whats for breakfast!

[suffolk]

Not really rare around here ... as well as Gt Yarmouth we can get bloaters from Cley
https://cleysmokehouse.com/Bloaters
and Pinneys at Orford https://www.pinneysoforford.co.uk/product/bloater/
OH used to sell them at the farm shop.

[Badger's mate]

Bloaters are still available from the smokehouses and fish shops in North Norfolk. Presumably also round the coast to Yarmouth and another place over the border.
In a previous life used to get them from Norwich market on a Saturday for my tea.

Ah - I see that Suffs has beaten me to it...

[Seatallan]

Oooh I do love a good bloater!

[earthmaiden]

Where do the herrings come from nowadays? Is it just local small scale fisheries?

Ah! I see the Orford ones come from Denmark .

[Pepper Pig]

Our Waitrose has them. Usually. But I think we have a slightly weird demographic as they often have large carp.

[suffolk]

Southwold fisherman sell line-caught herring from the harbour. They're very seasonal as they move around the UK coastline in the winter and it's a case of checking with the fishermen to see when the herring are around. With sea temperatures rising they're moving further northwards ... there's probably a more reliable catch in the colder waters around Denmark ... the shallower waters around the UK warm up quicker.

This is interesting https://britishseafishing.co.uk/herring/

[PatsyMFagan]

[Badger's mate]

I remember years ago the original guys at Cley smokehouse telling me they used Icelandic herring.

The article on the British Sea Fishing website is interesting, but red herrings are a real thing. They are (or at least were) a very heavily salted and smoked cure that preserved the fish for a prolonged period. I bought one maybe 30 years ago, in Yarmouth or Lowestoft iirc. It resembled a bloater in that it was intact and had the surprised look on its face, but was drier, firmer and indeed reddish.

There was in more recent times an inshore herring fishery on the Blackwater in Essex. It was MSC certified but I don't know if it's still going.

If I could choose only 8 species of animal to eat on my desert island, herrings would definitely be on the list, and quite possibly be the one if I were forced to be so limited. The wonderful array of smoked and pickled varieties, fresh fish, roes - I can't think of anything more versatile.

[earthmaiden]

Oh well, it looks as though bloaters made from herring landed on our eastern coastlines might still exist in a small way! The arrival of the herring fleet making it's way down from Scotland was cause for great excitement back in the day and we only saw the end of it, long after its heyday. I have a friend who comes from a village not far from Peterhead and the same excitement was shared in her community as a child. Each day, news would come to say the fleet had arrived safely at its next destination and give details of the size of the catch so that those 'back home' knew all was well. It was lovely to think of people all down that coastline sharing the excitement in some way.

Bloaters for breakfast sound a very good idea.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ov81aogaxg

[suffolk]

Oh yes ... red herring ... mouth-puckeringly salty ... but prepare them as you’d prepare jugged kipper, and serve with a generous knob of butter, and it’s a very different ‘kettle of fish’

[Badger's mate]

Yes, a good hot bath and a bit of butter.

Kippers are a good excuse for butter consumption too, but I prefer vinegar & pepper on bloaters.

I don't dislike a bit of smoked haddock and a poached egg for breakfast either. Nor smoked salmon or halibut with scrambled eggs.