LL-L "Delectables" 2003.11.15 (07) [E/S]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 15.NOV.2003 (07) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
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From: Thomas byro <thbyro at earthlink.net>
Subject: LL-L "Delectables" 2003.11.15 (05) [E]

> From: Thomas byro <thbyro at earthlink.net>
> Subject: LL-L "Delectables" 2003.11.14 (13) [E/LS]
>
> does anyone have a good recipe for herring salad?  Quite frankly, my
mother
> was not a very good cook.  However, her herring salad was outstanding.  It
> was very strong in flavor and all the herring salad I have eaten in
> restaurants seems a pale imitation.
>
> Thomas Byro
>
> ----------
>
> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Delectables
>
> Thomas Byro (above):
>
> > does anyone have a good recipe for herring salad?
>
> Basic question: Was it white or red herring salad?  There's an enormous
> difference.
>
> For strong flavor, you ought to have steamed, cubed and pickled celery
root
> (celeriac) in the white one and good pickled and cubed red beets in the
red
> one, and chopped *good* kosher pickles in both, aside from good,
> unsweetened, cubed vinegar-cured herring filet.
>
> Regards,
> Reinhard/Ron

Ron

White? I didn't know there was such a thing.  It was red, with lots of
beets. I do remember that she used to get the herring in a little wooden
keg.  I assume that the herring was in brine but i am not sure.  To my
knowledge, the herring was never cooked.  This leads me on to another
thing, Bratherring.  I can get it here in Manhattan in a tin  at Schaller &
Weber but it is not the same as the stuff  that my mother used to make.
Properly prepared, I could probably eat herring three times a day and die
happy.  It is the king of fish.

thomas Byro

----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Delectables


Tom (above):

> White? I didn't know there was such a thing.

Yep.  We tended to buy it, a bit of the white and a bit of the red on
whole-grain bread for supper.  Both types use sour cream, sometimes
mayonnaise, sometimes a mixture of the two.  The white type does not contain
beets but white vegetables, such as celeriac, turnip and parsnip.  Both
types contain cubed pickled cucumber, either vinegar-cured or salt-cured
(the latter of which is the real, good traditional kosher pickle, *without*
vinegar, folks, not the garbage they sell as "kosher pickles" in American
supermarkets these days).  Both types of salad use vinegar-cured (i.e.,
uncooked) herring, namely _Bismarkhering_.

> This leads me on to another
> thing, Bratherring.  I can get it here in Manhattan in a tin  at Schaller
&
> Weber but it is not the same as the stuff  that my mother used to make.

Hmmm ... German _Brathering_ and Lowlands Saxon _braadheyrn_ <Braatheern> --
literally "fried herring" -- can mean more than one thing.  However, given
your particular upbringing, Tom, I assume that you are referring to the
North German type that is preserved in vinegar after frying.  Yep, folks.
This may sound really weird to other people.

My mother used to make them.  She wasn't a good cook either -- rest her
soul -- but she was a better cook than her mother (which didn't say much
either, no matter what a sweetheart that one was).  This was a dish she
could prepare pretty darn well.  This was at a time when herring were really
cheap, poor folks' fish, _snyder-karpen_ (<Sniederkarpen> "tailor's carp")
or _schouster-karpen_ (<Schoosterkarpen> "shoemaker's carp") as it is
nicknamed in Lowlands Saxon (Low German).  (Yes, I know I'm dating myself
again.)  There's a Yiddish folksong about learning Hebrew, really about
double standards -- לאָמיר אַלע ×–×™× ×’×Ÿ _Lomir ale zingn_ 'Let us all sing' --
that says that when you say Hebrew דגים _dagim_ 'fish' (pl.) you mean קראַףּ
_karp_ 'carp' for × ×’×™×“×™× _negidim_ 'rich folks' and ×”×¢×¨×™× ×’×œ×Ö·×š _heringlax_
'herring' (dim. pl.) for ×§×‘×¦× ×™× _kabconim_ 'paupers'.  This is one of the
instances in which I prefer being a pauper, because I don't particularly
care for carp (or other freshwater fish) other than made into געפילטע פיש
_gefilte fish_ ('stuffed fish', i.e., Ashkenazi-style pickled fish balls).

My mother would come home from the fishmonger's with a whole bunch of fresh
herring wrapped in newspaper, de-scale them, gut them, flour and salt them
and panfry them until crispy.  Some of these would be our lunch that day.
(Yes, fried fresh Atlantic herring are delicious; in my opinion, Baltic and
Pacific herring doesn't measure up.  And we would be crazy about fried
herring roe and ... what's the technical term? ... the semen ... but at the
time I didn't know what that was.)  The rest of them would be "pickled," or
"soused" -- LS _in-legd_ (<inleggt>), German _eingelegt_, literally "layed
in."

This is where the recipes differ.  Basically, what you do is prepare a
concoction that at a minimum contains water, white vinegar and salt.
Ideally, you should add bay (laurel) leaf, yellow mustard seeds, pepper
corns (white or black), juniper berries and raw onion rings.  You submerge
the fried herring in this for at least one week.  Don’t worry if the once
crispy skin ends up all soft, wrinkly and ugly.  It will, and it’s supposed
to be that way.

Does this sound familiar, Tom?  Give it a shot!  You can do it, provided you
can find decent and fresh herring in New York City.

The type of herring I miss most is _bükkel_ (<Bückel>, German _Bückling_),
slow- and cold-smoked, golden-colored herring.  Up here in the Seattle area
they sell things that look like it but don't taste anything like it.  Yuck!
I've given up.

A jalouse wir lief Lawlands cuisins athort the auld Norsea in bonnie
Scotland dae ferlie things tae/wi herrin an aw, makin thaim maistlie intae
kipper, "twa-eed (beef) steak" (puir folk's fuid an aw?).  Weel, appearinlie
Scots his mair byous names for herrin as Laich Saxon ... "white herrin,"
"halflin," "mattie," "matfull" ... an eek-names like "Dunbar wether,"
"Glescae bailie," "(Glescae) magistrate" ... bit that's anither speak,
"Lexicon," A jalouse.

Yes, I'm overdue for dinner again.  Does it show?  ;-)

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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