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Sardines, Fresh
Clean the sardines, and press them gently with a soft cloth till they are quite dry. Broil them on a gridiron over a clear brisk fire, and when they are done enough on one side turn them upon the other. Sprinkle a little salt over them, and serve very hot. Time to broil, two minutes each side. Sufficient, six or eight for a small dish.
A two-line method that depends almost entirely on heat and dryness. Get those right and there is nothing else to do.
- Dry the fish properlyThis is the hinge. Sardines are oily and wet from cleaning, and any surface moisture steams the skin instead of searing it, so the fish sticks and tears when turned. Blot inside and out until the skin feels tacky rather than slick.
- Gridiron equals grill grateA gridiron was a rack set over live coals. A charcoal grill is the direct equivalent; a gas grill on high or a ridged cast-iron pan preheated until it smokes both work. Under a domestic broiler, set the pan close to the element and do not turn the fish until the first side has coloured.
- A clear brisk fire"Clear" means the coals have burned down past flame to an even glow, so the dripping oil does not flare and blacken the fish. Roughly what you would use for a steak.
- Two minutes a side is rightUnusually for a Victorian timing, this needs no correction. A whole sardine of 4 to 6 inches is cooked through in four to five minutes total; the flesh at the backbone should just lift away from the bone.
- CleaningSlit the belly, draw the gut, and rinse briefly. Heads and tails stay on for grilling, as they help the fish hold together, and the whole thing is easier to lift off the grate by the tail.
- SaltThe recipe salts after cooking. Salting the skin lightly ten minutes before grilling draws out a little moisture and helps it crisp, which suits the dryness the method is chasing.
- Yield and servingSix to eight fish serve two as a first course or one as a main. Lemon, coarse bread and butter are the traditional accompaniments; nothing in the way of sauce is wanted.
- BuyingFresh sardines deteriorate fast. Look for firm bodies, bright unsunken eyes and a clean sea smell, and cook them the day you buy them.
The separate heading "Sardines, Fresh" suggests what many Victorian readers may have assumed by default: sardines meant tinned sardines in oil, one of the earliest and most successful preserved foods of the nineteenth century and a staple of the British supper table and savoury course. The fish itself is a small pilchard, the name generally traced to Sardinia, and the same species supported the great Cornish pilchard fishery, where most of the catch was salted and pressed for export to Catholic southern Europe rather than eaten fresh at home. Fresh sardines were therefore a coastal privilege, cheap and abundant where they were landed and hard to come by inland before fast rail and ice, which may explain the plainest possible treatment: a brisk fire, salt, and speed.