 | | Description: | 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.
A very popular Scandinavian food item, pickled herring has been around for a long time. In preparation herring are cut into fillets and placed in a vinegar/salt/sugar solution to which peppercorn, bay leaves and raw onions are added. Once the pickling process is finished they are usually enjoyed on a dark rye bread slice. This dish is a must at Christmas and Midsummer, where it is enjoyed with a snaps.
In Germany, North Sea herring is pickled to make Matjes, or soused herring.
In the United States, pickled herring is often sold and consumed in a sour-cream based sauce, as well as in the more traditional wine- and vinegar-based marinades. These are known as rollmops.
In Scandinavian cuisine, a rollmop is formed by wrapping the herring around a piece of pickled cucumber and then skewering it with a toothpick.
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.
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.
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