can’t abide. Maybe other countries are less fussy?