# ISO Pickled herring recipes



## jpinmaryland (Jan 4, 2007)

I like to eat it right out of the jar, but that gets boring. Are there some recipes for the herring pickled in sour cream? Maybe potato pancakes or some sort of appetizer? Thx.


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## boufa06 (Jan 4, 2007)

Rosti should go well with the pickled herring.


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## BreezyCooking (Jan 4, 2007)

When I buy it, it doesn't last long enough for me to even think about a recipe - lol!!!

What I truly miss is the now long-gone fish market in Port Jefferson, LI, NY, that every holiday season carried whole filets of pickled herring in fresh sour cream (with lots of onions!) in trays on ice in their fish case.  God were those terrific!!!  The jarred stuff I have to settle for now doesn't hold a candle to it, but it's better than nothing.


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## jpinmaryland (Jan 4, 2007)

Perhaps a better question to ask is: can I cook w/ pickled herring? or does the pickling process render the fish unusable for cooking in like tomato sauce, or potato pancake or say a soup? 

The recipes I am finding on the internet are mainly cold: salads and appetizers. Most of them have sour cream or mayo. Some have boiled eggs and assorted veggies. like peas. Nothing with cooking. 

ANy reason to think pickled herring cannot be used in cooking?


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## expatgirl (Jan 4, 2007)

One of our Swedish wives  in our international women's club prepared a national dish where she layered sliced potatoes, pickled herring, onions, spices, and whipped cream and then baked it.  Yum!!!!


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## boufa06 (Jan 5, 2007)

expatgirl said:
			
		

> One of our Swedish wives  in our international women's club prepared a national dish where she layered sliced potatoes, pickled herring, onions, spices, and whipped cream and then baked it.  Yum!!!!


The dish is called Janssen's Temptation in English.


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## XeniA (Jan 5, 2007)

jpinmaryland said:
			
		

> I like to eat it right out of the jar, but that gets boring. Are there some recipes for the herring pickled in sour cream? Maybe potato pancakes or some sort of appetizer? Thx.


 
It gets a _little_ less boring when you accompany it with a small glass of vodka, straight from the freezer!

You could eat it like they do in Germany, as street food, tucked into a hard roll with plenty of thinly-sliced onions.

As for adding it to food, I would think it would be nice cut up into a cold potato salad, perhaps with cucumber, asparagus, a tart apple, some dill ...?


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## buckytom (Jan 5, 2007)

oh man, this is making me hungry. i prefer the one with wine and onions, but any kind'll do.

pickled herring is good at breakfast, chopped into corned beef hash topped with eggs sunny side up. it's also good fried with homefried potatoes, topped with raw scallions.

or at lunch on a toasted pumpernickel roll, butter, raw onions and "bread and butter" pickles.

i've had it cooked into a creamy-dill potato casserole, but i'm not sure if it was pickled or not.


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## expatgirl (Jan 5, 2007)

Thanks, Boufa06------I knew that it had an interesting name but couldn't remember it!!!!!!!


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## jpinmaryland (Jan 11, 2007)

a google search suggests that most or all of the Janssen's recipes use anchovies. STill, there's no reason to suggest that herring wouldnt fit in there.


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## expatgirl (Jan 11, 2007)

Yeah, living in Kazakhstan, you make do with what you can find.  Vera did say that you could use anchovies as well but all she could find was the herring which was delicious.


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## vitauta (May 28, 2011)

loove pickled herring in wine sauce, love the sauce it comes in. any ideas for how to reuse the sauce--besides just drinking it which is what i usually do?  can i pickle me some more onion slices, or mushrooms in this sauce?  anything?  use it in cooking?


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## justplainbill (May 28, 2011)

I think kippered herring is better suited to cooking.


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## CWS4322 (May 28, 2011)

I'm going to chime in on this one. Pickled herring is typically not used in cooked dishes (and Janssen's Temptation typically uses sprats [Swedish anchovies]). The brine for sprats is a sweet-sour brine, not an oil based on. 

I was once asked by a friend who was going to Stockholm how I ate pickled herring...off the fork, straight out of the jar. Pickled herring has been part of my life as long as I can remember. It has been a staple in my mother's fridge for as long as I can remember. It is often on salad bars at restaurants where I grew up. In high school, when a friend and I would take road trips, jars of pickled herring and baby dill pickles were our road food. I only eat it the first day the jar is opened...I can't stand it after it has sat in the fridge after it is opened. That's why I buy the small jars. Dutch rollmops are not the same as Scandinavian pickled herring. And as much as I love pickled herring, I hate matjes (sp) which is served on a bed of ice with lots of lemon. My favorite pickled herring is the one that is in aquavit with peppercorns...my least favorite is with mustard--except on dark, dense rye bread (I can't eat that one out of the jar). 

However, since pickled herring is such a big part of the cold table of a smorgasbord (I try to have at least three different kinds of pickled herring on the table when I do Christmas smorgasbord) and will have at least two salads made using pickled herring and perhaps herring pate on the cold table, and Janssen's Temptation is always part of the hot table. 

Scandinavians typically don't eat cooked pickled herring--probably because so many other varieties of fish are available. And, whenever I've made or had Janssen's Temptation made by a Swede, it has always had canned Swedish sprats, not pickled herring in it. But, I have seen recipes that say if you can't get the sprats, you can substitute pickled herring. If I were going to substitute herring in Janssen's Temptation, I'd probably go for smoked herring...

