Bloater (herring)

Bloaters, a type of whole cold-smoked herring, are "salted and lightly smoked without gutting, giving them a characteristic slightly gamey flavour".^[1]^[2] They have a particular association with Great Yarmouth, England.^[3]^[4] Though popular in the 19th and early-20th centuries, the food has become rare.^[5]^[6]^{[failed verification]} Bloaters are sometimes called Yarmouth bloaters, although production of the product in Yarmouth appears to have now ceased in the town with the closure of its smoked-fish factory in 2018. The bloater is also sometimes jokingly referred to as a Yarmouth capon, a two-eyed steak, or a Billingsgate pheasant (after the Billingsgate Fish Market in London).^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]

Look up bloater in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The bloater is associated^{[citation needed]} with England, while kippers share an association with Scotland and the Isle of Man (the Manx kipper).^{[citation needed]} Bloaters are "salted less and smoked for a shorter time", while kippers are "lightly salted and smoked overnight"; the preparation of red herring features more salt and a longer smoking-time.^[11]^[12]

Terminology

The name "bloater" most likely arises from the swelled or "bloated" appearance the fish assumes during preparation,^[13] while at least one source attributes it to the Swedish word "blöta", meaning to wet, soak, or impregnate with liquid (as in soaking in brine).^[14]

Bloaters, bucklings and kippers

All three are types of smoked herring. Bloaters are cold-smoked whole; bucklings are hot-smoked whole; kippers are split, gutted and then cold-smoked.

References

[1]
Mason, Laura (2004). Food Culture in Great Britain. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-313-08567-3. [...] the Yarmouth bloater [...]; these are salted and lightly smoked without gutting, giving them a characteristic slightly gamey flavor.
[2]
Fearnley-Whittingstall, Hugh; Fisher, Nick (2007). The River Cottage Fish Book. Bloomsbury. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-7475-8869-6. BLOATERS[:] Lightly cold-smoked whole herrings, which have a slightly gamey flavour because they are ungutted.
[3]
Mason, Laura (2004). Food Culture in Great Britain. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 80.
[4]
Fearnley-Whittingstall, Hugh; Fisher, Nick (2007). The River Cottage Fish Book. Bloomsbury. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-7475-8869-6. Great Yarmouth has long been famous for its bloaters.
[5]
Mason, Laura (2004). Food Culture in Great Britain. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-313-08567-3. Another herring cure popular during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but now rare, was the Yarmouth bloater (from Great Yarmouth on the east coast) [...].
[6]
Fearnley-Whittingstall, Hugh; Fisher, Nick (2007). The River Cottage Fish Book. Bloomsbury. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-7475-8869-6.
[7]
Barrère, Albert; Leland, Charles Godfrey (1889). A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant. Vol. 1. Ballantyne Press. p. 21.
[8]
Barrère, Albert; Leland, Charles Godfrey (1897). A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant. Vol. 2. G. Bell. p. 373.
[9]
Hotten, John Camden (1874). Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical, and Anecdotal. Chatto and Windus. p. 332.
[10]
Morris, William; Morris, Mary (1988). Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins. HarperCollins. p. 62.
[11]
Bender, David A. (29 January 2009). A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition (3 ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 256. ISBN 9780191579752. Herring, red [...] Herrings that have been well salted and smoked for about ten days. Bloaters are salted less and smoked for a shorter time; [...] kippers lightly salted and smoked overnight. Also called Yarmouth bloaters.
[12]
"Isle of Man: Nature: Get Kippered". BBC. 27 April 2008. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
[13]
Partridge, Eric (1983). Origins: a short etymological dictionary of modern English (1983 ed.). New York: Greenwich House. p. 50. ISBN 0-517-41425-2.
[14]
"Bloater". Rigby’s Encyclopaedia of the Herring. Graeme Philip Rigby. 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2023.

Bloater (herring)

Terminology

Bloaters, bucklings and kippers

See also

References

External links

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