Filet-O-Fish

History

The Filet-O-Fish was created in 1962 by Lou Groen, a McDonald’s franchisee in Cincinnati. His restaurant, located at 5425 West North Bend Road, sat in a heavily Catholic area. Because Catholics were required to avoid meat on Fridays year-round until 1966, his hamburger sales dropped sharply each Friday. The sandwich’s name came from Cye Landy, whose advertising agency handled that franchise.

It became the first menu item at McDonald’s that wasn’t a hamburger, introduced by Ray Kroc after he bought the company in 1961. Kroc struck a deal with Groen: on a Friday, they would test two meatless options—Kroc’s own Hula Burger (grilled pineapple with cheese on a cold bun) and the Filet-O-Fish. The one that sold more would stay on the menu. The Filet-O-Fish won easily and began appearing on menus in 1963, reaching all U.S. locations by 1965.

In 1981, a New Zealand fisheries owner bought a Filet-O-Fish made with pollock at a Wellington restaurant on Courtenay Place and complained to the manager that he could make a better-tasting fillet. The manager gave him a box of fillets and told him to return with identical, improved ones. He replaced the pollock with red cod, and the manager approved the change, leading to a supply deal for that restaurant and eventually others in New Zealand. Years later, hoki, which tastes similar, replaced red cod because it was competitively priced and boneless.

Hoki became widely used in the early 1990s as global pollock supplies dwindled. On September 26, 1996, McDonald’s removed the Filet-O-Fish from U.S. menus, swapping it for the Fish Filet Deluxe as part of the unsuccessful Deluxe sandwich line. But after an avalanche of letters and petitions, the company gradually brought back the Filet-O-Fish starting in mid-1997, now using the larger patty from the Fish Filet Deluxe. The Fish Filet Deluxe was discontinued at most restaurants in early 1998, though some kept it until 2000, when it vanished from all McDonald’s menus.

Product description

The fish in a Filet-O-Fish changes depending on where you buy it. In the United States, the patty is a battered and fried Alaska pollock fillet. Ireland offers either hoki or Alaska pollock. The United Kingdom uses white hoki or pollock in crispy breadcrumbs. New Zealand mixes New Zealand hoki with Alaska pollock. Indonesia’s version uses Nile tilapia from local farms near Lake Toba in North Sumatra. Each sandwich gets half a slice of cheese, which McDonald’s says keeps the cheese from overpowering the flavor. Some regions also sell a Double Filet-O-Fish with two fish patties.

Society and culture

The Filet-O-Fish is called a burger in several countries outside the United States, including Australia, India, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. It was first made for Western Christians who observe the Friday Fast, and it is still closely tied to that group, with sales in the US going up noticeably during Lent. This has led other fast food chains to introduce seafood items during the same period. The sandwich is also popular with Jewish and Muslim customers because its ingredients fit better with kosher and halal dietary rules than most other McDonald's products.

It contains fish, milk in the cheese, and egg yolks in the sauce. The fish patty is fried in a separate frypot so other menu items do not pick up a fishy taste. In the UAE and some other Muslim-majority countries, the sandwich is certified halal. It is also available in kosher-supervised McDonald's restaurants in Israel, though not all Israeli locations are certified, and stores in the UK and US do not have such certification.

In France, Spain, and Belgium, a version called the McFish is sold; the French McFish has no cheese and uses ketchup instead of tartar sauce. In Indonesia, it goes by the name Fish Fillet Burger.