Marinerede sild

The story

Sild, pickled herring served in several different sauces (in mustard, in cream with red onion, in plain spiced vinegar), makes up the “sildebord” that traditionally opens the big Danish Christmas lunch, usually held on Christmas Day or the day after. The idea of starting a meal with salty, sour fish before moving on to the hot roast comes from an older Scandinavian logic of building a meal in layers of intensity, from the lightest flavors to the richest, and for centuries herring was a cheap, readily available winter food for large families. Each herring preparation is traditionally served with its own small glass of aquavit or schnapps, on the rule that the glass “resets” the palate before the next kind of fish. This ritual of layered eating and drinking is one of the elements of the Scandinavian Christmas table that is hardest to explain to guests from outside the tradition, yet it gives the families who grew up with it a sense of structure and ceremony before the main course itself.