HERRING ROE AS CAVIARE 41 



found to be good enough when cured, and the 

 word " kippen " soon came to be applied to 

 the cured herring. 



The fresh or " white " herring, grilled and 

 served with or without mustard sauce, is well 

 known all over the British Isles, as is also the 

 same fish soused in scalded vinegar and baked 

 in an oven with slices of onion, whole peppers, 

 parsley and bay leaves. The strong palates 

 of our ancestors also relished mustard sauce with 

 the cured fish. John Russell in his " Boke of 

 Nurture " (c. 1450) recommends it as " the 

 metest salte for salt herring." Carlyle heads 

 a chapter in his " French Revolution " 

 '' Grilled Herrings," and refers to them as 

 eaten with vinegar and onions and prunes. 



On the coast of North America herring roe is 

 eaten as a kind of caviare. The herrings come 

 up to spawn in Norfolk Sound, out of compli- 

 ment, no doubt, to their relations on the Nor- 

 folk coast of England, and the natives lay 

 under water a number of little rods of pine- 

 wood with stones tied to them, upon which the 

 fishcast their roe. When the rods are taken out 

 of the water, covered with the roe, they have 

 the appearance of coral ; the roe is then scraped 

 off, and is considered to be a great delicacy, 

 having acquired a pleasing flavour from the 

 pinewood. The process resembles the produc- 

 tion of shellac in India. 



