The ratio of oak to other woods in the fire can fall as low as 1:10, apparently. Coniferous woods tend to be avoided because of their high resin content, although, in the words of an old Lowestoft smoker I once interviewed, ‘Oak-smoked’ covers a multitude of sins. Most traditional smokers use oak and/or beech. The temperature of the smoke does not normally exceed 85✯ (29.5✬). Slow burning is often achieved through the use of both sawdust and woodchips. ![]() Used for kippers, bloaters, red, golden and silver herring, cold smoking involves placing the herring at a sufficient distance from a slow fire, either through the height of the smokehouse or through the construction of a shallow sloped chimney. Problems with supply since the North Sea fishery collapse of the 70s (and the more recent sale of English herring quotas to a Dutch company) mean that many of the larger kippers are made with Norwegian herrings. The sweet diversity derives not just from the variations in curing, but from the distinct qualities of the different inshore and off shore herring populations being kippered. Beautiful examples are created, not only in Seahouses, Craster and Great Yarmouth, but along the South Coast, all the way up the East Coast, in Scotland, in the Isle of Man and down the West Coast of England and Wales. The glory of the kipper has been in its diversity, however. ![]() Swallow Fish of Seahouses produce their kippers in the original smokehouses, which have operated on this site since 1843. When I visited the Yarmouth smoker HS Fishing in the late 1990s, they claimed to be direct descendants of the operation he established there – it having merged with that of Henry Sutton.īack on the North Northumberland coast, Robson’s of Craster trace their origins back to the first kipper. Woodger addressed this by developing production in North Shields and then in Great Yarmouth. The Yarmouth bloater seems to have appeared a little before the Seahouses kipper, but they both arrived in advance of a convenient railway station. The word considerably predates the object of affection it became. Kippering salmon was already common – a larger and fatter fish, splitting it enabled the salt and the smoke to penetrate the fish more efficiently. The speed of the railways meant that an inland population could be offered something milder, something more subtly flavoured, that could be eaten without soaking. ![]() It involves heavy salting and heavy cold smoking. The red herring cure, along with its associates, was developed to preserve the fish for up to a year or so in more-or-less any climate. Like the Yarmouth bloater, however, the kipper was a deliberate product of the railway age. As with the red herring, from which it derives, it has an origin myth of accidental discovery – a herring, presumably split ready for filleting or frying or grilling, left overnight in a room with a smoky stove. It was first created by John Woodger at Seahouses in Northumberland in 1843. The kipper is a gutted and split herring, lightly to moderately salted and cold smoked.
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