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Short Stuff: Fish n' Chips · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck, there's Blinmey, old bloody old Jerry, and this
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: is short stuff everyone. I get you every time, Buddy.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I don't think there's a single short stuff intro that
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I haven't made you snicker. They're also silly. I love it.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you like it. So we're talking about chippy's. Yeah, man,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: So apparently chips what we call in America French fries
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: what they call him France just fries um are called
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: chips because it's short for chipped potatoes, which is just
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: cutting up a potato and frying it. Apparently that's chipping it,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: which I don't know. Does that explain cream chipped beef?
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Like do you cut up beef and fry it and
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: then add it to like a creamy sauce? Is that
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: where that comes from? I don't think it's fried, I think,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: or is it? I don't. I'm asking, buddy, Uh, well,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: you have the light bulbleabo of your head. I thought
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: that meant you had an idea, not a question. No, no, no,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: that's a question mark. Okay, I have a light bulb
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: in the shape of a question. Mark. I think chip
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: beef is just the the quality of the beef is
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: sort of chipped off. I don't think it's fried. It
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: might be wrong. I like that that. Okay, well, we're
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: not talking about cream chip beat far are we now
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: talking about fish and chips. We're talking about chippies, fish
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: and chips. That chippy is a fish and chip shop. Uh.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: They're synonymous with the United Kingdom, of course, and I
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: ate fish and chips every time I've been over to
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the United Kingdom. You're sure you probably had a little bit.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: I never have, really, I know, I feel like a
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: total jerk, but the researching this made me definitely guarantee that,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: well next time. Well, I mean, there are plenty of
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: great things to eat in the United Kingdom that are
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: known in the United Kingdom, like tika masala. Sure right,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: did you have any of that? Yes? Okay, plenty of that.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: But fish and chips they hit their boom in the
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: late nineteen twenties. There were about thirty five thousand chippy's
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: in the UK. Uh now there are about ten thousand
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: and change, and they served three hundred and sixty million
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: meals a year in the UK. Of fish and chips
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: that's equal to three hundred and sixty million big mac meals.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: That's right, And you might be thinking to yourself, this
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: has probably been going on since the dawn of time
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: over there, they've been frying up fish. But no, no,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: it was only a couple of hundred years ago. You
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: would have to go back and ask for fish and chips,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: where they would just look at the cross side, oh
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: oh sort, what a right right, and kick you out
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: of the shop because it was a tannery. It was
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: a tannery. But it all goes back very interestingly to
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Sephardic Jews, all the way back apparently to the at
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: least the eighth century in Spain, where um safari two's
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: lived and thrived and worked and played and observed the
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Sabbath or shabbitt or Sabbath it's in there um, which
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: meant that they were not allowed to cook from sundown
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Friday a sundown Saturday. They're already eat, they just weren't
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: allowed to cook. And I believe that's still the case.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: So um the Sephardic Jews of Spain said, you know what,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I'll bet if we took some fresh fish and we
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: battered it lightly and fried it, it would taste really
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: good still, you know, by Saturday afternoon. They were right.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: They were right, and so frying fish took off and
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: it became basically synonymous with Sephardic Jews, and they started
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: to travel far and wide. Um. They were pushed out
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: of Spain and then later Portugal, once Spain and Portugal
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: got married and so um, they started to travel the
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: world and wherever they went with them, they took this
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: fried fish recipe with them everywhere, that's right, and they
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: would sell it on the streets in England, um with
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: little like uh, it's sort of like the the cigarette
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: lady would come around back in the day cigars cigarette
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: exactly selling it on like a tray with a strap
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: around their neck. Um. Which, by the way, Portland, Maine,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: on the sidewalk, you can get oyster shucked from a cart.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I did not see that. Like, just walk up and say,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: just give me a couple of oysters. It's like shuck
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: about type of thing. Do it right, now, here's some money.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: I would just follow that guy around the I can't
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: say I had the best saltwater taffy I've ever had
