How is this herring product typically served?

Lisner Wiejskie Herring Fillets with Onion 450g

You can use them in herring salad. There are a lot of recipes available. The size of chunks is changeable - big or small.

I like herring fillets on condition they are not too salty.

• 
  
  

cold with bread/boiled potatoes

When I don`t have time to make a salad, I just make a sandwich.

• 
  
  
• 
  
  

Wow, it never occured to me. Funny.

I like those herring fillets for three reasons:
- they are sour (vinegar)
- they are greasy
- fish bones are soft

My husband eats matjas with bread but śledź w wodzie with potatoes.


Oily would be a better choice of adjective. Herring comes under the heading of 'oily fish' in English, whereas greasy is associated with animal fat. Grease is solid fat. Describing a food as greasy indicates that it's unpleasantly fatty with excess grease.

do you personally eat herring as well?

No :) I find them too salty even after soaking for 24 hours but I enjoy preparing them and knowing that other people will enjoy them :) I like smoked fish so when Mr Atch has his fishy treats I have a nice bit of makrela wędzona or similar. He likes szprot wędzony but I really don't like the feeling of crunching through all those bones and their little heads still being attached - yikes! I like whole fish if it's larger, trout, for example. I don't seem to mind the sight of the head then.

eating whole fish like this freaks me out similarly - however I don't mind sprats from a tin (without heads)

I also like paprykasz. It's very easy to make and much nicer if you make it yourself at home. It's very economical too because you can make one quite small mackerel last for a few days! It's yummy eaten warm - you can spread it on bread, pop a fried egg on top and there's your dinner :)

wow, you must be a deft cook then :) - my mum used to make a dish of mackerel (she calls it 'pasta z makreli') - you crush mackerel, add butter, chives and parsley leaves - you can also add diced sour cucumbers (I'm not sure if ogórki kiszone are the same thing as 'dill pickles') - you can find a recipe by just googling 'pasta z makreli' - of course it is smoked mackerel that is used (I took a glance at a couple of recipes and they use mayo or yoghurt instead of butter - a new 'healthy' fad I guess)

Different recipes probably. People always look to improve a bit don't they?
In my family we also add onion and eggs...

I think mom used to add onion, not sure about eggs - it's been years...

by the way the Polish word pasta means paste and has nothing to do with the English word pasta

I'm actually writing to my sis to ask for the recipie I wanted to do it for ages now but never got around to asking (she was the one who was always making it at home). It is a bit of a pain though-to make sure no bones are left :/

I'm not sure but I guess after preparing the paste you should leave it for a time for the tastes of the ingredients to blend

That sounds like a nice one for summer. I think I'd add fresh cucumber instead of the kiszone. I know it would give it a different taste but I think it would be nice and 'summery' ;)


I must confess I'm quite a good cook! And I've learned to make a lot of Polish dishes. Most Polish recipes are pretty straightforward but they tend to be very labour intensive. They're typical, good 'rustic' dishes that use only a few ingredients but really make the most of those few things. I also make Russian dishes. They're interesting because they're similar to Polish but with a bit of a twist. You know the way the base of many Polish soups is the włoszczyzna (leek, celeriac, parsnip, carrot) but with Russian soups it's celery stalks, grated carrot, onion, garlic. Another thing about Polish recipes is the omnipresent ziele angielskie ;) I like it but it's quite a distinctive taste and can end up making dishes taste very similar to each other. The Rooskies don't seem to use it but they go heavy on the sour cream and they quite like adding tomato puree too.

I'm going to try a new fish recipe this weekend. It's an old English thing called kedgeree, from their Indian empire days. I think it would appeal to the Polish palate. It uses smoked haddock but that's hard to get in Poland so any smoked fish would do.

bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/really_good_kedgeree_75198

my mom adds onion to most of the soups she makes - probably except for the cauliflower soup

as for herrings - there is a nice herring based salad originally from Ukraine that is called 'szuba' (or 'szuba ukraińska') - it makes use of beetroot - my mom did it a couple of times and I liked it - google for a recipe if you are interested

greasy - covered with or full of fat or oil: - dict.

Funny, I thought that greasy is excessively fatty, literally dripping with fat or oil. Actually, those herrings I was talking about are such coz they come in veg oil. And I like greasy/oily stuff coz it goes down so smoothly. hahaha

So, you must be talking about greasy having Irish English on mind coz British English uses greasy in the very context I meant. Just lookie here: What can be greasy in the British English high school textbook exercise below? :):)

• 
  
  

You're a typical Pole, telling a native speaker that they're wrong :)) I'm not using 'Irish' English.

