Maatjesharing — salted herring with onion
Gutted and dry-salted herring, preserved then served as fillets with raw sliced onion and rye bread: straightforward, salty, iodized. The snack that fed a whole nation of sailors and thinkers.
Gutted and dry-salted herring, preserved then served as fillets with raw sliced onion and rye bread: straightforward, salty, iodized. The snack that fed a whole nation of sailors and thinkers.
See this herring: it made the wealth of my Provinces more surely than the gold of the Indies. Salted at sea in its barrel, it keeps for months, and no household so poor is without it. I take it straight on rye bread, with a little raw onion that whets the appetite; it costs me three cents and feeds the whole man. Wisdom, you see, lies not in the abundance of dishes, but in the right match of need and thing.
- •Fresh fat herring — a few pieces (base)
- •Sea salt — in abundance (preservation)
- •Raw onion — one (garnish)
- •Rye bread — as needed (support)
Maatjesharing — salted herring with onion
Gutted and dry-salted herring, preserved then served as fillets with raw sliced onion and rye bread: straightforward, salty, iodized. The snack that fed a whole nation of sailors and thinkers.
Why this dish? Salted herring was the national food of the Dutch Republic — the 'silver river' that made the country's fortune. Cheap, preserved in barrels, it garnished the bread table of every Batavian household, including the frugal one of a philosopher living on a few florins a month.
See this herring: it made the wealth of my Provinces more surely than the gold of the Indies. Salted at sea in its barrel, it keeps for months, and no household so poor is without it. I take it straight on rye bread, with a little raw onion that whets the appetite; it costs me three cents and feeds the whole man. Wisdom, you see, lies not in the abundance of dishes, but in the right match of need and thing.
Ingredients (period version)
- Fresh fat herring — a few pieces (base)
- Sea salt — in abundance (preservation)
- Raw onion — one (garnish)
- Rye bread — as needed (support)
Ingredients
- Lightly salted herring fillets (maatjes/matjes) — 4 fillets (base)
- Sweet onion — 1, finely sliced (garnish)
- Pickles (optional) — a few (acidity)
- Rye bread — 4 slices (support)
Method
- If starting from fresh herring: gut, remove gills, bury in coarse salt in the refrigerator for 3-5 days, then rinse and fillet. Easier: buy ready-salted maatjes fillets.
- Finely slice the sweet onion.
- Arrange the herring fillets on a board, scatter with sliced onion.
- Serve with rye bread and, if desired, a few pickles.
- Eat with your hands, lifting the fillet by the tail, Dutch-style.
How it was made : 'Haringkaken' — the art of gutting and salting herring at sea, attributed to the legendary Willem Beukelszoon — allowed the Dutch to preserve mountains of fish in barrels. New herring ('Hollandse nieuwe') was celebrated each summer, but salted, it was eaten all year with onion and bread. It was the protein of both poor and rich.
The contemporary twist : Arrange the fillet in small bites on rye bread cubes, a sliver of onion and a sprig of dill: a 'Dutch-style canapé' to nibble.
Baruch Spinoza · Charactorium