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: in my life that I purchased on the coast of Maine.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Oh really, oh, just not even close. And I had
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: eight lobster rolls between Boston and Portland, Maine over four days.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: That's nice, man. And uh, because I wanted to kind
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: of find my favorite and I did. That's good. Where
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: was it? It was at the Sea Salt Gourmet Shop
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: in Cape Elizabeth. Okay, it's delicious. We did you get
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: a T shirt? And the worst one I had was
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: in the airport? Oh? I combat that's like playing slots
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: in the Vegas airport. Is this not the same? I
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: was flying out and I was like one more yea.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: So it's just like slots in the Vegas airport. So
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Jewish immigrants are selling these in England. Even Thomas Jefferson
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: vis it at England and wrote about fried fish in
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: the Jewish Fashion And it took trains and railroads to
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: really spread it out of London and far and wide
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: throughout the UK because all of a sudden you could
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: get fresh fish uh two far away places really fast.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: And it was a pretty big hit. It was a
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: big hit. But again now we're still just talking about
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: fried fish. The Chips haven't made an intro yet, so
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: we're going to um leave you hanging for now as
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: it were, Um, wondering will the chips ever come? We'll
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: find out right after this message break. So I'm dying
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: to know. Have the chips come? The chips are coming,
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: finally could So it's funny to think of because you
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: think of potatoes is like super Irish. Um, you think
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: of chips is super English. But they were actually South American.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, like the potatoes that we know and love
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: today weren't really brought to Europe until the maybe the
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: end of the fifteenth century, from the earliest explorers of
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: South America. Yeah, and people weren't eating them up, like
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: they were hard and weird and everyone's like, I can't
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: even eat this stuff. It's not even edible. So it
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: took you know, Belgium's popular for their fries, yes, because
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: they do it right. They do do it right. And
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: that's where the whole fried potato things started. Well, actually
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: in Spain in the sixteenth century. Um, but then they
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: brought them north to what was called then Spanish Netherlands,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: which is now close to modern day Belgium. And here's
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: the deal. They would cut these things up into fish
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: shapes and fry them. These fishermen would, which is like
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: the cutest thing ever to do, and thisteenth century it is.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: But I don't think there has any connection whatsoever to
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: fish and chips, does it. I don't think so. I mean,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I think this historian said, basically, they eventually got to
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Great Britain in the eighteen sixties and it just kind
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: of coincided with the Sephardic Jews selling these fried fish meals,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: and it all just sort of went hand in hand, right,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: So um again, they think that Sephardic Jewish fried fish
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: peddlers said, hey, man, I really like this idea of
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: frying um potatoes too. I'll bet this would go really
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: well with my fried fish. And there's a couple of
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: claims of the first fish and chip shop or chippies um,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: one in London and one outside of Manchester in Masville
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: and where Masville as that spelled mz Ville Okay after Morrissey. Yeah,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: I love it, but I think it's actually called Mosley Mosley, Yeah,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: but Masville is what I call Mosley. Now I got
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: to Okay, so the one here Manchester was definitely like
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: kick in, but by eighteen sixty three, the one in
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Londerhood Lounderhood, Mausville in Lounderhood. I love that in the
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: neighborhood in London. Uh. Bow, I don't know if it's
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Bow or bow. But this was in eighteen sixty and
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: they claimed to be the very first one to sell
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: that combo and good old Lunderville yep, Lounderville and Masville.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: So um, no, Londerhood under hood. You already it already
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: evolved again. So this is the eighteen sixties when the
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: definitely the latest that the first chippies were established. And
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: by the find which as far as I know, applies
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: only to the turn of the twentieth century, right okay, Um,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: by by the turn of the twentieth century, the beginning
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: of the twentieth century. They they are just everywhere. I
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: think you said thirty five thousand, and its peak in
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: uh the nineteen twenties. Even by nine there was something
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: like thousand of them in the UK. And um, just
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: to keep morale going during World War One, I'm Prime
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Minister at the time, David Lloyd George ordered that fish
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: and chips and everything associated with making fish and chips
