• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

VARIATION

Chop the herring into small dice and place in a large jar with 2 chopped onions and 1 chopped apple. Add 2 bay leaves, crushed, 3 tablespoons of vinegar, and 1/2 cup of dill and parsley mixed. Top with sour cream, cover, and chill for 24 to 36 hours. Serve as hors d’oeuvre.

PICKLED HERRING

6 herring in brine

Onion slices

Bay leaves

Cayenne pepper

Sliced lemon

1 cup wine vinegar

1/2 cup white wine

2 tablespoons prepared mustard

1 teaspoon sugar

Prepare the herring as above. Place a layer of the fish in a large dish, add a layer of onion, a bay leaf, a dish of cayenne, and a layer of lemon slices. Repeat.

Mix the vinegar, wine, mustard, and sugar and bring to a boil. Pour this over the fish. When cool, cover and chill for several days.

VARIATIONS

1. Omit the vinegar and sugar and double the white wine.

2. Arrange the herring in the dish with onion rings. Blend 2/3 cup of Dijon mustard with 1/2 cup olive oil. Season with a dash of cayenne pepper and 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill. Add 1/2 cup white wine. Pour this sauce over the fish, cover, and chill for 2 days.

HERRING SALAD

There are many versions of this dish, all good and all excellent changes from the usual supper or buffet dish.

3 herring in brine

4 potatoes, cooked and diced

5 beets, cooked and diced

2 tart apples, sliced

1 onion, diced

1 or 2 dill pickles, diced

11/2 cups cooked veal, diced

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup wine vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

Coarsely ground black pepper, to taste

Hard-cooked eggs

Wash, soak, and prepare the herring as above. Remove both the bones and the skin. Cut the flesh into small dice and combine with all the other ingredients. Mix well; chill thoroughly.

Serve on a bed of greens and garnish with hard-cooked eggs.

Smoked Herring

Smoked herring come in fillets. They are rather heavily smoked and should be trimmed and soaked in water, water and milk, or white wine for several hours. The length of time you soak them will depend on how much smoky taste you like. I recommend soaking the fillets in a mixture of half water and half milk.

HERRING IN OIL

This is the customary way to serve smoked herring. After they have soaked for 2 hours or more, remove them from the liquid and dry them. Arrange a layer of the fillets in a dish, top with a layer of sliced onions and then sliced carrots. If you wish to be elaborate, scallop the edges of the carrot slices. Add several bay leaves. Repeat these layers. Cover the fish and vegetables with olive oil and chill for 48 hours.

Serve the fillets on lettuce with lemon quarters. Have some good German or French potato salad — made by pouring oil and vinegar over the hot sliced potatoes.

HERRING SALAD, RUSSIAN STYLE

Make a potato salad: Mix sliced cooked potatoes with finely cut onion and parsley and dress with oil and vinegar. Arrange this on a large platter. Top with a layer of sliced tart apple dressed with oil and vinegar. Arrange the herring fillets on top in a lattice design. Surround with quartered hard-cooked eggs, quartered tomatoes, and sliced cucumbers marinated in a sweet-sour dressing. Serve with sauce vinaigrette (page 36) heavily laced with grated horseradish.

KIPPERED HERRING AND BLOATERS

Both kippers and bloaters are herring. The bloaters are simply older and fatter. I think that the kippers available in the fish markets are far superior to the canned variety.

Both kippers and bloaters are best if heated through. They may be placed in a baking dish, skin side up, dotted with butter, and warmed in the oven. Or you may dot them with butter and heat under the broiler flame. Be careful not to overcook them or they will be decidedly dry and uninteresting.

Serve them with scrambled eggs and crisp toast and you have a very good breakfast. Personally I prefer tea, rather than the usual coffee, with this breakfast menu.

Kingfish

This giant, which may weigh as much as 75 pounds, is a relative of the Spanish mackerel. It preys upon lesser