Herring
Herring have been a
staple food source, especially for northern Europeans, back to 3000 B.C. There are numerous ways the fish is served and many regional recipes: eaten raw, fermented,
pickled, or cured by other techniques. The fish was sometimes known as two-eyed steak.
Environmental Defense suggests
Atlantic herring (
Clupea harengus) to be the most Ecological choice for eating.
Nutrition
Herring are very high in healthy long-chain omega 3 fatty acids,
EPA and
DHA. They are also very low in the toxins
PCBs,
dioxins, and
mercury.
Pickled herring
A very popular Scandinavian food item, pickled herring has been around for a long time. Most herring curing at home uses a two-step curing process. Initially, herring is cured with salt to extract water. The second stage involves removing the salt and adding flavorings, typically a vinegar/salt/sugar solution to which ingredients like peppercorn, bay leaves and raw onions are added.
Once the pickling process is finished and depending on which of the dozens of classic herring flavorings are selected, it is usually enjoyed with dark rye bread, crisp bread, or potatoes. This dish is a must at
Christmas and
Midsummer, where it is enjoyed with a
snaps.
In the middle ages the
Dutch developed a special treat known in English as
soused herring.
Pickled herrings are also common in
Ashkenanzi Jewish cuisine, perhaps best known for
forshmak salad known in English simply as "chopped herring".
Rollmops
The word
Rollmops, borrowed from
Dutch , refers to a
pickled herring
fillet rolled (hence the name) into a
cylindrical shape around a piece of pickled
cucumber or an
onion.
Fermented
In Sweden, Baltic herring is fermented to make
surströmming.
Raw
|
Raw herring roe is often used for sushi or eaten by itself |
A typical Dutch delicacy is raw herring (actually enzyme-cured) with raw shredded
onions. To stop
parasites, the herring has to be deep-frozen before the curing process.
Herring is also
canned and exported by many countries. A
sild is an immature herring that are canned as
sardines in
Norway.
Very young herring are called
whitebait and are eaten whole as a delicacy.
Other means
A
kipper is a split and smoked herring, and a
bloater is a whole smoked herring. Both are staples of
British cuisine.
In Scandinavian,
Herring soup is also a traditional
soup.
Figuratively, a
red herring is a false lead in a
mystery. In this context,
red means smoked, and a smoked herring has such a strong smell that it can be used to create a false scent that causes
hunting dogs to lose a track.
See
Atlantic herring for videos of feeding juvenile herring, catching
copepods.
*
Underwater video (looping) of a school of
Atlantic herring Clupea harengus on its migration to their spawning grounds in the
Baltic Sea.
*
Soused herring*
Goldstripe sardinella*
* [
1]
* [
2]. This study won the
Ig Nobel Prize in 2004.
*
Atlantic Herring from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute
