The pickled herring available in grocery stores around here is Norwegian style in vinegar and I don’t really care for it.
I much prefer the Ukrainian/Polish/Russian style that is in oil with onions. It is a vital part of any proper zakuska. We eat the vingar kind when it is all that can be had, but it is a poor substitute.
Straight from the jar!
I loves me some rollmops!
My mother always used to get a jar of this and she was the only one who ate it but she also made a point to hide the jar in the back of the fridge. I think I tried it once straight out of the jar and it was okay but not good enough to risk stealing all my mom’s herring. The rollmops and all the other accouterments make it sound more interesting and now I want to try it again.
I think mom always tried to undersell it so we wouldn’t want to try it. I don’t think she ever bought the rollmops because she knew that a house of little German children with no aversion to preserved fish* would most definitely eat all of anything that was wrapped around a pickle.
*probably her fault anyway for always having sardines in the house.
Wiki says it’s part of Baltic, Nordic, Dutch, German, Czech, Polish, Eastern Slavic, Scottish and Jewish cuisine. So is everyone here who likes it from one of those cultures?
For the record, we’re from Wisconsin and my mom was German-Irish and my dad was German-Scottish-Italian. I don’t think he liked the herring though.
With black rye bread , it’s hard to find real Russian black rye bread today . The bread is a lot heavier and with butter on it and pickled herring that is a meal to me. Yummy!
I’m a fish-lovin’ kinda guy. And, I like my fish just like my cheese and my women—stinky. I like kipper snacks, I like caper-rolled anchovies, I even like fries with eyes. I like lox on my bagels, but prefer smoked whitefish salad on those Jewish donuts. I recently tried gefilte fish for the first time and although I finished the jar, I probably won’t buy any more (i.e. bland/boring). I have yet to try surströmming or hákarl…but, I’d probably like them.
So, I clicked on this thread with the best of intentions and realized I’ve never before tried pickled herring. Most of this thread’s postings made pickled herring sound like something I was destined to try and love. I was intrigued. So, I immediately drove to my local Publix grocery store and bought a small jar of Vita Wild Herring in Wine Sauce and a box of Triscuits.
I opened the jar about an hour ago, and was not impressed with the appearance: small rectangles of fish flesh with pallor and dehiscence, floating in a murky broth. I pierced one of the rectangles with my diminutive appetizer fork (I never leave home without it) and started to transport it to my mouth, but it fell apart mid-way and fell into the kitchen sink. So, I stabbed another piece and succeeded in transporting it into my gapping maw. Hmm…
It was…interesting. I can’t say whether I liked it, or didn’t like it. I’ll need to try a few more pieces before deciding conclusively. If I end up liking it and decide to buy more, I will tip my hat to the OP and thank him for turning me on to yet another stinky delicacy. But, if I end up hating it and throwing the remainder down the garbage disposal, the OP is going to owe me $3.99 for that damned jar of herring!
Orally.
That’s why it’s traditionally served with horseradish.
Hmm. This is odd, because the pickled herring I know and love isn’t that flaky. It’s quite firm and would never just fall apart. The texture is probably close to a piece of medium-rare steak. In other words, no chance of just falling apart.
Odd.
I was thinking this too, that never happen to me and I grew up having pickled herring , it never fell apart .
And yet another reason why I love the Dope. There’s a bastion of pickled herring lovers! Sweet mother of Og, I have found my people.
Pickled herring in either wine sauce or cream sauce served with saltines and cold Budweiser was a treat with my dad. Absolutely NO one that I currently know has any appreciation for pickled herring. I may go so far as to say they despise it and my breath when I eat it.
Gonna go get me some herring. Happy Father’s Day, Dad!
I have not had pickled herring, and has been posited in another thread, I am going to have to try it.
Crackers with horseradish sounds interesting.
Would that be a good combination for a beginner? Are they anything like the canned sardines I can get around here?
I loves me some fish.
A man who could not marry off his ugly daughter visited Rabbi Shimmel of Cracow. “My heart is heavy,” he said, “because God has given me an ugly daughter.”
“How ugly?” the Seer asked.
“If she were lying on a plate with a herring, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”
The Seer of Cracow thought for a long time and finally asked, “What kind of herring?”
The man, taken back by the query, thought quickly and said, “Er – Bismarck.”
Too bad," the Rabbi said, “If it was matjes, she’d have a better chance.”
– “Getting Even” by Woody Allen
Please enlighten me. What is the difference between wine sauce and cream sauce?
I can kind of guess the wine sauce part, but can you explain herrings in cream sauce.
I’m am ignorant of this. Do these sauces make it more palatable than just eating a raw herring off the dock? (Eww) Or off the BBQ pit?
Sorry to ask but to my knowledge, while I have eaten many fish, I don’t recall every catching or eaten a herring fish.
No, it just means you paid too much for the fish you ate! 
Agree. The jarred stuff I get (Pike Place no longer being convenient) has no chance of falling apart.
I think the horseradish is for gefilte fish. (I’ve only had it plain, and wrapped in bacon.) Crackers would be good; but as I said, I just eat them as they come from the jar.
They’re not really like sardines. Sardines are closer to tuna. Pickled herring, the kind I get (not in wine sauce or cream or anything) are closer to sweet pickles but not as crunchy.
You can add it to potato salad for a bit of a Russian touch. Also add dill and 10 times more mayo than is medically advisable, for that real Russian touch!
That’s salted herring, not pickled. Far, far superior!
Really it’s hard to explain unless you try it. It is nothing like catching and eating fish. They are sold as little square fillets in sauce. The wine sauce herring taste kind of like a fishy bread and butter pickle with onions, sort of sweet-sour. The cream sauce ones are less sharp, milder. I think it’s usually a sour cream sauce, but I don’t make them, I buy them so who knows. Go pick some up and try it.
I always ate them on a cracker but only because it slowed down the inhaling and made me eat less. Lately they come straight out of the jar on a fork, and if I am feeling patient they may land in a bowl in between the jar and my face.
On toasted dark rye. I really with the Swedish deli that used to be near here - they had the BEST pickled herring in cream sauce. Most of the other stuff around here is in jars, but he Swedish place made their own, and I’ve never found anything quite like it since.
Always as part of a larger meal, with all sorts of bits and bobs added in. That’s the way it pretty much seems to be served here. At least in people’s homes.
As much as it reminded me of anything I’d had before, it was probably closest to sushi, if it had been marinated in a pickling solution for a little while. Not intensely sour, and with the same raw fish texture and taste of sushi.
Essentially if you like sushi, you’ll probably like the pickled herring, and vice-versa.