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Kippered Herrings
Remove fish from can, and arrange on a platter that may be put in the oven; sprinkle with pepper, brush over with lemon juice and melted butter, and pour over the liquor left in can. Heat thoroughly, and garnish with parsley and slices of lemon.
Barely a recipe by modern standards, but a useful reminder that canned fish was a breakfast staple worth dressing up. The whole job is heating without drying.
- Oven temperatureNone is given, and the recipe specifies no oven term at all, only "heat thoroughly." As a modern equivalent, a moderate oven of about 350F for eight to ten minutes is enough; the fish is fully cooked in the can and only needs warming through.
- What kippered herring isA herring split, brined and cold-smoked. Canned versions are cooked in the can and are ready to eat straight from it, which is why nothing here resembles cooking. Modern tins are usually labelled kipper fillets or kipper snacks.
- The liquor in the canOlder tins were packed in their own oil and smoke liquor. Contemporary tins may be packed in soybean oil, water, or a tomato or mustard sauce. Oil or the fish's own juices work as written; a flavoured sauce will fight the lemon and butter.
- An oven-safe platterThe instruction is doing real work. A serving dish that can go from oven to table avoids transferring hot smoked fillets, which are fragile and apt to break up when moved. A shallow gratin dish is the modern equivalent.
- SaltNone is called for and none should be added. Kippers are heavily brined before smoking and are salty on their own; the pepper, lemon and butter are there to balance that.
- YieldThe recipe gives none. A standard modern tin runs roughly 3 to 4 oz drained, which will serve one as a breakfast dish, or two with toast and egg alongside.
- ServingTraditionally eaten hot with buttered toast or brown bread. The parsley and lemon slices are not decoration alone; a squeeze of lemon cuts the oiliness of the smoked fish.
Kippering, a cold-smoke after a heavy brining, was a British preservation method for the enormous North Sea herring catch, and the split kipper became a fixture of the Victorian and Edwardian breakfast table. By the time this book appeared, canning had carried the kipper across the Atlantic to American pantries, where it belonged to the same shelf-stable category as canned salmon, sardines and potted meats. Its brevity is the point: the value of a canned good in such a household was that it required no skill, only a little butter and lemon to make it presentable at table.