Place of origin | Netherlands |
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Main ingredients | Herring, vinegar; any of cider, wine, tea, sugar, herbs (usually bay leaf), spices (usually mace), chopped onion |
Soused herring is raw herring soaked in a mild preserving liquid. It can be raw herring in a mild vinegar pickle or Dutch brined herring. As well as vinegar, the marinade might contain cider, wine or tea, sugar, herbs (usually bay leaf), spices (usually mace), and chopped onion.
The word 'soused' can also describe a marinated herring that has been cooked. [1] The herring is usually baked in the (vinegar) marinade (but can be fried and then soaked in the marinade). It is served cold. This is usual in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. [2]
The soused herring (maatjesharing or just maatjes in Dutch, or Matjes/matjes in German and Swedish respectively) is an especially mild salt herring, which is made from young immature herrings. The herrings are ripened for a couple of days in oak barrels in a salty solution, or brine. The pancreatic enzymes which support the ripening make this version of salt herring especially mild and soft. Raw herring pickled in vinegar are called rollmops.
As of 2015, within the EU, Dutch made Hollandse Nieuwe, Holländischer Matjes and Hollandse maatjesharing have TSG Certification [3] and German produced Glückstädter Matjes, produced in Schleswig-Holstein has PGI certification. [4] As a pickled herring it can form one course of the traditional twelve-dish Christmas Eve supper in Poland.
This process of preparing herring (known as "gibbing") was developed in the Middle Ages by the Dutch. Herrings are caught between the end of May and the beginning of July in the North Sea near Denmark or Norway, before the breeding season starts. This is because herrings at this time are unusually rich in oils (over 15%) and their roe and milt have not started to develop.
The brine used for Dutch soused herring has a much lower salt content and is much milder in taste than the German Loggermatjes. To protect against infection by nematodes of the genus Anisakis, European Union regulations state that fish should be frozen at −20 °C for at least 24 hours. [5] In the modern day, soused herrings can therefore be produced throughout the year.
The Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad has for more than thirty years organized a competition whereby the quality of soused herring was evaluated. [6] In 2017, there was a controversy over this competition, as an economist produced two working papers accusing the newspaper of biased testing. [7] As a consequence, the competition was discontinued. Subsequently, statisticians have argued that the economist's claims relied on questionable statistics. [6]
Through a cut in the throat, the gills and part of the gullet are removed from the herring, eliminating any bitter taste. The liver and pancreas are left in the fish during the salt-curing process because they release enzymes essential for flavor. The herrings are then placed in the brine for approximately 5 days, traditionally in oak casks. They require no further preparation after fillet and skin removal and can be eaten as a snack with finely sliced raw onion and pickles.
As skin removal requires experience, fillets or double fillets should be attempted first. The soused herrings are silvery outside and pink inside when fresh, and should not be bought if they appear grey and oily.
Whereas salt herrings have a salt content of 20% and must be soaked in water before consumption, soused herrings do not need soaking.
In the Netherlands soused herring is most often served as a snack, most frequently plain, or with a garnish of diced raw onion. Whole herring is often eaten by lifting the herring by its tail and eating it upwards holding it over the mouth. Soused herring dishes in Northern Germany are traditionally served with potatoes boiled in their skins, French beans, finely sliced fried bacon and onions. It is also common in Germany to eat soused herring with sliced raw onions in a bread roll, in a dish called Matjesbrötchen .
In some regions (e. g. Holstein), it is served on dark bread with a cowberry and cream sauce. Soused herring can also be served with cream or yogurt sauces containing onions and gherkins, or in salads.
In Sweden matjessill is traditionally served with boiled potatoes, sour cream, chopped chives, crisp bread and snaps. Boiled eggs are popular together with this dish that is most traditionally served on Midsummer's Eve - Finland has a similar custom but silli is not associated with crisp bread. Nowadays most Swedes and Finns eat herring which comes in cans and are sliced and with added sugar. The Swedish matjessill is most often more strongly spiced than other varieties.
Polish cuisine is a style of food preparation originating in and widely popular in Poland. Due to Poland's history, Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to be very eclectic, and shares many similarities with other national cuisines. Polish cooking in other cultures is often referred to as à la polonaise.
