Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [96]
The practice of dyeing was introduced during the First World War when it was excusable to pass off inferior kippers because people were hungry. The dye disguised the fact that the kipper hadn’t been smoked for long enough: which meant that it had lost less weight, so it took fewer kippers to fill the boxes. Good kippers are sorted out after the curing is over: dyeing disguises the poor ones, and so lessens the need for skilled sorters who know what a kipper should be.
In The Herring and its Fishery, W. C. Hodgson remarks: ‘… in fairness to many respectable curing firms, it is true to say that, provided the fish are properly smoked, a little added colour will do no harm, but at the same time it is difficult to see why if colour was unnecessary in the “old days” it should be necessary now. However one looks at the problem, there is always the chance that the colour will be used to speed up the processing of the herring.’
Kippers may be grilled, skin side to the heat, baked in foil, fried, or jugged – i.e. put into a large pot, with a kettleful of boiling water, and left for 10 minutes. I like them best raw, arranged in strips round the edge of some well-buttered rye bread, with an egg yolk in the middle as sauce. Or I like them, raw again, in the herring salad recipes on p. 196. They make an excellent quiche (p. 314), or soufflé (p. 319), and are an obvious candidate for the fish paste recipe on p. 190.
Two hints from Mr Hodgson:
‘Put a pair of kippers together, flesh to flesh, in the frying-pan with a small piece of butter between them. Fry very slowly, turning them over from time to time, but always keeping them together like a sandwich. In this way the oil runs continually from one kipper to the other and the result is excellent. Incidentally mustard is good with kippers, and mustard sauce is correct with most kinds of cooked fresh herrings.’ (See p. 189.)
‘Many people object to eating kippers because they have difficulty with the bones… Eating a kipper is quite simple if it is laid correctly on the plate to start with, that is, with the skin uppermost… With the head towards you, lift up the skin from half of the kipper by running the point of the knife along the edge and fold the skin back. This exposes the flesh on top of the bones, and it is quite easy to remove it in fillets, leaving the bones untouched. When this side has been eaten, turn the kipper round on the plate so that the tail is towards you and repeat the process on the other side.’ This works.
MATJES AND BUCKLING Since the war we have become familiar with two kinds of cured herring originally imported from abroad. The matjes or maatjes fillets on sale in many supermarkets and Continental stores come from young fat virgin herrings (which is the meaning of the word matjes) and have been cured in salt, sugar and a little saltpetre. They have a richer flavour than ordinary salted herrings, but after soaking can be used in exactly the same ways. The other kind, buckling, are a very different matter altogether, because they have been partially ‘cooked’ by hot-smoking. (The other smoked herrings are cold-smoked at temperatures not higher than 32°C/90°F, which flavours the fish without cooking it.) They are ungutted, so have the slightly gamey flavour of a bloater but in a milder form. Eat them, like smoked trout, with bread and butter and lemon, or with horseradish cream. If you must have them hot, reheat them as briefly as possible under the grill or in the oven. The appetizing gold colour comes from their final exposure to really dense smoke. This is the luxury fish of the herring trade.
HOW TO SALT HERRINGS AT HOME
When I first started housekeeping and was full of the enthusiasm of