When I was at school in the '60's, I got a part-time job working in our local chippie. I loved fish & chips anyway, so it was a heaven-sent job for me. I was allowed to eat as many chips as I wanted from the outset, which was good psychology as I soon got fed up of eating chips! One of my jobs was making 'fish cakes' - these were pieces of fish in between two potato slices, dipped in batter. These were a cheap alternative to fish as many families couldn't afford the real thing. We also got requests for free'fish bits' which were in fact leftover bits of batter.As pointed out above, we used greaseproof paper around the food, then newspaper as an outer layer. I recall the song of that summer, played ad nauseum in the chippie was 'I got you babe' by Sonny & Cher. Unfortunately the owner gave me the sack at the end of the summer as he said I wasn't quick enough serving the customers - this was a lie but I think he couldn't afford to keep me on but didn't want to say so. Still love fish & chips!