Were deep fried Mars Bars invented before they changed the recipe?
Posted by r_spandit@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 20 comments
When I was a lad, many moons ago, a Mars Bar was a dense confection. You could club a badger with it and they were properly decent. Then they realised that selling us air was cheaper than nougat and so they are now a Milky Way with caramel. I'd like to know if deep fried Mars Bars were a thing before they were ruined?
For any Americans reading who may be confused, your Milky Way is essentially what our Mars Bar used to be. What we call a Milky Way is what your 3 Musketeers is
atomic_mermaid@reddit
Why on earth do you need clarification to possible americans on a uk sub!
r_spandit@reddit (OP)
Isn't this sub mostly for foreigners to ask British people about the UK? Anyway, thought it polite and quite interesting how confusing the names are.
atomic_mermaid@reddit
It's mostly Brits asking Brits about culturally relevant stuff to us. There's the odd foreigner wanting our opinion on stuff.
AnnieByniaeth@reddit
Deep fried Mars bars were a thing in 1992. I remember asking about them in a chip shop in Stonehaven (near Aberdeen). They told me they officially didn't sell them but they'd made a few.
I think this must have been the start of the craze because the reason I asked was because I'd recently heard about it.
I know it was 1992, because that's when I was in Stonehaven.
WitShortage@reddit
Didn't they originate in Stonehaven? Or have I mis-remembered that?
AnnieByniaeth@reddit
You might be right. That would explain why I wanted to ask the chip shop there about it.
r_spandit@reddit (OP)
!answer
If the recipe did change in 2002, which seems late to me, then they were a thing before then, it seems. Still never had one
spoo4brains@reddit
I had one about 20 years ago, it was a large size mars, I actually couldn't finish it, it was just calorie overload.
terahurts@reddit
I can't be sure but I seem to remember hearing about them when I was still in school, so mid to late 80s.
DameKumquat@reddit
I had a deep fried Mars when working the Edinburgh festival in 1995. Ate two bites and passed it to someone else. Deep fried Marathon (Snickers) worked better as it held together better.
Acubeofdurp@reddit
Fyi Milky way is the best deep fried chocolate bar in my humble opinion. My mate had a deep frying party one time on the counsel estate, was a right laugh till the oil bubbles over (then it was just hilarious)
swoopstheowl@reddit
I'd like to suggest the Toffee Crisp which is excellent. Also a Boost is phenomenal. Fish and chip shop in a town I lived used to deep fry pretty much any thing for 50p. Maltesers don't really work.
AdEmbarrassed3066@reddit
The recipe changed in 1993.
Neddlings55@reddit
When did they change the recipe?
Deep frying them has been around for decades. I remember it being a thing when i was at school and im middle aged now.
r_spandit@reddit (OP)
According to Wikipedia, 2002
Neddlings55@reddit
They've been around since they early 90s.
stevoknevo70@reddit
I mind of getting one from a chippy in Glasgow on St George's Rd around 1982.
Neddlings55@reddit
I think they just hit the media in the 90's.
Before that they were pretty much unheard of outside of a few places in Scotland.
Inevitable_Bid8719@reddit
I cannot add much to this discussion, but the mental image of a kid chasing a badger with a Mars bar as a weapon tickled me
Still-BangingYourMum@reddit
They were on the chippies menu board here in Corby around the same time or, possibly a bit earlier. Corby in the late 1980s to the early mid 1990s, still had an overwhelmingly Scottish population, and National Express used to run a Friday evening coach to Scotland. This had been running under different companies from the end of WW2. After the war Corbys mighty steelworks was rapidly expanding.
With its new town centre and the construction of thousands of homes to house the influx of new Scottish Workers. Unfortunately there were Scottish food shops and so the wives would get the coach back to Scotland to get the stuff that wasn't easily available here in Little Scotland.
With all the tooing and froing deep fried ars bars would have been known about and bought down to Corby right from the beginning of them becoming a regular item on the menu.