[? f. prec. sb.
If really derived from the sb., it seems most reasonable to infer that this process was originally used for the preservation of ‘kipper’ salmon; but no direct evidence has been found.]
trans. To cure (salmon, herring, or other fish) by cleaning, rubbing repeatedly with salt and pepper or other spice, and drying in the open air or in smoke.
1773. [see KIPPERED below].
1835. Southey, in C. Southey, Life, VI. 281. Salmon which he had kippered the preceding night.
1848. Life Normandy (1863), II. 56. [Salmon out of season] are … more frequently kippered; that is to say, they are cured with salt, sugar, and spice, and then dried in the smoke.
1885. Times (weekly ed.), 2 Oct., 15/1. Smoking and kippering them [mackerel] for winter use.
Hence Kippered ppl. a.; Kippering vbl. sb.
1773. Mrs. Grant, Lett. fr. Mount. (1807), I. ii. 20. We had … kippered salmon.
1795. Statist. Acc. Scot., Stirlings., XVI. 122. The kippering of salmon is successfully practised in several parts of the parish.
1863. in Tyneside Songs, 91. A cask o’ the best kipper’d herrins.
1885. Pall Mall Gaz., 11 June, 9/2. A large kippering establishment at Stornoway.
1892. E. Reeves, Homeward Bound, 31. Fisher-girls … at Grimsby, splitting herrings for kippering, seven a minute.
