Alan Davidson

Kipper

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

kipper now usually a noun but formerly also a verb, meaning a method of curing herring (formerly also salmon) by splitting open, salting, and smoking (see smoking foods). The kipper is lightly salted, sometimes dyed, and cold smoked.

The best kippers are produced on an artisanal basis in Scotland, the Isle of Man, and a few places (such as Craster in Northumberland) in England. Those made on a larger scale may be quite acceptable, but suffer by comparison with the best and will have been treated with an artificial dye (permitted but undesirable).