The word surstremming is of Swedish origin. This is a special Scandinavian delicacy that not everyone will enjoy. The dish is a canned pickled herring with a specific taste and smell.
Surstremming cooking technology
The word surstremming itself consists of two parts. The first means "sour" or "fermented", the second - Baltic herring. It is a Swedish national product that is canned pickled herring.
The technology for making surstremming is quite simple. Fresh Baltic herring is used, which is salted with a large amount of herring and placed in an open dish. Everything is left to ferment for several days. During this time, fish enzymes and bacteria form several acids:
- Propionic
- Oil
- Vinegar
- Hydrogen sulfide.
When a specific smell appears, the herring is sent to cans, where it wanders further. By the time the product is finally ready, it acquires a bright aroma that seems unpleasant to many.
Herring for surstremiming is always caught in April, before spawning. During processing, the head and entrails are removed, but caviar is left, which gives a special taste. The fish is placed in barrels with pungent brine for several days. This removes blood and fat. Then it moves to other barrels, with a less strong brine for another two months, during which the herring softens and sour.
By July, the herring is closed in jars, which are placed in a cold place. In cans, the fish continues to sour. How safe and high-quality fermented herring will turn out depends on the concentration of brine and the temperature at which the kegs were stored.
Opening glass jars with surstremming is dangerous. Juice under the influence of the accumulated pressure can spray everything around. Therefore, I open the cans either on the street or by dropping them into the water.
The history of surstremming
Fermentation is one of the most widespread and popular preservation methods. Surstremming is prepared using the same technology, but with minor nuances that are explained by the history of the product.
Surstremming appeared in the 17th century during the war of the Swedish king Gustav I Vasa with the free German city of Lubeck. Due to the war, there was a shortage of many products, for example, salt. Therefore, the herring had to be salted with less salt. The normal conservation process was disrupted and the herring began to ferment. Under normal conditions, the spoiled product would simply be thrown away, but during the hostilities, hunger arose, so the herring, which seemed rotten, began to be eaten.
People have found that the taste of the dish, though specific, is not disgusting. Many people liked the sourish unusual shade. Soon, this technology was widely used. Salt in those days was very expensive, even in peacetime. For the poor, fermenting herring in a little salt has become the most common conservation method. Nowadays surstremming is made in the form of canned food, served with beer and crispbread.
Product features
Among the main features of the product:
- Strong smell
- Long fermentation
- Sour taste.
The dish was especially famous for the very smell, strongly reminiscent of the aroma of rotten fish. Despite this peculiarity, surstemming is now considered an exquisite delicacy, which is served at dinner parties and banquets. It is not eaten every day, leaving it for a special occasion.
The fish is popular all over Sweden, but the High Coast, which is located on the northeast coast of Sweden, is considered its home and center.
Surstremming is often used as a beer snack, and sandwiches are made from pickled herring. The salty-sour taste and pungent unpleasant odor make it a peculiar dish not for everyone. True connoisseurs eat surstremming straight from the can, without bread and other additions.
Fermented herring is often served with boiled potatoes, tomatoes, raw or pickled onions, and butter bread. Surstremmings sandwiches are one of the most common snacks.
It is believed that of the drinks best suited to the dish:
- Beer
- Schnapps
- Milk
- Yulmust (Swedish version of kvass).
Some go to real delights and eat pickled herring with lingonberries, and wash it down with milk. Most often, the fish is simply put on bread and butter, which is generously sprinkled with finely chopped onions: this combination somewhat neutralizes the pungent taste and smell. Wash down everything with cold beer or schnapps.
The national variant is herring on Swedish flatbread, with potatoes, onions, and cheese. In this version, the dish attracts even the most ardent skeptics.
Interesting facts about surstremming
For a long time, the sale of surstremming was regulated by a royal decree, according to which pickled herring could not be put on the shelves before the third Thursday of August. The decree was canceled in 1998 and now you can buy the dish any day of the year. However, at the request of fans of surstremming, the third Thursday of August remains a big national holiday, when many who neglected the product at normal times happily add it to the menu.
In April 2006, many major airlines, including British Airways, banned canned surstremming because the banks could explode at any moment. At the main airport in Stockholm, the sale of herring was even stopped.
Several other peoples have an analogue of such a dish. So, Komi (Zyryans) made a similar dish from river fish. They called it "Pechora Salt". This ancient recipe has survived to this day in a distorted form. Komi used fish for many dishes, for example, for making fish soup (yukva), boiled, dried and dried. She was rarely exposed to frying. Salting the fish was not allowed by the deficit and high cost of salt. During the winter, it was kept on ice or in deep wells to keep it edible. In the tundra, pits were dug up to the permafrost and barrels of fish were lowered there. A special method of salting existed in the middle Pechora. That is why it is called "Pechora Salt". The fish was slightly salted, put into barrels, and left in a warm place (most often in a bath). The fermented fish had a strong and pungent odor. It was eaten with spoons.
Not everyone dares to appreciate the taste of this Swedish fish delicacy. However, if you overcome the test of smell, you will be rewarded with exquisite taste unlike anything else. If for the Swedes such a dish is more or less decent, most foreigners will never dare to try it. They contemptuously call the national Scandinavian dish "tasting herring", "Swedish rotten herring", "second fresh herring."
In fact, Baltic herring is used for the preparation of surstremming, not herring. The fish is selected of the best quality, and the technology is strictly observed.
The process of eating herring has a number of features that must be followed in order to fully enjoy the taste. First, surstremming continues to ferment in banks, causing excess pressure. Therefore, cans are often opened under water. If you open the surstemming in the fresh air, you will be completely sprayed with fish brine, the smell of which is almost impossible to remove from your clothes. If you open canned food indoors, in addition to the fact that the whole house will be stained with an unpleasant liquid, the pungent smell will attract flies. For the preparation of sandwiches, unleavened barley bread is used, on top of which soft cheese made from sheep's whey is spread.