Roter Heringssalat

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Medium saucepan for potatoes
• •Medium saucepan for beetroot
• •Sharp knife
• •Large mixing bowl
• •Non-reactive storage bowl with lid

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the herring

   Taste a small piece of herring first. If it is sharply salty, soak the fillets in cold milk or cold water for 30 to 60 minutes, changing the liquid once if needed; the soaking pulls back the preserving salt without washing away the fish. Pat the fillets very dry, because wet herring loosens the dressing and makes the salad taste flat.

2. 2

   Cook the roots

   Boil the beetroot whole until a knife slips in easily, then cool, peel, and dice it. Boil the potatoes separately in their skins until just tender, then cool before peeling and dicing; hot potato drinks too much dressing and breaks apart, while cold waxy potato keeps its edges in the salad.

   Use waxy potatoes, not floury ones. Floury potatoes are right for Knödel, dumplings, but here they crumble and turn the dressing pasty.
3. 3

   Dice evenly

   Cut the herring, beetroot, potato, apple, and pickles into small even cubes, about 8mm. Even dice is not decoration; it puts salt, sour, sweet, and earthiness on the fork together, so one bite does not taste only of beet and the next only of herring.

4. 4

   Mix the dressing

   Stir the sour cream, mayonnaise, pickle brine, vinegar, mustard, sugar, and black pepper until smooth. Do not salt it yet. The herring and pickles are already carrying salt, and Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss, season, fat, salt at the end, is how you avoid bullying the whole bowl.

5. 5

   Fold the salad

   Fold the herring, potato, apple, pickle, and onion through the dressing first, then fold in the beetroot last. The beet will colour everything anyway, but adding it last keeps the pieces distinct long enough to coat properly instead of mashing the bowl into red paste.

6. 6

   Rest and serve

   Cover and refrigerate the salad for at least 6 hours, overnight is better. The rest is not waiting around; the salt settles, the apple and pickle sharpen the cream, and the beet stains the dressing that proper Christmas pink. Taste before serving and add salt only if it truly needs it. Finish with chives or dill and the quartered eggs if you're using them.

Chef Tips

• •Buy salted herring or mild Matjes, not a harsh vinegary rollmop. Rollmops bring their own sharp marinade, and then the apple, pickle, and sour cream have no room to speak.
• •Cook the beetroot whole and peel it after cooling. Cut it before boiling and the colour bleeds into the water, which is a foolish place to put the best colour in the dish.
• •Use tart apples, Boskoop if you can find them. A sweet soft apple disappears into the cream; a tart firm one cuts the fish and keeps its bite.
• •Nicht aus dem Glas, not from the jar, applies to the dressing too. Sour cream, pickle brine, mustard, and vinegar take one minute to stir together, and they taste like the salad instead of factory sweetness.
• •Serve it with dark rye or boiled potatoes. Weggeworfen wird nichts, any leftover salad becomes tomorrow's lunch on buttered Schwarzbrot, dark rye bread.

Advance Preparation

• •Make the salad 6 to 24 hours ahead; it improves as the beet, herring, apple, and pickle settle into the dressing.
• •Keep it covered in the refrigerator and serve cold. Stir once before serving, then taste for salt only at the end.
• •Leftovers keep 2 days refrigerated. After that the apple softens and the dressing thins, and the salad has given you what it had.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 290g)