Bloaters
The best way to cook these is to make incisions in the skin across the fish, because they do not then require to be so long on the fire, and will be far better than when cut open. The hard roe makes a nice relish by pounding it in a HERRINGS, RED. mortar, with a little anchovy, and spreading it on toast. If very dry, soak in warm water 1 hour before dressing. The soft roe, devilled on toast, makes a nice savoury.
An entry more than a recipe: Mrs Beeton assumes you know what a bloater is and how a grill works, and gives only the points that separate a good one from a bad one. The stray "HERRINGS, RED" mid-sentence is a cross-reference that has drifted in from the neighbouring column of the printed page.
- What a bloater isA whole herring, ungutted, lightly salted for a few hours and cold-smoked briefly, so it stays plump, soft and only faintly smoky. It is not the same as a kipper (split, gutted, longer smoke) or a red herring (heavily salted and smoked to hardness). Bloaters are perishable and short-lived; buy them from a fishmonger and cook within a day or two.
- "Dressing" means cookingIn Victorian usage to dress a fish is to cook it, here almost always under a grill or on a gridiron over coals. A hot grill and a few minutes a side, turning once, suits an average bloater.
- The hinge: score, don't splitThe whole point of the entry. A few cuts through the skin across each side let the heat in, so the fish cooks through before the outside dries and the oil renders away. Splitting it open, the alternative the recipe rejects, exposes far more surface and gives a drier, tougher result.
- The hour's soakOnly for fish that has stiffened and over-dried in storage. Warm tap water, not hot, and pat thoroughly dry before grilling or the skin will steam rather than crisp.
- The two roesHerring carry either a hard roe (eggs) or a soft roe (milt), and you get whichever the fish happened to have. Hard roe pounded with anchovy is spread on toast; soft roe is cooked first, then "devilled" with cayenne, mustard and a little butter before going on the toast.
- Ungutted, but not uninspectedBloaters are traditionally smoked with the gut in, which is where their particular flavour comes from. Modern fishmongers often gut them. Either is fine; if yours is whole, lift the roe out before or after cooking as the recipe assumes.
- ServingOne bloater per person for breakfast or a savoury, with butter and brown bread. The roe preparations make a small dish for two or three; the devilled soft roe in particular belongs to the savoury course served late in a Victorian dinner.
The bloater is a Great Yarmouth speciality, and its short, mild cure is a product of the enormous East Anglian autumn herring fishery, which landed more fish than could be salted hard or eaten fresh. The name is generally traced to a Scandinavian root meaning soft or swollen, describing a fish that stays plump rather than shrinking under a long smoke. Because the cure is so light, bloaters kept only a few days, which made them a food of the railway age: they reached London breakfast tables fast or not at all, and Victorian cookery books treat them as an everyday morning dish rather than a delicacy. The roe notes at the end belong to another Victorian habit entirely - the savoury, a small hot, salty course served after the sweet, of which anchovy on toast and devilled soft roes were two of the most reliable standbys.