The kipper is the quintessential British cured breakfast fish, invented in its modern form in the 1840s. Credit for the split, salted and smoked herring is traditionally given to John Woodger, a Northumberland fish-curer of Seahouses, around 1843, though smoking herring, the older 'red herring', had long been a preservation method along the North Sea coast. The breakthrough was the 'kipper' cut, splitting the fish down the back rather than the belly so it hangs open flat, and a lighter cure, less salt and less smoking than the rock-hard red herring, producing a fish that keeps for days rather than months and cooks quickly to a juicy breakfast. The north-east of England, especially the smokehouses of Craster and Seahouses on the Northumberland coast, became the most famous source, using local herring and oak or juniper smoke. By the late Victorian period kippers were a standard breakfast across Britain, served in hotels, clubs and homes, the cured smoke a luxury in an age before universal refrigeration. The dish declined with the collapse of the herring industry in the 20th century but has revived, and a Craster kipper remains the benchmark.
A flat, glistening, deep-golden fillet of herring, the smoke flavour deep and woody, the flesh soft, oily and richly savoury, the bones easily lifted away. Served hot with a squeeze of lemon and a knob of butter melting into it.
The kipper is built on three cures working together. First the splitting, the fish is opened flat from head to tail along the back, leaving the belly intact so the two fillets stay joined and the fish can hang open. Then brining, a brief soak in salt brine, or dry salting, draws moisture and seasons the flesh. Finally cold smoking, the split fish hangs in a smokehouse over slow-burning hardwood, traditionally oak with juniper, at a temperature low enough, below 30 degrees C, that the fish cooks only by drying and absorbing smoke, not by heat, over 8 to 18 hours. The result is a deeply coloured, smoke-permeated fish that keeps for days and cooks in minutes. To eat, the kipper is grilled, jugged in boiling water off the heat, or poached, just until the flesh warms and the oils run. The bones lift out cleanly if the fish is fresh and well-cured.
Variations
The Isle of Man kipper, drier and heavily smoked, is a distinct regional variant. A 'buckling' is a hot-smoked whole herring. Kippers are sometimes baked in a paper bag with butter, or jugged by pouring boiling water over and leaving off the heat for 10 minutes.
On the Palate
Where Kippers sits in the British flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 2How it's made
6 steps · 5 min
- 13 min
Take 2 whole kippers (split and smoked herring) and rinse briefly under cold water to remove surface salt.
- 25 min
For grilling: brush the kippers with melted butter, place skin-side down under a hot grill, and cook for 4 to 5 minutes until hot through and the skin crisps.
Watch outGrill skin-side down under a hot grill until heated through and the skin crisps — the flesh should turn opaque and the oil start to run.
- 35 min
Alternatively to jug: place the kippers in a deep pan, pour over freshly boiled water to cover, cover the pan, and leave off the heat for 8 minutes until warmed through.
- 44 min
Lift the fish carefully onto warm plates; the flesh should be opaque and the oil running.
- 54 min
Open the kipper out and lift away the backbone in one piece, working from head to tail, then check for any pin bones.
Watch outLift the backbone out in one piece working head to tail — do it while hot and the bones come away clean.
- 64 min
Serve at once with a knob of butter melting into the flesh, a wedge of lemon, and brown bread and butter on the side.
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