Some people have an aversion to fish that is difficult to eat and has a strong smell. Kippers fall into that category, but you may just want to give them a chance. A kipper is a whole herring that has been gutted, split, and smoked over hardwood chips in a kiln. Kippers that have been traditionally smoked have a pale-golden colour, although you can find those that have been artificially coloured.

Freshly made kippers have an excellent balance of the oily herring flavour, salt, and smoke. While they are commonly eaten for breakfast, they can also be great for lunch. They can be baked, fried, or cooked in a tall jug of boiling water. Or, if you wish to minimise their smell, you can barbecue them. One way to increase enjoyment is to have them with soft, creamy, and buttery scrambled eggs. If you wish, you can also make them into a delicious paste, mixed with Cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and unsalted butter - and spread on toast or freshly baked bread.

Besides being a cheap and tasty fish option, kippers also provide great nutritional value. For instance, an ounce of kippers can give you an average of 62 calories, 7 grams of protein, 3.5 grams of fat, and zero carbohydrate. A small kipper can weigh 0.7 ounces, a medium can be 1.3 ounces, and a large one can be 2 ounces. Depending on the kippers’ size, consuming two to eight of them is enough to meet the amount of protein you need for a meal.

Then there are the omega-3 fatty acids, which are indeed very important for your health. Kippers are a great source of the essential fatty acids; they contain about 0.2 to 0.7 grams of the fatty acids per serving. Omega-3 fatty acids are anti-inflammatory and are good for your heart. They can also help improve your mood and fight depression.

Kippers may be difficult to eat because of their bones, but eating the whole kipper with the bone can give your body good amounts of calcium and vitamin D, which are nutrients that help keep your bones strong. A 3- to 6-ounce serving can give you 67 to 164 milligrams of calcium, which is more or less the same amount of calcium you get in about 2 to 4 ounces of milk. Moreover, a 3- to 6-ounce serving of kippers provides 69 to 168 IU of vitamin D, which is equivalent to 12 to 28 percent of adults’ vitamin D requirements.

If you are salt-sensitive or have high blood pressure, you may have to be careful when consuming kippers, although you do not have to avoid eating it altogether. A serving of kippers can contain 734 to 1,790 milligrams of sodium; healthy adults should not consume more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day. What you can do is eat kippers together with foods that have low sodium content.

If you do buy kippers online, you are doing the environment a favour as herring is a sustainable fish. They have a healthy wild population and have very minimal mercury levels.