Any trawlermen and chip shop owners on here?
Discussion
We both dine out a lot, all restaurants Chinese Indian Spanish etc, don’t like Mexican fit the spices upset me.
However star dish for me is haddock and chips, quality seems to vary not only by shop but also on the day.
Trawlermen,
does the price you get for the catch vary according to when it was caught? If you go out Monday, trawl and store in ice then repeat until say Thursday and sell at auction does the latest caught fetch a better price or is your sale just put together? Between two boxes of haddock what would make one box worth more?
Chip shop owners.
We live near Arbroath and the fish tends to be pretty good up here however the quality of the fish or the cooking of it seems to vary even in the same premises on different days.
Local chippie on a good day cannot be beaten, next time you buy it is OK but not quite as good as it can be. Same range operator, we have found if it is busy batter not so crisp presumably hurrying through fryer to satisfy demand. Even tried later on a Saturday night just before it stops being very busy hopefully get crispy batter, works sometimes but not always
Only consistent fish and chips in a restaurant, always the same high quality, fish flakes translucent, batter crispy too.
Just want a high quality, consistent fish and supper, what do you think?
However star dish for me is haddock and chips, quality seems to vary not only by shop but also on the day.
Trawlermen,
does the price you get for the catch vary according to when it was caught? If you go out Monday, trawl and store in ice then repeat until say Thursday and sell at auction does the latest caught fetch a better price or is your sale just put together? Between two boxes of haddock what would make one box worth more?
Chip shop owners.
We live near Arbroath and the fish tends to be pretty good up here however the quality of the fish or the cooking of it seems to vary even in the same premises on different days.
Local chippie on a good day cannot be beaten, next time you buy it is OK but not quite as good as it can be. Same range operator, we have found if it is busy batter not so crisp presumably hurrying through fryer to satisfy demand. Even tried later on a Saturday night just before it stops being very busy hopefully get crispy batter, works sometimes but not always
Only consistent fish and chips in a restaurant, always the same high quality, fish flakes translucent, batter crispy too.
Just want a high quality, consistent fish and supper, what do you think?
Mercdriver said:
We both dine out a lot, all restaurants Chinese Indian Spanish etc, don’t like Mexican fit the spices upset me.
However star dish for me is haddock and chips, quality seems to vary not only by shop but also on the day.
Trawlermen,
does the price you get for the catch vary according to when it was caught? If you go out Monday, trawl and store in ice then repeat until say Thursday and sell at auction does the latest caught fetch a better price or is your sale just put together? Between two boxes of haddock what would make one box worth more?
Chip shop owners.
We live near Arbroath and the fish tends to be pretty good up here however the quality of the fish or the cooking of it seems to vary even in the same premises on different days.
Local chippie on a good day cannot be beaten, next time you buy it is OK but not quite as good as it can be. Same range operator, we have found if it is busy batter not so crisp presumably hurrying through fryer to satisfy demand. Even tried later on a Saturday night just before it stops being very busy hopefully get crispy batter, works sometimes but not always
Only consistent fish and chips in a restaurant, always the same high quality, fish flakes translucent, batter crispy too.
Just want a high quality, consistent fish and supper, what do you think?
Just to add that I've found exactly the same.However star dish for me is haddock and chips, quality seems to vary not only by shop but also on the day.
Trawlermen,
does the price you get for the catch vary according to when it was caught? If you go out Monday, trawl and store in ice then repeat until say Thursday and sell at auction does the latest caught fetch a better price or is your sale just put together? Between two boxes of haddock what would make one box worth more?
Chip shop owners.
We live near Arbroath and the fish tends to be pretty good up here however the quality of the fish or the cooking of it seems to vary even in the same premises on different days.
Local chippie on a good day cannot be beaten, next time you buy it is OK but not quite as good as it can be. Same range operator, we have found if it is busy batter not so crisp presumably hurrying through fryer to satisfy demand. Even tried later on a Saturday night just before it stops being very busy hopefully get crispy batter, works sometimes but not always
Only consistent fish and chips in a restaurant, always the same high quality, fish flakes translucent, batter crispy too.
Just want a high quality, consistent fish and supper, what do you think?
My guess was that at busy times the chips were being undercooked
Freshest Fish and Chips I have ever had was at Frankies in Bray in Shetland.
There was a sign on the counter with a picture saying which boat todays catch was from.
