Fish paste

 

During the war years there wasn't much in the way of jam or butter that you could spread on your toast. However I do remember Shippam's fish paste which was available in glass jars with airtight metal caps; this established the Shippam's name with the product we knew so well in those days.  It was a simple product sold in small quantities during the war, but it was available. The reason might be that it was difficult to control fish rations in the war, so fish-paste simply wasn't rationed.

 

I had forgotten all about it until last month when I asked Bron to see if she could buy some.  It arrived in the next Tesco order and my mouth watered with relish at the thought of trying some again.  The first task was to unwrap the jar.  It was sealed with a plastic coat the covered the jar and the outer edge of the lid.  There was a tear down strip that should have been easy to pick apart -  but I couldn't. Both of us tried to get the point of a cheese knife to make a start on the 'open here' area, but to no avail.  Eventually we did get in but our efforts removed the entire shrink wrap, complete with brand label, ingredients and all the usual health warnings about overdosing.

 

Why, oh why is it necessary to stop miscreants trying to contaminate our food?  This simple low volume tasty spread has seldom done anyone any harm, but now I had to keep the remains of the jar in the fridge for a few days without any identification (though the smell was rather obvious).

 

When did you last taste fish paste?  Buy a little jar and keep this ancient English custom alive  -  and don't forget to spell Shippam’s correctly.

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