Whitby Kippers

Whitby is famous for?

Whitby (St Hilda's) Abbey, Dracula, Bram Stoker, Captain Cook, Whitby Goths, Whitby Regatta, Whitby Whaling, Fishing, St Mary's Church, Whitby Jet, Whitby Witches, Whitby Town, The Whitby Seagull, 199 Steps, Harbour, Whitby Piers, Shipping Trades, Alum Production, B&Bs, The East Cliff, Captain William Scoresby, Fisherman's Cottages, Whitby's Yards, Steps and cobbled streets, Fish and Chips, The Endeavour, Ghost Walks, Sea Food, Seaside, The West Cliff, Whitby Folk Festival, Caedmon, Frank Sutcliffe, Whitby Kippers, Lobster, Crabs and Scampi, Synod of A.D. 664, Australian 'First Fleet' supply vessels,

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Break the ice, Jury, Binge drinking, Incredible Hulk, Down the hatch, ...discover these and many more well known phrases from our maritime past here

Find out about the building styles and architecture found in the buildings of Whitby here.

Whitby in times gone by, ads from the past here

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In 1872 William Fortune founded the famous Fortune’s smokehouse in Whitby. The smokehouse still in its original Henrietta Street location has been passed down through the family, so that today it is run by the fifth generation of the Fortune family.

Fortunes Kipper House

Smoking is a long-established method of preserving fish, a practice being used in Whitby today by Whitby’s only surviving traditional kipper house for over 137 years, using unchanged traditional methods passed down from one generation of the next.
Kippers are smoked herrings. Large north-east Atlantic herring are a favourite for smoking and are frozen immediately after they are caught, so that they are in a prime condition when they are delivered to the smokehouse for smoking.

Once the fish have defrosted, the fish are split from head to tail, and then gutted by hand, not machine. Experts at this process can gut and clean a whole fish in a just a few seconds.

Once the fish have been gutted they are then soaked in a brine solution for 40 minutes as this helps to enhance the unique taste of the finally cured kipper. Once soaked, the fish are taken to the smokehouse, where they are hung on black tarry rods to be cured; this allows excess moisture and oil to drain off the fish during the smoking process.

The fish are smoked over a series of fires made from a mixture of oak, beech and softwood, the fragrant oak and beech smoke gently permeates the fish to add flavour and to colour them naturally. It usually takes about 3 fires and 18 hours to complete the smoking process in order to achieve the delectable oaky smoked flavour and the distinctive golden brown colour of a kipper.

It is only after the smoking process has been completed that a herring can finally be called a kipper. After smoking, the kippers are taken directly from the smokehouse, weighed into pairs ready for sale.

Below an extract from The Times, 4th October 1881

The Whitby Herring Fishery - Last week witnessed the largest importation of herrings that has occurred in the present season. Thee has been, and is yet, engaged at Whitby, on the north-east coast, a fleet of boats hailing from Penzance, St.Ives, Lowestoft, Yarmouth, Scarborough, Hartlepool, South Shields, and many of the Scotch ports, and each day has witnessed their arrival with good catches of herrings and other kinds of fish. It is computed that during the last week no fewer than 600 "lasts" wee landed. As a last represents 10,000 it will be seen that the almost incredible number of 6,000,000 individual fish were imported into Whitby. In one single day between 150 and 200 lasts were discharged, being the largest individual catch of the present season. The average price given at the wholesale markets was about 3s 6d per 100.

Whitby Kippers

Whitby is famous for?

WHITBY KIPPERS