Roter Heringssalat

Roter Heringssalat belongs to the northern winter table, especially Christmas Eve and New Year's, when the larder does the cooking: salted herring, stored beets, apples, pickles, sour cream. It is cold food, but not thin food. The colour is the point, that beetroot ruby turning the cream pink, with the silver herring still doing the work underneath.

Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. In Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg you see it clean and fish-forward, often with apple and pickle. Further east and inland, boiled potato, egg, or even leftover roast meat may join the bowl. I keep this one northern: herring, beet, apple, pickle, onion, sour cream. Das ist kein Bierzelt.

The deciding step is tasting and soaking the herring before you mix. Salted herring is preservation first and dinner second; if you dice it straight from the pack, the whole salad tastes like a barrel. Soak it in cold water or milk just long enough to pull back the salt, then dry it well. Wet herring thins the dressing, dry herring carries it.

Make it the day before. The beet stains, the apple sharpens, the pickle brine wakes the cream, and the herring settles into the bowl instead of shouting over it. Das braucht seine Zeit. Schön ist, was schmeckt.