Chef Freja
Karrysild
Pickled herring in a warm yellow curry dressing with apple and shallot, piled on buttered rugbrod and finished with egg and cress. A Copenhagen lunch counter classic, better the day after you make it.
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Sennepssild
Created by Chef Freja
Danish mustard herring on buttered rugbrod, the pickled fish folded into a sharp mustard-dill cream and laid over dark rye with chives and paper-thin radish. A cornerstone of the Danish lunch table, best made the day before.
Sandwiches & Wraps
Danish
Dinner Party
Make Ahead
20 min
Active Time
0 min cook•20 min total
Yield4 pieces
Sennepssild belongs to the long lunch. The julefrokost in December, the paaskefrokost in April, the Sunday afternoon when family gathers and nobody is in a hurry. At every one of these, herring comes first. And at every one of these, someone brings a bowl of sennepssild, because the mustard cream is what wakes the palate up and tells the table that the meal has begun.
The dish is pickled herring folded into a sauce of two mustards, creme fraiche, and a great deal of fresh dill. The sharpness cuts through the richness of the cured fish, and the cream rounds the edges so nothing is harsh. You spoon it onto buttered rugbrod, add chives and a few slices of radish for crunch, and that's the whole of it. No cooking, no fire, no technique you haven't already mastered. What matters is the sauce and the waiting.
Make it the day before. That's the one instruction I want you to follow. Sennepssild needs time for the herring to settle into the mustard cream and for the flavors to find each other. Try it an hour after you mix it and you'll taste three separate things: mustard, fish, dill. Try it the next morning and you'll taste one thing, whole and round. That's the joy of waiting, and it's half the reason this dish has lasted. You'll know when it's right because the sauce will look darker and the fish will have given up its sharpness to the cream.
Mustard herring emerged in Danish kitchens in the nineteenth century as salt herring gave way to the lighter vinegar-pickled sild that Copenhagen delicatessens began selling in jars. Cooks who wanted to dress the pickled fish for the smorrebrod table turned to mustard, which was cheap, locally milled, and sharp enough to stand up to the brine. The pairing with sweet mustard is distinctly Danish: sod sennep, a dark, treacle-rich condiment still made in the old way by a few producers in Jutland, gives sennepssild the quiet sweetness that distinguishes it from its Swedish and German cousins.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
pickled herring fillets
Quantity
300g
drained
coarse grain Dijon mustard
Quantity
2 tablespoons
sweet Danish mustard
Quantity
1 tablespoon
or 1 teaspoon runny honey mixed with Dijon
creme fraiche
Quantity
100ml
neutral oil
Quantity
1 tablespoon
white wine vinegar
Quantity
1 teaspoon
caster sugar
Quantity
1 teaspoon
fresh dill
Quantity
3 tablespoons, plus extra fronds to finish
finely chopped
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
black pepper
Quantity
freshly ground, to taste
dark rugbrod
Quantity
4 thick slices
unsalted butter
Quantity
30g
softened
chives
Quantity
small bunch
finely snipped
radishes
Quantity
4 small
sliced paper-thin
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| pickled herring filletsdrained | 300g |
| coarse grain Dijon mustard | 2 tablespoons |
| sweet Danish mustardor 1 teaspoon runny honey mixed with Dijon | 1 tablespoon |
| creme fraiche | 100ml |
| neutral oil | 1 tablespoon |
| white wine vinegar | 1 teaspoon |
| caster sugar | 1 teaspoon |
| fresh dillfinely chopped | 3 tablespoons, plus extra fronds to finish |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| black pepper | freshly ground, to taste |
| dark rugbrod | 4 thick slices |
| unsalted buttersoftened | 30g |
| chivesfinely snipped | small bunch |
| radishessliced paper-thin | 4 small |
Equipment Needed
- •Small mixing bowl
- •Whisk
- •Sharp knife for the herring and radishes
- •Mandoline for the radishes, optional but helpful
Instructions
- 1
Drain and cut the herring
Lift the herring fillets out of their brine and lay them on kitchen paper. Pat them dry on both sides. Any brine clinging to the fish will water down the sauce and muddy its flavor. Cut the fillets into bite-sized pieces, about two centimetres wide. You want pieces you can lift with a fork in one go, not long strips that fight the knife on the rye.
