Fish and Brewis

If you are wondering why no "Fish" the answer is very simple. If you are looking for information on the Internet about the Brewis family by just inserting the word "Brewis" into the search engine you will get many pages referring to Fish and Brewis, which has nothing to do with the Brewis family.

One explanation of 'Brewis' in this context is:

REMINISCENCES OF SHEFFIELD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

By R.E. Leader

CHAPTER II.

SMITHIES, APPRENTICES, DAMES, DRESS, AND CUSTOMS

Excerpt

…Oatcake and porridge formed the staple fare of apprentices,

but the one was too often mouldy or sour, and the latter too

often made with water. A cutler in Allen Street named

Barber, who had sixteen apprentices, was noted, even among

the penurious, for his especial meanness. It was the custom

in his household to make the oat cakes in large batches, so

that they might be stale enough, when placed before the

apprentices, to discourage inordinate appetite. The lads, when

opportunity offered, would snatch an oat cake hot from the…

bakestone, to enjoy it fresh, and to this end they would hide

the stolen morsel anywhere, under their shirts, or thrust in

the coal hole. As a rare treat, there was sometimes for dinner

brewis, or brewes (oat cakes, mixed with dripping and hot

water, and seasoned with salt and pepper), still the traditional

dish when the members of the Cutlers' Company lunch

together at the annual swearing in of the Master Cutler.

(http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~exy1/fh_material/18C_sheffield/ch2.txt)

It has become one of the classic Newfoundland dishes, "Fish 'n Brewis" (pronounced broos). Brewis is bread soaked in water, then boiled. Traditionally, it is made with hardbread or hardtack - -a cracker-like, nugget-shaped dried ship's biscuit. There is no single recipe for fish and brewis. Every Newfoundland cook has his or her own way of preparing it, every area its style. Usually it's served for breakfast, but it could be eaten any time. (Made with Fresh or Salt Fish)