Aldboeough Smoked Sprats
Ingredients
Directions
Salt and wash
In November, select the largest sprats from a bushel.
Layer coarse sea salt in a salting tub, then add a layer of sprats. Repeat until all fish are layered.
Let the fish sit for four hours, mixing them two or three times.
Wash the sprats quickly in strong salt-and-water.
Dry and smoke
Place the sprats on spits and dry them in a strong current of air.
Smoke the sprats with oak wood until they are a dark red color.
Pack
Once cooled, pack the sprats in shallow kits with heads facing the same direction.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Sprats
- The main fish; its oily flesh carries the smoke flavour and firm texture.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture from the fish and seasons it, helping preserve it before smoking.
- Oak wood
- Supplies the smoke that flavours the fish and gives it its dark red colour.
The step that matters
Smoking until dark red. Smoke must be applied evenly and the fish must be dry enough to take it; wet fish smokes unevenly and can spoil. Stopping by colour alone can mean under- or over-smoking, so watch both colour and surface dryness.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.