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(A red herring is a type of strong-smelling smoked fish that was once drawn across the trail of a scent to mislead hunting dogs and put them off the scent.) The detectives were following a red herring, but they're on the right track now. The mystery novel has a couple of red herrings that keep readers off guard.
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Financial, Acronyms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.Related to red herring: Red herring prospectus, Red herring fallacy
red herring
Something irrelevant that diverts attention away from the main problem or issue. The candidate used the minor issue as a red herring to distract voters from the corruption accusations against him.The mystery writer is known for introducing red herrings to arouse the reader's suspicion of innocent characters.
red herring
a piece of information or suggestion introduced to draw attention away from the real facts of a situation. (A red herring is a type of strong-smelling smoked fish that was once drawn across the trail of a scent to mislead hunting dogs and put them off the scent.) The detectives were following a red herring, but they're on the right track now. The mystery novel has a couple of red herrings that keep readers off guard.
red herring
Something that draws attention away from the central issue, as in Talking about the new plant is a red herring to keep us from learning about downsizing plans . The herring in this expression is red and strong-smelling from being preserved by smoking. The idiom alludes to dragging a smoked herring across a trail to cover up the scent and throw off tracking dogs. [Late 1800s]
a red herring
COMMON If something is a red herring, it takes people's attention away from the main subject, problem, or situation that they should be considering. All the fuss about high pay for public employees is a bit of a red herring. The really serious money is to be found in private companies.A sighting of the missing woman in London turned out to be a red herring. Note: A red herring is a herring that has been soaked in salt water for several days, and then dried by smoke. Red herrings were sometimes used when training dogs to follow a scent. They were also sometimes used to distract dogs from the scent they were following during a hunt.
a red herring
something, especially a clue, which is or is intended to be misleading or distracting.This expression derives from the former practice of using the pungent scent of a dried smoked herring to teach hounds to follow a trail (smoked herrings were red in colour as a result of the curing process).
a red ˈherring
a fact, etc. which somebody introduces into a discussion because they want to take people’s attention away from the main point: Look, the situation in French agriculture is just a red herring. We’re here to discuss the situation in this country.This idiom comes from the custom of using the scent of a smoked, dried herring (which was red) to train dogs to hunt.![Herring Herring](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125654134/240050495.jpg)
See also: herring, red
red herring
A diversionary tactic; a false or deliberately misleading trail. This expression comes from the use of strong-smelling smoked herrings as a lure to train hunting dogs to follow a scent. They also could be used to throw dogs off the scent, and it was this characteristic that was transferred to the metaphoric use of red herring. “Diverted from their own affairs by the red herring of foreign politics so adroitly drawn across the trail,” wrote W. F. Butler (Life of Napier, 1890).
red herring
A misleading clue. Many people who know the phrase believe it came from the practice of game poachers laying scents of smoked herring (smoking accounted for the fish's reddish color) to throw gamekeepers and their dogs off the poachers' scent. However, etymologists discount that explanation, favoring instead that the phrase originated with an English writer who used the scent-laying image as a metaphor for a particular political plan. Mystery writers, readers, and critics use “red herring” to describe a piece of plotting intended to throw the reader off in deducing who-done-it. The financial world uses the phrase to mean a stock prospectus, not from any intent to deceive, but because the document has a red cover.
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Kippered 'split' herringA kipper is a whole, a small, that has been split in a from tail to head along the dorsal ridge, gutted, salted or pickled, and over smouldering woodchips (typically ).In Britain and Ireland as well as a few North American regions, they are often eaten for breakfast. In, kippers, along with other preserved smoked or salted fish such as the and, were also once commonly enjoyed as a or treat, most popularly with inland and urban working-class populations before World War II.
Contents.Terminology The English and derives the word from the kippian, to spawn. The word has various possible parallels, such as kippa which means 'to pull, snatch' and the Germanic word kippen which means 'to tilt, to incline'.
Similarly, the Middle English kipe denotes a basket used to catch fish. Another theory traces the word kipper to the kip, or small beak, that male develop during the breeding season.As a verb, kippering ('to kipper') means to preserve by rubbing with salt or other spices before drying in the open air or in smoke.Originally applied to the preservation of surplus fish (particularly those known as 'kips,' harvested during spawning runs), kippering has come to mean the preservation of any fish, poultry, beef or other meat in like manner. The process is usually enhanced by cleaning, filleting, or slicing the food to expose maximum surface area to the drying and preservative agents.Origin. The fish processing factory in the village of, northern England, is one of the places where the practice of kippering herrings is said to have originatedAlthough the exact origin of the kipper is unknown, this processes of slitting, gutting, and smoke-curing fish is. According to, 'Smoked foods almost always carry with them legends about their having been created by accident—usually the peasant hung the food too close to the fire, and then, imagine his surprise the next morning when '.
