To Mako Sprats Taste Like Anchovies
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the sprats
Salt the sprats well and let the salt drain for 24 hours.
Wipe the sprats dry without washing them.
Pack and store
Mix the common salt, coarse sea salt, saltpetre, sal-prunella, and cochineal into a fine powder.
Sprinkle the mixture among the sprats and pack them into two stone jars.
Keep the jars in a cold place and seal them 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 small fish being preserved; their flesh is what the salt cure acts upon.
- Common salt
- Draws moisture out of the fish and firms the flesh, slowing spoilage.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the fish's colour and adds to the curing action of the salt.
- Sal-prunella
- Acts as a curing agent that supports preservation during the cold storage.
The step that matters
Wiping the sprats dry without washing them. Washing would add water back to the fish and dilute the salt cure, while surface moisture left on the fish encourages spoilage. Drying the surface lets the salt penetrate and preserve the flesh more effectively.
“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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