Wood-smoked sprats. The sprats or brisling have a smooth, firm texture and are lightly wood-smoked to a golden finish over natural hardwood chips and preserved in rapeseed oil. Latvian cannery Diplomats is noted for its tinned sprats, a staple of Latvian cuisine and Baltic seafood heritage.
Serving tip: try these on fresh bread or toast with a squeeze of lemon, or with a side of diced fried potatoes drizzled with pesto.
About the fish: the sprats, known as brisling in Latvia, are wild-caught in the Baltic Sea. Smoked, it is a traditional staple in the country's cuisine. The sprat (Sprattus sprattus) is one of twenty species of sardines found across the world. It is an oily fish with all the goodness of its celebrated sibling, the European pilchard (Sardinus Pilchardus), the sardine found in Spanish and Portuguese tins. The sprat, however, is smaller, less scaly, more tender, and the colder waters where it is found means it is fattier and has a more buttery texture.
About the cannery: they are canned in Latvia by the artisans at Diplomats, a renowned tinned fish brand, with a history dating back to 1907. The fish is canned using 100% artisanal methods in its state of the art cannery in the seaside village of Engure, on the shore of the Gulf of Riga. Diplomats is noted for its high quality smoked sprats and has built its reputation upon them. Its signature is taking traditional Latvian cuisine - smoked sprats, salmon, trout and herring - and introducing elements from international cuisine to give their recipes a novel spin.
