Kippers are smoked herring. Once in the factory, they are split along the back from head to tail, gutted, cleaned and soaked in a brine mixture. The herring are then put on to tenter hooks, hung on racks and smoked in big smoking kilns. Each batch of Kippers are smoked according to the size of the fish and their oil content

The origin of the kippering process is uncertain, but development in Peel, on the Island's northern coast in the 1870's, indicates the earliest date. Some believe the inspiration for kippering might lie in split-smoked finnan haddock processing.