A fish finger sandwich is a

sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

containing

fish finger Fish fingers (British English) or fish sticks (American English) are a processed food made using a whitefish, such as cod, hake, haddock, shark or pollock, which has been battered or breaded. They are commonly available in the frozen food ...

s, a battered or breaded fish. It is a popular dish in Britain where it is a

comfort food Comfort food is food that provides a nostalgic or sentimental value to someone, and may be characterized by its high caloric nature, high carbohydrate level, or simple preparation. The nostalgia may be specific to an individual, or it may app ...

. The sandwich often has no other filling, but may include a sauce such as

tartare Steak tartare or tartar steak is a dish of raw ground (minced) beef. It is usually served with onions, capers, mushrooms, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and other seasonings, often presented separately, to be added to taste. It is often serv ...

, mayonnaise or

ketchup Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and tangy flavor. The unmodified term ("ketchup") now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes used egg whites, mushrooms, oysters, grapes, mussels, or walnuts, among o ...

. Celebrity chef

Jamie Oliver James Trevor Oliver MBE OSI (born 27 May 1975) is an English chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. He is known for his casual approach to cuisine, which has led him to front numerous television shows and open many restaurants. Oliver reac ...

has described the sandwich as a

guilty pleasure A guilty pleasure is something, such as a film, a television program, or a piece of music, that one enjoys despite understanding that it is not generally held in high regard, or is seen as unusual or weird. For example, a person may secretly like ...

: "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." Restaurants which have included fish finger sandwiches in their menu include:

Bill's Bill's is a British restaurant and bar chain, founded by Bill Collison in 2001 when he opened a small greengrocery in Lewes, East Sussex. As of January 2020, there are 78 branches in the UK, down from 81 in September 2018. With home deliverie ...

Kerbisher & Malt Kerbisher & Malt is a chain of fish and chip shops in London. The first branch was established in the west London suburb of Brook Green by chef Saul Reuben and his brother-in-law Nick Crossley in 2011. "Kerbisher" was a fishing boat crewed by C ...

and

Leon Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again f ...

. In 2017,

Birds Eye Birds Eye is an American international brand of frozen foods owned by Conagra Brands in the United States, by Nomad Foods in Europe, and Simplot in Australia. The former Birds Eye Company Ltd., originally named "Birdseye Seafood, Inc." had b ...

sponsored Fish Finger Sandwich Awards, whose final stage was held at Mark Hix's Tramshed restaurant. There were separate prizes for the best professional and best entry from the public. The judges were

Gregg Wallace Gregg Allan Wallace (born 17 October 1964) is an English broadcaster, entrepreneur, media personality, writer and former greengrocer. He is known for co-presenting ''MasterChef'', ''Celebrity MasterChef'' and '' MasterChef: The Professionals'', ...

, Jennifer Bedloe, Xanthe Clay, Peter Lack and Danny Kingston, while Captain Birdseye looked on. The winning professional was Chris Lanyon of the Chapel Café in

Port Isaac Port Isaac ( kw, Porthysek) is a small fishing village on the Atlantic coast of north Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. The nearest towns are Wadebridge and Camelford, each ten miles (16 km) away. A nearby hamlet, Port Gaverne, is ...

whose recipe included

hake The term hake refers to fish in the: * Family Merlucciidae of northern and southern oceans * Family Phycidae (sometimes considered the subfamily Phycinae in the family Gadidae) of the northern oceans Hake Hake is in the same taxonomic order ( ...

panko Bread crumbs or breadcrumbs (regional variants including breading and crispies) consist of crumbled bread of various dryness, sometimes with seasonings added, used for breading or crumbing foods, topping casseroles, stuffing poultry, thicken ...

with tartar sauce. Gabrielle Sander made the best public entry, which was dressed with

caper ''Capparis spinosa'', the caper bush, also called Flinders rose, is a perennial plant that bears rounded, fleshy leaves and large white to pinkish-white flowers. The plant is best known for the edible flower buds (capers), used as a seasoning ...

lime juice A lime (from French ''lime'', from Arabic ''līma'', from Persian ''līmū'', "lemon") is a citrus fruit, which is typically round, green in color, in diameter, and contains acidic juice vesicles. There are several species of citrus trees ...

, smoked paprika mayonnaise,

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

and

wasabi Wasabi ( Japanese: , , or , ; ''Eutrema japonicum'' or ''Wasabia japonica'') or Japanese horseradish is a plant of the family Brassicaceae, which also includes horseradish and mustard in other genera. The plant is native to Japan and the Russi ...

, served in a crusty

bap BAP or bap may refer to: Food * Bap (bread), a type of bread roll * Bap (rice dish), a Korean food Music * BAP (Basque band), a hardcore punk group (formed 1984) * BAP (German band), a Colognian rock group (formed 1976) * B.A.P (South Korean ban ...

. The earliest example of the fish finger sandwich being created is probably during early 1981 when a nursing assistant, Dean Bevan (then Wilkinson), at the old county psychiatric hospital of St Audry's in Melton, Suffolk found that he regularly had a lot of fish fingers left over following serving the patients breakfast. He discovered that although fish fingers were not particularly popular as a breakfast food, nevertheless, the kitchen served them each morning. So, rather than throw them away he decided to try them as a sandwich snack for his colleagues. Initially they simply consisted of four fish fingers between two slices of white bread along with a little tomato ketchup. They eventually proved popular with nursing staff and it seems quite likely that news of this simple, tasty snack spread by word of mouth and became popular throughout the UK. Ref. D Bevan 1981

References

External links

Birds Eye Fish Finger Sandwich Awards 2017
Fish dishes Seafood sandwiches British sandwiches {{UK-cuisine-stub

See also

References

External links