The quality of the herring is the whole dish. Look for firm fillets in a clean, pale brine, not ones swimming in cloudy liquid. If the jar smells sharp and sour rather than clean and briny, choose another. - 2
Build the mustard base
In a small bowl, whisk the coarse Dijon and the sweet mustard together with the vinegar and sugar. Whisking these before adding the cream is what gives the sauce its lift. If you dump everything in at once, the mustard stays in lumps and the sauce tastes flat. You want the sugar dissolved and the two mustards working as one.
Sweet Danish mustard is the honest ingredient here. If you can find a jar of sod sennep, use it. If not, a teaspoon of runny honey stirred into ordinary Dijon does the same work. - 3
Finish the sauce
Pour the oil into the mustard mixture in a thin stream, whisking as you go, the way you'd start a mayonnaise. This emulsifies the sauce and gives it body. Now stir in the creme fraiche and the chopped dill. Taste it. It should be sharp, creamy, and grassy with dill, with a faint sweetness underneath. Season with salt and a few grinds of black pepper. The herring is already salty, so go lightly.
Dill, not parsley, not basil. Dill is the herb of the Danish fish kitchen and no substitute behaves the same way. The feathery fronds dissolve into the cream and carry the flavor through every bite. - 4
Marinate the herring
Fold the herring pieces gently into the mustard cream until every piece is coated. Cover and slide the bowl into the fridge for at least two hours, and ideally overnight. The joy of waiting applies here too. The fish softens into the sauce, the sharp edges of the mustard round off, and everything becomes one thing rather than several. This is a make-ahead dish by design. It's better the next day than the day you make it.
- 5
Butter the rye
Take the butter out of the fridge early enough that it spreads without tearing the rugbrod. Cold butter drags and rips the slice; you want it soft and pliable. Spread a generous layer on each slice, right to the edges. The butter isn't decoration here. It's a waterproof seal between the rye and the sauce, which keeps the bread from going soggy under the herring. This is a detail the smorrebrodsjomfru taught, and it matters.
- 6
Assemble and serve
Spoon the mustard herring generously onto each slice of buttered rugbrod, leaving a narrow border of dark bread visible around the edge. Tuck the paper-thin radish slices in and around the herring so their pink edges show. Scatter the chives across the top, then finish with a few fronds of fresh dill. Serve at once, cold, with a knife and fork. Sennepssild is the piece you reach for first at a proper Danish lunch, and you'll know when it's right because the mustard wakes everything up and the rye holds the whole thing together. Tak for mad.
Chef Tips
- •Buy the herring, don't cure it. Danish home cooks almost always start with good pickled sild from a jar rather than curing their own. A reliable Scandinavian brand is worth the small expense, and the dish lives or dies on the quality of the fish.
- •Two mustards are better than one. The coarse Dijon gives you grain and bite, the sweet mustard gives you depth and roundness. One without the other tastes incomplete. If you can only find one, use Dijon and add a teaspoon of honey.
- •Sennepssild keeps in the fridge for three or four days and improves for the first two. Make a double batch. It's the piece of smorrebrod you'll want to reach for again the next day.
- •Pour a small glass of cold aquavit alongside. The caraway and dill notes in aquavit were designed to sit next to herring. This is one of those pairings that isn't a suggestion, it's the way the dish has always been eaten.
Advance Preparation
- •Make the sennepssild at least two hours before serving, and ideally the day before. The flavor is noticeably better after an overnight rest in the fridge.
- •The mustard-dill sauce can be made on its own up to two days ahead and kept covered in the fridge. Fold in the herring a few hours before you plan to serve.
- •Butter the rugbrod and assemble the smorrebrod just before serving. The bread should meet the sauce as late as possible so it stays firm under the fork.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 195g)
Calories
530 calories
Total Fat
32 g
Saturated Fat
12 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
18 g
Cholesterol
100 mg
Sodium
1150 mg
Total Carbohydrates
35 g
Dietary Fiber
5 g
Sugars
4 g
Protein
21 g
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