Just heard someone say chips and fish. I've never felt so irritated, I'll fetch them some vinegar and salt. Or perhaps they want pepper and salt.

@kibcol1049

I remember when chippy Meat and Potato pies became Potato and Meat pies

Apparently the largest ingredient by volume had to come first

@kibcol1049 @PGBeattie linguistically it should be the most valuable first rather than what there is most of - that’s why fish and chips, steak and kidney, gold and silver, gin and tonic etc.

@seb321 @kibcol1049

Think you can call one item by the predominant ingredient... Daft in the sense of pie... But changing it to potato and meat makes a sort of logic

Gin and tonic are two items combined ... Same as fish and chips,
So it also makes sense to have two separate items listed as the more valuable first

@PGBeattie @kibcol1049 If there is a rule, it’s hard to pin down. I thought syllables: Morecambe and Wise, Little and Large, sugar and spice but French and Saunders, Jon and Vangelis, rum and raisin, big and bouncy. So no.

Importance: diamonds and pearls, Sun and moon, wheat and chaff but (despite what I said before) silver and gold (equally), nickels and dimes. So often but not always.

Quantity: as we’ve already said you can have meat/leek/cheese and potato so no