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Pickled Herring

A pickled herring prepared by salting, frying, and preserving in vinegar, water, oil, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,226 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Pickled Herring

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean and wash the herring fish.

  2. Place the fish in a colander and sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Let it stand for several hours.

  3. Wash the fish again and dry it.

  4. Roll the fish in flour and fry in hot fat or oil until golden.

Pickle and store

  1. Serve warm with lemon or place in a stone jar.

  2. Add bay leaves, whole black peppercorns, and raw onions to the jar.

  3. Boil equal parts vinegar and water, then pour over the fish.

  4. Add the fat used for frying to the jar.

  5. If storing for several weeks, add extra fat to cover the fish and exclude air.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Fish + oniontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Herring fish
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming firm and flaky when fried and pickled.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the fish, firming its flesh before frying and pickling.
Flour
Forms a light coating that browns during frying and helps seal in moisture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the fish and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Raw onions
Contributes sharp, pungent flavour that mellows as the fish pickles.

The step that matters

Pour the boiled vinegar and water over the fish. The pickling liquid must be equal parts vinegar and water as written. Its acidity preserves the fish, and covering the fish fully with fat when storing for weeks keeps air away and slows spoilage.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, flour, onion, vinegar):

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Limefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, flour, onion, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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