pickled Herring

[Mtn.Ghost]

  Does anyone have a good pickled herring recipe? How about a place to buy fresh herring not the salted frozen stuff. Would like to hear about any pickled stuff veggies, eggs, sausages and such    

[bowhunterforever]

I haven't had pickled herring in years

[Mtn.Ghost]

Do you by chance remember how?

[NRA4LIFE]

This is good:

Pickled Herring

-          4 pounds of herring, cut into bite-sized pieces
-          7 cups water
-          1 cup course salt
-          white vinegar
-          2 ½ cups sugar
-          1 cup dry White Wine
-          1 large onion, thinly sliced
-          ¼ cup pickling spices
-          1 gallon jar

Fill gallon jar with 7 cups water and 1 cup course salt, stir contents until dissolved.
Add cut-up herring to jar and refrigerate for 48 hours.
Drain and empty jar and rinse herring well.
Return fish to empty jar and cover with white vinegar, refrigerate for 24 hours.
Remove the fish from jar, but save the vinegar.
Boil 4 cups of the vinegar for 2 minutes, remove from heat and add 2 ½ cups of sugar.
Stir until dissolved and let cool.
Add ¼ cup of pickling spices and 1 cup of White Wine.
Layer fish in a jar, alternating with thin slices of onion.
Completely cover with liquid.
Let stand in refrigerator for 3 weeks.

See the other thread on Beer Joint eggs for pickled egg ideas.

[Skillet]

You can substitute mountain whitefish for the herring - per my grandad (RIP), that's "Norwegian Grandpa approved."

We would go up to the Kettle River in the winter, get a mess of whitefish, and make pickled "herring" in 3 gal ice cream tubs.

[Mtn.Ghost]

Thanks for the pickled herring recipe sounds like a dandy I'll be sure to try it as soon as I can find a source for fresh herring , I think I will just try to catch my own. I caught a bunch of them off the Edmonds Pier once and used them for salmon fishing but they are kinda small 3" or so maybe if I get out in the boat and fish the bait balls I can get some larger ones. Thanks again.   

[turkey buster]

sory guy,s but pickled herring

[Mtn.Ghost]

Skillet, thank's for the white fish idea, never had white fish. I have caught a ton of them on the Chewuch but never looked at them as tasty . I do know one thing, any info about fish from an old Norwegian is the real deal. May your gramps rest in peace, thanks for sharing.

[Mtn.Ghost]

Hey Turkey Buster maybe you can come along and do some chummin' for me   

[jeepster]

you cant forget allspice!!! just a couple of cloves of it will do the trick

gawd i havent had good pickled herring in ages...

where do you get the salt herring?

we used to use a similar recipe on salmon too... i wonder if you could pickle smelt.... my grandpa is a swede and i grew up making this stuff.... we used to make it right in time for christmas smorgasbord 

[Mtn.Ghost]

Jeepster, you can get frozen salted herring at most fish markets or in grocery stores with good seafood dept. Sure you can do smelt too, I wish I had a bunch of smelt they are awesome smoked.

[Skillet]

Jeepster, you can get frozen salted herring at most fish markets or in grocery stores with good seafood dept. Sure you can do smelt too, I wish I had a bunch of smelt they are awesome smoked.

That is the truth.  Anybody seen those 3" herring around lately, anyway?  Used to see them at the Everett fishing pier pretty regularly, but havne't in years...

[NRA4LIFE]

You can definitly use smelt.  Try not to rough them up too much because they tend to fall apart in the brine.

[sisu]

Make me all hungry for pickled herring, Jarsberg cheese on an open face Norsk sandwich. Yummmmm

[jeepster]

i have never tried smoked smelt... in the colder months, you can get buckets full of smelt and herring out of cornet bay and off the beaches of deception pass but ive lost interest mainly due to lack of recipes...

hey i got a good one for ya guys on the subject of scandinavian fish dishes.... fiskagraten... take a whitefish (cod or halibutt) bake it till about 1/2 way done, then make a dill whitesauce, place fish and whitesauce in a baking pan, like the edges of the pan with mashed taters, pour in the whitesauce, then sprinkle cheese on the top and bake till bubbly, toss in some shrimp or crab in it.... 

[Kent Hunter]

Exactly what NRA4LIFE said about the smelt. I actually like them a bit better than the herring. They are both scrumptious though. When I was a young guy working at Jorgensen Steel there was a Latvian guy that would pickle smelt for me. He would pickel the whole limit for me and we would split it 50/50.

[NRA4LIFE]

Yup, we would make gallon jars full of them back in WI.  Sometimes on Lake Michigan we'd get garbage cans full of them (no limits at the time) and you just could not fry that many all the time.