To Make Sprats Taste Like Anchovies
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Salt the sprats well and let the salt drain for 24 hours.
Wipe the sprats dry.
Mix the common salt, bay salt, saltpetre, salt prunel, and cochineal into a fine powder.
Pack and store
Sprinkle the mixture among the fish and pack them in stone jars.
Store in a cool place, covered with a bladder.
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, whose flesh is salted and preserved.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the fish, slowing spoilage and firming the flesh.
- Saltpetre
- Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the fish and keep its colour.
- Cochineal
- Adds a red colour to the fish.
The step that matters
Salting the sprats well. Salt must penetrate the fish and draw out moisture evenly. Under-salting leaves damp areas where spoilage bacteria can grow, so the fish should be salted thoroughly before draining.
“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.
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