National Dish England: Fish and Chips (Recipe)
In this article
Fish and Chips is battered white fish deep-fried and served with thick-cut chips. The batter is flour and beer or sparkling water, never breadcrumbs, and the chips are fried twice. Salt and malt vinegar go on at the counter.
About Fish and Chips
The dish arrived as two separate street foods and joined up in the 1860s: fried fish from Jewish immigrants in the East End, chips from the industrial north. By 1930 there were 35,000 chip shops in Britain.
Cod and haddock are the standard fish, and the geographic divide between them is real: haddock in the north and Scotland, cod in the south.
Ingredients (serves 1–2)
- 1 pound white fish fillet (cod or haddock, thick pieces)
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 200 ml cold beer or sparkling water
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cups potatoes, cut into thick chips
- Oil, for deep-frying
- Malt vinegar and salt, to serve
Shopping for the ingredients
Thick loin fillets, at least 3 cm, so the fish steams inside its batter while the outside crisps. Floury potatoes: Maris Piper or King Edward. Beef dripping is the traditional frying fat and gives a flavour that oil does not, though most shops now use vegetable oil.
Preparing the dish
Cut the chips thick, around 1.5 cm, and soak them in cold water for half an hour to remove surface starch, then dry them thoroughly. Make the batter at the last moment and keep it cold; the temperature difference between cold batter and hot oil is what makes it crisp.
Step-by-step instructions
- Cut the potatoes into thick chips, soak in cold water 30 minutes, then dry thoroughly.
- Fry the chips at 140°C for 6–8 minutes until cooked but pale; lift out and rest.
- Whisk the flour, salt, pepper and baking powder with the cold beer into a batter the thickness of double cream.
- Heat the oil to 180°C.
- Dust the fish lightly in flour, dip it in the batter and lower it into the oil away from you.
- Fry for 6–8 minutes until deep golden and crisp; drain on a rack, not paper.
- Raise the oil to 190°C and fry the chips a second time for 2–3 minutes until golden.
- Salt everything immediately and serve with malt vinegar.
Gluten-free / lactose-free version
The dish contains no dairy. For gluten-free, a batter of rice flour and cornflour with sparkling water works very well and is arguably crisper than wheat. Use a fryer that has not had wheat batter through it.
Tips for vegans and vegetarians
Battered halloumi is the common chip-shop vegetarian option. For vegan, banana blossom or thick slices of celeriac in the same batter, with a sheet of nori pressed against the piece for a marine note, works genuinely well and several British chip shops now sell it.
More tips and tricks
Keep the batter cold and use it immediately. Fry the chips twice with a rest between. Drain on a wire rack rather than kitchen paper, which steams the underside soft. And salt while everything is still hot.
Adapting the recipe to your taste
Mushy peas are the correct accompaniment and the argument about them is regional. Curry sauce in the north, gravy in some places, tartare sauce almost everywhere. A pickled onion or a pickled egg from the jar on the counter.
Ingredient substitutions
Haddock, cod, plaice or pollock all work. Sparkling water replaces beer. Rice flour makes a lighter, crisper batter.
Drink pairing ideas
A cup of strong tea, which is the honest answer. A pale ale works. Nothing complicated: this is not a dish that wants a wine list.
Serving and presentation ideas
Wrapped in paper and eaten outdoors with a wooden fork, ideally within sight of the sea. On a plate it gets mushy peas and tartare sauce. Salt and malt vinegar go on before it leaves the counter.
A bit of history
Fried fish came to London with Sephardic Jewish immigrants from Portugal, and Dickens mentions a fried fish warehouse in Oliver Twist. Joseph Malin is usually credited with joining fish to chips in 1860. The dish was never rationed during either world war, a decision taken deliberately to keep morale up. It anchors English cuisine.
More recipe ideas
- Bubble and Squeak with Bacon
- Kedgeree
- Lancashire Cheese and Onion Pie
- Lancashire Hotpot
- Pease Pudding
- Steak and Ale Pie
Summary: Fish and Chips
Fish and chips is white fish in cold beer batter, deep-fried, with twice-fried thick chips. Keep the batter cold, fry the chips twice, drain on a rack, and salt it hot.
