Two quick "on toast" classics from The Constance Spry Cookery Book (1956), recommended by our member, Martha James of London.

Both recipes serve 4 as generous starter, or 2 as generous main course*

SOFT ROES WITH MUSTARD

1 pack herring melts (454grams / 1lb)

2 tsps English mustard

2ozs/50g butter

a little salt (optional)

1 Melt the butter then stir in the mustard and salt.

2 Wash melts briefly then dab dry with kitchen towel. Handle gently!!

3 Cook melts in butter for 5-10 minutes, the length of time depending on whether you prefer them creamy or harder.

4 Serve on hot buttered toast.

DEVILLED SOFT ROES

1 pack herring melts (454grams / 1lb)

1-2 tsps cayenne pepper

2 ozs / 50g flour

2ozs/50g butter

lemon juice

1 Wash melts briefly then dab dry with kitchen towel. Handle gently!!

2 Mix flour with cayenne then roll roes in the mixture.

3 Fry melts for 2-5 minutes each side. Perhaps add a little more cayenne.

4 Add lemon juice to pan. Turn melts over once more.

5 Serve on hot buttered toast.

The flour adds a nice thin crispy skin to the roes.

*FOR SMALLER QUANTITIES

Herring melts are one of a very few products we sell which are frozen together. This is because, owing to their soft texture, freezing them individually would be impossibly expensive.

If you don't want to use your whole pack of melts in one hit: 1) put the sealed pack in your fridge overnight 2) next morning, they will have defrosted sufficiently for you to tease off the quantity you require 3) wrap unneeded melts in a poly pag and wrap tightly TO  EXCLUDE ALL AIR. Return to your freezer. They will be absolutely fine to use on another day.

(We recognise that this advice conflicts with the standard injunction, "Never refreeze a defrosted product". However, that injunction is intended to deter people from allowing frozen products to come up to room temperature for extended periods. This would allow the bug count to multiply, with dangerous consequences. Many kinds of frozen food are in fact routinely defrosted and re-frozen during their manufacture, but always (we hope and pray!) under controlled conditions, including not leaving the product open to the air and not allowing it to warm up more than a couple of degrees above freezing point.)