To Keep Anchovies When the Liquor Dries
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the sprats
Pour beef-brine over the sprats.
Salt the sprats well and let the salt drain from them for 24 hours.
Wipe the sprats dry without washing them.
Pack and store
Mix the common salt, coarse sea salt, saltpetre, sal prunel, and cochineal in a fine powder.
Sprinkle the mixture among the sprats and pack them into two stone jars.
Keep the jars in a cold place, sealed 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 being cured, so its flesh firms and keeps as salt draws out moisture.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the fish, slowing spoilage during curing.
- Coarse sea salt
- Adds salt for drawing out moisture and preserving the fish during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the colour of the cured fish and inhibits spoilage bacteria.
- Cochineal
- Colours the fish a reddish tone for appearance.
The step that matters
Wipe the sprats dry without washing them. Washing would put back the moisture that salt has just drawn out, and surface water can encourage spoilage. Drying leaves the salt and cure on the fish's surface, where it can work.
“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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