Do you like kippers?

This post comes by reader request as a follow up to the Regency/Georgian era breakfast Research Post and Fast Fact. Said reader (you know who you are!) recently spotted kippers mentioned in a hist rom but was surprised to read the heroine describe them as being raw and slimy finger fish. (Did the author mean sardines!?!?) The request was to know if this was accurate. The short answer? No!

Kippers are not a type of fish, and the finished dish is certainly not raw and slimy (or eaten with the fingers), rather “kippers” refers to a specific preparation method, which can apply to any fish, really, although it’s used mostly with herring, and thus it’s assumed that if you say “kippers,” you’re referring to how herring has been cooked.

That said, salmon is also a popular choice for kippering. A kippered salmon is basically just a baked salmon. The use of “kippers” is most often understood as referring to cold-smoked herring, much like “fish and chips” is understood as referring to cod (deep fried) and potatoes (straight-cut and deep fried as our beloved chips/fries).

There is a variety of cooking options for kippers, such as grilling, broiling, and sautéing. How the fish is smoked, such as if it’s split, filleted, cold-smoked whole, or hot-smoked whole, comes with different names, such as kippers (split), kipper snacks (filleted), bloaters (cold-smoked whole), bucklings (hot-smoked whole).

If our hero and heroine in a hist rom has kippers for breakfast, which is highly likely, then the fish on the plate would be a herring that has been split, salted, cold-smoked, and then finished by grilling/broiling/sautéing, and will be well cooked and flaky with a smoky flavour.

Kippers remain quite popular, and yes, still for breakfast, especially with poached eggs, but mostly in the UK, not so much in the US.