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Photo by Elise Bauer
Herring spoils so fast it is almost always eaten salted, pickled or smoked. I’ve eaten (and made) herring in all these forms, but there is something special that makes pickled herring so popular, especially in Northern Europe. I think it’s because the acidic twang of the vinegar and lemon counteract the rich fattiness of the herring fillets — these fish are among the foods highest in healthy omega-3 fatty acids. The addition of spices, sugar and onion add a personal touch.
This particular recipe is for Swedish glasmastarsill, or glassblower’s herring. Why it is called that I have no idea. Best I can tell it is because this pickle is always put up in glass jars, with the silvery skin of the herring facing outward. Let’s face it, folks: For a pickled little bony fish, this is as pretty as it gets.
Most pickled herring recipes start with pre-salted herring — the kind that come in cans. If you use these, skip the salt in the initial brine and soak the fish in fresh water overnight. They’ll still be plenty salty.
Having some salt in the fish is important: I once made this recipe with fresh herring that I failed to brine, and they turned to mush within 2 weeks. A disaster. You need the salt to extract extra moisture from the fish and keep them firm.
I like these just as a snack, with pumpernickel or rye bread, potatoes of any kind, hard-boiled eggs — or just on a cracker.
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SWEDISH PICKLED HERRING
A classic recipe for Swedish pickled herring called glasmastarsill, or glassblower’s herring. Herring, sardines, smelt or whitefish can all be pickled this way.
Makes 3 pints
Prep Time: 1 day, 1 hour
Cook Time: 5 minutes
- 1/4 cup kosher salt
- 5 cups water, divided
- 1 pound herring fillets
- 2 cups distilled or white wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon mustard seed
- 2 teaspoons whole allspice
- 2 teaspoons black peppercorns
- 3 bay leaves
- 3 cloves
- 1 lemon, thinly sliced
- 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
Heat 4 cups of water enough to dissolve salt. Let this brine cool to room temperature. When it does, submerge the herring fillets in the brine and refrigerate overnight, or up to 24 hours. Meanwhile, bring the sugar, vinegar, the remaining cup of water and all the spices to a boil. Simmer 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and let this steep until cool.
When the herring have brined, layer them in a glass jar with the sliced lemon and red onion. Divide the spices between your containers if you are using more than one. Pour over the cooled pickling liquid and seal the jars. Wait at least a day before eating. Store in the fridge for up to 1 month.
These look delicious! I remember eating some very good herrings served in a mix of pickling liquid and sour cream. Hopefully I’ll get hold of some shad this season and try it.
I’d love to see how the fish looks if you cooked some diced beet in the pickling liquid to extract the red color and then pickled the fish in the resultant red pickle juice. I’ve got a few jars of quail eggs I did that way and they’re a beautiful pink color through the white.
SO under rated in the UK, but fantastic eating
Thanks for putting this one up, I must have a go myself
Cheers
SBW
Can I do the same thing with Northern Pike?
It’s time to head up to the Roanoke River.
Florian: If you do this with shad, slice the fillets into 1-2 inch strips. That will open up more surface area to dissolve the many bones.
Paul: That’d be cool! I know the Swedes do something like this, only I can’t remember what its name is, exactly.
Scott: Yes, only cut the fillets into thin strips, and remember pike have an extra set of bones. Do you know the “triple fillet” technique with pike? You get three long thin fillets, one on either side of the fish below the extra bones, then one on top that starts where the extra bones begin. Works like a charm with pike.
Carolina: Oooh, you have bluebacks in the Roanoke, too? God I miss those fish.
You can definitely pickle Northern Pike. I did it several years ago and documented the process on my blog. It’s one of my most popular posts to date. The process was not too unlike what Hank has here.
If you want to see my posts, start here:
http://www.journalofamnangler.com/2009/11/05/pickled-northern-step-1/
(I hope you don’t mind some shameless self-promotion on your blog, Hank.)
These jars are gorgeous! I love pickled herring, but have a serious yen for the creamed pickled herring my grandmother made (recipe lost to time – so sad!) Would you just drain these and add onions and sour cream? Or is it a different recipe altogether?
great little gifts to bring over at friends. Must be delicious on toasted sourbread toast. do you think it would be good with other small blue fish, like anchovies?
P.s. congrats on the recent nomination!
