Pickled Herring Recipe

The recipe above seems to be for pickled herring that resembles commercial Scandinavian pickled herring that is too mushy and too sweet. If you want firmer, more traditional herring, you need to make a few modifications.

First, salted herring is available at all Russian stores or many stores that bill themselves as "European deli" (these may be Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Bulgarian or Serbian, depending on where you find them)--most of these are in or near large urban centers, so if you don't live near a large city, chances are you'll have to go with on-line supplies.

For most East European recipes, you do not need to soak the herring--certainly not overnight. Some come whole, some are gutted and/or beheaded. Generally, most available herring is from the North Sea or North Atlantic and these will be billed as Norwegian, Icelandic, Dutch, or simply "Atlantic". There are slight differences in salinity, flavor and texture of these fish, but they are functionally equivalent and you'll have to try some variation to see how you like them. Most of the Pacific herring is labeled in these stores as "Iwasi" or "Japanese"--"iwashi" is Japanese sardines, but that's how Russians label small-to-medium Pacific herrings. Finally, there is a firmer type of herring that Russian stores label "Dunai" (Danube). I am not sure of the provenance of this one, but it is a firmer, leaner fish that stands well to pickling. Dutch herring tends to be the least salty and Pacific the most salty. Dutch herring is traditionally eaten straight, without pickling, which is mostly designed to liven up and desalt older fish.

Take a "fresh" herring and gut and behead it if head and entrails are still attached (one or both may be missing). Always skin the fish before pickling, but it should be rinsed BEFORE skinning. Taste the fish for salinity--if still too salty, soak it in cold water for 1 hour. Do no leave overnight or it will turn into soupy mess. Depending on the size of fish, you will end up with 1/3 to 2/3 lb of fish, so you may need 2 or 3 fish to get to 1 lb (don't worry if you go over). Take 1/3 cup of white wine vinegar or mix 1/4 cup and 1 Tbst of red wine vinegar and cider or plain white vinegar per 1/2 lb of fish. Take 1 small yellow onion per fish and slice thin (or you can use about 1/4 cup sliced red or sweet onion--do not use green onions!). You can add a full sprig of dill, if you like (including the tough stem--it will not be eaten). Take 5 allspice berries, 5 black peppercorns and 1 bay leaf per 1/2 lb. Toast them slightly and don't allow to smoke. Add 1 Tbsp of sugar per 1/2 lb. Once the spices are hot, pour vinegar on them and add the sugar. Bring the vinegar, spices and sugar to a boil on the stovetop. Alternatively, you can heat the vinegar in the microwave oven, but you must watch carefully not to allow it to boil over. As soon as it comes to a rapid boil, pour over the sliced onion. Let the onions pickle for a few minutes--they frequently turn slightly pink. Add cold water 1:2 to 1:1 to the amount of vinegar you used, depending on how strong you want the pickle to be, then pour the whole thing, including spices, onion and dill, over the fish filets. Do pour hot vinegar along on the fish and do not use lemon juice--they will "cook" the fish and lemon will overpower the delicate flavors of a good herring. Keep the fish, onion and pickling solution in a ceramic or glass container, preferably with a tight lid. You can eat it within 30 minutes or keep it overnight for more pickled flavor. If you plan to keep it longer, remove the bay leaf and dill. Storing the fish for more than 18 hours will change the texture and appearance ("cook") the fish, and it will have texture and flavor closer to the commercially available "pickled" herring.

Notes: if you use all white distilled vinegar instead of whine or cider vinegar, you may need to dilute it more, but nowhere near the 2:1 proportion given in the original recipe above. Generally, white distilled vinegar should be avoided in cooking--it's primarily an industrial chemical, useful for washing windows. Rice vinegar tends to be too mild to stand up to herring. You can substitute some dry, acidic white wine for no more than half the vinegar and/or half the water. Under no circumstances use sweet or very fruity wines, as they will overpower the flavor of the fish. For the same reason avoid lemon juice (contrary to the original recipe above--just think logically, how much do you think Russians and Scandinavians use lemons in cooking). Also avoid oversweetening the fish--the quantity of sugar given above will turn it into herring jam! If you hate the natural taste of herring that much, don't eat it at all! You can experiment with coriander seeds, dill seeds or yellow mustard seeds (avoid brown--they are more for Indian food). Dry dill weed tends to be overpowering as well, with fresh dill being much milder. If you use "pickling" dill--the flowers and thick stems that are sometimes sold in East European stores--you should pickle it first along with the onions, before pouring on the fish. If it's just leafy fronds, they can go straight on the fish. Either way, it's more of a decoration and should be removed. Carrots add absolutely nothing to the dish, so I don't see why they are necessary. Finally, if the fish comes whole, you may, if you wish, pickle the head with the filets. It appeals to some purists when it appears on the platter, as if the whole fish is reassembled, but most people discard it either before or after pickling. Traditionally, roe (eggs) and small roe (or softroe--essentially sperm sacks) are also consumed, but neither stands up well to vinegar pickling and may appear unappealing to the novice herring consumers. Besides, even if it is sold with the fish, it has to be separated from the rest of the entrails, which is somewhat of an expert procedure. If this does not appeal to you, just discard it. If you choose to keep them, do not leave them in vinegar overnight--they will become hard and unpleasant. Best to just plop them on a slice of rye bread with a slice of onion and eat as-is.

Final note: brine is generally the salt solution that may or may not contain spices and/or seawater. The solution that contains vinegar is usually referred to as "pickle", not "brine". If the herring is sold in brine, the brine must be discarded before processing. If you plan to add sour cream or creme fraiche to the herring (the only time you may want to also consider green onions of any kind, including scallions or chives), you'll want to discard the pickling solution as well (along with any remaining spices, such as peppercorns).

You can pickle chunks of salmon (about 1x1x2 in. in size--no larger, since they must cook in the pickle) in similar manner, but then you'll want more liquid. Instead of pickling the onions first, place raw onion slices and dill fronds with the fish and pour hot (boiling) pickle over them, then leave in refrigerator for 24-72 hours. In this case, you need to salt the fish first (1/2 to 1 Tbsp Kosher salt per 1 lb of fish) and may add more vinegar and sugar to the pickle, as well as a few slices of lemon rind and a clove or two (you can add lemon juice to the finished product, but not to the pickle). Pickled salmon is an acquired taste--but you may find some ready-made at Zabar's in New York. You can also pickle mackerel, but the technique is quite different--the Japanese style is to bury the fish in salt for a few hours, then rinse it with boiling vinegar, before skinning. This is what you find sold as "saba" for sushi. But you can also make it in East European style by leaving the presalted fish (with salt rinsed off) in hot spiced pickle to marinate.

aardvark_cousin Feb 3, 2011 05:33 PM

Akvavit goes well with herring.