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Do you remember the good old days when you went to the fish and chip shop and came out clutching a little parcel wrapped in newspaper? Today this is a dying practice, with only a handful of shops remaining that serve one of UK’s finest dishes wrapped the way it should be, instead of being in white paper, white paper printed to look like newspaper (why bother) or most heinous of all, a polystyrene tray.
I’m not sure exactly when the tradition of using newspaper to wrap your chips was phased out, but certainly by the end of the 1980’s you’d be hard pressed to find a chippie serving in this manner. So why did the practice stop?
Well, as usual it was a Health and Safety concern. Despite the fact nobody has ever died of fish-and-chip-paper-poisoning, at least not as far as I’m aware of, it was deemed unsafe in case the ink used for the newsprint came off on the food. I dare say that in order for this to be a problem you would have to eat fish and chips for breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper every day for every year of your life, and by then you’d die from your blood having slowly turned into a mixture of cooking oil and batter.
What makes this concern even more ridiculous is that the food was generally never placed directly against the newspaper anyway. Normally the fish was placed onto a small sheet of greaseproof paper, and the chips placed in a white paper bag similar to those used for penny sweets. This was then wrapped in the newspaper, so hardly any of the food was actually in contact.
If you’re very lucky today you might get your chips served wrapped first in a sheet of white paper, then in newspaper, which is cheating a little, but at least it looks authentic when you leave the shop I suppose. In these days of recycling you’d think that using newspaper would be a good thing, especially since used newspapers were never used, although I concede that these days unsold newspaper probably are recycled already.
Sadly no chippie in my area uses newspaper these days, but I’d love to know if you’re local fish and chip eaterie still does. If they do, please add a comment below!
March 12th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Nope, none round here…
It’s one of the reasons I hardly ever have Fish and Chips any more!
March 14th, 2009 at 9:22 am
[...] my post earlier this week about Fish and Chips being wrapped in newspaper led me to wonder what everybodies favourite Fish and Chip shop food is. And if you’re [...]
March 18th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Definitely the best way to have them….I remember sucking the salt and vinegar soaked inner paper (sick I know, but the kind of thing you did as a kid).
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:31 pm
And yet they still wrap in paper. But the smell of the warming paper doesn’t compare to the searing stench of newsprint.
June 20th, 2009 at 6:53 am
West Park Fisheries on Thornton Road in Bradford still serves up in newspaper. Best fish and chips in Bradford ans still only £2.80! What are you all waiting for?
June 20th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Brilliant! Glad to know there’s still a chippy out there using the traditional methods. Thanks for letting us know William.
October 13th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
I understood that the end of newspaper for wrapping was not to do with concerns over ink but that most chippies used old newspapers donated by customers. The hygiene issue is where those papers had been and who had touched them with whatever contamination on their hands! Bear in mind that newsprint is highly absorbent so provides a useful breeding background for bacteria. Nostalgia is not needed: I’ll take my fish suppers in clean, new white wrappers please!
November 14th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
I’m also nostalgic about wrapping newspaper but another thing, namely flowers. When I was younger almost every flower store used newspaper when wrapping flowers. There are som few left, I think it’s much more beautiful with flowers wrapped in newspaper, especially the old good broadsheet newspaper!
November 18th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
I remember the cones (printed as if they were actual newspaper..wonder what the stories on them were about?) which would get a nice puddle of vinegar in the bottom for a satisfying “shot” at the end of a great meal!!
November 20th, 2009 at 10:28 am
My biggest problem with the cones was that you could never get any salt onto the chips at the bottom.
April 25th, 2010 at 9:50 pm
Hi Sir/ Madam.
Would like asking you question.
I remember I was little girl. I been eat name Burton’s fish ‘n’ chips flavour snack biscuits I remember red pack on the front picture.
would like ask you, you know where shop is ?
Burton’s fish ‘n’ chips flavour biscuits.
please let me know which shop in england.
thank you
donna longden
April 25th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
I’ve no idea whether Burton’s Fish and Chips are still available I’m afraid, let alone where you might get them from.
July 8th, 2010 at 7:50 am
I visited London on 18-21 June 2010 since July 1993 was shocked by this fact!
In 1993 I was a university student and visited UK for the first time and enjoied fish and chips wrapped in newspapers. So, I was excited about my 2nd London visit a few weeks ago and planned to eat Fish and chips during this short visit there.
I tried to find people eating Fish and chips walking on the streets but could not at all………..
July 8th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Sorry to hear you’re London trip was a bit of a disappointment in the Fish and Chips area, Emi.
Sadly Fish and Chips isn’t as popular as it used to be, thanks to the invasion of Burger and Pizza restaurants mainly I think, coupled with the increase in price of cod. That said there are still plenty of “chippies” around and I personally still like a plateful of cod and chips every now and then.
Also, apparently, a survey carried out a few years back even managed to come up with the answer that a curry was the British National Dish!
July 8th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
To my shame, I never had fish and chips wrapped in newspaper.
As for curry being the British National Dish, many of the curries we eat today are of British origin as, when we had the Empire, we used to add certain spices to meat to make them taste half decent. Tikka masala was created by a UK curry house when a customer requested something a bit different. So, even though the curries may have been created by Asian cooks, they were to a European taste
February 3rd, 2011 at 4:20 pm
our tradisional fish and chips are wrapedin newspaper in ballyshannon co donagal ireland and our chips are hand cut and cooked in beef lard.
March 8th, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Well I’m a child of the 1990s (born in the late ’80s). Our local chippy in Leeds was still serving fish and chips in newspaper in 1999. I think the main concern was the ink as you say, but it’s argued the ink gives it flavour! I cannot verify whether I find this particularly true, but there is certainly a difference in smell as the steam of the contents, including the vinegar, diffuse through newspaper and give off that distinctive, erm, aroma…
I don’t know whether my local chippy does still serve in newspaper, as I opt for fish and chips that are cooked in vegetable oil instead of beef dripping, although I’m fairly certain they’ve switched to white paper (still beats the polystyrene container though).
May 8th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
The every time I ever visited the UK I was lucky to have fish and chips this way. The last time I was in the UK was in June 2001 when my family visited Ireland. And we did find a place serving up their fish and chips in newspaper which I thought was really cool. For me, having fish and chips served in newspaper is really a nostalgic thing, not because I grew up with it like many of you who are from the UK, but because it reminds me of my vacations there. I have a hard time ordering fish and chips from any American restaurant because it’s not only not served the same, but the “chips” aren’t the same. It’s not “authentic” in my eyes. To have fish and chips again served in newspaper would be a real treat for me. It’s too bad this practice has been lost.
June 29th, 2011 at 12:26 am
great days..damn h&s…get a bloody life…they were the bizz..and they were cooked in real beef fat..we should have what we want
June 29th, 2011 at 12:30 am
and now we get non brewed condiment, what the hell is that…malt vinegar is for chips..
July 16th, 2011 at 9:34 am
> cooked in beef lard <
An interesting assertion, given that lard is made from pig fat.
August 8th, 2011 at 9:36 am
Poppies in Spitalfields in central London serves them in newspaper.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=poppies&hl=en&ll=51.519799,-0.074952&spn=0.009293,0.016329&sll=51.518905,-0.074952&sspn=0.009293,0.016329&radius=0.42&z=16&iwloc=A
October 29th, 2011 at 9:27 pm
I can remember the fish and chip biscuit snacks, they also did a chicken and chip variety. An old shop in Great Yarmouth called Shoppers Paradise used to sell them. There’s obvioulsy loads of fish and chip shops where I live, being on the coast, but no one uses newspaper any moe