Sour Herring

[Guest guest]

The maatje recipe got me inspired ... I put some up on salt and started looking

for some other recipes for it and came up with this one. Good ferment!

http://www.recipecottage.com/preserving-meats/sour-herring.html

> Surstromming

(Swedish sour herring)

This recipe for " surstromming " (Swedish sour herring) is for real.

It is fermented herring, like sauerkraut with just enough salt to

select for a particular sort of fermentation. When bought in cans,

they bulge, so there's some sort of anaerobic fermentation still

going on. I wanted a recipe this spring, because I salt down herring

(for pickled herring) during the run here on Cape Cod and wanted

to try my hand making surstromming. Surstromming originated, the

story goes, when a ship returning an abundance of herring ran low

on salt and the locals developed a taste for the spoiled result.

Ulven is an old scandinavian word for the wolf. The modern word

for wolf is " varg " . But, the surstromming manufacturer uses the

old version, ulv for wolf, and by adding the article at the end of

the word you get " Ulven " for " the wolf " . That is, " Roda Ulven " says

" The Red Wolf " . Ulv is also used as a name, pretty common among

the vikings I believe, and still used. The o with umlaut in Roda

is pronounced oe, like the o in the german brotchen for little

bread. Another similar sound would be how you say the o in word.

Kerstin got a surstromming recipe from the Red Wolf surstromming

producers. It was very difficult to get a precise answer about

the concentration of the brine, the guy she talked to talked about

degrees, and did not know if these degrees represent percent. But

read the following and come back with questions if things are

critically unclear. Perhaps we can find out.

You need stromming. The fish should not be of sill-type. That is,

not too fat. You also need coarse grained salt. A 60 liter plastic

barrel was recommended. It should have a lid equipped with a priming

cock, a sort of ventilator or regulator to prevent the barrel to

explode when the fermentation process begin. About 35 to 40 kg

stromming is suitable for the 60 l barrel.

The brine concentration. They use a salt measurer, a salinometer

of some sort, having a scale expressed in degrees. An approximate

way to get the right brine concentration was to make holes in the

bottom of a bucket, fill it with the coarse grained salt, and sieve

the water through the salt...which should give a " saturated " brine

of 23 " degrees " .

Gut the fish and take away the heads too.

Day 1.

Fill the 60 l barrel to one third, about 20 l, with the 23 degree

brine. Put in the fish, add salt on the top. Let it rest for a

few hours. Then stir every third hour for the rest of the day.

Day 2.

The brine should be much less salty, about 11 degrees, because much

of the dissolved salt should be in the fish by now. Keep 5 l of

the brine, the call it the blood brine. Sieve the fish and throw

away the remaining brine. Make a new brine, 20 liter, 12 degrees.

Fill the plastic barrel with one third brine, 20 l, these 20 l

should include the 5 l blood brine, and add the fish. Put on the

lid. Keep it 17 to 18 deg C. You must use the ventilator the

prevent it from exploding. It will be ready in mid August. It

will stink.

Heidi Jean