ISO: Recipe: Montréal-style Jewish salt-herring + potatoes

LTHers--

My good buddy Jean was regaling me the other day with tales of his lost childhood foods. One which he particularly misses is his Jewish next-door-neighbor's Sunday special: salt herring with potatoes. Our local Jewish community used to subsist on salt herring–hard, little brownish slabs of fish flesh, incredibly salty–done in all sorts of ways. When Jean described the dish, the first thing that popped into my mind was something similar that Portuguese do with salt cod and potatoes.

Any ideas?

Geo

My understanding is that, like salt cod, salt herring should be soaked prior to cooking. Mimi Sheraton in From My Mother's Kitchen writes that her mother soaked the salt herring for 3 to 5 days. I've seen recipes that call for fewer days (1-2). Her recipe calls for peppering and then dredging the fish (either whole or fillets) in flour, then beaten egg, and then another layer of flour. She fries onion rings in butter, then removes them, then slowly fries the fish in butter, adding back the onion rings for the last 5 minutes. She serves them with boiled or baked potatoes and, of course, more butter. I don't know if that is what your friend Jean recalls; this was from New York in the 1930s.

Tnx EvA!

That certainly sounds good, in an case. I'll pass it on to Jean.

Geo

Geo wrote:Tnx EvA!

That certainly sounds good, in an case. I'll pass it on to Jean.

Geo

You are very welcome, Geo. If he tries it, let us know how it turns out.

See if you can get the schmaltz herring instead of the younger matjes-style herrings. Schmaltz herring are bigger and more mature, so have more oil which is better for grilling.

I have fond memories of my Grandfather making herring on the grill when I would visit in Montreal.

Geo,
I grew up in the Tidewater, VA area, and fried salt herring was a popular dish among Jews and Gentiles alike. I remember seeing the salt herring packed in brine in all of the local grocery stores. My mother soaked it in milk, dredged it in cornmeal (Southern influence) and pan fried it in neutral oil. It was always served with boiled new potatoes, scrambled eggs and toast and made a rather special Sunday morning breakfast. No fried onion as I recall. The potatoes were buttered.
I seem to remember a brand name...Chowan, and I believe it was produced in North Carolina. Another special Sunday breakfast was eggs scrambled in butter with chopped sautéed onion and canned herring roe. This was quite delicious. This was another local product that I'm referring to.
And another variant was comprised of canned salmon over crushed boiled potatoes. Crisp crumbled bacon was scattered atop along with chopped raw onion and seasoned to taste with cider vinegar. This was old time Chesapeake Bay Cuisine at it's best.
But Geo, as you may remember, my all time favorite Sunday morning breakfast is S.O.S., which we've previously discussed. Nothing like it, and I still enjoy it once or twice a year.

Is it possible that the Herring you are referring to is the Lake Herring rather than a salt water Herring? The Lake Herring, also commonly known as the Cisco, except for Minnesota, where it is known as the Tullibee, was once common throughout the Great Lakes in incredible numbers. It is a schooling cold water fish and was one of the most common commercial fish from Lake Michigan before the population collapsed. I believe that in the Great Lakes it only remains common in Lake Superior now. It is, however, still abundant in cold, deep inland lakes in Wisconsin and Minnesota and perhaps elsewhere. It is a small very oily fish which is often smoked and I believe it could well be salted. Given the location of Montreal and the former abundance of this fish, perhaps this was what your friend remembers?

My Grandfather used to fish for these off the piers in Chicago.