Fried Herring in Vinegar

Name: Fried Herring in Vinegar
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: New Nordic
Ingredients: 200 g brown sugar; 2 dried bay leaves; 10 black peppercorns; 5 white peppercorns; 8 fresh herring, boned and butterflied (about 1.5 kg cleaned weight); 400 ml white vinegar (distilled, or apple cider vinegar); 1 red onion, thinly sliced; 1 tbsp chilli flakes (optional); 2 tbsp coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley; 50 g rye flour; 2 tbsp coarsely chopped dill; 50 g unsalted butter; 2 bronze fennel sprigs, to garnish; 2 tbsp Dijon mustard

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy
Ready in
1 hr 15

Appears in

Copenhagen Cult Recipes

By Christine Rudolph and Susie Theodorou

Published 2019

About

This herring dish is served chilled for lunch as a topping for rye bread. Add some of the pickled red onions and extra dill or parsley, if liked. This recipe was given to us by our friend Samina Langholz, which she adapted from her grandmother.

Ingredients

Brine

200 g brown sugar
2 dried bay leaves
10 black peppercorns

Europe
Denmark
Lunch
Fish course
Pescatarian
Nordic
Copenhagen

Method

Put the sugar, bay, peppercorns, chilli and 200 ml water, in a deep saucepan and heat to dissolve the sugar, stirring well. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. During the final 5 minutes, add the sliced red onion. Remove from the heat and add the vinegar. Cool.

Season the herring