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
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Rolmops (Dutch Pickled Herring Rolls)
Created by
Rolmops is the North Sea in a jar: herring, vinegar, onion, and patience, rolled tight for the old Dutch talent of making a small fish last.
Main Dishes
Dutch
Make Ahead
New Years
Budget Friendly
30 min
Active Time
5 min cook•48 hr 35 min total
Yield8 rolmops
In Yerseke, the tide table taught us what was fresh, but the pantry taught us what survived. Herring is both lessons at once. It arrives silver and quick from the cold sea, then becomes something sharper, stricter, more Dutch: salted, soured, rolled around onion and augurk, the little pickled gherkin that makes the whole thing snap awake.
The name already tells you most of the joke. Rolmops comes through German Rollmops, from rollen, to roll, and Mops, the pug dog, because somebody in the nineteenth century looked at a curled herring with its little skewered face and saw a dog. For obvious reasons, scholars do not always get invited to parties. But let me tell you a secret: the joke survives because the food is serious. Before refrigeration, vinegar was not decoration. It was time, bought in a bottle.
Use herring that has already been properly salted and parasite-safe, then give it a clean vinegar bath with onion, bay, mustard seed, pepper, and just enough sugar to keep the sourness from shouting. The rolling is simple. Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple. A strip of onion, a piece of gherkin, a tight curl, a wooden pick, and then the hardest instruction in Dutch cooking: leave it alone for a day or two. The vinegar must enter the fish, the onion must soften, and the jar must become one conversation.
Serve rolmops cold, with rye bread, boiled potatoes, or nothing but a fork and a clear conscience. It is New Year's food because it wakes you up after the old year has done its worst. A dish without its story is half a meal, and this one tells of quays, barrels, vinegar, winter tables, and a country that learned to keep the sea on the shelf.
Rolmops entered Dutch foodways through the same North Sea herring culture that shaped medieval Holland, but the rolled pickled form is most closely associated with nineteenth-century German and Dutch urban preserving traditions. The German name Rollmops, literally rolled pug, appears in that period, when bottled vinegar, rail transport, and commercial fish curing made sour herring rolls common in shops and taverns. In the Netherlands it became a practical borrelhap, a small drinking bite, and a make-ahead dish for winter tables, especially around New Year.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
salted herring fillets
Quantity
8
parasite-safe and ready to eat
white wine vinegar
Quantity
250ml
water
Quantity
150ml
sugar
Quantity
2 tablespoons
fine sea salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon
onion
Quantity
1 large
thinly sliced
pickled gherkins (augurken)
Quantity
8 small
halved lengthwise if large
bay leaves
Quantity
2
yellow mustard seeds
Quantity
1 teaspoon
black peppercorns
Quantity
1 teaspoon
allspice berries
Quantity
4
carrot (optional)
Quantity
1 small
thinly sliced
dark rye bread (optional)
Quantity
to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| salted herring filletsparasite-safe and ready to eat | 8 |
| white wine vinegar | 250ml |
| water | 150ml |
| sugar | 2 tablespoons |
| fine sea salt | 1 teaspoon |
| onionthinly sliced | 1 large |
| pickled gherkins (augurken)halved lengthwise if large | 8 small |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| yellow mustard seeds | 1 teaspoon |
| black peppercorns | 1 teaspoon |
| allspice berries | 4 |
| carrot (optional)thinly sliced | 1 small |
| dark rye bread (optional) | to serve |
Equipment Needed
- •Clean 1-liter glass preserving jar with lid
- •Wooden cocktail sticks
- •Small saucepan
Instructions
- 1
Check the herring
Taste a small corner of one herring fillet. It should be pleasantly salty, not punishing. If it tastes harsh, soak the fillets in cold water for 20 minutes, then pat them very dry. Do not begin with fresh raw herring unless it has been professionally frozen and cured for this purpose; vinegar is not a miracle worker.
- 2
Make the pickle
Put the vinegar, water, sugar, salt, half the sliced onion, bay leaves, mustard seeds, peppercorns, allspice, and carrot into a small pan. Bring just to a simmer, stir until the sugar dissolves, then take it off the heat. Let it cool completely. Warm pickle tightens fish into rubber, and we are preserving herring, not punishing it.
- 3
Roll the fillets
Lay each herring fillet skin-side down. Place a strip or two of onion and one piece of gherkin across the wide end, then roll the fillet firmly around it. Fasten each roll with a wooden cocktail stick. The roll should hold its shape without being squeezed dry; a rolmops is a curl, not a clenched fist.
If the fillets are very large, trim the ragged belly edge before rolling. The pieces will sit more neatly in the jar and cure evenly. - 4
Pack the jar
Set the rolled herrings upright or snugly on their sides in a clean glass jar, scattering the remaining raw onion between them. Pour the completely cooled pickle over the fish until covered. Tap the jar gently on the counter to release trapped air, then close it and refrigerate.
- 5
Wait and serve
Chill for at least 24 hours, and 48 hours if you can bear it. The fish firms, the onion loses its bite, and the vinegar settles into the herring instead of sitting on top of it. Serve cold with some of the pickled onion, a piece of dark rye, or boiled potatoes. This is food for a small plate, a sharp fork, and a glass kept properly cold.
Chef Tips
- •Buy salted herring fillets from a fishmonger who can tell you they are ready to eat and parasite-safe. Home vinegar pickling does not make unsafe raw fish safe.
- •Rolmops is better after two days and still good after four. After that the onion grows tired and the fish becomes too firm, which is the pantry telling you not to be greedy.
- •For New Year, serve it very cold with rye bread, boiled potatoes, or a small glass of chilled jenever. The sourness is the point: it clears the palate and, on certain mornings, the conscience.
- •The tide sets the menu, and so does the calendar. If you can get good early-summer herring, use it; in winter, rely on properly cured fillets from a serious fishmonger.
Advance Preparation
- •Make 24 to 48 hours before serving; the longer rest gives the cleanest flavor and the firmest roll.
- •Keep refrigerated and covered in its pickle for up to 4 days. Always use clean utensils when lifting pieces from the jar.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 140g)
Calories
220 calories
Total Fat
9 g
Saturated Fat
2 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
7 g
Cholesterol
30 mg
Sodium
1250 mg
Total Carbohydrates
21 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
12 g
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