Species sheet · The Edible Ocean
Atlantic herring
The schooling fish that built ports.
- Marinated escabeche or pickled
- Smoked as fillets
- Battered and quickly fried
- In French
- Hareng
- Scientific name
- Clupea harengus
- In the water
- A pelagic fish of the north Atlantic, forming huge schools from the surface down to 364 m.
- Season & buying
- Landings and quality vary by stock; the fishmonger will indicate the best local periods.
- Common length
- ~30 cm
- How to identify it
- Silvery laterally compressed body
Forked tail
Blue-green back without a dark spot
On the plate
Rich, oily and deeply briny flesh.
Avoid: Eating it too fresh: it becomes more tender after a short controlled maturation.
It was long salted, smoked and pickled to supply cities far from the coast.
In Umay recipes
2 Umay recipes call for it.
