I go down the list. “Best smørrebrød,” “king of smørrebrøds,” “serving the finest herring dishes since 1877.” The accolades continue, each proclaiming to be the worthiest of what Copenhagen has to offer. How am I to choose? There’s only one way to determine whether any of these places have the quality to support their assertions.
I’m not going to be convinced by medals displayed in their lobbies, or their names catalogued on some esoteric guide. I won’t accept celebrity endorsements or chef reviews. I can’t trust online surveys or even local recommendations. No. I’ve got to do the only thing I can to convince myself of the best herring in Copenhagen. I’m going to go on the great taste test.
The view at the first restaurant is sublime. Right by the waterfront white umbrellas shelter us from eager gulls. But, I mustn’t get distracted by ambience. The silver darlings arrive laid out on dark rye bread and blanketed by a snow of cilantro. They reek of vinegar and the sea…or is that the harbor I’m smelling? It’s my first go so I reserve judgment.
The second place is tiled with a lot of walnut furniture. My dish comes on a plank, presented like sushi: on the left toast points, in the middle fish, on the right mustard sauce. I’m intrigued by the presentation, but can’t tell the difference between the separate clumps of sliced seafood.
The third eatery serves me their combination platter on sixteen small ceramic salvers. Against the ash-hued terra-cotta background the elegant slivers topped with bright green dill and lemon wedges perch like stilettos at a shoe boutique. I’m afraid to ruin the look by shoving them into my mouth.
On and on it goes. Eventually, I’m too lost or too drunk on the flavorless glasses of aqua vita that go down like water to have an opinion on the best herring in town. Was it the triple sauces that I preferred? Or the one accompanied by a ramekin of capers? Or the ones displayed like petalled roses?
Taste, it turns out is impartial. There are only five that exist for humans: sweet, salt, bitter, sour and umami. Flavor, however, is subjective.
So who gets to decide what constitutes great flavor? Does one person’s love of fermented food translate if another person gets put-off by acrid taste? Can a lover of dairy trust the advice of the lactic intolerant? Why are vegetarian dishes compared to meat flavors to appeal to the masses?
Why is the use of heavy salt and butter seen as the epitome of haute cuisine by some? Shouldn’t spice blends be equally lauded in culinary academies? I try to implement parameters into my herring evaluation, but the overall metal feel on my tongue precludes any deep analysis. Other than that all the dishes were fresh and edible, I’ve come up with nothing.
Perhaps all awards and certifications restrict our collective imaginations because they inherently involve some level of gatekeeping. I get easily convinced by the stickers on my grocery products advertising “voted best biscuit since 1924,” “finest in the land from those who know,” “farmers choose Farmer’s Brand.”
In the end I’m the only one who can judge what tastes great to me. So, I’ll have to do the hard work of being my own taste-tester when I want to find ‘the best’ of any dish. It’s a challenge I relish when traveling but one I avoid at home, claiming lack of time and interest. But, if I don’t do the legwork of critiquing the food I consume, how will I ever truly know what tastes great?
BT’s HERRING 3 WAYS RECIPE
Serves 4 persons
Total Time: 20 minutes [Prep Time = 20 minutes]
Serves 4 persons
Total Time: 2 days 1 hour [Prep Time = 1 hour]
Serves 4 persons
Total Time: 20 minutes [Prep Time = 5 minutes, Cook Time = 15 minutes]
WHAT YOU NEED
Ingredients for Curried Herring
Ingredients for Pickled Herring
Ingredients for Fried Herring
- 350 grams herring fillets
- 1 Tbsp curry powder
- 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 70 grams mayonnaise
- 1 dL creme fraiche
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 Tbsp capers
- 1 tsp sugar
- salt and pepper to taste
- 400 grams Baltic herring
- 1 medium carrot
- ½ red onion
- 10 cm leek
- 12 whole allspice
- 1 dL 12% solution vinegar
- 2 dL sugar
- 3 dL water
- 4 whole Atlantic herring
- 2 Tbsp flour
- 2 Tbsp butter
- salt to taste
- white pepper to taste
WHAT TO DO
For Curried Herring
- Drain herring if necessary and cut into fillets.
