Pickled Herring

Total Time: 5 hrs Preparation Time: 1 hr Cook Time: 4 hrs

Ingredients

• 2 dozen herring fillets (milters)
• 4 large onions, sliced
• 2 lemons, sliced
• 12 bay leaves, broken
• 2 tablespoons mustard seeds
• 2 tablespoons peppercorns
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups vinegar
• 3 tablespoons sugar

Recipe

• 1 soak herring in cold water overnight, drain and remove entrails (reserve the milt).
• 2 cut off the heads; run knife down center of backs and remove skin, working toward the tale.
• 3 scrape fillets from backbones without breaking, remove all bones.
• 4 in a crock, place alternating layers of herring fillets, onion, lemon, pieces of bay leaf, mustard seed and peppercorns.
• 5 boil water, vinegar and sugar together until sugar is dissolved; cool.
• 6 mash milt and add enough vinegar mixture to thin; strain, add remaining vinegar mixture and pour over herring in crock.
• 7 cover crock and set in refrigerator for 4 to 6 days.