Danish cuisine originated from the peasant population's own local produce and was enhanced by cooking techniques developed in the late 19th century and the wider availability of goods during and after the Industrial Revolution. Open sandwiches, known as smørrebrød, which in their basic form are the usual fare for lunch, can be considered a national speciality when prepared and garnished with a variety of ingredients. Hot meals are typically prepared with meat or fish. Substantial meat and fish dishes includes flæskesteg and kogt torsk with mustard sauce and trimmings. Ground meats became widespread during the industrial revolution and traditional dishes that are still popular include frikadeller, karbonader and medisterpølse. Denmark is known for its Carlsberg and Tuborg beers and for its akvavit and bitters, but amongst the Danes themselves imported wine has gained steadily in popularity since the 1960s.
Russian cuisine is a collection of the different dishes and cooking traditions of the Russian people as well as a list of culinary products popular in Russia, with most names being known since pre-Soviet times, coming from all kinds of social circles.
Rollmops are pickled herring fillets, rolled into a cylindrical shape, often around a savoury filling.
Pickled herring is a traditional way of preserving herring as food by pickling or curing.
Romanian cuisine is a diverse blend of different dishes from several traditions with which it has come into contact, but it also maintains its own character. It has been influenced mainly by Turkish but also a series of European cuisines in particular from the Balkan Peninsula and Hungarian cuisine as well as culinary elements stemming from the cuisines of Central Europe.
Smørrebrød, smørbrød "butter bread" (Norwegian), or smörgås "butter goose" (Swedish), is a traditional open-faced sandwich in the cuisines of Denmark, Norway and Sweden that usually consists of a piece of buttered rye bread, topped with commercial or homemade cold cuts, pieces of meat or fish, cheese or spreads, and garnishes.
Norwegian cuisine in its traditional form is based largely on the raw materials readily available in Norway and its mountains, wilderness, and coast. It differs in many respects from continental cuisine through the stronger focus on game and fish. Many of the traditional dishes are the result of using conserved materials, necessary because of the long winters.
Pickling is the process of preserving or extending the shelf life of food by either anaerobic fermentation in brine or immersion in vinegar. The pickling procedure typically affects the food's texture and flavor. The resulting food is called a pickle, or, if named, the name is prefaced with the word "pickled". Foods that are pickled include vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, meats, fish, dairy and eggs.
Cypriot cuisine is the cuisine of the island of Cyprus, shared by both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
Czech cuisine has both influenced and been influenced by the cuisines of surrounding countries and nations. Many of the cakes and pastries that are popular in Central Europe originated within the Czech lands. Contemporary Czech cuisine is more meat-based than in previous periods; the current abundance of farmable meat has enriched its presence in regional cuisine. Traditionally, meat has been reserved for once-weekly consumption, typically on weekends.
Cured fish is fish which has been cured by subjecting it to fermentation, pickling, smoking, or some combination of these before it is eaten. These food preservation processes can include adding salt, nitrates, nitrite or sugar, can involve smoking and flavoring the fish, and may include cooking it. The earliest form of curing fish was dehydration. Other methods, such as smoking fish or salt-curing also go back for thousands of years. The term "cure" is derived from the Latin curare, meaning to take care of. It was first recorded in reference to fish in 1743.
A pickled cucumber – commonly known as a pickle in the United States and Canada and a gherkin in Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand – is a usually small or miniature cucumber that has been pickled in a brine, vinegar, or other solution and left to ferment. The fermentation process is executed either by immersing the cucumbers in an acidic solution or through souring by lacto-fermentation. Pickled cucumbers are often part of mixed pickles.
Wurstsalat is a tart sausage salad prepared with distilled white vinegar, oil and onions. A variation of the recipe adds strips of pickled gherkin. It is generally made from boiled sausage like Lyoner, stadtwurst, Regensburger Wurst or extrawurst. It is a traditional snack in Southern Germany, Alsace, Switzerland and Austria.
A meatball is ground meat (mince) rolled into a ball, sometimes along with other ingredients, such as bread crumbs, minced onion, eggs, butter, and seasoning. Meatballs are cooked by frying, baking, steaming, or braising in sauce. There are many types of meatballs using different types of meats and spices. The term is sometimes extended to meatless versions based on legumes, vegetables or fish; the latter are also commonly known as fish balls.
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