It turns out you’ve been eating fish and chips wrong this whole time!

Mazgoli has reminded me of Saturday night suppers at my grandparents. They had a fish and chip shop in Manchester, bombed in the war, but my Grandad made scallops sliced potato and a very thin slice of onion all dipped in batter. Then deep-fried in dripping. Really crispy and yummy. Incidentally the tide is turning in favour of animal fats such as lard, dripping and butter. They contain useful things for brain connections.

Yes, weird I think! Maybe once upon a time it would be discarded, as was the pastry on Cornish pasties designed as a 'handle' to transport and eat the meat and vegetables, but which is now all part of the meal.

Mazgoli - whereabouts are you from? My partner also used to call the scraps “gribbles” - I’d never head the expression until I met him! He was born in Devon but moved to Nottinghamshire in his mis-spent youth - now we are both in Rugby. I can’t remember what I used to call the scraps when I was a child. I still think the only way to eat fish and chips was out of the newspaper, preferably sitting by the sea and trying to fend off those pesky seagulls!

the same could be said for pastry, originally not meant for eating more for containing.

On the rare occasions we have F&C from the chippy, I don’t often eat the thick batter-think of the calories, but our chippy sells lightly battered fish where the coating is so thin it’s barely there. Tempura battered fish fingers, mmmm that's a different matter.

A bag of chips and batter scraps on the way home from guides. Yum Yum.

We used to call them scratchings. We always asked for 'six penn'orth of chips and some scratchings please!' The chippie used to scoop some on top of the chips.

Same here Twopence a real treat, think they were 4d. All stopped when I was expelled from the guides left the Guides.

I’d chuck away the fish and just eat the batter!

I cannot remember the batter bits or scraps but they sound tasty.
I remember being back to about seven years old and Friday nights were fish and chip supper time bought when dad arrived home from work with his weekly wages. If my memory is correct a cod and chips was bought for 1 shilling and 5 pence that's in the old money these days buying for a family of four you are looking at over £20.

It’s nonsense!
I wish ‘they’ whoever they are would leave us all alone to eat, drink and be merry in moderation.
I urge you to visit Bizzy Lizzies in Skipton for wonderful fish in wonderful edible batter!
Yum yum yum yum

What a ridiculous idea! Lightly battered fish is delicious but I'm not keen on thick batter but only because it doesn't agree with me (or my diet).
When I was little my Dad used to get us chips and scraps on a Friday tea-time and give me a bit of his fish!
He also cooked us potato slices in batter and we called them "Specials". Lovely memories.

Bizzie Lizzie’s! ❤️ My daughters godmother lives near Skipton and we used to go to BL when we visited. Dd got stuck in the loo, once. . She joined their birthday club and received a card from them every year.

I love fish in crispy batter, and always ask for scraps,
When i make my own i also make scraps
Scarborough and Whitby fish and chips are the best
Potato slices in batter we call potato scallops

I remember being on holiday, as a child, and we got some chips to eat on the way back to the caravan. I found a piece of batter, and whined a bit to my dad. "Sh," he said. "Don't tell the others!" It made the batter like a special treat.

We ( West of Scotland) call potato slices in batter fritters. I wouldn’t dream of throwing away the batter!

Absolutely bonkers.......

Gilly1952 - Yup, I'm from Devon, now living in Nottingham!

Potato slices in batter are fritters in the east of Scotland also, not all chippies do them here in Dundee. I prefer fritters to chips simply because of the batter. I love Grace Dent's reviews, and can well imagine the look on her face when she read that comment ?

"Twice with scraps please and a Special" - that was always Mum's order if we had fish and chips for tea.

The Special was an extra large piece of fish - for my Dad. The scraps were for my sister and me. The chips were divided between us.

Home made bread, with butter, a pot of tea and sometimes Mum's home-pickled onions and mushy peas accompanied.

Tomato sauce was not allowed to darker our doors until Mum once decided to make some from a glut of tomatoes.

No one dared tell her it wasn't a patch on Heinz.

Delicious BradfordLass?
In Yorkshire you don’t ask for a certain fish ( as in London) you just say ‘fish and chips twice please’ ( it’s always haddock, quite rightly.)
Scraps were delicious, it has to be said.
The best fish and chips I have had have been in Scarborough a couple of years ago, and in Appledore in Devon.Both meals were Heaven on a plate.

How ridiculous! Why in Heaven's name does this man respond the way he did, as if he's dumbfounded that anyone would eat the batter? Virtually everyone eats it! Hasn't he ever looked around when he's in a pub/restaurant that serves battered fish - or for that matter when at the seaside? Where has he been all his life?

I've been known to refuse to buy my fish and chips when told they had no batter bits to give me...
They're the best part of fish and chips (& scallops)..!!!

Bathsheba the words pretentious prat come to mind.

My partner moved to Lancashire from the South and asked for a cod and chips. The lady behind the counter couldn't understand him and asked if he wanted a 'cone of chips' he said, 'no, cod and chips'. She then proceeded to show him what a cone was. Then he realised he should just have been asking for fish. He was also confused another time when he was asked if he wanted a 'lightly' - he just said no and asked me what it was - I had no idea either