The Oxford Dictionary defines grease as 'Animal fat used or produced in cooking.' Oil on the other hand is defined as 'Any of various viscous liquids which are insoluble in water but soluble in organic solvents and are obtained from animals or plants.'

Native English speakers often make subtle distinctions in their use of words that may have a broadly similar meaning.

Who wrote the text book? Greasy is not a taste; it's a texture and nobody chooses greasy food. The word greasy has negative connotations in everyday English usage. People may enjoy oily foods. Indeed 'oily fish' is a term used for certain categories of fish such as sardines or mackerel but greasy fish would mean fried fish that has been cooked in too much fat and is soggy and revolting :))

maybe it's better to say herring are fatty? my level of English is not on par with pawian's, so it is just a thought

Yes, exactly. :):):) That`s good coz you know who you are dealing with, isn`t it?? That makes things easier.

As for dictionaries, I offerred a quote from Cambridge one in my last post: Again: greasy - covered with or full of fat or oil:

Yes, I know, you prefer to stick to the old, traditional usage of greasy - I have just checked in a dictionary from 1970-80s. But the language changes and today greasy includes full of oil too.


Two of the most intelligent ladies I have ever met - authors of my favourite textbooks for all four tier levels - Jenny Dooley and Virginia Evans.


No, come on, you are too modest, I got my main English education in 1970s and 1980s so it is very rusty. :):) But at least I know how to use dictionaries.:):)

American dictionary about greasy

1 : covered with an oily material greasy hands
2 : like or full of fat greasy french fries


That is why I didn`t use oily so that you didn`t think the herring was naturally oily on its own. I used greasy to express the notion that it had excessive fat from the veg oil it was kept in in the jar. Ha!

So far I have avoided fresh herring due to the crazy amount of bones in it. When marinated, they become soft and unobtrusive. A few weeks ago I gave fresh fish a try and voilla!. Buy small fish and remove the spine. Or buy spineless fillets. Coat them in flour and fry on both sides. The little fishbones will melt or blend into the crispy coat.

Easy.

• 
  
  
• 
  
  

We eat sledz traditionally at Wigilia. It's purchased in chunks bottled in wine sauce. We serve it with sour cream, onions and black pepper.

I like the way it's described served with potatoes. It's like potato salad with sledz. That sounds great. I'm going to suggest that for a summer dish as a test.

The extended family still gets together for Wigilia. Fifteen people this year.

With other ethnicities marrying into the family, Wigilia has changed. For example meat is served.

Almost 50% like sledz. The rest won't touch it. They'll eat cold octopus salad instead! LOL !!

It isn`t ethnicities. It is the RCC which made it known a few years ago that eating meat on Christmas Eve isn`t actually banned. The Polish Church accepted it but requested Poles to stick to the tradition of non meat dishes.

@pawian
Yes i remember as a child there was absolutely no meat. Perch fish was usually served. I love it but most of the family prefers meat, specifically pork shoulder. It still is a great custom. Everybody in the family, and I do mean everybody, likes the tradition of opening presents on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas morning.

@marion kanawha

Are you in England or America?

@Miloslaw
I'm in the USA, The family's been in the USA for 114 years. So we're relatively new immigrants. My father and seven uncles served in he military-navy during WWII. All but one uncle were in the Pacific fighting the Japanese. Most married into Polish American families so the Polish traditions, customs and cultures continued. But the generations after me have diversed into everything from Lithuanian to Maine Yankees, Hispanic to Irish to Asian and beyond. I guess that's the so called "melting pot" effect.

Sorry Marion, but I would call you Americans with very distant Polish roots.
I was born in the UK but both of my parents were Polish.
See the difference?

@Miloslaw

By my standards even you do not qualify as a Pole. Just like I don't count Russians born in the states as Russians - just plastic Russians. When they approach me, and begin speaking in Russian - I always ask for them to switch to English because my ears cannot withstand the rape. They have not the slightest clue of what it means to be Russian, beyond a caricature version of toughness and machismo imposed on them by their brainless American friends.

Please stick to the topic

So how do we mash up these comments into a tasty, new style sledz dish?