Fresh green herring, pickled sweet and sour

Ingredients for 7 servings:

• 1 ½ kg herring fillet(s), fresh or frozen (double fillets)
• ¾ liter white wine vinegar
• ¼ liter white wine, semi-dry
• ¾ liter of water
• 1 large pointed pepper
• 1 large carrot(s)
• 4 large onions
• 2 large garlic cloves
• 1 piece(s) ginger, 2 x 2 cm in size
• 4 bay leaves
• 2 tbsp, heaped sugar, brown
• 15 juniper berries
• 3 carnations
• 8 allspice berries
• 1 tsp, heaped coriander seeds
• 1 tbsp, heaped mustard seeds
• 1 tsp, heaped thyme, dried
• 10 black peppercorns
• 1 ½ liters of water
• 100 g sea salt

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Rest period approx. 7 days; Cooking/baking time approx. 10 minutes; Total time approx. 7 days 1 hour 10 minutes

Double or butterfly fillets of herring, also suitable for further processing into cream herring.

The basic idea of ​​this recipe is to be able to pickle herring yourself, avoiding the very strong vinegar taste of store-bought herring fillets and still retaining some of the fish’s flavor. In this case, I used frozen double herring fillets (Kaufland, 2 bags of 750 grams each). The two bags contained 6 and 8 double fillets, depending on the size of the fish. The difference from a single fillet is that when removing the backbone, care was taken not to cut through the skin of the fish, so both fillets are still connected by the skin. Preparation and brine pickling: Thaw the fish completely, rinse briefly, drain, and pat dry with kitchen paper. While thawing, prepare the cold brine, in which the fillets will now “swim” in the refrigerator for 2 to 2.5 days. You’ll need about 100 grams of pure sea salt (without iodine) for 1.5 liters of water and 1.5 kilos of fish. The fillets need to be completely covered by the brine, which should be fine with this amount. I use a sealable plastic container measuring 30 x 20 x 12 cm for the brine and then for the vinegar solution. The marinade is best prepared on the second day so it can cool down well before marinating the fish. Cut the onion into approximately 3 mm wide rings or half rings. Halve the pointed peppers lengthwise, trim and cut crosswise into approximately 5 mm strips. Peel the carrot, halve lengthwise and cut crosswise into approximately 2 mm pieces. Finely slice the piece of ginger and the garlic cloves. Crush the juniper berries with a flat knife. Lightly caramelize the sugar in a suitable saucepan. Deglaze with the white wine and add the water. Immediately add the white wine vinegar along with all other ingredients and bring the marinade to a gentle boil. After about 10 minutes, remove from the heat and set aside. After about 2.5 days, remove the fillets from the brine, rinse briefly, and pat dry. Pour some of the cold marinade and vegetables into the marinating container and layer the fillets, alternating them with the fillets. The fillets must be completely covered with cold marinade (the marinade is more intense warm than cold during marinating, so keep this in mind). Leave the fish in the marinade for about 4-5 days before serving. Season the vinegar before marinating and adjust as needed.