A kipper is a whole herring, a small, oily fish, that has been split in a butterfly fashion from tail to head along the dorsal ridge, gutted, salted or pickled, and cold-smoked over smouldering wood chips.
Kippered "split" herring
The fish processing factory in the village of Seahouses, Northumberland, is one of the places where the practice of kippering herrings is said to have originated
"Red herring": Cold-smoked herring (Scottish kippers), brined and dyed so that their flesh achieves a reddish colour
Kippers for breakfast in England
Herring are forage fish in the wild, mostly belonging to the family Clupeidae. They are an important food for humans. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast. The most abundant and commercially important species belong to the genus Clupea, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, including the Baltic Sea, as well as off the west coast of South America. Three species of Clupea are recognized; the main taxon, the Atlantic herring, accounts for over half the world's commercial capture of herrings.
Herring as food
Dutch herring stall
Fisherman selling smoked herring
Image: Avruga caviar
