Chef Thomas
A Proper Ploughman's Board
A board of good cheddar, thick ham, proper pickle, hard-boiled eggs, and crusty bread. Not cooking so much as assembling with conviction, and one of the finest lunches the English kitchen has ever produced.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Craster Kipper Pâté
Created by Chef Thomas
A smoky, sharp pâté of cold-smoked herring, cream cheese, and lemon, made in the time it takes the kettle to boil twice, and better the next day than the day you make it.
Appetizers & Snacks
British
Make Ahead
Dinner Party
20 min
Active Time
10 min cook•30 min total
Yield6 servings
The smell of a kipper is the smell of a particular kind of morning. Woodsmoke and salt and the sea, all at once. If you've been to Craster, the tiny Northumberland village where they still smoke herrings in the same low stone sheds they've used for generations, you'll know the smell before you see the harbour. It hangs in the air like weather.
This pâté is what happens when you take that smell and soften it into something you can spread on toast. Cream cheese and butter smooth the edges. Lemon cuts through the richness. A touch of paprika for warmth, not heat. The kipper does the rest. You don't need to improve a good kipper. You just need to meet it where it is.
I make this when the evenings draw in and the kitchen wants something with a bit of backbone to it. It sits in the fridge and improves overnight, which makes it the kind of thing you want before a dinner with friends: something already done, waiting on the table when people arrive, asking nothing of you but a board and a knife. I wrote it down in the notebook years ago. The note says: "Kippers, cream cheese, lemon. Saturday. Fire lit." That's the whole story.
A recipe is a conversation, not a contract. If you can't find Craster kippers, any good undyed smoked kipper will do. The important word is undyed. Those bright yellow kippers in the supermarket have been painted, not smoked. Walk past them.
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Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
Craster kippers
Quantity
2 large
or the best undyed smoked kippers you can find
full-fat cream cheese
Quantity
150g
at room temperature
unsalted butter
Quantity
30g
softened
lemon
Quantity
1
juiced, plus extra wedges to serve
smoked paprika
Quantity
1 teaspoon
black pepper
Quantity
generous grinding
flat-leaf parsley (optional)
Quantity
small bunch
finely chopped
good toast or oatcakes
Quantity
to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Craster kippersor the best undyed smoked kippers you can find | 2 large |
| full-fat cream cheeseat room temperature | 150g |
| unsalted buttersoftened | 30g |
| lemonjuiced, plus extra wedges to serve | 1 |
| smoked paprika | 1 teaspoon |
| black pepper | generous grinding |
| flat-leaf parsley (optional)finely chopped | small bunch |
| good toast or oatcakes | to serve |
Equipment Needed
- •Deep jug or heatproof dish for jugging the kippers
- •Fork or food processor
- •Small serving dish or ramekins
Instructions
- 1
Poach the kippers
Put the kippers in a deep dish or wide jug and pour boiling water over them. Let them sit for eight to ten minutes. That's all they need. The water does the work gently, loosening the flesh and taking the edge off the salt without washing out the smoke. When you lift them out, the skin should peel away easily. If it doesn't, give them another minute.
Jugging is the old way and the right way. No pan, no fuss, no fish smell filling the kitchen for hours. A tall jug works best, the kippers standing upright with the water covering them. - 2
Flake and pick over
Peel the skin off and flake the warm flesh into a bowl, running your fingers through it carefully to find the bones. Kippers are bony fish. Take your time. The fine pin bones hide along the centre line and they're easier to find now, while the flesh is still warm and cooperative. You won't get every last one, but be thorough.
- 3
Blend the pâté
Add the cream cheese, softened butter, lemon juice, and paprika to the flaked fish. Blend with a fork first, pressing and mashing until it comes together roughly, then decide how smooth you want it. A few pulses in a food processor gives a proper pâté texture, creamy with the odd flake running through it. I prefer to keep it slightly rough, done by hand, so you know it was a fish once. Taste it. More lemon if it needs sharpening. More pepper, almost certainly. No salt. The kipper brings enough.
The butter isn't for richness so much as for texture. It rounds out the cream cheese and gives the pâté that soft, spreadable quality you want when it comes from the fridge. - 4
Pot and chill
Scrape the pâté into a dish or a few small ramekins, pressing it down gently with the back of a spoon. Scatter the parsley over the top if you have it. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour, though overnight is better. The flavours settle and deepen as it sits. Bring it out twenty minutes before you want to eat it, so it softens just enough to spread. Serve with warm toast, oatcakes, or good crackers. A wedge of lemon on the side. Nothing else.
Chef Tips
- •Seek out undyed kippers. The colour should be a pale, tawny gold, not a lurid yellow. If the kipper looks like it has been to a tanning salon, it has been dyed and will taste of nothing worth eating. A proper kipper, cold-smoked over oak chips, has a depth of flavour that no dye can imitate.
- •The pâté wants to be cool, not fridge-cold, when you serve it. Twenty minutes on the counter lets the butter and cream cheese soften just enough that you can spread it without tearing the toast. Straight from the fridge it's too firm and the flavour is muted.
- •This keeps well for three days in the fridge and genuinely improves overnight. The smoke and lemon settle into each other. Make it a day ahead if you can. It rewards patience.
- •Serve it simply. Warm toast, good oatcakes, or those thin rye crackers that have enough backbone to hold a generous spread. A wedge of lemon. Perhaps a few cornichons alongside if you want something sharp to cut through, but it doesn't need much company.
Advance Preparation
- •Best made at least an hour ahead, ideally the night before. The flavour deepens and the texture firms to a satisfying spreadability as it chills.
- •Keeps well, covered, in the fridge for up to three days. Bring to cool room temperature before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 90g)
Calories
235 calories
Total Fat
19 g
Saturated Fat
9 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
10 g
Cholesterol
80 mg
Sodium
550 mg
Total Carbohydrates
2 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
14 g
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