36 INTRODUCTORY 



being oak wood, beech wood, and turf. The 

 best way to keep bloaters fresh, after treatment, 

 is to hang them in a current of air, but immature 

 fish take the salt badly and will not keep. The 

 process must have been familiar in the seven- 

 teenth century, since in Beaumont and Fletcher 

 there is a passage : "I have more smoke in 

 my mouth than would blote a hundred her- 

 rings" (Island Princess, II. 5). Again in Ben 

 Jonson's " Masque of Augures," 17th Speech, 

 we read, " Why, you stinke like so many bloat 

 herrings newly taken out of the chimney." 



The next best form in which this fish should 

 be eaten is the red herring, or unsplit smoked 

 herring, called variously the Yarmouth red 

 herring, high dried herring, ham herring, or 

 " militiaman." This fish is not gutted until 

 it reaches the kitchen. The Yarmouth red 

 herring may be eaten, uncooked, during the 

 months of October, November and December. 

 The skin should be peeled off, the head removed, 

 and the fish gutted and cut across into four 

 pieces, dusted with pepper, and eaten with 

 bread and butter. The hard roe fish is usually 

 the better. The Yarmouth red herring is 

 locally sometimes called a "militiaman"; per 

 contra, the vulgar Norfolk term for a militia- 

 man in his red tunic when the writer was a 

 youngster, was " a red herring," much as the 

 red herrings sold by grocers in the south of 

 Scotland are sometimes known as " Glasgow 

 magistrates." 