- Fry curry powder in vegetable oil for 1 minute and allow to cool.
- Mix mayonnaise, creme fraîche, curry oil, and mustard seeds. Add capers.
- Season to taste with sugar, salt, and pepper.
- Gently mix the herring pieces into the curry mixture.
- Serve herring on dark rye bread slices with a sprinkling of fresh dill.*
For Pickled Herring
- Distill a large glass jar by washing it and boiling it for 10 minutes. Let it cool.
- For whole herrings, wash them, then put them in a tray with salty water for 30 min, making sure the saltiness is around sea level.
- Rinse the herrings, trim off the tail and fat part along the stomach edge. Cut herring fillets into bite-size pieces.
- Peel the carrot and chop into circles. Cut the onion and leek into thin slices.
- Prepare the brine by putting the spirit vinegar, sugar, and water in a saucepan and bringing to a boil. Then simmer until the sugar has dissolved. Let the brine cool.
- Layer the herring fillets, carrot slices, onion, and leek inside the jar. Add the whole allspice.
- Pour in the brine until it covers the herring completely.
- Seal the jar and place it in the fridge for two days.
- Enjoy with a sprinkle of dill on top. *
For Fried Herring
- Season herring fillets with salt and white pepper.
- Also mix salt and white pepper into flour. Place flour mixture on clean flat platter.
- Dredge herrings in flour mixture, coating generously on both sides.
- Heat one tablespoon of butter in a frying pan over medium heat until butter foams and almost begins to brown.
- Fry herring in butter for three minutes on each side, or until golden brown.
- Serve with jam or sliced lemon on the side.
* BT Tip: You can substitute fresh chopped parsley or diced chives for the dill.
How do food awards and recommendations affect your opinion about certain dishes and restaurants?
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You’ve convinced me that I should try herring – I think I had it a long time ago and didn’t like it. Yes, flavor is subjective! And I love curry so that recipe looks good. You’ve created a beautifully-composed post again! The text is lively and the images are wonderful. 🙂
What a compliment! I appreciate your kind words and look forward to hearing about how your new taste test for herring goes, especially with the curry.
I agree: Food has to be tasted. How else will we know if we like it or not?
However, I’ve tried herring a number of times, but the flavour is just too strong for my liking. I do believe I’m done with trying.
Your recipes, though, sound rather good.
I’ve definitely come to see food as another form of art while thinking about herrings…all worth trying, but we will have our individual preferences once we’ve tasted a dish, which in no way makes it better or worse than a different dish – just not for us. Thank you so much for sharing your herring story and for your kind words.
Ooh, this brings back good memories of all the delicious herring we sampled in Scandinavia. So much good eating, and your post is scrumptious. Love the photos and your story, Atreyee.
I appreciate your stopping by Jane and I’m happy to hear you enjoyed your own taste test adventure with Scandinavian herring. Take care.
Great questions! I ask the same about art. Why is someone’s squiggle amazing and someone else’s isn’t? As for herring, I live in a Nordic country but no thanks ☺️
Yes! I find myself asking this every time I’m looking at art in a museum. 😁
A Danish friend introduced me to herring at her Christmas celebration. It was some years back, but I remember loving it immediately. Though I don’t seek it out to make, I order it if it’s on a menu as an appetizer, supposed to be good for you too, I think. 🙂
Nice! I’m loving discovering all the different ways people get introduced to and have a relationship with herring from this post! Thanks for sharing yours. 🙂
Such a fascinating post on herring. I make it a point to try all foods before passing judgment. Your recipes sound sublime. Will have to try. Fish is a favorite in our household. Thank you for the post.
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me about herring! Ever since my first time trying it, I’ve been fascinated by its history and culture. Hope you will enjoy making the herring as well.
I have and do. Thanks. Introduction was during my student days in Heidelberg, Germany.
That’s a lot of herring! And it’s probably not the easiest food for a taste test. I suspect most of the different ways in which the palate is tickled are related to the sauce in which the herring is served, rather than the fish itself. But I might be wrong, having never done a similar taste test.
You are so right! Most of it was more about the sauce and less about the fish.