For instance wrote in 1599 about a fisherman from in the who discovered smoking herring by accident. Another story of the accidental invention of kipper is set in 1843, with John Woodger of in, when fish for processing was left overnight in a room with a smoking stove. These stories and others are known to be untrue because the word 'kipper' long predates this. Smoking and salting of fish—in particular of spawning salmon and herring—which are caught in large numbers in a short time and can be made suitable for edible storage by this practice predates 19th-century Britain and indeed written history, probably going back as long as humans have been using salt to preserve food.Colouring. ' Red herring': Cold smoked herring (Scottish kippers), brined so that their flesh achieves a reddish colourA kipper is also sometimes referred to as a red herring, although particularly strong curing is required to produce a truly red kipper.The term appears in by the Anglo-Norman poet, 'He eteþ no ffyssh But heryng red.'
![Red Herring Fish Red Herring Fish](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yGgNulv-_ZI/U6xdklj6WLI/AAAAAAAAIi4/dhC2ne6Sg2I/s1600/red+herring.jpg)
Used it in his diary entry of 28 February 1660 'Up in the morning, and had some red herrings to our breakfast, while my boot-heel was a-mending, by the same token the boy left the hole as big as it was before.' The dyeing of kippers was introduced as an economy measure in the by avoiding the need for the long smoking processes. This allowed the kippers to be sold quickly, easily and for a substantially greater profit. Kippers were originally dyed using a coal tar dye called (the FK is an abbreviation of 'for kippers'), kipper brown or kipper dye. Today, kippers are usually brine dyed using a natural dye, giving the fish a deeper orange/yellow colour. European Community legislation limits the acceptable daily intake (ADI) of Brown FK to 0.15 mg/kg.
Not all fish caught are suitable for the dyeing process, with mature fish more readily sought, because the density of their flesh improves the absorption of the dye. An orange kipper is a kipper that has been dyed orange.Kippers from the Isle of Man and some Scottish producers are not dyed: The smoking time is extended in the traditional manner. Kippers for breakfast in England'Cold-smoked' fish that have not been salted for preservation must be cooked before being eaten safely (they can be boiled, fried, grilled, or roasted, for instance). 'Kipper snacks' (see below) are precooked and may be eaten without further preparation. In general, oily fish are preferred for smoking as the heat is evenly dispersed by the oil, and the flesh resists flaking apart like drier species.In the United Kingdom, kippers are often served for breakfast, and much less often at lunch or dinner. In the United States, where kippers are much less commonly eaten than in the UK, they are almost always sold as either canned 'kipper snacks' or in jars found in the refrigerated foods section.Kippers industry Kippers produced in the are exported around the world. Thousands are produced annually in the town of, where two kipper houses, Moore's Kipper Yard (founded 1882) and Devereau and Son (founded 1884), smoke and export., once the busiest herring port in Europe, is famous for its traditionally smoked kippers, as well as kippers and kippers.
The harbour village of in is famed for, which are prepared in a local smokehouse, sold in the village shop and exported around the world. 24 June 2004. Mark Kurlansky, 2002. Salt: A World History,.
Hone, William (Ed.) (1838) Vol III, pp. 569–70. Griffin and Co. Trewin, Carol (2005) p. 51, Alison Hodge Publishers. Davidson A and Jaine T (2006) p. 728, Oxford University Press. (2002).
Retrieved 21 April 2007. (c. 1250) Trinity College, Cambridge MS B.14.40. Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub, 2005.
(1893). Samuel Pepys' Diary. Retrieved 21 February 2006.
Retrieved 2 March 2016. Fearnley-Whittingstall, Hugh (23 January 2010). The Guardian. Retrieved 6 May 2012. ^. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
Mallaig Heritage Centre. Archived from on 4 July 2008.
Retrieved 9 January 2010. Andrew Rawnsley. The Guardian. Retrieved 2 March 2016.Further reading. Bannerman, A. (2001) Torry Advisory Note No.
48, FAO, Rome.External links Look up in Wiktionary, the free dictionary., history of smoked fish varieties. (archive films relating to the production of kippers). The Guardian, 7 April 2012.
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