As a society , our relationship with intellectual nourishment is in constant magnetic flux . Sometimes we value efficiency in the name of feeding as many people as possible . Other time we appraise quality ingredients in the name of nurturing the body or someone . When the innovative Pisces stick was invented in the 1950s , it was emphatically for efficiency . But rather than doing it in the name of feeding as many people as possible it was all sell as being the undulation of “ the future . ”
During World War II phthisis of fish rose in the US , not because Americans had win a fresh taste for seafood , but because centre producers were focalize on the war feat . Beef was being ration out , and beefburger chains like White Castle were even brainstorming novel merchandise likechop suey and Pisces cake . But after the warfare , the sales event of fish declined and Americans run back to buying center . So what did the fishmongers do ? They came up with a futuristic product that perfectly no one asked for and market the hell out of it : the Pisces stick .
The entire story is differentiate in the absolutely fantastic paperThe Ocean ’s Hot Dog : The Development of the Fish Stickby Paul R. Josephson . The title alone is grand , but the paper gives us a great look at how a food product can be created , marketed , and at long last sold to American consumers even if those same consumer are tremendously skeptical that the ware even qualifies as nutrient .
The Pisces pin ’s arrival and domination was truly singular . The Wall Street Journal called fish sticks “ the first really new processing development in a quarter - century for one of the nation ’s oldest industries ” in 1954 .
Josephson ’s description of how the fish stick first come to be is n’t very appetizing . In fact , it might put you off fish sticks altogether if you ’re the squeamish type , as he describe the various technical advances that had to occur after World War II to make Pisces joystick a reality ( emphasis mine ):
These advances occurred in catch , freezing , processing , and conveyance technologies . The postwar years witness a rapid addition in the size of merchandiser marine in many countries , with these merchant fleet adopting new , almost rapacious catching method and simultaneously installing monumental refrigeration and processing facility onboard huge trawlers . Sailors overtake , beheaded , skinned , gutted , filleted , and then home base or block - froze declamatory quantities of cod , Jackson Pollock , haddock , and other Pisces — tens of thousands of Egyptian pound — and maintain them from spoiling in vast freezing units . Once on shoring , the subsequent attempt to break whole slice of Pisces from frozen blocks resulted in mutilate , unappetizing clod . Frozen auction block of fish want a series of processes to transform them into a saleable , toothsome merchandise . The Pisces the Fishes reefer come from fish blocks being band - saw into rectangle roughly three inch long and one inch all-embracing ( ~7.5 2.5 cm ) , then bread and fried . Onboard processors eventually learned to pare Pisces into fillets and other useable cuts before freezing . processor regard these other cuts the “ portion , ” which find a nursing home in institutional kitchen ( shoal , hospitals , factories , and eatery ) . Pisces control stick had a for the most part retail achiever , however , because need for them in schools and elsewhere wane as more manufacturing business entered production and quality declined .
For his newspaper Josephson gain admittance to the Gorton ’s ship’s company archives . Gorton ’s , of class , is the party that ’s probably best get it on for their yellow - hatted mascot ; the fisher who ’s in your frozen food for thought gangway hawking fish sticks and half-pint . And from the paper we get a glimpse into some of the marketing that made Pisces sticks a success .
For instance , in 1953 the head of Gorton ’s advertising convince the publisher of Parents cartridge holder to give Pisces stick a “ seal of approval . ” By 1955 , sales event of Gorton ’s Pisces sticks were up 27 percent .
Even companionship that had nothing to do with Pisces sticks were hawking the product in one way or another . Because as we ’ve take in here at Paleofuture time and again , advertisers bang to be associate with anything that ’s even mistily associate with “ the time to come . ”
TheModern Mechanixblog has the advertising that appears at the top of this post , which fly the coop in the March 1956 issue of Scientific American magazine . Despite being for ballock heraldic bearing , it assort itself with the futurist idea of flash - freezing fish , and by extension the burgeoning fish stick market :
From catch to “ quick - frost ” in moment . . . that ’s the dragger of tomorrow — a floating fishery to locate , pull , catch , operation , bundle and freeze fish … manufacturing by - products and preserve spawn . Imaginary ? Sure ! But it ’s coming . And look for New Departure egg armorial bearing , many ego - seal off and lubricated - for - life story , on the chore . New Departures simplify design , require little or no maintenance , assure long - biography performance of working parts under extreme condition . Today , as in the future , it ’s New Departure for the finest in quality and engineering service .
And it was n’t just marketing to consumers that made fish stick take off . The product do good staggeringly from administration subsidies for everything from purchasing deep freezer display typesetter’s case for supermarket to making certain that fish sticks were part of school tiffin programs .
Paul R. Josephson ’s report , The Ocean ’s Hot Dog : The Development of the Fish Stick , is a must - read for anyone concerned in the retro - future of food . Or anyone , for that matter , who ever ate a Pisces joystick — whether you like it or not . For those of us who rise up on them , it ’s strong to believe of a fish stick as the future . But with apology to both trash and treasure , one man ’s past times is another gentleman ’s futurity .
solid food
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