Matjes herring

Hareng matjes

What it is

Matjes depends on a fourteenth-century Dutch technique called gibbing: the gills and most of the guts are drawn out, but the pancreas is deliberately left in, and its enzymes ripen the flesh from the inside in a light brine. The first barrels of the year are auctioned in June, and the fish must be young enough not to have spawned — which is what keeps it sweet, soft and barely salty.

In the kitchen

Serve it cold but not fridge-cold: ten minutes out and the fat softens and reads sweet. Raw onion, yes; vinegar, no — acid collapses the enzyme-ripened texture that separates it from a rollmop.

Goes with

Onion Potato Rye berries Cornichon Crème fraîche Dill Apple

Same species

Smoked herring Herring Kazunoko Herring milt

In season alongside

Albacore Mozuku Largehead hairtail (tachiuo) Acacia honey Salt marsh lamb Ajvar

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