As for reusing the brine, you can try putting onions in it. I've never reused the brine.

I know we have some Norwegians on the list, and TaxLady can probably share some other ways of eating pickled herring, I eat it the way the Scandinavian descendents in MN eat it. My DH isn't terribly fond of it, so I have to make sure I'm going to eat almost all of it if I put it out.


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## CWS4322 (May 28, 2011)

We used to pickle Northern when my parents lived on Lake of the Woods. I had forgotten about "Poorman's Pickled Herring." We'd do it as if it were herring--so to flavor it, we'd do that as part 2 of the process. It's been a long time since I pickled Northern...and I don't know where the recipe might be--I know I have it. If you look at the recipes on the web on how to make pickled herring from scratch, you can compare the 2nd brine with other pickle recipes...carrots come to mind, but there is a pickled herring with carrots and onions...


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## Bolas De Fraile (May 29, 2011)

CWS like you I was brought up with pickled herrings and smoke fish they are my favorite breakfast by a mile, smoked sprats, buckling herring,Manx kippers.
The jewel in the herring crown for me is Gaffelbiter.


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## CWS4322 (May 29, 2011)

I'm still trying to get my head around cooking pickled herring....I don't cook pickles, and pickled herring to me is a "pickle" and yes, for breakie they are GREAT, but on their own, they are also great <g>, if you like them.


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## ella/TO (May 29, 2011)

pickled herring is a standard dish in Jewish homes too.
Typlical Sat. lunch used to be the herring, smoked fish, sable, potato salad, dark rye bread, pumpernickle bread, sliced tomatoes....ymmy, it's been a lonnnnnnng time....


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## vitauta (May 29, 2011)

ella/TO said:


> pickled herring is a standard dish in Jewish homes too.
> Typlical Sat. lunch used to be the herring, smoked fish, sable, potato salad, dark rye bread, pumpernickle bread, sliced tomatoes....ymmy, it's been a lonnnnnnng time....



time to bring some of those sat. lunch favorites back to the table then, don't you think?  as cw54322 reminds us, pickled herring and dill pickles come in small jars these days.  good rye, pumpernickel and sourdough breads can be found in most strip mall supermarkets, and i even found a great latke potato pancake mix recently--made by streit's (since 1925.)  we can revisit those good ol' days once in a while, even if it's just in a small way, even if it's just a small jar of vita herring in wine sauce....


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## taxlady (May 29, 2011)

I seldom eat picked herring here in the Montreal area. Most of the stuff Ikea sells is full of weird preservatives. When I finally do find something I like it's usually very expensive. The only reasonably priced pickled herring I can find (in just about any grocery store) is Mrs. Whytes (sp?) and I hate it. It's sweet - that's just wrong.


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## buckytom (May 29, 2011)

my wife thinks i'm nuts to like smoked and/or pickled fish for breakfast. 

as i'd mentioned before, pickled herring is great with fried eggs over norwegian labscaus (leftover meat/fish made into a sort of "corned beef" hash with sweet pickles chopped into it).

or smoked whitefish on rye for a breakfast sandwich. man, it's been a long time since i've had that. same goes for smoked mullet and homefries.

our cats used to love when i'd stop off and pick up tuna salad on a still warm bagel on the way home in the morning. it was always overstuffed with tuna, so there was plenty to go around. then we'd lay in a sunny spot cleaning ourselves, purring...

i think i'll have to bring them a treat soon.


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## Bolas De Fraile (May 30, 2011)

CWS4322 said:


> I'm still trying to get my head around cooking pickled herring....I don't cook pickles, and pickled herring to me is a "pickle" and yes, for breakie they are GREAT, but on their own, they are also great <g>, if you like them.


If you google Mitch Tonks Soused Makerel recipe it should interest you, I use it for herrings as well.


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## CWS4322 (May 30, 2011)

Bolas--are you using herring filets or are you using pickled herring in that?


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## Bolas De Fraile (Jun 1, 2011)

Whole Herring or Mackerel.


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## vitauta (Jun 9, 2011)

i just answered my own question about reusing pickled herring sauce. smile. i added sliced red onion and cubed english cucumber to a jar of leftover pickled herring wine brine.  two days later i opened a jar of fully flavored and surprisingly crunchy pickled onions and cucumbers, and contemplated my next vita herring purchase....


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## quelle4 (Dec 15, 2011)

To make marinades for pickled herring is so easy and is a very common thing to do in Sweden. Make an herb-garlic sauce utilizing sour cream, a touch of mayo, fresh garlic and fresh herbs. Put the picked herring in the cold sauce and let sit for a few hours in the fridge before serving. Another really nice option is mustard herring: mix two or three mustards with honey and dill, add herring. 

Either serve on top of hard bread or with boiled potatoes. Delicious and very easy to make in advance.


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## buckytom (Dec 15, 2011)

quelle, is that with raw fish, or has the fish been cooked in some way : steaming, smoking, boiling, frying, acid cooking, etc.?


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## quelle4 (Dec 15, 2011)

This method would be used with herring that's already been pickled. I would just buy picked herring and make sauces for it, however of course you could pickle your own herring, and then flavor it in different ways.


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## quelle4 (Dec 15, 2011)

Other very popular Swedish marinades (or sauces) for herring include curry, tomato, lemon. You commonly have two schools of thought: cream or non cream based sauces.


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