Matjes
Soft salted herring fillets served with apple, red onion and a soured cream dressing, ready in 40 minutes with no cooking.
Photograph credit: Matjes fish by RLievi · Pixabay Content License · Pixabay
The Method for Matjes
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Soak the herring fillets in the milk for 30 minutes if they are very salty. Pat dry.
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Mix the soured cream, yoghurt, lemon juice, dill and sugar and taste.
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Lay the fillets on a platter and scatter with the apple and onion.
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Spoon over the dressing and serve with the rye bread.
Keep an Eye on These
- Taste a fillet first and soak if too salty.
- Add the apple at the last moment so it stays pale.
- Serve very cold.
About This Recipe
Most home matjes comes out too salty, and the fix is to rinse the fillets and taste one before serving. Matjes are young, lightly cured herring fillets, soft and mild, sold in tubs in northern European shops, and they are eaten with little more than apple, onion and cream.
If the fillets feel very salty, soak them in cold milk for 30 minutes, which draws out the salt and leaves the fish silky. Pat them dry. Slice a tart apple thin, with the skin on, and a red onion into rings. Mix the dressing before you plate the fish, from soured cream, yoghurt, a squeeze of lemon, dill and a pinch of sugar. Taste it, since the sharpness of the apple and onion changes how much lemon you need.
Lay the fillets on a platter, scatter with the apple and onion and spoon over the dressing. Serve at once with boiled potatoes or dark rye bread. The dish is best eaten fresh and cold, on a warm day, and keeps for 1 day in the fridge.
To Go With It
Rye bread · Boiled potatoes · Cold beer · Aquavit
Storing Leftovers
Keeps for 1 day in the fridge.
Questions People Ask
How long does Matjes take to make?
10 minutes of preparation and of cooking, plus 30 minutes of soaking, so allow 40 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 4.
Matjes Nutrition Facts
Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: part of the energy comes from foods, or weights per item, with no recorded source. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.
First published ; last changed .
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