[...] Swedish Pickled Herring – I’m actually kind of a big pickled herring fan, but they have to be good. I had some in Amsterdam a few years ago that were pretty solid. It never even occurred to me to try to make them. Of course, finding herring would probably be my biggest challenge. I never thought pickled fish could look so good though. (@ Hunter Angler Gardner Cook) [...]
These look absolutely gorgeous! I’ve never tried pickling herring myself, but I definitely know my resource if I decide to!
So pretty! Have you ever tried using a little CaCl to maintain firmness of the fillets? Or does salt do a fine job by itself?
I used to make this at home in Finland all the time, but unfortunately I can’t get fresh herring here in Australia! Definitely my favourite and the shop bought herring is an ok substitute
It’s looks yummy!!!!!but where ?I can get raw herring in US? I tried 1000 times:(can you help me?
MNAngler: Thanks for sharing! We can’t get pike here in California, so it’s good to see someone else’s experience.
Cathy: I think you just add sour cream. I don’t like pickled herring in cream, so I don’t make it. Sorry!
Amelia: Thanks! Crossing my fingers for a win at IACP this summer! As for other fishies, yes, this will work with sardines, large anchovies, teeny mackerel, Great Lakes whitefish, big smelt, etc.
Heather: Never tried that, but brining the fish keeps them pretty firm for a month or so.
Maria: Heh. I think you are about as far away from herring as is humanly possible. There must be some sort of little fish that lives around Australia, though.
Olenka: You need to ask your fish market over and over and over, and be willing to but 20 pounds if need be; that happens a lot with special orders. See the comments above for other fish that will work with this besides herring.
Should one have to order 20 lbs, is there a way to store these that doesn’t involve the fridge? Can they be canned in a hot water bath? I’d imagine pressure canning would ruin the texture … but for those of us who don’t want to waste the electricity on an extra fridge (and who even feel a little guilty about the standing freezer in the basement) — what to do? They’ve been pickling herring for hundreds of years before there were refrigerators … any ideas?
Never tried this, what would be a better substitute of this fish? do you have any other sugesstions?
[...] a great recipe for pickled herring got me motivated to take a shot at sour cream marinated shad. Because shad is bigger than herring, [...]
You make it sound tempting, but I learned my lesson long ago – let someone else do the work! Perhaps I’ll use your recipe in Petersburg this year IF there’s an easier way to debone those silver critters.
http://otm-cruisenews.blogspot.com/2008/09/great-herring-experiment.html
SeattleDee: They are EASY to fillet! And you don’t need to deal with the teeny bones within the fillets because they are so small — the vinegar dissolves them to the point where you don’t even notice them.
This is just a thing of beauty! I have ben driving myself crazy trying to find raw fresh herring in Stockton, with no luck. It just isn’t the same with sardines or other little fish. Just not fat enough. I know you fished for these, but do you know if they can be bought somewhere in the Bay area?
Sorry, Ken. No idea. Season is pretty much over for them now, anyways. Next year I will gather a pile of ‘em and invite you over!
This past weekend I went out with my friend Jack and we fished with throw-nets and came home with 30 or so blueback herring. We split them evenly; I froze six to make stegte sild (pan-fried and marinated in a sweet pickling brine) and the rest I cleaned, chunked, and brined, and when I got home I made the Danish version of glasmastersill (which call glarmester sild). Same as yours, Hank, though with some leeks added and a slightly different ratio of vinegar to sugar to water. Nearly the same though!
Charlotte: if you’re interested in learning how Danes preserve herring, you can put this URL into Google’s Danish -> English translator and get a decent idea.
If you want to find more resources, the keywords are saltsild, høstsild, spegesild and the Danish for “how do I make” is “hvordan laver jeg.”
Cheers!
Ack, here’s the URL I meant: http://www.lykkeberg.com/map/Hjemsild.htm
I was recently in Sweden and had the most incredible herring in a creamy sauce with curry. Any ideas on what else might have been in it? I’ve never heard of a curry sauce for picked herring but it was to die for.
[...] Glasmästarsill/Glassblower’s herring [...]
It is not Glassblower’s herring it is actualy Glass-Master’s Herring (Glasmästarsill)
I’m about to make my first batch of pickled herring and this discussion has been very useful. My mother was Swedish, and it just isn’t a real holiday or major family get-together without my bowl of herring.
