Chef Joost
Gebakken Schol
A whole North Sea plaice, dusted with flour and fried in butter, is the Dutch weeknight fish at its plainest and best: crisp skin, sweet flesh, potatoes waiting.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Hollandse Nieuwe
Created by
Hollandse Nieuwe is June on a tail: young, fat herring, lightly cured, cleaned at the stall, rolled through onion, and eaten standing up before ceremony can ruin it.
Main Dishes
Dutch
Special Occasion
Celebration
Quick Meal
10 min
Active Time
0 min cook•10 min total
Yield4 servings
In Yerseke the tide table decided mussels, but herring belonged to another calendar: the first true days of June, when fishmongers set out their flags and grown adults began discussing fat percentage with the seriousness other nations reserve for wine. The sea sends many fish. This one arrives with a date attached.
The name already tells you what matters. Hollandse Nieuwe means Dutch new herring, not new because the fish is young in a sentimental sense, but because it is the first herring of the season, caught after spring feeding has filled it with fat and before spawning changes the flesh. But let me tell you a secret: the dish is not the onion, not the little Dutch flag, not the theatrical dangling by the tail. It is the cure. Salt, cold, and time turn a raw fish into something tender, silvery, and clean, with the faint sweetness of the North Sea still inside it.
You do not improve Hollandse Nieuwe at home. You respect it. Buy it from a fishmonger who cleans it in front of you, eat it the same day, and keep the knife-work almost insulting in its simplicity. Diced onion sharpens the richness, rye bread steadies it, and a pickle is allowed if your household has strong opinions. I prefer the first one standing up, outside if possible, holding it by the tail. A dish without its story is half a meal, and this one built harbors.
Dutch herring wealth rests on kaken, the gutting method refined in the late Middle Ages in which the gills and entrails are removed while the pancreas is left to help the fish mature enzymatically in salt. By the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, this technique let Dutch fleets preserve herring at sea and dominate the North Sea trade, helping finance the maritime economy that later fed the Golden Age. Under modern Dutch rules, Hollandse Nieuwe must be maatjesharing with at least 16 percent fat, cured in brine, frozen for parasite safety, and sold only during its proper season.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
Hollandse Nieuwe herring
Quantity
4 whole
cleaned, tail left on
white onion
Quantity
1 small
very finely diced
Dutch pickles (augurken) (optional)
Quantity
4 small
dark rye bread (optional)
Quantity
4 slices
unsalted butter (optional)
Quantity
as needed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Hollandse Nieuwe herringcleaned, tail left on | 4 whole |
| white onionvery finely diced | 1 small |
| Dutch pickles (augurken) (optional) | 4 small |
| dark rye bread (optional) | 4 slices |
| unsalted butter (optional) | as needed |
Equipment Needed
- •Sharp small knife for onion
- •Chilled serving plate
- •Small shallow dish for onion
Instructions
- 1
Buy the herring
Buy Hollandse Nieuwe from a fishmonger who keeps it properly cold and cleans it to order, with the tail left on. The flesh should look silvery and moist, never dry at the edges, and it should smell cleanly of the sea, not sharply fishy. If someone offers you new herring outside the season, the calendar is already arguing with the plate.
Ask when the herring came in. Good fishmongers answer without drama, because freshness is not a secret they need to protect. - 2
Dice the onion
Dice the onion very small and spread it in a shallow dish or on a small plate. Onion here is not decoration, it is balance: its sharpness cuts the rich fat of the herring the way a squeeze of lemon cuts butter, only more Dutch and less theatrical.
- 3
Serve it cold
Lay the cleaned herring on a chilled plate with the onion beside it, not buried under it. Add pickles if you like their sour snap, and rye bread with butter if this is lunch rather than a harbor snack. Keep everything cold until the moment you eat.
- 4
Eat by the tail
For the old way, hold the herring by the tail, roll the fillets lightly through the diced onion, tilt your head back, and eat from the top down in two or three bites. If you prefer a plate and knife, nobody sensible will object. Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple: cold fish, sharp onion, clean hands, no fuss.
Chef Tips
- •Hollandse Nieuwe is a June pleasure. The tide sets the menu, and so does the calendar; outside the season, buy good maatjesharing and serve it honestly as herring, not as the new catch.
- •The fish must have been commercially frozen for parasite safety. Do not cure fresh raw herring at home unless you know the legal freezing standards and have equipment that actually reaches them.
- •Diced onion should be fresh and small. Large chunks shout over the fish, and old onion turns bitter in exactly the place you wanted brightness.
- •Jenever is the old companion, cold beer is the easier one, and black coffee is perfectly respectable if you are eating herring at the market before noon.
Advance Preparation
- •Dice the onion up to one hour ahead and keep it covered in the refrigerator; longer than that and it loses its clean bite.
- •Buy the herring the day you will eat it. Keep it refrigerated and serve it cold, preferably within a few hours of purchase.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 180g)
Calories
300 calories
Total Fat
16 g
Saturated Fat
5 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
10 g
Cholesterol
60 mg
Sodium
1100 mg
Total Carbohydrates
23 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
18 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from North Sea Fish & Zeeland Shellfish
Browse the full collection
Chef Joost
Gerookte Paling (Dutch Smoked Eel)
Golden smoked eel on buttered bread, the old feast food of Holland's wet country, where rivers, peat ditches, and the former Zuiderzee once set the table.
Chef Joost
Gestoomde Makreel
The Dutch fishmonger's mackerel is not boiled in silence but cooked in smoke, rich, oily, and honest, the kind of fish you eat on bread before lunch becomes complicated.
Chef Joost
Hollandse Garnalen met Citroenmayonaise
The smallest shrimp on the Dutch table carries the largest bit of coast: sweet North Sea grey shrimp, cooked at sea, peeled by hand, and served without fuss.