fish finger

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{{Infobox food

| name = Fish fingers

| image = Fishfinger classic fried 2.jpg

| caption = Fried fish fingers

| alternate_name = Fish sticks

| course =

| served =

| country = United States

| region =

| main_ingredient = Whitefish, battered, or breaded

| variations =

| calories =

| other =

| cookbook =

}}

File:Fishfingers on parchment paper.JPG

File:Fishfinger classic broken 2.jpg

Fish fingers (British English) or fish sticks (American English) are a processed food made using a whitefish or pinkfish, such as cod, hake, haddock, salmon, or pollock, which has been battered or breaded and formed into a rectangular shape. They are commonly available in the frozen food section of supermarkets. They can be baked in an oven, grilled, shallow fried, or deep-fried.

History

The term "fish finger" is first referenced in a recipe given in a popular British magazine in 1900,{{cite web|title=History of Fish Fingers|url=https://www.foodsofengland.info/fishfingers.html |work=Foods of England|access-date=17 April 2025}} and the dish is often considered symbolic of the United Kingdom by British people.{{Cite web|url= https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2015/sep/15/fish-fingers-60-britain-taste-of-childhood |title=Fish fingers at 60: how Britain fell for the not-very-fishy frozen sticks|last=Cloake|first=Felicity |date=2015-09-15|website=the Guardian|language=en|access-date=2 December 2018}}

The food restrictions during and after WWII expanded the consumption of fish fingers, but companies struggled to maintain decent quality.{{cite book |last1=Josephson |first1=Paul R. |title=Fish sticks, sports bras, and aluminum cans : the politics of everyday technologies |date=26 November 2015 |isbn=978-1421417844 |url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1421417847 |access-date=23 April 2019 |language=en}}{{cite web |last1=Novak |first1=Matt |title=How Fish Sticks Became the Food of the Future That Nobody Asked For |url=https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/how-fish-sticks-became-the-food-of-the-future-that-nobo-1725388138 |website=Paleofuture |publisher=Gizmodo |date=12 August 2016}} The commercialization of fish fingers may be traced to 1953 when the American company Gorton-Pew Fisheries, now known as Gorton's, was the first company to introduce a frozen ready-to-cook fish finger; the product, named Gorton's Fish Sticks, won the Parents magazine Seal of Approval in 1956.Pacific Fisherman 54 (1956) [https://books.google.com/books?id=AhP9AAAAMAAJ&q=Parents+magazine p. 55].{{cite journal |last1=Josephson |first1=Paul |title=The Ocean's Hot Dog: The Development of the Fish Stick |journal=Technology and Culture |year=2008 |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=41–61 |issn=0040-165X|jstor=40061377 |doi=10.1353/tech.2008.0023 |s2cid=110903114 }} The developer of those fish sticks was Aaron L. Brody.

There was an abundance of herring in the United Kingdom after World War II. Clarence Birdseye test-marketed herring fish fingers, a product he had discovered in the United States,Cyril Dixon, "The facts of fish fingers", The Independent, 21 August 1994 ([https://archive.today/20130125113851/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4669873.html online])David Hillman and David Gibbs, [https://books.google.com/books?id=qWJFAAAAYAAJ&q=frozen+fillets+of+fish Century Makers: One hundred clever things we take for granted which have changed our lives over the last one hundred years], London: Weidenfeld, 1998 / New York: Welcome Rain, 1999, {{ISBN|9781566490009}} under the name "herring savouries". These were tested in Southampton and South Wales against "cod fingers", a comparatively bland product used as a control. Shoppers, however, confounded expectations by showing an overwhelming preference for the cod.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4282290.stm "Teatime staple marks half century "], BBC News, 26 September 2005. The snack was nearly called Battered Cod Pieces, until a poll of Birds Eye workers opted for the snappier Fish Fingers.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-46071019|title=Fish fingers 'surprisingly sustainable'|date=2018-11-02|work=BBC News|access-date=2 November 2018|language=en-GB}}Clayton, Hugh: "Constancy of fish fingers a symbol of calm in a trade of frequent change" in The Times, 9 May 1980, p 17.

Varieties

File:Fried Fish finger.jpg

Minced fish comes in industry standard 7.5 kg frozen blocks for further slicing and battering.{{cite web |title=7.5kg fish block production |url=https://www.seafish.org/media/Publications/FS28_06_09_MinimisingVoids.pdf |date=May 2009}} These are more commonly used in store brand economy products. They may have either batter or breadcrumbs around the outside as casing, although the coating is normally breadcrumbs.{{cite web |title=STANDARD FOR QUICK FROZEN FISH STICKS (FISH FINGERS) - CODEX STAN 166–1989 |url=http://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/sh-proxy/en/?lnk=1&url=https%253A%252F%252Fworkspace.fao.org%252Fsites%252Fcodex%252FStandards%252FCODEX%2BSTAN%2B166-1989%252FCXS_166e.pdf |website=Codex Alimentarius |publisher=WHO |year=2017}}

In addition to white fish, fish fingers are sometimes made with salmon.[http://www.iglo.be/nl-be/assortment/vis/10_fish_sticks_zalm/ "10 fish sticks zalm"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140727183606/http://www.iglo.be/nl-be/assortment/vis/10_fish_sticks_zalm/|date=2014-07-27}}, IGLO 27 Juli 2014.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Sweden frozen food brand Findus released a fish finger product with a coating of chips in place of breadcrumbs under the name "Crostinos."{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzO4mo0OPB0 |title=FINDUS 1987 - Crostinos |date=2013-11-26 |last=FINDUS Suisse |access-date=2024-10-22 |via=YouTube}}