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Herring Salad

12 servings

Ingredients

• 6 pcs good herrings
• milk (as needed)
• 500 g roasted veal
• 500 g potatoes, in their skins
• 500 g tart, tender apples
• 500 g gherkins (sour, pepper, mustard, and sweet gherkins)
• 2 pcs onions
• Provence oil (a little)
• vinegar (a little)
• white pepper (a little)
• salt (a little)
• mustard (as needed)
• 4 pcs hard-boiled eggs

Instructions

1. Six good herrings can make a bowl of salad for 12 people.
2. Gut and wash the herrings, then, depending on their salt content, soak them in milk for several hours or longer to draw out the salt.
3. Afterward, remove skin and bones and cut into fine cubes.
4. Also, finely cube 500 grams of roasted veal, 500 grams of potatoes in their skins, 500 grams of tart, tender apples, 500 grams of sour gherkins (pepper, mustard, and sweet gherkins), and 2 onions.
5. Depending on availability and taste, red beets, pickled plums, raw ham, hard-boiled eggs, capers, and marinated lampreys can also be mixed in.
6. For a particularly fine salad, omit the potatoes and use double the amount of meat.
7. Mix everything with a well-stirred sauce made from Provence oil, vinegar, white pepper, and salt, with a little mustard if desired.
8. Finely chop the onions and mix with the sauce; similarly, the milt of the herring can be finely chopped, whisked with vinegar through a sieve, and mixed with the sauce.
9. The salad can also be prepared the day before; it should then stand overnight in a porcelain dish and be stirred again before serving.
10. For decoration, finely chop green pickled gherkins or parsley, as well as egg yolks, egg whites of hard-boiled eggs, and red beets, each separately.
11. Smooth the salad, draw a pattern with the back of a knife, and fill each section with a different color using a teaspoon; place a border of any desired color around the edge.
12. Soaked, rolled anchovies and capers are also suitable for decoration.

Modernized from a treasured 19th-century German cookbook.