S.O.S: Herring, Cheese, and Snaps

⏳ Time

45 minutes + 2 days

🥕 Ingredients

🍽️ Servings

Description

A traditional Swedish festive appetizer. S.O.S. stands for sill (herring), ost (cheese), and snaps (a type of traditional Swedish vodka). Often, instead of snaps, the abbreviation is interpreted as smör (butter), since snaps is desirable but not essential. Swedes enjoy pickling herring in various ways and prefer having several types on the table: with mustard, onions, garlic, dill, beets, curry, and more. It can be enjoyed on its own, on bread with butter, on crispbreads, with boiled potatoes, or with sour cream — and with aged cheese.

Ingredients

Lightly Salted Red Fish - 2 lbs
9% Vinegar - 3 spoons
Sugar - 4 spoons
Spanish onions - 1 head
Carrot - 1 piece
Bay leaf - 1 piece
Allspice berries - 5 pieces
Salt - 1 tablespoon
White Pepper (whole) - to taste
Sour Cream - 4 spoons
Dijon Mustard - 2 spoons
Spiced Tomato Juice - 7 fl oz
Marinated cherries - 6 pieces
Tomato Puree - 1 tablespoon
Olive Oil - 2 spoons
Butter - 3.5 oz
Chum Salmon Caviar - 0.7 oz
Hard Cheese - 7.1 oz
Irish Whiskey - 1 tablespoon

Step by Step guide

Step 1

Slice the onion and carrot into rings. In a medium-sized pot, combine one teaspoon of vinegar, two teaspoons of sugar, three teaspoons of water, a bay leaf, and five whole allspice berries. Bring the marinade to a boil and simmer until the sugar dissolves, about five minutes. Allow to cool.

Step 2

Cut 500 grams of herring fillet and place it in a deep container. Pour in the marinade, add onion and carrot, and mix well. Leave it in the refrigerator to marinate for two days.

Step 3

Cut 300 grams of herring into pieces. In a bowl, mix together mustard and sour cream, one teaspoon of salt, one teaspoon of sugar, and white pepper. Add the prepared herring to the mixture. Stir well and transfer to a jar. Seal the jar with a lid and let the contents marinate for at least one day in the refrigerator.

Step 4

Cut the remaining herring into pieces. Finely chop the cherry tomatoes and mix them with tomato juice, tomato puree, olive oil, one teaspoon of sugar, and a couple of drops of vinegar. Combine the herring with the tomato marinade and let it marinate in the refrigerator for at least four hours.

Step 5

Cut the hard cheese into 1.5 cm cubes. Pour in the whiskey and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours.

Step 6

Mix the softened butter with the caviar until smooth. Spread a thin layer of the butter and caviar mixture on the rye crispbreads. Serve everything together: three types of pickled herring, cheese, and the crispbreads. Pair with dark beer or schnapps.