To Make Sprats Taste Like Anchovies
Ingredients
Directions
Salt the sprats
Salt the sprats well and let the salt drain for 24 hours.
Wipe them dry without washing.
Pack and store
Mix the common salt, coarse sea salt, saltpetre, sal-prunella, and cochineal in fine powder.
Sprinkle the mixture among the sprats and pack them in two stone jars.
Keep in a cold place and seal 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
- Are the main fish, salted and cured whole in this dish.
- Common salt
- Draws moisture out of the fish and preserves it through curing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps keep the fish's pink colour and adds to the preserving effect.
- Cochineal
- Adds a red colour to the cured fish.
The step that matters
Wiping the sprats dry without washing. Salt draws water out of the fish, and any leftover surface moisture or rinse water dilutes the cure and can encourage spoilage. Drying the surface lets the salt mixture adhere and work evenly.
“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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