WHEN buying battered fish from a supermarket, shoppers are hoping for the taste of chip shop fare.

In my experience, it’s not easy to replicate those tasty, succulent pieces of cod or haddock we buy wrapped in paper to eat on the sea front, or take home for supper.

It’s been a while since I’ve bought any pre-packed fish other than fish fingers, so I thought I would put various brands of frozen cod fillets to the test.

I compared supermarket products with two brand leaders Birds Eye and Young’s.

*Iceland 4 Cod Fillets, Battered, 440g, £4.50

These were a conventional fillet shape, and baked to an appetising golden brown, with a crispy batter. While the fish was a nice white colour and had good-sized flakes, it was a little dry and, while cod has a subtle flavour, this didn’t appear to have any. These are, however, a very competitive price.

Pros: presentation, texture, price.

Cons: taste.

Mark: 2/5

*Morrisons 4 Battered Cod Fillets, 440g, £6.75

This batter on these steak-shaped pieces had a very craggy surface, with lumps of off-white batter which - being a fan of chip shop scraps - I quite liked, although the taste was nondescript. Inside, the fish was dry and tasteless, with a texture of small chopped flakes. It wasn’t great.

Pros: texture (batter)

Cons: texture, taste

Mark: 2/5

*Waitrose 2 Battered Cod Fillets, 300g, £5.00

These steak-shaped pieces of cod had a smooth batter more like that of a chip shop piece. It had a good taste. Inside, were large flakes of moist white fish. While it wasn’t 100 per cent a chip shop cod taste, it was light and flavoursome. I enjoyed it, but the downside is you only get two in the box, so it works out far more expensive than the others. I was tempted to award it three for this reason, but this is a taste test, so four it is.

Pros: texture, taste.

Cons: Price

Mark: 4/5

*4 Battered Cod Fillets by Asda, 440g, £7.50

These were a reasonable size, with nice crisp batter. The fish was a little off-white but it had a pleasing texture with decent- sized flakes. The taste was mild but sufficient to satisfy. I was surprised by the cost, however and, like Waitrose, I was tempted to mark it down for this reason, but I’ll stick to three.

Pros: texture, taste.

Cons: price.

Mark: 3/5

*Birds Eye 4 Battered Cod Fillets (Sainsbury’s), 400g, £6.95 (£5.50 with Nectar card)

This was a good shape, with golden brown batter with white fish inside, and a perfect flaky fish texture. I could really taste the fish, it was probably the closest to chip shop fish of the selection. The only issue was, it was uneven - one half was full of fish, the other was almost all batter.

Pros: appearance.

Cons: fish content.

Marks: 3/5

*Ocean Sea 4 Battered Cod Fillets, 500g, Lidl, £3.69

A decent-sized fillet the batter cooked to a light golden colour and had a good taste. Inside the fish was appetisingly white, but I found it rubbery in texture, and it was tasteless. It’s an extremely good price though - beats the competition into a cocked hat.

Pros: taste (batter), price.

Cons: texture, taste (fish).

Mark: 2/5

*4 Battered Chunky Cod Fillets by Sainsbury’s, 500g, £6.50

These were compact rectangular fish steaks; thicker than the others - the cooking time is slightly longer. I really liked the taste and texture of the crispy batter - just right. The large flakes of white fish were light and tasty, and there was a lot of it. Like Waitrose, it wasn’t 100 per cent chip shop experience, but not far off. From the selection, I liked this best of all. Quite expensive, though.

Pros: texture, taste.

Cons: price.

Mark: 5/5

*Young’s 4 Battered Cod Fillets (Sainsbury’s), 400g, £8.00 (£6 with Nectar card)

This one promises ‘a proper taste of the chippy’. It certainly looked like chip shop fish - it was a good size with a smooth, tasty batter. The fish was an appetising white colour. But from here, things went downhill - there wasn’t much flavour at all. Most of the taste was in the batter.

Pros: appearance, size.

Cons: taste.

Mark: 2/5