I have always bought jars of herring and mixed them with sour cream and sweet sliced onions. The last time I did it, I emptied a large jar of herring into a glass bowl, added more sweet onions, a couple cloves of crushed and minced garlic, red wine vinegar and a splash of Worcestershire sauce.
After a day, I drained and mixed with low fat sour cream and served on Triscuits. Wow.
i made this a week ago, using brined herring from http://www.nordichouse.com. (very very high quality brined herring–steep shipping, but if you order a lot of herring, it’s not so shocking.) some thoughts on the recipe in no particular order:
1) if you’re using brined herring (or salted herring), before pickling you’ll need to soak the herring in a couple changes of cold, fresh water–overnight, maybe longer. taste the fish–it should be salty, but not unbearably salty. (the saltiness will dissipate more as you pickle–the salt will equalize with the pickling brine; notice that the recipe doesn’t call for salt. if you’re using fresh herring you’ll need to add salt to the pickle.)
2) the recipe makes WAY TOO MUCH pickling juice–not the worst sin imaginable, but if you pack the herring carefully, you’ll end up throwing out at least half the pickling liquid if you use the proportions called for in the recipe.
3) lemons. my pickle is slightly bitter, more so than i care for, due to the amount of pith from the sliced lemons. if i had it to do over again, i’d carefully zest the lemons with a peeler, then remove the white pith and discard it. i’d add the meat of the lemons, and the zest (in large pieces).
a good recipe. thanks!
One of the easiest fish to find and pickle is the SMELT. It can be found in most supermarkets and is usually frozen and/or fresh. The larger ones look very much like herring.
Followed recipe used lime instead of lemon only because i had lime. Caught the herring fresh, plenty in Australia waters. Have only tasted batch after 4 days. Nice very impressed with taste ,but i think i need to wait just a little longer for full picking to get in to fish. The fish i caught were about 350grams and when filletted the thickest part of fillet is about 8mm thick. I take out all bones. The fish when tasted after 4 days was firm and had good taste. i think for good pickling sometines you have to wait a bit. (Sometimes hard) like wine you need a lot so you have some for later. Will comment in aweek or so.
Mimi – if you ever come back to read this… i found this link for curry herring at the Poulsbo Marina Market… http://www.marinamarket.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=109715
We never used vinegar for pickled herring. I always add whey from raw soured milk & salt, and leave it to ferment in a warm place for a day, then move it to the fridge. I think vinegar is just an imitation of the acidity created via lacto-fermentation.
Have some very fresh mackerel I’m about to try this recipe with. Planning a Scandinavian inspired feast with lots of home-grown/local ingredients for big family meal over Christmas hols. Hoping a bit of preserving and pickling now will make for a relaxed day next week. Thanks for lots of inspiration.
Just went ice fishing yesterday in Sweden (ljungskile) and caught 84 herring
Got alot of Pickling to do… preserve em till i get back to Cyprus.. anyone have any other good herring recipes?
Mike: Try this one, for Scottish oat-crusted herring: http://honest-food.net/2011/03/06/catching-the-elusive-herring/
It’s herring season in San Francisco, and the commercial harvest here takes only the roe for sushi and grinds the rest up for chicken feed, what a waste. Still, i managed to get a few pounds and tried this recipe. Wow. It makes the best pickled herring i ever ate. Many thanks.
[...] recipe we used, from Hunter, Gather, Cook begins with the fish already filleted. Ulysses, an avid fly fisherman, deftly demonstrated how [...]
Again, Anyone have info on processing pickled herring so they will keep without refrigeration? Hot-pack or pressure canning?
Im using shad . should it be skined ?
Jesse: I’m not sure I’d use shad. The bones may be too strong to dissolve in this pickle.
I have no choice,we cannot keep herring because of the fishing regulations I have to use hickory shad , should i skin them before pickling ?
Jesse: So you are in Virginia? Hmm… Scale the hickories but leave the skin on, remove the ribs and cut them into strips before pickling. That will open up more surface area to the vinegar. Hopefully it will work.
Grew up on the Isle of Man where herring was the main source of protein. My mother made the Manx version of pickled herring. The herring were boned, rolled and cooked in a mixture of vinegar, water, sugar and spices, in the oven, Result were beautifully firm and tasty fish usually eaten cold with salad.Probably Australian pilchards could be used in this manner
Used above recipe with Aussie Herring (West Australia) – also known as Tommy Rough in Eastern States. Comes out well. Yum on a good dark rye bread with beer (Aussie of course!)