Pickled herring is more than just a one note delicacy. All sauces considered, pickled herring can be creamy, spicy, sweet, or tart. Matjes herring has a sweet and salty pickled flavor, imparted by brown sugar and cloves in a vinegar-based marinade. For our Blue Hill Bay line of herring, these little fish are carefully selected, and our matjes herring has the prized buttery texture that herring lovers look for.

Among the world’s most widely consumed fish, and capable of adapting to the brackish waters of the Baltic Sea, herring became a primary food source of this coastal area. Matjes (originally meaning ‘maiden’) is a word with origins in the German, Swedish, and Dutch languages, and this particular variety of pickled herring has been a staple food of the region for centuries. In Amsterdam, it is a common street food, sold from sidewalk carts, consumed on a roll (like a hot dog) topped with onion and chopped hardboiled egg.

If you aren’t ready for a Dutch herring hot dog, might we suggest enjoying our matjes herring with some boiled or fried potatoes topped with chives and cool sour cream? Maybe some blanched green beans on the side? A standard preparation is to chop your matjes herring, and mix it with apple sauce, and top toasted slices of semi-sweet white bread with this simple mixture. Breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner grab some Blue Hill Bay matjes herring, it’s a classic.