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: be kept off the rational list. Yeah. They wanted to
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: keep people happy. Yeah, And I think it worked, and
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: so much so that in World War Two Um Churchill
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: did the same thing. Right, that's right, he said, you know,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: keep this fish and chip thing going because they are
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: good companions. There's a little bit of Schwarzenegger in there.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: It was so in that war at Normandy on D
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Day apparently, and identify er. A secret code for the
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Brits is they would yell out fish and they would
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: wait for a coded response. And I love how this
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: house Stuff Works articles has barely coded uh chips right
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: and be because Germans would figure it out and say
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: chips and sush. That was Schwartzenegger for sure. Sure it
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: was a little weak for Schwartzenegger. Here's the deal. I
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: like mine with Chartar sauce. I didn't see anything about
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: charter sauce in here. Oh yeah, I think that maybe
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I might be wrong, but that feels like,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: even though it's a French thing in origin, an American bastardization.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: But that's just me guessing, because nowhere in here did
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: I see anyone in the UK eating Tartar sauce. I
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: might be wrong, Uh, I think it might have been
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: in the image on this House Stuff Works article well
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: that means nothing. But there's also in the article there's
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: a blob of green um, which is apparently what you
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: will find it served with in the North England. Yep,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: mashed peas, which, according to Dave Ruse, who wrote this
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: house Stuff Works article, um are way better tasting than
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: they look. Yeah. I had that in Dublin. I had.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: I went to a chippy and got some peas. Also
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: obviously malt vinegar on everything. Yeah, I've come to like
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: that too. I remember growing up at Long John Silver's,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: like I my family actually lived a Long John Silver's,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: and I was like, this is gross stuff. And now
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I have I guess a refined palette or something,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: because I just I do shots of that stuff. Yeah,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: I didn't like it when I was younger either, or no,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: I fully get it. Um, you gotta have your salt
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: as well. And apparently in the UK they love the
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: curry sauce and uh, we'll even go with the ketchup
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: every now and then. Yeah, and then what I always
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: think of fish and chips being served in because it's
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: a street food like through and through, even though there's
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: chip shops like it was originally from the streets. You
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Um, and it would be served
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: and I think even in the chip shops too. It
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: would be served wrapped up in yesterday's newspaper, which originates
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: in World War Two where paper was in short supply,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: so they somebody figured out, what, We'll just use yesterday's
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: newspapers to serve fish and chips in this kind of cone.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Found up in a cone, dumped some some chips, almost
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: said fries, I'm sorry UK. Also I'm sorry about Brexit, uh,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: and then put some fried fish usually fried battered cot
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: on top and there's your fish and chips. But apparently
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: that went out in the Thatcher era. I'm sorry about
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Thatcher too. Yeah. I wondered about people walking around dear
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Old Lenderhood with uh like newspaper inc. Getting on their chip.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: I wonder if that happened. I don't know. I'll bet
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: it did have to do with something with becoming a
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: little more health conscious, like this printer's inc. Soaking into
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: the hot oil that we're ingesting is probably not good
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: for And all of the third arms that children were
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: growing in the UK suddenly went away, right, you got
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: anything else? Uh? No, I'm just gonna shout out Gales.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: That was the first fish and chip place that I
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: ever went in London back when I first went in
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: the mid nineties. And I am looking right now as
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: you can see it as still open and that is
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: in notting Hill and I didn't That was before the
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: moving notting Hill. So I was cool before country was cool.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: We need to get your Gaels T shirt and uh,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: what was the name of the lobster role place? Uh
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: s Salt with the letter C Salt gourmet shop. Oh,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: that is cute. We need to get you those T shirts. Okay,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: let's do it. Well. You can read a pretty interesting
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: article by Dave Rouse on how stuff Works about fish
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: and chips. Uh, and that means since I said that short,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: stuff is over stuff you should know is a production
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works for More Podcasts
• 13:39
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• 13:42
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