Home-Salted Herring
Shop-bought salt herring is often too salty, because for a producer salt is also shelf life. At home you can cure it to your own taste: 80 g of salt per litre of water gives a gentle cure that leaves the fish tender and needs no soaking afterwards.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 5 min
- Rest
- 48 h
- Total
- 48 h 25 min
- Servings
- 8
- Level
- Easy
- Per serving
- 220 kcal
Ingredients
Makes: 2 fish, 8 servings
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
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Step 1: Thaw slowly
Move the herring from the freezer to the fridge overnight. Fast thawing in water lets ice crystals tear the fibres and the fish turns mushy.
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Step 2: Boil the brine
Bring the water, salt, sugar and all the spices to the boil, simmer 3 minutes and take it off the heat. Boiling opens up the spices and makes the brine safe.
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Step 3: Cool it completely
Let the brine come down to room temperature, better still chill it. Warm brine starts cooking the surface of the fish and ruins the texture.
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Step 4: Prepare the fish
Remove the gills without fail — they are bitter and spoil the brine. Do not gut the fish: a whole herring cures more evenly and stays richer.
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Step 5: Submerge
Pack the fish into a glass or enamelled container, pour over the cold brine and weigh them down with a plate so nothing floats above the liquid.
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Step 6: Cure for two days
Keep in the fridge for 48 hours. After one day the fish is lightly cured; after two it has a full flavour and firm flesh.
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Step 7: Check it is ready
Cured herring feels springy, the cut surface is an even pinkish grey with no glassy translucent patches near the spine, and the backbone lifts away easily.
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Step 8: Fillet and serve
Take off the fillets, pull the pin bones with tweezers and serve with onion, oil and hot potatoes.
Tips & variations
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Tip
Use coarse salt only: iodised salt leaves a metallic note, and fine table salt weighs differently and over-cures the fish.
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Variation
For a spiced cure add a teaspoon of mustard seed and a few onion rings to the brine — closer to the shop-bought spiced style.
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Tip
Keep the finished fillets under a layer of oil so the edges do not dry out and darken.
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Storage
Whole fish keeps 5 days in the brine, filleted and oiled 3 days. Do not freeze the finished cured herring.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 8 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 220 kcal | 1,760 kcal |
| Protein | 18 g | 144 g |
| Fat | 16 g | 128 g |
| Carbohydrates | 1 g | 8 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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