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Salad

To Salt Herrings

A method of preserving herrings by salting them in brine and layering with coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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To Salt Herrings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the herrings

  1. Cut the herrings open and remove the roes.

  2. Wash the fish and soak them in brine for 12 to 16 hours.

  3. Remove the fish from the brine and drain them.

Pack and seal

  1. Pack the herrings in a keg or jar, layering with salt between each layer.

  2. Cover the top with salt and seal air-tight.

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

What each ingredient does

Herrings
The main fish, whose flesh cures and firms as salt and brine penetrate it.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and preserves the fish by inhibiting bacterial growth.
Brine
Carries salt into the fish evenly during soaking, seasoning and partially curing the flesh.

The step that matters

Soaking in brine for 12 to 16 hours. Brine that is too weak will not preserve the fish properly, while soaking too long can make it overly salty. The brine should be strong enough to float an egg, so salt penetrates evenly without over-curing the flesh.

“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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