Are Fish Fillets Really Better Than Sticks?
In the beginning, there was the fish stick. Made of minced fish — we never knew exactly what fish, just that it was something that formerly bore fins — and wrapped in a crispy coating that combined the crunch of cornflakes with the grainy texture of cornmeal. It was a staple freezer food for decades and many a suburban kid of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. Invented in Great Britain in the 1950s as a way to make the herring catch a bit more palatable to the folks at home, fish sticks quickly jumped the pond and entered our freezers. The proportion of breading to actual fish in most fish sticks is pretty appalling, but many a harried parent has used them to fulfill Lenten fish Fridays. With a half-sheet pan and a hot oven, you can have enough cooked in 15 minutes to feed a fair-sized crowd. Whether through evolving tastes or the American urge to make everything just a little bit larger, various other battered or breaded frozen fish chunks have appeared in grocery freezers. Most call themsel
