Traditional German Herring in a Cream Sauce is one of the simplest dishes in Germany. Warm boiled potatoes, salty herring, and creamy apple-onion-pickled cucumber salad are refreshing, comforting, and delicious. It is the perfect summer dish and my favourite way of serving herring.
Table of Contents
Recipe
Traditional German Herring in a Cream Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 Waxy potatoes medium
- 2 Mild, brined matjes or herring filets I use mild, brined herring with smoky note from Nordsee
- 100 ml Sour cream or creme fraiche 10-15% fat
- 1 tbsp Cream
- 3 Pickles small & mild
- 1/4 Apple sweet apple
- 1/4 Onion yellow, red or shallots
- Salt
- Pepper optional
- Dill optional
- Sugar optional
Instructions
Prepare the Cream Sauce
- Peel and chop the onion into small cubes.
- Peel and cut the apple into medium cubes (1-1,5cm big).
- Cut the pickles into small cubes.
- Season with salt, pepper and sugar, if needed.
- In a small bowl mix the sour and double cream. Add onion apple and pickles.
- Let it rest for at least 3 hours in the fridge.
Prepare the Potatoes
- Cook potatoes with or without skin in a salty water until tehy soft. This might take at least 20 minutes depeding of the size of your potatoes.
- Drain the potaoes and keep them warm until they are ready to serve.
Prepare the Herring
- If your herring or matjes fillets are too salty, soak them for 15 minutes in a cold milk. After this time take tehm out and rinse them with cold water. Tap them dry,
- When I make German Herring in the cream sauce as a main course with boiled potatoes I don't cut the herring and mix it with other sauce ingredients. When you would like to eat the sauce on the bread I would suggest cutting Herring into 1cm wide stripes.
Serving
- Serve warm boiled potetoes with herring fillets on the side and cream sauce on the top or on the side.
In summer, we often crave simpler and lighter dishes. German Herring in a Cream Sauce is a perfect example. Warm potatoes, cold herring filets and cream sauce with crunchy apples are refreshing and comforting at the same time.
I grew up eating herring salads in different forms. My favourites include the German Herring in a Cream Sauce, Herring salat with beetroots and Herring with oil and onion. Today, I would love to share the Herring Hausfrauenart recipe I have been making for at least a decade.
How to Make German Herring in a Cream Sauce
“Matjes Hausfrauenart” is made of Matjes, a young female herring that hasn’t yet laid any eggs. The Matjes meat ripes in a brine and has a mild taste. To make the dish, I chose marinated Matjes Fillet with a mild smoky flavour from Nordsee because those are the tenderest and mildest herrings I can find in Frankfurt. Those herrings are salted and cold-smoked. Depending on where you live, you might have access to different herring filets. Any brined herring filets will do. However, it would be best if you stayed away from pickled herrings, as they are served differently.
I suggest using waxy potatoes to make warm-boiled potatoes because they keep their shape after being cooked. For this dish, you can either make Pellkartoffeln or Salzkartoffeln. Pellkartoffeln is potatoes cooked with skin and then peeled; Salzkartoffeln is first peeled and then cooked. Cooking potatoes with skin ensures that the nutrients and flavours are preserved during cooking. However, it’s easier and quicker for me to peel the potatoes with a vegetable peeler before cooking than to peel them after cooking with a small knife.
The cream sauce ties it all together. This cold sauce comprises two types of cream: sour cream and double cream. The double cream balances the sour cream and improves the consistency of the sauce. The onion adds spiciness to the sauce, and the chopped pickles and apple make it refreshing and crunchy. If you don’t like raw onion, you can always blanch it first. For this, you scald it in boiling water and then immediately dunk it in ice water. This cooking technique makes them milder in taste and more digestible. The second option is to use a milder variation of onion, like red or shallot.
In Germany, we have access to different pickles, so please make sure you choose one you like. I usually go for dill, honey, or mustard pickles. Pickles with chilli and pepper might overpower the taste of other ingredients in the salad, so I would stick to milder pickles.
I chop the onion into small cubes, apples, and pickles into 1-1.5 cm for the sauce. This way, additional cutting on the plate is not necessary.
Salt, pepper, chives and dill go very well with Herring. Traditionally we season German Herring in a Cream Sauce with salt, pepper, sugar and dill, but please skip it if you don’t like it.
German Herring with a Cream Sauce id a delcious dish, but if you would like to discover other German fish dishes make sure you read 10 Best German Fish Dishes that aren’t Salmon.
Ingredients & Substitutes
Potatoes – waxy potatoes peel either before or after cooking.
Onion – waxy potatoes peel either before or after cooking.
Sour Cream (or creme fraiche) – 10-15% of fat
Cream – double cream
White wine vinegar – mild white wine vinegar
Sugar -regular sugar or agave syrup
Apple – sweet apple
Pickles – German pickled cucumber with dill, honey or mustard seeds.
Spices – Season it according to your taste. Use salt, pepper, chives, parsley, and dill.
Tools that might come in handy
Storage & Reheating
Store the German herring in the fridge with a cream sauce for up to 2 days.
You can freeze the herring for a maximum of 4 weeks. It will lose texture and flavour if it stays longer in the freezer. The cream sauce cannot be frozen.
The herring should thaw at room temperature and be eaten at the same day.
