THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 14, 1995 TAG: 9503140283
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
These warm days call to mind the herring run now going on in the waters around Fredericksburg.
Herrings swim up the Rappahannock River and its branches as they seek to spawn, and people crowd the banks to catch them.
It has all the air of yet another spirited festival, but nobody bothers to call it one. They're too busy.
They eat and salt down the delectable silvery fish and exult in the spring and all it brings.
Cars parked on nearby roads seem as numerous as the fish. Lined along banks, people dip nets to fetch their catch.
That's been the way since the founding fathers and, before them for centuries, the Indians.
``When there was a herring run,'' said historian Helen Hill Miller, ``everybody would drop everything and run after the run.''
In Fredericksburg during the run, the air seems more pellucid. Life itself is perceived with greater clarity. Older restaurants feature salt herring Saturday mornings as do staunch civic groups.
In White Oak, the New Hope Methodist Church has a dinner open free to all. ``What you have to do to be invited is show up,'' said Stafford County Extension Agent John Gray.
Salt herring is the centerpiece with fresh tomatoes, fried potatoes and onions, cantaloupe, corn cakes and hot coffee. The feast is so plenteous as to recall one by the Sea of Galilee.
To cook corn cakes, Anne Silver advises that you combine a cup of corn meal with a half cup of flour - two parts corn meal, one part flour - add a tablespoon of baking powder, an egg, salt and some milk. Ladle the batter into a frying pan.
``When my daughter comes from college, the first words out of her mouth are `salt fish,' '' she said.
To salt the fish, some of which may be as long as 8 inches, start by scaling them, gutting them and cutting off their heads and tails. Wash them thoroughly and fill the belly cavities with salt.
Stay with me, now! On the bottom of a 5-gallon plastic bucket, spread a quarter-inch layer of salt. Stack atop the salt a layer of herrings belly up, side by side, and keep alternating layers of fish and salt until the bucket is filled.
Make sure the lid is tight and put the bucket in a cool place. The roe, set aside during the packing, is tasty with scrambled eggs.
To cook a herring, split it along the backbone, wash it well in fresh water to remove the salt, changing the water at least four times over several hours. Bread the salt fish in corn meal and fry them in hot grease.
These days when TV dinners are microwaved, how comforting, nevertheless, to know Virginians still catch, cook and eat fare on which the nation was founded.
Should hard times come, they can show us how to turn the land and harvest the waters and cook on a wood stove, if necessary. by CNB