During the peak of the Covid pandemic, Berkshires-based culinary educator Anna Gershenson taught us to make her mother Rhoda’s chopped herring recipe […]
When Anna was growing up, Rhoda would cook her mother’s recipes including one for chopped herring or forshmak, which means pre-taste or appetizer in Yiddish. “The dish was said to originally be made with fried herring,” Anna explains. But in Jewish homes, it evolved into a pâté of chopped herring — sometimes with apples and onions. Latvian Jews typically call the dish gehakte herring, meaning chopped herring, she adds.
You can read about the fascinating family history of Anna and her mother Rhodahere. She also shares her family recipes on this site.
Our recipe for Forshmak comes from the web site Flavors of Diaspora, based partly on the recipe by Sonia Rozensztroch, in Herring: A Love Story.
Now, herring was long part of the Ashkenazi Jewish diet, since at least the Middle Ages. The fish – whose industry, pickling, and trade has encompassed most of Northern and Central Europe for a millennium – was incredibly cheap in its preserved forms across the regions where Yiddish-speaking Jews were settled. Herring was so common that the British-Jewish columnist Chaim Bermant claimed, “On Sunday, one had a pickled herring, on Monday soused herring, on Wednesday baked herring, on Thursday herring fried in oatmeal and on Friday herring with sour cream.”
2 small Jonathan apples (or another tart apple), peeled and cored
1 piece matzah, soaked in water
3 hard boiled eggs, peeled
1 tbsp white or rice wine vinegar
1 tsp white sugar
Scallions and/or fresh dill, for garnish (optional)
Before mixing your ingredients: if you are using brined herring fillets, you should chop them and then rinse them for 30 seconds under running water. This removes unnecessary saltiness. If you are using pickled herring fillets, just remove them from the vinegar. Squeeze the water from the matzah until you only have the softened matzah.
In a food processor, blend the herring, apples, eggs, and matzah. You may have chunks of apple in the final product.
Add the vinegar and sugar and blend again.
Garnish with scallions or fresh dill. Keep refrigerated for up to a week.
Herring: A Love Story Hardcover by Daniel Rozensztroch and Cathie Fidler
Both from traditional Jewish families, Daniel, an avid collector of the herring containers that were used to marinate and serve herring, and Cathie, a researcher who has put together a unique documentation of herring iconography – vintage stamps, posters, postcards, and engravings.
