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Herrings and Sprats
182. TO FRY.-Do them of a light brown, with onions sliced, and serve them very hot. 183. TO BROIL. - Flour them first, and do of a good colour; plain butter for sauce. 184. To Pot.-Do them as for mackerel (which see). 185. TO CURE AS BLOATERS.-Clean, and lay them in salt and a little saltpetre one night; then hang them on a stick, through the eyes, in a row; have ready an old cask, in which put some sawdust, and in the midst of it a heater red-hot; fix the stick over the smoke, and let them remain twenty-four hours. 186. TO DRESS RED HERRINGS. - Choose those that are large and moist, cut them open, pour some boiling small-beer over them, and let them soak half an hour; drain them dry, and make them just hot through before the fire, then rub some cold butter over them and serve. Egg-sauce, or buttered eggs and mashed potatoes, should be sent up with them. 187. TO BAKE. - Wash and drain, without wiping them; season with allspice in fine powder, salt, and a few old cloves. Lay them in a pan with plenty of black pepper, an onion, and a few bay-leaves; add half vinegar and half small-beer enough to cover them. Tie paper over the pan, and bake in a slow oven. If approved, throw saltpetre over them the night before, to make them look red. Gut through the vent, but do not open them.
Six short herring methods from a single page, ranging from a five-minute fry to a home smoke-cure. Two of them turn on saltpetre and open-cask smoking and cannot be reproduced safely; the frying, broiling and baking directions still work.
- The bloater cure (185) is not reproducibleIt gives no weight of fish, no weight of salt, no weight of saltpetre and no temperature, and the fish sit for twenty-four hours in an unsealed cask over a smouldering heater — in the range where Clostridium botulinum can grow. Curing nitrate is sold today in precisely measured blends for exactly this reason. Use a current, quantified cold-smoking procedure or buy bloaters.
- Saltpetre in the baked herrings (187)The optional overnight scattering of saltpetre "to make them look red" is cosmetic and unmeasured. Nitrate in food is regulated by weight, and a scattering of unknown quantity cannot be judged against any limit. Omit it; the dish loses nothing but the tint.
- Small-beerA weak, lightly hopped beer of roughly one to three per cent alcohol, brewed as an everyday drink. A mild bitter or a light ale is the nearest thing; for the baked herrings a half-and-half of malt vinegar and light beer or water gives the right sharp liquor.
- A slow oven300F/150C. Herrings in an acid liquor under a paper cover want about 45 minutes to an hour at that heat, depending on size, until the backbone loosens.
- Paper over the panButtered parchment or foil crimped to the rim. It is there to trap steam and stop the vinegar reducing to something harsh, not to seal the dish.
- Red herrings (186)These are the hard-cured, heavily smoked, deep-mahogany fish, far saltier than a modern kipper and now hard to find outside shops that stock salt and smoked fish. The half-hour soak is the whole point of the recipe: without it they are barely edible. Taste the soaking liquid to judge whether a second soak is needed.
- Frying and broiling (182, 183)Whole herrings need four to five minutes a side over a good heat; fillets two to three. Oatmeal is the traditional Scottish coating and holds better than flour. Score the thick part of the back twice on each side so the flesh cooks through before the skin burns.
- Potting (184)The cross-reference is to the book's mackerel method, which is not reproduced on this page; potting in this period generally means cooking the fish with spice and butter, packing it into pots and covering it with clarified butter. Treat a butter seal as a texture device only, keep the pots refrigerated and eat within a few days.
- QuantityReckon two medium herrings a head as a main course, one as a savoury or breakfast dish. Red herrings are strong enough that half a fish per person is usual.