You could see the boat moored up round the back.
https://www.frankiesfishandchips.com/
There was a sign on the counter with a picture saying which boat todays catch was from.
You could see the boat moored up round the back.
https://www.frankiesfishandchips.com/
JKRolling said:
My local chip shop is pretty consistent TBF. Always has a queue so I ask for a fresh fish and orange chips
Same here. They’ve owned it for as long as I can remember. He cooks, she serves. Order on entry, they only serve Haddock, no Cod. I have plenty batter and ask for it to stand for a few extra minutes before wrapping. They stand them on their edge anyway when they come out, so the excess oil runs down the batter, not through the fish. Drawweight said:
No real actual statistics here but my father used to work on a deep sea trawler. Away for 2 weeks at a time.
The fish was simply packed in ice and stored in the hold. There was no way to tell when it was unloaded whether it was caught early or late in the trip.
Industrial fish market catch sure. Small local fish boats, could be much fresher.The fish was simply packed in ice and stored in the hold. There was no way to tell when it was unloaded whether it was caught early or late in the trip.
The same business model as the acclaimed anstruther fish bar. The owner was a trawlermen and realised if he filleted the fish, covered it in a good batter and deep fried it he got more per fish than if he put it to market. It is now owned by someone else and as part of the deal the recipe for the batter was included.
I bet the best fish went to the shop and the rest went to market.
The posts above mirror that way, man fishes and sells it that day must taste better than fish that has been on ice for two weeks.
When you say it is on ice do you mean it is packed in ice or is it in a deep freeze cabinet?
I bet the best fish went to the shop and the rest went to market.
The posts above mirror that way, man fishes and sells it that day must taste better than fish that has been on ice for two weeks.
When you say it is on ice do you mean it is packed in ice or is it in a deep freeze cabinet?
I think there are too many variables between different fish n chip shops, and even with the same shop, that affect how the fish n Chips come out...
Potato variety
Cooked in oil or fat
Oil type/fat type
Fresh or old oil/fat
Freshly fried or re-fried from earlier that day, or previous day
Length of time fried
Length of time left to drain etc
Wrapped or open (wrapping tends to steam the food, softening it when it might have been crispy)
I hate pale coloured chips, but even my local chips shop who's chips are often perfect (for me) and brown, can sometimes be pale.
Sometimes they are just right for me, other times less so.
I think people like them different ways, so someone saying a certain chip shop is amazing might not be for you. Even when you find a amazing chip shop, sometimes the chips they server aren't so. When I'm in the queue I try and get a look at the chips they are serving and if they aren't how I like them I might leave without ordering.
Potato variety
Cooked in oil or fat
Oil type/fat type
Fresh or old oil/fat
Freshly fried or re-fried from earlier that day, or previous day
Length of time fried
Length of time left to drain etc
Wrapped or open (wrapping tends to steam the food, softening it when it might have been crispy)
I hate pale coloured chips, but even my local chips shop who's chips are often perfect (for me) and brown, can sometimes be pale.
Sometimes they are just right for me, other times less so.
I think people like them different ways, so someone saying a certain chip shop is amazing might not be for you. Even when you find a amazing chip shop, sometimes the chips they server aren't so. When I'm in the queue I try and get a look at the chips they are serving and if they aren't how I like them I might leave without ordering.
Edited by The Gauge on Saturday 19th April 18:52
Mercdriver said:
It is the fish inconsistency that I don’t like, the quality of the chips is probably based much to do with the variety of potato, ie cheapest is not ever the best
What inconsistency are you finding in the fish? Your post seems to be more about variability in the batter?Mercdriver said:
No, I may have misled I mean the taste of the fish itself, translucent flakes of fish that fall apart when you stick the fork into them. Sometimes wonder how the chef manages to get them fried without breaking up
It’s certainly not as simple as fresh being better than frozen.Day boat fish that’s eaten soon after landing will be best, but ‘fresh’ may have been kept on ice for a couple of weeks at sea, never mind however long once landed, whereas frozen at sea will have been frozen within hours of landing.
However to complicate matters further fish can be caught in the North Atlantic, be ‘headed and gutted’ , frozen, and then shipped to the far east for filleting and portioning, refrozen and shipped back.
And that’s before you get into variability in how it’s treated in the chippy once defrosted or in how it’s cooked or how long it’s been sat between cooking and eating.
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