Fish finger sandwiches

"the UK equivalent of Mexican fish tacos or West African fish rolls" Felicity Cloake/The Guardian

Although this particular post began with Rick Stein - possibly the British king of fish - at least in a commercial way - I'm beginning with Jamie Oliver, who has said of the fish finger sandwich - a peculiarly British institution:

"As a chef I always feel I shouldn't be eating something like a fish finger buttie – but you know what, I think that makes it taste even better."

The picture was so kind of suitable - a young Jamie, dressed in a Union Jack top scoffing a fairly basic fish finger sandwich, pretty much as he describes in his online recipe (probably from one of his early books):

"I tend to eat one of these while I'm walking about at home and I always get told off by the missus for dropping bits everywhere. You'll notice from the picture that I've put a handful of rocket in the sandwich, which isn't really necessary but it does make it look a bit more posh. I was a bit embarrassed to tell the photographer he had to shoot a fish finger sandwich, so I told him it was 'lemon sole goujons' – what a prat I am! Be proud to eat fish fingers, that's what I say."

For when it comes to fish finger sandwiches Jamie is from the ultra traditional body - not much to it - as his recipe will tell you:

" remove about 4 fish fingers from the freezer and grill them on each side until crispy and golden. While that's happening, I butter 2 bits of nice soft white bread or a white roll, smearing one half generously with tomato ketchup. When the fish fingers are done, I remove them from the grill and place them on the bread smeared with ketchup. The most important bit is to put the other bit of bread on top and, using a little force, push down on your buttie which, for some reason, seems to make it taste even better. And that's it – all done.

Definitely from the traditional camp - white bread, frozen fish fingers, butter and tomato ketchup. That's it. But of course it's not that simple as Tony Naylor in his article in The Guardian - How to eat fish finger sandwiches tells us:

"The fish finger “scene” is divided into two often mutually antagonistic camps: posh and traditional. However, neither can claim to have produced the perfect fish finger sandwich. In fact, in their militant defence of their entrenched positions, both groups fail to see the flaws in their own methodology or the valuable lessons they could learn from one another."

Felicity Cloake - a lady after my own heart who says in her introduction to her attempt at The perfect fish finger sandwich that:

"I must be the only person in Britain not to have grown up with fish finger sandwiches – we always had them with mash and peas"

For she is not alone. We didn't have them either. Although we might have had them with chips - and maybe even baked beans instead of peas. I can't quite remember.

She also points to the obvious - for such a simple food:

(NB: if you’re skim-reading this before leaping below the line to demand to know who needs a recipe for a fish finger sandwich, I can assure you a lot of people online seem to feel there’s a demand.)"

And there are indeed plenty of recipes online. Some of them fairly fancy. Beginning perhaps with Rick Stein's version, which is just a step up the posh ladder - or rather it's his son Jack's recipe - who demonstrates it on Tik/Tok

The posh factor here is obviously not the bread - it's the fact that the fish fingers are not from the supermarket - they are home-made - white fish fillets cut into fish finger size, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs, then fried, anointed with home-made tartare sauce, a few shreds of lettuce and that dob of tomato ketchup.

So when you are buying it in one of his restaurants, you are paying for the tartare sauce and the fish. Maybe they make their own bread?

As for that bread - almost everyone says ordinary thickish sliced, but not too thick, white bread is the way to go - soft as well. Because:

"When I see that more than half the recipes call for toasted bread, I begin to question everything I thought I knew about fish finger sarnies – surely most of the pleasure comes from the contrast in textures between bread and filling?" Felicity Cloake

The next poshest example I saw, was one that Felicity referenced in her round-up of options - Signe Johansen's Fish finger sandwich with Nordic dill salsa with which Felicity was quite impressed - her second choice as a sauce - the first being sauce tartare because ketchup was 'a flavour bully'.

So with this version the poshness is actually pretty simple. Although - look - the bread is toasted. So Felicity might have liked the salsa - but definitley not the toast.

There were many much more complicated versions - interestingly the Indian British seem to have thrown themselves into this particular British classic and tarted it up with all manner of spicy things. So many I didn't know which one to choose.

You can see how it happens can't you - it's a kind of blank canvas which you can play around with - and yes Ottolenghi has, although whether you would call his gorgeous looking Nori fish finger tacos as fish finger sandwiches I'm not sure. Well the tacos are the bread, the fish is battered, not breadcrumbed but those green 'extras' are mostly the components of tartarte sauce. No tomato ketchup in sight though. Maybe his Old Bay fish sandwich with cheat's tartare sauce are closer to the real thing, Old Bay seasoning is not at all authentic of course, and like the Bird's Eye winner he uses soft rolls rather than bread. The fish is not crumbed though - it's just seasoned with the Old Bay and buttermilk and then fried, and the tartare sauce, is a jalapeño relish. in mayonnaise Not to mention the hot, spicy, honey butter.

"In many ways, the fish finger sandwich is a celebration of processed food; jazz it up too much, as so many pub kitchens illustrate, and you ruin it."

says Tony Naylor - but I don't know. Looking at either of the two above you would have to wonder. Why not play around. When this dish was invented - I don't really know when - around post WW2 I'm guessing - because of the fish fingers - there just wouldn't have been the range of extras - or money - around to jazz them up.

Back in 2017 Bird's Eye sponsored a competititon for the best Fish finger buttie. There were two prizes - a public person one and a professional one. The winner of the Public award was one Gabrielle Sander whose winning roll, the website described thus:

"fish finger sarnie with mayo, smoked paprika, capers, lime juice, wasabi and rocket in a farmhouse bap. The judges loved her use of punchy flavours, unusual combination of ingredients and perfectly cooked fish fingers, but most notably, the way she let the fish fingers take centre stage."

No white bread, but a bap is sort of white bread in roll form - and Felicity Cloake admitted that a bap might just be alright.

The professional award went to Chris Lanyon of Chapel Café, Cornwall for a version consisting of:

"fresh Cornish Hake fillet coated in panko breadcrumbs, sandwiched between locally-made multi-seed bread and homemade tartare sauce."

The award then seemed to disappear from view, but was revived in 2020 as Bird's Eye Butties, but I cannot find the winners of that.

It's the same old, same old problem in the cooking world isn't it? Do you keep the everyday food of the poor as is or do you play with it and eventually turn it into haute cuisine - or something close anyway. Like this from a Scottish Michelin starred chef - polenta panini, a tomato consommé caviar and lettuce purée. Sort of wow?

And the last word goes to Tony Naylor:

"If you are watching your diet that closely, the fish finger sandwich is not for you. You need something else. Such as granola. Or an apple." Tony Naylor

YEARS GONE BY

March 3

2025 - Blitzing - is that the right word?

2024 - Norway - stewed mutton and cabbage or Grandiosa pizza?

2023 - Pears and prunes

2022 - Humpty Doo barramundi

2021 - Missing

2020 - Missing

2019 - Garam masala

2018 - Nothing

2017 - Focaccia - with apples?