Chip shop boss sells deep-fried festive treats including battered mince pies and pigs in blankets – while deep-fried sprouts are also on the menu this Christmas

A chip shop is selling deep fried festive treats including pigs in blankets and mince pies in the run up to Christmas – as another puts battered brussels sprouts on its menu. 

Bill Rai, who owns Oh My Cod, in Spalding, Lincolnshire, previously deep-fried Crème Eggs, Oreos and Mars bars in his signature batter and wanted to come up with something special again for Christmas.

He has now introduced homemade pigs-in-blankets and a special battered mince pie to be sold in the run-up to the festivities.

Bill, who runs the shop with his wife Sandy, says he is offering the unusual seasonal menu alongside his traditional fayre due to customer demand. 

It comes as another chippy, The Almighty Cod in Hartlepool, County Durham, has left customers overjoyed and horrified in equal measure by flogging portions of deep-fried battered sprouts.

Bill Rai, who owns Oh My Cod in Spalding, Lincolnshire, with one of his Christmas specials

Bill says he is offering the unusual seasonal menu alongside his traditional fayre due to customer demand

Pictured – a portion of deep-fried battered sprouts and deep-fried pigs in blankets sold at The Almighty Cod in Hartlepool, County Durham

Owner of Oh My Cod, Bill said: ‘We were just so busy last year that we didn’t get round to doing anything different for Christmas, but this year people have been asking – a lot!

‘So, we thought we’d bring back the battered mince pies and the battered pigs in blankets, which are jumbo sausages covered in bacon. Both were really popular when we did them previously.’

The battered mince pies cost 60p each while the battered pigs in blankets are priced at £3.25 and are selling well with chips and gravy, according to Bill.

He added: ‘It’s nice to offer our customers something a little bit different to all the other fish and chip shops in town – it gets people talking and trying new things.

‘We did try a whole battered Christmas dinner one year, but in all honesty I think that was a little bit too much – it was maybe more suited to two people sharing.

‘We do get a few requests from customers to batter different things – particularly Snickers bars, but unfortunately they contain nuts so we can’t really entertain that one.

Battered mince pies are on the menu at chippy Oh My Cod in Spalding, Lincolnshire

‘But the mince pies and pigs in blankets are going down well at the moment and we’ll be selling them until Christmas Day.’

Read more: Sprout-rageous! Chippy is blasted for selling battered sprouts as the snack is branded ‘wrong on so many levels’

Customer Victoria Fear, a journalist who tried the battered mince pie, said: ‘The combination of batter and pastry perfectly complemented each other in a far better way than I had imagined it would.

‘Then, once you make your way through the buttery pastry, you hit the deliciously warm filling which was just a pure delight.’

Over at The Almighty Cod in Hartlepool, defiant manager Michael Dodd conceded deep-fried sprouts was a controversial move, but hoped to make some converts out of people. 

Portions, containing eight to ten of the little green balls, cost just £1.80, with foodies having the option to fork out on a luxury cheese sauce dip until the end of December. 

Michael said: ‘We decided to include a deep-fried brussels sprout on the menu with the festive season coming up.

‘Sprouts are a pretty controversial veg. A lot of people do turn their noses up to it but I would recommend to anyone to try because they are lovely.

Pictured left to right: Chippy worker Chantelle Alton and manager of The Almighty Cod Michael Dodd holding up deep-dried battered sprouts 

Pictured – the deep-fried battered sprouts cut in half showing the crispy interior and the soft sprout interior 

‘They get battered with the normal batter used on the fish, they go into the pan where the fish is fried and get put in the top box like your cod would.

‘The batter is light, golden and crispy, the middle of the sprouts are quite mushy so the texture on the outside and inside works well together because of the contrast.

‘We’ve been doing it for a couple of years now, but this year they’ve taken off’.

But no festive treat is safe from the deep-fat fryer, as the chippy is also serving up deep-fried pigs in blankets, pork and stuffing balls and even deep-fat fried mince pies.

The manager continued: ‘Sprouts are controversial because you get people saying they wouldn’t even have them on the menu because they don’t like the smell of sprouts.

‘But when they come [to the chippy] they’ve said “I’ll give that a try”. I like to hope we can make some sprout converts’.

Social media users are divided – some branded the indulgent fried treat as ‘tasty’, while others labelled the item as ‘a disgrace to the chippy’

Back in 2018, a fish and chip shop unveiled a full deep-fried Christmas dinner featuring fried turkey, sprouts, pigs in blankets and roast potatoes.

April’s Plaice in Buckhaven, Fife, was only selling the 1,000-calorie feast for three days before it proved so popular that they sold out of turkey legs. 

The £8 ‘monster crunchy box’ included roast potatoes, pigs-in-blankets, carrots, and sprouts – all battered and dipped in hot oil. 

Grub’s up! This £8 ‘monster crunchy box’ from April’s Plaice in Buckhaven, Fife included roast potatoes, pigs-in-blankets, carrots, and sprouts – all battered and dipped in hot oil

The finished product: The only things served up in the Christmas dinner box which were not deep fried were a mince pie and a portion of gravy

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