Fish and Chips

Not many dishes around the world are representative and of primary importance to a country history than fish and chips are to England.
Although the exact origin of the mix is not certain, first recordings of fried fish in england trace back to mid nineteenth century and earlier, like Charles Dickens mention of “fried fish warehouses” in Oliver Twist, published in 1838, and again Dickens mentions potato chips in 1859 A Tale of Two Cities: the two dishes had surely existed indipendently for long at that time, and only around 1860 first written recordings of being sold together appears.
The fish consumption has also strong connection to jew and roman catholicism, for the use of fish during lent or as substitute to meat: spanish jews were already cooking pescado frito at least two centuries before fish and chips became a thing, and there are a lot of hints that the first to introduce the frying of fish in England were jew immigrants as well.

This is one of those dishes that made a nation: it started as workers and lower classes comfort food, but the weight it gained, despite all the negative talks about it at the beginning, is clear when the fact that fish and chips was one of the few products not subject to rationing during World War II, since the government well understood the impact it made on the daily lives of thousands of citizen, and on their health during a war too.
The trade and request for fish also represented a great push for railroads development and for freezing technologies, since it was now possible for the fish to be delivered to the cities overnight, and it was not necessary anymore for the fish to be consumed fresh as soon as caught; the enormous request for fish and chips also meant a growth in request for all the connected resources, like the coal and gas provision for the shops, the supply of frying oils since the oil and rendered fats available locally were not nearly enough, salt, vinegar and so on.
The fish market too changed, since cheap fishes ignored previously gained popularity, and fishing techniques were improved to face the quickly rising demand; coast towns used the fresh fish, while trains delivered frozen or iced fish to the inland cities.
For a full tour of the hystorical importance of fish and chips you can always check “Fish and Chips, and the British Working Class” by John K. Walton, a really eye opening book.

Making fish & chips at home is easy and rather troubling at the same time: while there is not much really hard in frying a piece of fish and some sliced potatoes, and optionally mashing some peas for the mushed peas, achieving a quality level at least close to a specialized shop is not a piece of cake: oil temperature, the pan, the stove and the oil itself used in a kitchen are not on the same level, and you need to compensate with a good amount of skill and practice to get a crispy result, instead of a greasy and soggy mess.
For the batter you will see a lot of different approaches, like use of beer, or yeast, to provide airiness to the batter, plus the addition of a wide array of spices, sometimes also egg or egg yolk are used too: this falls under personal preferences and skills, you can try until you find what goes for you.
The easiest part is choosing the fish: anything with white, soft meat will go, and this means like the entire family of cod and close and far “cousins”: in a hurry, or in need, probably also the pre-made fish sticks can do the job, but at that point you could’ve probably bought fish fingers directly, while avoiding to mess up your kitchen.
The mushy peas, the tartar sauce and the lemon in my opinion (opinion of someone that never tried the original one) cannot be skipped: peas give to the dish some green veggie vibes that are absolutely needed, while lemon, tartar sauce, or the malt vinegar authentically used in England clean the oiliness of the frying with their stingy flavours.
Potatoes too need some care: to get crispy chips, if you go for the chunky slices, you will probably need to fry them two times; I also tried the thin slices way, but in that case the risk is to burn them instead of not cooking thoroughly.
If you are in the mood for frying, this is for sure a challenge you should not skip!