Chef Thomas
A Proper Bacon Sandwich
Back bacon in a hot pan, good white bread, soft salted butter. Ten minutes between waking up and the first bite of something that makes the morning make sense.
Culinary Explorer
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Kippers with Butter and Brown Bread
Created by Chef Thomas
Smoked herring grilled until the skin blisters and the butter pools in the flesh, served with toast and strong tea, the kind of breakfast that asks for nothing but your full attention.
Breakfast & Brunch
British
Weeknight
5 min
Active Time
8 min cook•13 min total
Yield2 servings
The smell reaches you before you see them. Woodsmoke and salt and something briny that belongs to cold harbours and early mornings. A pair of kippers under a hot grill is one of the most direct pleasures the British kitchen has to offer, and one of the least appreciated.
I eat kippers on dark mornings when the heating hasn't caught up with the house. There's a fishmonger at the Saturday market who gets his from Craster, proper oak-smoked, the colour of old mahogany. I buy them when they're there and don't complain when they're not. Good kippers are worth waiting for. Bad kippers aren't worth the plate.
The recipe, if you can call it that, is barely a recipe at all. Grill them. Butter them. Eat them with brown bread and a mug of tea so strong it could hold a spoon upright. There's nothing to improve, nothing to add, nothing clever to do. The smoke has already done the work. Your job is to stay out of the way.
I wrote it down in the notebook years ago: kippers, butter, toast, Tuesday, rain on the window. Some meals don't need more words than that.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
whole kippers
Quantity
2
bone-in
unsalted butter
Quantity
a generous knob
good brown bread
Quantity
2-4 slices
lemon
Quantity
1
halved
black pepper
Quantity
to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| whole kippersbone-in | 2 |
| unsalted butter | a generous knob |
| good brown bread | 2-4 slices |
| lemonhalved | 1 |
| black pepper | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •Grill pan lined with foil
- •Kitchen tongs or fish slice
Instructions
- 1
Heat the grill
Turn the grill to high and let it get properly hot. Line the grill pan with foil, not for neatness, but because kipper oil is persistent and you'll thank yourself later. Take the kippers out of the fridge ten minutes before you need them. A cold kipper under a hot grill cooks unevenly.
- 2
Grill the kippers
Lay the kippers skin-side up on the grill pan. Put them under the heat for four minutes or so, until the skin blisters and tightens. Turn them over, flesh-side up now, and dot with butter. Another three to four minutes, until the butter has melted into the fish and the flesh has turned from translucent to opaque and is pulling gently away from the bones. The kitchen will smell of smoke and the sea. That's how you know.
If you prefer a gentler method, stand them head-down in a tall jug, pour boiling water over them, and leave for five minutes. Drain, butter, serve. The Victorians knew what they were doing. - 3
Toast the bread
While the kippers finish, toast the brown bread. Not pale, not charred. Somewhere honest in the middle, with enough structure to hold butter without collapsing. Spread with more butter than you think is reasonable. This is not the morning for restraint.
- 4
Serve immediately
Slide the kippers onto warm plates. Squeeze a little lemon over the flesh, not much, just enough to cut through the smoke. A few grinds of black pepper. The bread goes alongside. Eat with your hands if you like, pulling the flesh from the bones, pressing it onto the buttered bread. A pot of strong tea to wash it down. That's breakfast.
Chef Tips
- •Find good kippers and everything else follows. Look for naturally smoked fish, deep gold to brown in colour, with flesh that smells of smoke and sea, not of dye. The pale, artificially coloured sort taste of nothing worth having. A proper kipper from Craster, or the Isle of Man, or Whitby, is a different thing entirely.
- •The bone question. Kippers have bones, and some people find this difficult. You can buy boned kippers if you prefer, and there's no shame in it. But a whole kipper, eaten slowly, the flesh lifted away from the skeleton in warm strips, is a more satisfying meal. The bones keep the fish moist under the grill and give you something to do with your hands.
- •Don't overcook them. A kipper is already smoked, which means it's already cooked, in a sense. All you're doing under the grill is warming it through and crisping the skin. Five to eight minutes is all it takes. A dried-out kipper is a sad thing, and no amount of butter will rescue it.
- •Strong tea, not coffee. I know this sounds like a rule, and I don't like rules. But tannin and smoke belong together in a way that coffee and smoke do not. A large pot of builders' tea, brewed properly, is the only drink that makes sense here.
Advance Preparation
- •Kippers keep well in the fridge for two to three days, or can be frozen for up to three months. Defrost overnight in the fridge before grilling.
- •There is no advance preparation. This is a thirteen-minute breakfast. The only thing you can do ahead is buy the kippers and make sure you have bread and butter in the house.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 220g)
Calories
510 calories
Total Fat
28 g
Saturated Fat
11 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
16 g
Cholesterol
130 mg
Sodium
1350 mg
Total Carbohydrates
24 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
37 g
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