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Herrings, Nordenfjold
Remove the skin from four pickled, fat female herrings, then soak them in cold water over night. Drain, split open through the stomach, remove the roes and place them in a small bowl with enough fresh cold milk to cover them. Cut off the heads, split the four herrings in two, remove the spinal bones, then cut each half in two diagonally and lightly wash with a little white vinegar. Cut two medium white onions in thin rings and place them at bottom of a hors d'oeuvre dish, arrange the herring filets on top and keep in a cold place until required.
Drain roes from the milk, finely chop and place in a bowl. Add two very finely chopped, sound shallots, half teaspoon each chopped chives and parsley, one saltspoon cayenne pepper and half saltspoon grated nutmeg. Mix well, then pour in one tablespoon each good white vinegar and thick cream. Thoroughly mix again for one minute, spread prepared roes over herrings, decorate all around dish with thin slices of lemon and serve.
A cold hors d'oeuvre built on salt-cured herring, with the roes turned into a spiced spread. The success of it rests entirely on how salty your herring is when you start.
- Know which herring you have"Pickled" here means barrel-salted herring, packed dry in heavy salt, which is why it needs an overnight soak. If you are working from a modern jar of herring in vinegar or wine sauce, it is already mild and already boneless; skip the soak, the skinning and the boning entirely, and rinse only briefly.
- Fat female herringsA roe herring, as opposed to a milter, whose soft roe (sperm sac) is the pale, creamy one. Roe-bearing salt herring is sold as such by Baltic, Dutch and Scandinavian delis; if you cannot get roes, a jar of lumpfish roe or a few tablespoons of soft herring roe from a tin will stand in for the topping.
- SaltspoonA quarter teaspoon. One saltspoon of cayenne in the small amount of chopped roe here is aggressive by modern taste — start with an eighth and adjust, since the herring itself brings salt and the roe is mild.
- The milk soakNot decoration. Milk pulls salt and some of the metallic bitterness out of the roes and softens them enough to chop smoothly. Twenty to thirty minutes is enough; drain and pat dry or the cream mixture will be watery.
- Vinegar, twiceThe quick wash of white vinegar on the fillets firms the flesh and brightens the flavour; it is a rinse, not a marinade, so do not let the fish sit in it. Use a plain white wine vinegar rather than distilled, which is harsh at this concentration.
- Parasite noteHeavy salting and long brining is traditionally credited with killing Anisakis larvae, but salt alone is not a reliable kill, and lightly pickled or marinated herring depends on freezing instead. Buy from a supplier who states the fish has been frozen to commercial standards, and do not substitute fresh raw herring.
- Assembly and timingThe onion rings underneath sit beneath the fish as it chills; the recipe says only to keep it in a cold place until required. Spread the roe mixture shortly before serving, as the cream and vinegar mixture will not hold well on standing.
- YieldFour herrings makes sixteen diagonal pieces — enough for six to eight as part of a cold table, four as a first course with rye bread and butter.
The name may come from the Norwegian nordenfjelds, "north of the mountains," the old term for the country beyond the Dovre range, though this is conjecture rather than established etymology; the dish belongs to the Scandinavian and North German cold table that supplied European restaurants with much of their herring repertoire. Salt herring was a major preserved protein of the North Sea and Baltic for centuries, shipped in barrels and reconstituted at the far end of the trade by soaking. The treatment of the roes is notable: instead of being discarded or fried, they are chopped into a spiced cream and used as a garnish for the fish they came out of, the kind of economy that reads as refinement on a menu of hors d'oeuvre variés.