SMF

I don't know that I've ever even seen brined herring. I think it's used on the coast as lobster bait.

Seriously, I did a 'net search and found one outfit out of Wisconsin I think it was that sold it by the bucket. Lots of recipes for making it and some for using it. It appears something needs to be done to it to serve it and that would make sense. I'm not curious enough to buy a bucket of the stuff for $46 and shipping. But if I ever saw it on a restaurant menu someday I might give it a try. Hopefully the chef would actually know how to cook with it and not be experimenting with it.

Are we talking about the ol' salted herring barrel that every fishmonger in Norway used to have back in the 50's?

Herring... just floating around in a brine barrel.... staring at unsuspecting customers?

I think I ate a few hundred pounds of that stuff.... cleverly prepared by my Auntie.

Actually, I realise I have misled you - bloaters were lightly smoked without being gutted, the intention being that the warmth of the smoking would allow the guts to release certain, umm, flavours. I have eaten them once, and once only. They are very hard to find these days, and it was one of the oddities of the east end that a few of the old foods were still popular among the older people (pie & mash with liquor - the green water in which peas were cooked till mushy, for example, or jellied eels). Anyway, they were a mistake to buy and and a bigger mistake to eat. Wet, soggy, and bland mush. They probably don't leave the guts in any more! Bloater paste was one of the varieties of bottled fishpastes sold to make sandwiches at one time.

There is a brined herring around though, and there are little bottles of it in the local grocery shop - Solomon Gundy. Now better known as part of Jamaican cuisine (there was a time when NS trade was all about taking herring to the Caribbean and bring back rum). Officially it's a pickled herring, but pickled in a mild salt brine, not proper vinegar like a roll-mop herring.

The lobster boats here are converted to herring fishing after the lobster season. A wooden deck is constructed that has a large roller for the net at one end, with lights mounted all around. These strange structures sit at the docks all year and only make sense when lifted up and placed on the rear deck of a typical Cape Islander boat. I believe the herring is sold for fertiliser and pet food, since few people eat them anymore.

drmoss_ca wrote: I believe the herring is sold for fertiliser and pet food, since few people eat them anymore.

What a shame.....

Regards

Christian aka

Kaptain "Dreaming of fried spring herring with lots of parsley and melted butter" Zero

I love Solomon Gundy and Digby Chicks, but SWMBO nearly hurles when she sees me eating either. As for Panettone, unfortunately we don't have a bread machine, but there is an Italian bakery a stone's throw from us that produces on-site the most delicious breads.

Rufus, do you have a mixer? But as hard as it is to believe, long before electricity these recipes were made by hand. Yeah, I know... the mixer is so much easier than hand kneading bread dough. BTDT.

Chris, that sounds perfectly revolting. I'll pass on it. Yeah, it sounds much like lobster bait. 30ish years ago we went to a wharf that housed a lobstermans gear and as we approached we heard a gent coming from there and in a loud voice was exclaiming,"Vile, Vile!". Yes, the bait brine tank had a "strong" stench. The stench was something akin to fish sauce as used in some Asian cooking.

When I was a child I had a uncle who lived in a bungalow at the NJ shore. He would buy from eel trappers lots of eels when they "ran" and would pickle them. While watching TV he'd come out and consume a plate of them in the gelatin, leaving the snake appearing bone segments behind. As a child I never tried any, but as an adult I would but he's long dead and I no longer have a source of eels. But they come up into the freshwater rivers to spawn every year. But I don't know that there is any existing eel fishery in Maine. I never heard of one except for the juvenile elvers.

I'm having Scottish kippers for breakfast tomorrow. They've come all the way from my father's hometown, Aberdeen, Scotland.

Brian,
Jellied eels were perfectly acceptable. Firm white flesh, like a mackerel, with easily removed skin and bone. They used to be sold in little punnets with a tiny wooden fork so they could be eaten in the street. A poor man's salmon in aspic and probably better for you than Chicken McNuggets.

How they would go with panettone is, thankfully, something I cannot speak upon.

C.

Yes, it also struck me that this thread had taken a turn.

Lately it seems I've been seeing these more and more in the stores. To the best of my knowledge, I've never eaten any.

So happens I was headed to the grocery store tomorrow, so, canned kippers it is.

Squire wrote:So happens I was headed to the grocery store tomorrow, so, canned kippers it is.

"canned kippers",

That's what they got.

Squire, don't they have frozen kippers?

Nothing like that around here. What's available are tinned smoked herring fillets labeled "Kipper Snacks".

It is that time of year again, and I have just had two slices of Dr. Moss's fine bread machine Panattone.

Even WITHOUT a large family gathering, it's worth the effort (and considering it's made in bread machine, there's not much of that either).

And best of all, it's fresh and much tastier than anything I've been able to purchase.


Regards

Christian aka

Kaptain "yet to find a decent source of fresh herring" Zero

Good for you, Christian! (At least, as long as you don't have too much.)

C.

kaptain_zero wrote:It is that time of year again, and I have just had two slices of Dr. Moss's fine bread machine Panattone.

Even WITHOUT a large family gathering, it's worth the effort (and considering it's made in bread machine, there's not much of that either).

And best of all, it's fresh and much tastier than anything I've been able to purchase.


Regards

Christian aka

Kaptain "yet to find a decent source of fresh herring" Zero

Sounds absolutely delicious, but deadly. Looking at the current temperature in Winnipeg, however, I expect that all those calories will burn off quickly.

drmoss_ca wrote:Good for you, Christian! (At least, as long as you don't have too much.)

C.

I live according to my fathers statement many years ago. He said "It's not what you eat between Xmas and New Years, but rather what you eat between New Years and Xmas that puts the weight on".

Rufus wrote:
Sounds absolutely delicious, but deadly. Looking at the current temperature in Winnipeg, however, I expect that all those calories will burn off quickly.

Not when you sit in front of the TV......<sigh>

Christian