The fishmonger had some wonderfully fresh Cornish sprats the other day, and with my usual lack of restraint I bought far more than I could actually eat. After having a couple of plates of them simply grilled with salt, pepper, and lemon juice (why get complicated with good ingredients?) I needed to find a way to use up the remainder, and decided to have a go at salting them.

The only recipe I could find after a quick search involved filleting the sprats, and faced with a bagful, I decided that life was too short. (Translated: I’m rubbish at filleting any fish, never mind dozens of tiny ones).

So I just snipped the edge of each fish’s belly cavity with a pair of scissors and pushed out the guts with my little finger under a running tap of cold water.

From then on, it was the usual salting procedure of layering salt and fish, finishing with a top layer of salt, and then weighting down a board on top and leaving in the larder for a day or two.

After two days, the salt around the fish had become pretty wet and discoloured, so it looked like things were ready. I scraped the salt off the fish and gave them a quick rinse before patting dry with a clean tea towel.

So what did they taste like? Well, erm, salty. Very salty. But delicious with the raw flesh taking on a very firm and meaty texture.

For long term storage I put them in a sterilised jar along with some peppercorns, sliced garlic and chopped flat leaf parsley, before covering with extra virgin olive oil (a decent brand but not the best stuff in the larder).

I’m hoping they’ll make a great addition to a plate of mixed anti pasti after a few weeks of mellowing in the oil.

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