Re- SC - pickled herring

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Par Leijonhufvud and Mark Harris wrote:

> > > Around Xmas you are supposed to go berzerk and make "fifty-eleven"
> > >kinds (I am rather partial to the mustard versions myself). Traditional
> > >item on a smorgasbord.
> >
> > Is this a mustard sauce on the herring? Or is the herring cooked in
> > a mustard sauce?
> 
> Not cooked, but with mustard added to the pickle (never done any myself,
> but I can look up the recipie if anyone is interested. As if that was a
> real question in this forum... But it is, AFAIK, OOP or at least
> undocumented).

Count me in, please! I've never had pickled herring in mustard sauce,
but I'm quite fond of the canned herring steaks in mustard. I guess
that's one of my secret revolting food vices, eh ;  ) ? So, if you have
a recipe, I'd love to get hold of it.

> > I thought the pickled herring was. That was one reason I wanted to try it.
> > But I am open to trying modern recipes too. I haven't been able to find salted
> > or dried herring yet.
> 
> Haven't seen any dried in the stores, but the salted stuff (for the
> do-it-yourself enthusiast) is available in virtually all supermarkets
> over here.

Obviously, if dried herring, as opposed to salted, exists, then it
exists, but I'd be inclined to think that dried herring would go rancid
VERY quickly, with its high fat content. Salt herring I am familiar
with, and also the herring that is salted and then smoked till it
resembles a chunk of wood...what the official "herring terminology" for
that product is, I don't know. "Smoked herring" doesn't seem enough to
distinguish it from things like kippers, bloaters, etc.

> The question is *what* they did with it once upon a time. I seriously
> doubt they all either ate it raw, or looked at it and decied to call out
> for pizza.

FWIW, I remember reading that the concept of salting herrings on board
ship, to preserve them both on the trip back to port, and also beyond
that, dates back to some time in the 14th century. One of the problems
that you'll encounter with trying to find ways that salt fish and meats
were used, as that they appear often to have been used interchangeably
with fresh fish and meats. You obviously would desalt them, which every
decent cook would know how to do, and then often you would proceed as
for the fresh equivalent item. There are some recipes that call for
things like stockfish, which give pretty detailed instructions on how to
reconstitute and/or desalt it (speaking generally since stockfish is
normally just air-dried), but I'm not aware of any recipes for herring
that specify salt herring be used. There are one or two in which the
proviso that the herring be fresh is pretty clearly implicit, such as
one which calls for frying the herring and making a sauce by squeezing
the juice from the head. I believe there are some late-period recipes
for pies calling for herring and fruit, but, again, I'm not sure offhand
whether they are for fresh, salt, or pickled herring.

Adamantius
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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