Nikki Duffy: Kippers (original) (raw)

We have a fantastic tradition of smoking fish in this country, and kippers are arguably one of our finest creations. They're often spoken of disdainfully but, at their best, these cold-smoked herrings are as delicious as a tranche of smoked salmon.

· To make a kipper, a fresh herring is split open, gutted but not boned, salted, then suspended over smouldering wood chips - usually oak - for 12-24 hours. ('Kippering' is an old name for the salting and smoking process.) The slow, cool smoking cures the fish, so they will keep for a week or so, but it doesn't cook them. You can eat them raw, as Hugh suggests above, but they are more often cooked by poaching, grilling or 'jugging' (immersing in a jug of boiling water for 10 minutes or so).

· Places up and down the British Isles with a long tradition of making kippers include the Isle of Man, Craster in Northumbria, Loch Fyne and Mallaig on the west coast of Scotland, and Whitby in North Yorkshire (though, due to a decline in stocks, smokers now have to source their herring from Scandinavian fisheries). Kippers will vary in flavour depending on the cure and the length of smoking: the Whitby kipper tastes stronger than many, for instance.

· You can get rather shoddy kippers - ones made from inferior fish which have been dyed orange instead of coloured by smoke - but if you buy from a small smokehouse where you can talk directly to the manufacturer, you should be on to a good thing. For kippers by mail, try kipper.co.uk for Crasters, or manxkippers.com for Manx specimens (be aware that 'Manx kippers' are traditionally made, while those labelled 'Isle of Man kippers' are dyed). You can also buy traditional Craster kippers at Waitrose.