This page used to contain an Arthur Treachers Style Fish recipe - but it as now been withdrawn after receiving a series of rude, offensive and at times insulting communications from their lawyers (copies available on request). We have an authentic fish in batter recipe which gives a truly authentic UK style end result.
The rest of this page is now dedicated to a review of Arthur Treachers Fish and Chips.
Fact is, the 'so-called' secret Arthur Treachers recipe is nothing to write home about and if the example I sampled is anything to go by, certainly isn't cooked in a manner true to the traditional UK product. It seems I am not alone, judging by the Arthur Treachers Fried Fish Reviews on Active Diner.
What was wrong with it? The Fish didn't taste like Cod to me (could have been pollock - see below). Batter was over cooked and too crispy. Chips were not chips, they were fries - ie not thick enough and fried at too hot a temperature. In short, they were just like large versions of the fries you get in a burger bar - fine if that is what you wanted, not fine it is supposed to be similar to UK chips.
Arthur Treachers, claimed to sell "old England's national snack" - but had no qualms in compromising the secret Arthur Treachers Fish recipe when times got hard, subsituting the traditional Cod with the much inferior pollock.
I read somewhere that they claimed to have bought the Arthur Treachers Fried Fish Recipe from the very first fish and chip shop in the UK. This is just a gimmick, and a little deceptive to boot. The Fish and Chip shop they quote is 'Malin's', which dated back to the 1860s. Fish and chips predate this by decades (at least), and you can even find reference to them in Charles Dickens work, Oliver Twist (1830's)
Arthur Treachers is now just another franchise, and not a very big one judging from their figures
If the sample I tried was typical, it is no surpise that their chain has been much troubled, going bankrupt along the way, as a result they appear to have diversified into other foodstuffs that have no connection with their UK branding. Cheese sauce on the chips, being a particularly odd combination to brand as authentic 'UK'
Rest assured, this recipe is for the real thing, NOT a copy of Arthur Treacher's Fried Fish - this uses authentic batter and real Cod, and can't be beaten by the imitations offered by chain franchise outlets.
Arthur Treacher's Fish Recipe - a review
Categories: Fish; Seafood
The History of Recipes
Experts have traced the existence of recipes far back into the distant past, in fact as far into history as the ancient Egyptians, and potentially, even further back. Interesting though that maybe, these, old cook books were just very basic pictorial instructions for preparing meals.
Fascinatingly, the most ancient recipe in existence, according to experts in ancient history are some tablets in ancient Sumerian describing the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making people feel wonderful and blissful. During the time of the Roman Empire a roman called Apicius created a collection of scripts showing how to cook the recipes cooked by wealthy roman citizens. In his works, Apicius tells us how the roman meals were separated into hors d`oeuvre, main course and afters, a style of dining still practiced today. He also tells us how the ancient chefs were skilled in the use of a good variety of spices, including a few that will be familiar to modern cooks for example basil, mint and asafoetida. As our culinary historical trip moves on a few more years there were some interesting books which date from the fourteenth century : a book titled `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary called `Curye on Inglish`. Although the titles sound familiar, these are not about the curry that is popular today, but instead descriptions of the types of food eaten by the rich people of the time. In the fifteenth century, people returning from the crusades brought us a variety of spices and herbs from Arab countries, including spices like basil and rosemary. The introduction of these new herbs and spices prompted an increase in manuscripts on food, many of which are kept safe in academic collections. Over the following few hundred years, the upper classes strove to offer the most exotic meals, and as a consequence, the best chefs and their collection of recipes increased in prestige. Even so, it wasn`t until the nineteenth century that formal cookery and recipe collections reached a high level of popularity. The Famous Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Merritt Farmer in the USA, devoted much of their lives to collecting, testing, and publishing the recipes of their peers. By the arrival of the 20th century, cookery books are greatly in demand mostly due to more people being able to read, people having increased leisure time and a general increase in wealth. |
We hope you enjoy this Arthur Treacher Style Fish recipe.
