kippered herring

6.8

A fish split open, salted, and smoked, often served for breakfast

noun
/ˈkɪpəd ˈhɛrɪŋ/

: arenque ahumado

The fishing shop sells freshly smoked kippered herring, a popular choice among locals.

Examples

For breakfast, I enjoyed kippered herring on toast with a squeeze of lemon.
When they were walking along the road, one of these young German men let fall a piece of white bread into a sloppy and dirty place. He picked it up again immediately and put it in his mouth, eating it without scraping any of the dirt off the bread. Then, again on the landing stage, I saw an old woman selling kippered herrings to these Germans, which they ate with great relish without anything added and without cooking.

Academic text (1993)
Well, kippered herring!

On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970)
At the traditional British cafe, we ordered kippered herring, which came with a side of pickles.

Synonyms

kipper

vskippered herring

5 5.6

A herring split open, salted, and smoked to eat for breakfast

is a traditional British food rather than specifically a breakfast dish

smoked herring

vskippered herring

1 3.3

A herring that has been dried and smoked, giving it a red color and strong salty taste

emphasizes splitting and salting in addition to being smoked

Surface Forms

kippered herring singular

kippered herrings plural

Morphology

kipper + herring

The meaning is directly derivable from 'kipper' (to preserve a fish by salting and smoking) + 'herring' (a fish); the past-participle adjective 'kippered' clearly indicates the herring has undergone that preservation process. This is a regular adjective+noun composition (comparable to 'smoked herring') and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will understand it.

Etymology

Kippered herring is named for how the fish is made: the herring is split, salted, and smoked so it keeps longer and gets a strong, smoky taste. So the phrase simply means a herring that has been prepared this way.