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Sprats, Stewed
Clean and wipe the sprats, cut off the heads, draw out the gut, and place the fish in layers in a moderate-sized saucepan. Between each layer put a pinch of salt, three peppercorns, and three allspice. Barely cover the fish with vinegar, and let them simmer very gently without boiling until done enough. Time to simmer, one hour. Probable cost, 1d. or 2d. per pound.
This is a soused-fish preparation rather than a stew in the modern sense: the vinegar is the cooking medium and the long, gentle heat is there to soften the bones. A few notes before you start.
- The hinge: never let it boilA bare simmer keeps the small fish whole and lets the vinegar work slowly into the bones; a rolling boil breaks the sprats into shreds and makes the flesh cottony. Aim for the barest tremble at the surface, or use a 275-300F oven with a lid on for the same effect.
- Why an hour is not a mistakeWith most fish an hour would be excessive, but the point here is to soften the fine bones and backbone, as in soused herring and other spiced-vinegar preparations of small oily fish. The slow, moist, acid cooking also keeps the flesh from drying out as dry heat would.
- Buying spratsSprats are Sprattus sprattus, a small species in its own right rather than the young of another fish, sold whole at around 3-4 inches, mainly in autumn and winter in Britain and northern Europe. Fresh sardines, smelts or very small herring behave much the same way; do not use fillets, as they will disintegrate.
- The panA "moderate-sized saucepan" probably means something just wide enough to take the fish in a few snug layers. Use stainless steel, enamelled cast iron or glass. Bare cast iron and aluminium react with an hour of hot vinegar and can taint the dish metallic.
- VinegarMalt vinegar is what a Victorian kitchen would have reached for and it suits sprats well. Cider vinegar is milder; distilled white is harsher. If your vinegar is stronger than about 5 per cent acidity, cut it with a little water, since "barely cover" means the fish sit in it throughout.
- Seasoning as writtenThree peppercorns and three allspice berries per layer is a light hand by modern taste. A bay leaf, a blade of mace or a few slices of onion between the layers are all period-appropriate additions.
- Yield and servingA pound of sprats serves two as a first course or a light supper. They are best left to cool in their own liquor and eaten cold with brown bread and butter; they keep three or four days covered in the refrigerator.
- The price note1d. or 2d. per pound tells you this was among the cheapest fish on the slab. Sprats are still inexpensive where they are landed, but they are now a seasonal specialty rather than an everyday staple.
Sprats were one of the great cheap proteins of nineteenth-century Britain, landed in large quantities along the east and south coasts and hawked through city streets by the basket; a price of a penny or two a pound puts them among the cheapest fish of the period. Souring small oily fish in spiced vinegar is an old northern European technique, and related preparations appear in the period's cookery books under names such as soused herring and potted sprats. The purpose is partly flavour and partly preservation, since the acid and the spices bought several days of keeping in a household with no refrigeration. It is also a frugal answer to the sprat's chief drawback, the mass of fine bones: cooked long enough in vinegar they matter far less, and the whole fish can be eaten head-off but otherwise intact.