Herring

Hareng

What it is

The fish that built cities. The Hanseatic League ran on salted herring, Amsterdam is said to be built on its bones, and a fourteenth-century Dutchman's method of gutting it at sea gave the Netherlands a two-century commercial advantage.

In the kitchen

Smoked, salted or soused, it wants something starchy and something sour alongside — potato and onion, or apple and cream.

Goes with

Potato Onion Cream Apple Dill Cider vinegar Rye flour Black pepper

Same species

Matjes herring Smoked herring Kazunoko Herring milt

Also used with

Camelina oil Vitelotte potato Beer vinegar

In season alongside

Ajvar Albacore American lobster Black trumpet Bonito (katsuo) Arctic char

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