THE KIPPER MACHINE

Evening Star, Issue 21286, 15 December 1932, Page 18

THE KIPPER MACHINE

MARKETS FOR HERRINGS The most important annual herring harvest is that off Yarmouth and Lowestoft during the autumn, the best catches generally being made at the time of full moon. During October and November both harbours are crowded with drifters landing their catches, and this year a total of about 1,100 craft will bo working—some 750 hailing from Scottish ports, 250 registered at Lowestoft, and 100 at Yarmouth. About 3,000 Scottish girls come south to the two ports for the work of gutting and curing herring for foreign markets. Fresh herrings are sent away to London and other distributing centres, but by far the greater number of fish are packed into barrels with salt for export to Germany, Belgium, Italy, and Greece. Red herring, at one time used as a staple food in Britain, are no longer popular, though to a limited extent they are still exported to Greece and West Africa. Highly-salted bloaters find their way to Italy, while the milder variety, which consist of the complete lish sprinkled with salt and lightly smoked over fires of oak billets, are manufactured for homo consumption. The most interesting process to watch' is the preparation of kippers. At Lowestoft may be seen a machine doing' the work of many hands. The herrings were fed by hand on to a horizontal revolving disc, being automatically pulled by their tails into a machine which split them down the back, removed the gills and roes, and scrubbed them with revolving brushes. After being brined for about 15miu the fish, how opened out, were placed on tenterhooks by girls and hung over a series of wooden rods, then to be hung several thousands at a time in a large chamber, where they wore cured for a full twelve hours over a smouldering fire of oak chips. This is the true kipper; but in recent years an imitation kipper, sometimes known as the “ painted lady,” has been manufactured for the homo market. It is merely a salted herring split open and dyed harmlessly with annatto to produce the characteristic golden brown of the true product, but is moister to the touch and nob nearly so flavoursome when cooked. Purchasers would do well to see that they got the right variety. A new product for the home market is the “ Buckling,” which is the gutted fish cooked and smoked at the same time in an oven. It is sold ready for eating, though it can be warmed if desired. This has long been in favour.in Germany.