''Brathering'' (, ; en, "fried herring") is a simple and traditional German dish of marinated fried

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

. It is typical of the cuisine in northern Germany and the northern parts of the Netherlands, either for lunch or as a snack at

fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...

stands or take-out restaurants.

Preparation

Usually, the green (i.e., fresh) herring with the heads and guts removed are either

breaded Bread crumbs or breadcrumbs (regional variants including breading and crispies) consist of crumbled bread of various dryness, sometimes with seasonings added, used for breading or crumbing foods, topping casseroles, stuffing poultry, thickeni ...

or simply turned in

flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many culture ...

, then fried, and finally pickled in a

marinade Marinating is the process of soaking foods in a seasoned, often acidic, liquid before cooking. The origin of the word alludes to the use of brine (''aqua marina'' or sea water) in the pickling process, which led to the technique of adding flavor b ...

of white

vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to et ...

and briefly boiled water,

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion ...

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

, spices like pepper,

bay leaves The bay leaf is an aromatic leaf commonly used in cooking. It can be used whole, either dried or fresh, in which case it is removed from the dish before consumption, or less commonly used in ground form. It may come from several species of tr ...

, mustard seeds, and a little

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

. The thin bones of the green herring are partially dissolved in the marinade, so that they hardly interfere with eating. If refrigerated, fried herring may be preserved for up to two weeks. ''Brathering'' is also available as a commercial product in cans.

Typical servings

''Brathering'' itself is served well pervaded and cold, together with warm fried

potatoes The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United ...

''(Bratkartoffeln)'' or cold potato salad ''(Kartoffelsalat)''. Sometimes, Brathering is also offered as part of fish sandwiches ''( Fischbrötchen)''.

In culture

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...

once stated that ''Brathering'' served with cooked green peas and mustard (an unknown combination nowadays) was one of his favorite dishes.Kawerau, Gustav (1903): ''Martin Luther, Sein Leben und Seine Schriften.'' Duncker. Page 497.

Literature

* Koios, Eloi Rylan (2011): ''Brathering. List of Raw Fish Dishes, Fish (Food), and Seafood.'' TRACT. . * ''Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development'' (2009
''Multilingual Dictionary of Fish and Fish Products''
Page 147, John Wiley & Sons. .

References

{{portal bar, Food German cuisine North German cuisine Herring dishes