I am so in love with fish, I can’t wait to taste these ones you have here. Thank you for waking up my taste buds.
Happy to hear my post is inspiring your taste buds! Thanks so much for stopping by to read and chat about herring.
Oh you are so much more conscientious than I am. I’m not a foodie and try as best I can to avoid foods I don’t like when travelling. Hopeless with spicy food so you can imagine how restricting that was in India, Mexico, Thailand, parts of China, Myanmar. Always asking is it spicy? No no they tell me, and of course it is. Hopeless. Also can’t stand bitter.
So this post is so wonderful for me – your adventurousness with food, your willingness to try it all. And I really enjoyed the images you’ve collected for this.
In the end you’re right of course, what tastes good for one will be not so good for another.
Alison
Thank you, Alison. While I’m certainly not as adventurous as some when it comes to different foods, I am willing to try many things! I absolutely understand the spicy thing…in many a country like Thailand the spice level has been even too much for me. So I’ve had to tread carefully in my epicurean journey. Hoping this finds you safe and well.
I might challenge that there are only five flavors: sweet, salt, bitter, sour and umami. I submit there are two more: yum and yuk. For me, herring is yuk. For my mother, herring was yum. I guess taste isn’t genetic. (My folks loved coffee too; me, yuk.)
And I would say spice blends are more important than simply loading on salt or butter. How many different variants of curries are there? BBQ rubs? Marinades? Sauces? It’s make or break time there.
Haha, taste is definitely not genetic! I’m happy to have such a variety of spices easily available to me nowadays since I find them so much more intriguing to cook with then the “traditional” methods used in haute cuisine of certain Western European cultures. Not that I’m above a very nice simple pasta or omelette. But, the world of marinades, sauces, and chutneys always calls my name!
Oops, nearly missed you again! I’m not sure that I like herring at all. Do they have edible bones? I might just settle for an omelette. It really wouldn’t matter if I could be in Copenhagen.
Thank goodness you caught me! Yes, herring do have edible bones. But, an omelette sounds really nice as well and I agree — even without the herring I could easily hang out in Copenhagen. Wishing you well!
I totally agree that taste is subjective, and after too many samplings of any food, I, too, would be on overload. But you’ve expanded your culinary knowledge and that’s always good!!
Yes, indeed! I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to broaden my horizons when it comes to food. I appreciate you stopping by to read and chat with me!
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and since I often regard cooking as a form of art, I tend to agree with you about the subjectivity of our perception of a dish. Some like to be heavy on sour cream, others prefer the heat from their chilies. In some parts of the world it’s the purity of a produce that is well-appreciated, while on the other hand there are communities that won’t go light with spices. I personally feel that as I get older, I can appreciate different cuisines more. I get what makes different dishes unique and appealing.
Ah, how right you are. It’s a wonder I don’t consider how much food is another form of artistic impression…one available to practice upon for so many more of us than other art forms in daily life. I’m terribly lucky to have tasted so many different forms of this art in my life.
Fun post!
In this foodie time, there’s too much pressure on us to have opinions about what we eat. So often, the opinions I hear expressed are meant to signal one’s good taste rather than telling us much that is insightful or interesting about the taste of the food. So I’d urge you not to worry about critiquing and instead concentrate on savoring!
P.S.: Curious about the painting pictured here, I found out that the Van Gogh’s two herring are meant to be a satirical portrait of pesky gendarmes: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2021/12/03/the-secret-behind-van-goghs-satirical-herring-still-life
Thank you! I always learn something new about art whenever we have a chat! Thanks for the article link…off to discover more about these pesky gendarmes.
I am not a fan of herring, and have tried it in numerous ways in Canada, Iceland, Norway, Germany and Denmark (with and without akvavit). I can tolerate it and will eat it if necessary but I have never cared much for it. Given that I was raised near the ocean and herring was very common, I should be more inclined to enjoy it, but the tastebuds just don’t align!
I enjoyed reading about your taste testing experience, however. Cheers.
I can understand that! It is definitely an acquired taste, as I must admit is akvavit! Thanks so much for sharing your herring experiences with me! Wishing you a wonderful week.