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Today, we're trawling the depths to figure out what's actually in a filet-o'-fish
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Lou Grohn was a World War II veteran and restaurateur who opened the Cincinnati area's first-ever McDonald's location on January 13, 1959
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Grohn's McDonald's only made around $75 every Friday because 87% of the population in his corner of Cincinnati was Catholic
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and Catholics abstained from eating red meat on Fridays. If Grohn wanted to keep his head above water
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he'd have to come up with a way to reel in crowds on their holy days
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So he went to work cooking up his own recipe for his newly dubbed Filet-O-Fish Sandwich
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In 1961, Groen took his sandwich all the way to the top, traveling to the McDonald's corporate office in Chicago to meet legendary owner Ray Kroc
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As it happened, Kroc thought up his own meat-based alternative for practicing Catholics
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Enter the Hula Burger, a slice of pineapple and cheese on a hamburger bun
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On Good Friday 1962, Grown's Filet-O-Fish Sandwich and Kroc's Hula Burger battled it out in a few select McDonald's locations
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Whichever item sold the most by the end of the day would earn a permanent spot on the menu
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350 Filet-O-Fish sandwiches were sold on that Good Friday, while the Hula Burger floundered with a measly six
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Grown's Sandwich was a simple piece of battered halibut, tartar sauce, and a slice of cheese between two hamburger buns
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Between its invention and its official launch in 1965, Kroc and Grone made a few tweaks
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The first was t down that slice of cheese According to McDonald Big Cheeses this was because an entire slice would overpower the taste of fish The next change McDonald made to the original recipe was the bun
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Rather than a traditional toasted hamburger bun, the filet of fish is served on a fluffier steamed bun
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which helps keep the taste and texture of the fish from being overpowered. The third and final change to Grone's recipe was the fish itself
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Halibut turned out to be too expensive to use on a nationwide scale. Cod became the fish of choice for the new sandwich
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But in order to avoid association with cod liver oil, they called the main ingredient by its fancier name
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North Atlantic whitefish. But that changed in 2013. After North Atlantic whitefish were placed on the critically endangered species list
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McDonald's switched to the cheap and sustainable Alaska Pollock. But no matter what kind of fish you're slicing, none of them are square
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So why do the Filet-O-Fish patties boast such a specific square shape
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Their Alaska Pollock is layered in whole fillets and then cut into convenient blocks of fish flesh
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The breading on the patty also contains bleached white flour made with chemicals like benzoyl peroxide, potassium bromate, or chlorine
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There is also a not-so-healthy dose of hydrogenated soybean oil in there for good measure
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The Filet-O-Fish is also hiding polysorbate 80, which is made from dehydrated sugar, alcohol, and fatty acids
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Even with all those worrying additives, the McDonald's Filet-O-Fish takes home the title of healthiest fish sandwich
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Maybe that's why it still reigns supreme, selling around 300 million sandwiches annually
