Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [90]
Be not sparing,
Leave off swearing,
Buy my Herring
Fresh from Malahide,
Better ne’er was try’d.
Come eat ’em with pure fresh Butter and Mustard,
Their Bellies are soft, and white as a Custard.
Come Sixpence a Dozen to get me some Bread,
Or, like my own Herrings, I soon shall be dead.
Now more than ever we need some of the more elaborate devices thought up by chefs in the past, to dress up this simple and excellent fish – maître d’hôtel butter*, orange* or mustard butter*, purées of gooseberries* and sorrel*. Flavours that are strong and clear. In these last years, too, it has been noticeable the strides made in popularizing pickled herrings of all kinds (p. 191).
HOW TO PREPARE HERRINGS
Since the scales of herring fall off so easily, all they need is rinsing under the tap with the minimum of help from the back of a knife. Gutting can be done via the gills, or by slitting the belly first with a pair of scissors. Any trace of blood remaining can be rubbed away with a finger dipped in salt.
Herring roe is much prized, especially the soft male roe or milt. It will be of better quality, coming directly from the fish, than the roe you buy from thawed blocks at the fishmonger’s. Keep it for stuffing herring and other fish, for using in an omelette such as the Curé’s omelette (p. 430) or tartlets. Recipes are given later in this section.
The head of herring is not generally removed unless you wish to bone the fish or remove the fillets. Boning is simple enough. Slit the herring, after cutting off the head, fins and tail, clean the cavity and continue the cut right to the tail. Put it on a board, backbone up, spreading the two flaps where it was cut to either side. Starting at the head end, press down along the backbone firmly to the tail. You will hear or rather feel the crunch as it loosens. Turn the fish over and pick off the backbone: remove any tiny bones with tweezers if you cannot easily raise them.
Another way of opening the herring is to cut along the backbone with a sharp knife, after removing the head. This is the way kippers are cut. You can then open it out, and scrape away the backbone and rinse out the innards. Keeping the roe, of course.
For fillets, cut the boned herring in half. It is also quite easy to skin large herrings, if you wish. Put them skin side down on the board, tail end towards you. Separate the fillet by scraping along the skin with a small pointed knife.
Since herring go from 150–375 g (5–12 oz), it is easy to adapt sardine and mackerel recipes to them, or bluefish recipes. They all have similar oily flesh and take contrasts of sharp acidity and sweetness very well. Spices and saltiness – bacon, anchovies, olives – and piquancy are also to be recommended.
After preparing oily fish – and this includes mackerel, sardines, bluefish and pilchards – you can best get rid of the oily smell on fingers and utensils by running them under cold water. Then they can be washed in the usual way.
BAKED HERRING IN VARIOUS GUISES
An excellent way of dealing with herrings is to bake them with a lively stuffing, but not too much or their delicate flavour will be drowned. There are three options:
stuff the cavity of the fish, after cleaning it.
bone the fish, spread it with a layer of stuffing and then roll it up from the tail, skin side out. A wooden cocktail stick, pushed through, is needed to secure the shape.
bone the fish, stuff it more liberally, then fold it over into its original shape.
The oven temperature should be hot, gas 6–7, 200–220°C (400–425 °F); the time will vary from 15–30 minutes, according to the size of the herring and the treatment you choose.
Serve the baked fish simply