Pickling herring / rollmops

[Blether]

Two fat herrings await in the fridge. Pickle and cook a la Marguerite Patten (1.5 hours) or cold pickle only a la Jane Grigson (4 days) ? We're easy as far as the timing's concerned.

[helenjp]

As far as texture is concerned, cold pickle would be my choice. Somewhere on eGullet I entered a milk & vinegar pickle for small aji which should also work...will look it out but not in time for your herrings.

[Blether]

By a unanimous decision, then, raw-pickled herring:

I didn't refresh the onions as directed (Jane Grigson's method) - I like the ones from the pickling tub.

Lovely fish, and I was delighted to be able to leave out dill pickles and indeed dill in any form. On the other hand what I did use for pickling spices - black & white peppercorns, mustard seeds, chilli, coriander - is maybe too subtle in the prescribed amount. Next time, more.

This is a pretty huge herring, by the way - two of them filled a square 1.1L tub. Both turned out to be cocks, and luckily the roes were still around when I got to reading a little further and finding several approaches to preparing them. The last week featured lots of soft-roe paste (pate, with butter, cayenne, lemon), on toast.

Edited July 19, 2010 by Blether (log)

[dougal]

... or cold pickle only a la Jane Grigson (4 days) ? ...

"Fish Cookery" has all manner of suggestions for pickled Herring apart from the Bismarck-style Rollmops it seems that you went with.

There's even a suggestion of doing either Herring or Mackerel in what I would call a Gravadlax cure (salt, sugar, peppercorns, dill and optionally a little brandy, but which Mrs G names as "Home pickled".

Anyone tried that with something other than Salmon?

[Blether]

... "Fish Cookery" has all manner of suggestions for pickled Herring apart from the Bismarck-style Rollmops it seems that you went with...

The cover of my copy says 'Jane Grigson's Fish Book'; inside it's copyright to her, 1993, and it's published by Penguin. A tremendously thorough piece of work it is, too. She describes Bismarck herrings as pickled cold in spiced vinegar, and rollmops as rolled up and pickled cold in jars, in spiced vinegar.

I have to confess I dropped the roes into the pickle tub over the first night, for want of better ideas. Otherwise I'd have been more tempted to try 'friture de laitance' which she describes as 'one of the best dishes in the book'.

Edited July 20, 2010 by Blether (log)

[Domen]

Could anyone post a recipe here or at least directions for pickling herring?

[dougal]

Could anyone post a recipe here or at least directions for pickling herring?

There are so many variations on a theme!

Alan Davidson talks about "at least 150" named varieties, but in North Atlantic Seafood he wimps out and gives just three!

Jane Grigson's (Fish Cookery, Penguin, 1985 reprint edition) suggestion for Rollmops, as referred to upthread, is here transmuted by me --

Make a (cold) brine with 2oz of salt and a pint of water.

Remove head and tail from 6 fresh herrings, and debone and clean them. Rollmops might be expected by Mrs G to be made with the whole (twin fillet) fish, but in my experience, rolling a single-side fillet is common - and easier! ("Bismark" style is single fillets, cured flat, not rolled.)

Put the fish (not rolled yet) in the brine for two or three hours - somewhere cool, like the fridge.

Meanwhile, make and cool a marinade by very briefly bringing to the boil one pint of (wine or cider) vinegar with some aromatics. She suggests 1 tablespoon of pickling spices (including some dried chilli), plus 3 bay leaves and some peppercorns (a teaspoonful?). (The ingredients for Schwartz's off-the-shelf pickling spice mix are: Coriander Seed (40%), Yellow Mustard Seed, Dried Chillies, Allspice, Ginger, Black Peppercorns (5%), Bay Leaves (4%).)

Let the brew cool completely, before draining and drying the fish.

You are going to roll the fillets around a core of thinly sliced onion and some pickled cucumber/gherkin/cornichon.

So, slice a big onion and select/trim enough appropriate bits of cucumber.

After you've rolled them up, you might want to secure them with a half (for space, not economy) of a cocktail stick.

Now find a non-metallic dish or jar, of an appropriate size to hold those rolls snugly.

Pack them in and cover/submerge them with the marinade, bits included.

Then just leave them in the fridge (dish covered, and fish submerged) for "at least four days".

Before service, she suggests draining and adding fresh sliced onion and chopped parsley, plus optional soured cream. Rye bread or pumpernickel, plus butter, to accompany.

You can riff on this as you choose.

You could vary the brining to adjust the saltiness.

You could sweeten the marinade with sugar or sherry or whatever. Maybe even use wine, cider or a court bouillon, wholly or entirely, instead of vinegar.

Dill, juniper, cloves, coloured peppercorns and allspice are some of the things you might consider adding to the marinade.

There are recipes that start with fried herring (Bratheringe), and others that involve poaching the fish in the marinade ('soused' herrings).

Its all a matter of variations on your theme!

Hope that helps.

Do report back on what you try!

[Baron d'Apcher]

Fresh Maine herring rollmops.

Butterflied, carefully, like anchovies.

Resting with coarse sea salt overnight.

Bound around a pickle and cold pickled with aromatics.

[patrickamory]

Oh my gosh Baron those look incredible. Lovely photographs too.

Where did you source the Maine herring, or is it local to you?

[jayt90]

The rollmops guide above was timely for me, as I had two rainbow trout fillets to marinate.

Since riffs were encouraged, I made a few changes.

No coriander or Romanian spices on hand, so I used pepper, bay leaves, onion, thyme and parsley, with Heinz cider vinegar, after the initial brining.

I have just checked them after 4 days curing in the fruit cellar, and compared to a commercial herring in my fridge, Feature brand.

The Heinz marinade is much more mellow than the harsh but sweet Feature herring in wine marinade.

The trout is firmer, almost chewy while Feature herring chunks are soft. More time in the fridge may alter the trout.

I couldn't roll the fairly broad trout fillets, so they are cut in chunks, skin on.

Photograph to come, in a few days when they are ready for a nice light lunch.

Edited January 15, 2014 by jayt90 (log)

[Baron d'Apcher]

Matjes. Brined then pickled young "virgin" herring. Some pickled onions and allspice.

[Baron d'Apcher]

Pickled herring.  Austrian crescent fingerling potatoes, cress, little kale and mustard sauce.