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Sursild
Sørlandet · Southern Coast

Sursild

Pickled herring in a bright sweet-sour brine with onion, bay and peppercorns — the koldtbord anchor.

2 day cureEasy
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Food-safety callout · Refrigerated pickled fish

Read before preparing this recipe

This recipe starts with commercially salted herring and is a refrigerated pickle, not a shelf-stable canning method.

  • Keep the herring and finished pickle at 4°C (40°F) or colder.
  • Do not store at room temperature or treat the jar as shelf stable.
  • This editorial recipe does not establish a tested shelf life; follow the fish supplier’s use-by guidance.

Review status: Qualified reviewer pending · editorial safeguards recorded

A named, qualified food-safety owner has not yet signed off. Sources below support the callout; they do not turn this page into a validated commercial process.

Cultural Context & History

Herring built and fed the Norwegian coast for centuries. Cured then steeped in a spiced vinegar brine, sursild is the tangy cornerstone of every festive cold table.

Ingredients

  • 4 salted herring fillets (spekesild), soaked
  • 1 onion, sliced into rings289 kcal · 10.9 g protein · 0.8 g fat · 59.4 g carbs per 100 g
  • 100 ml vinegar (7%)
  • 150 ml water42 kcal · 0 g protein · 0 g fat · 10.8 g carbs per 100 g
  • 150 g sugar523 kcal · 10.3 g protein · 31 g fat · 50.5 g carbs per 100 g
  • 1 tsp whole allspice0 kcal · 0 g protein · 0 g fat · 0 g carbs per 100 g
  • 1 tsp mustard seeds500 kcal · 0 g protein · 50 g fat · 0 g carbs per 100 g
  • 2 bay leaves0 kcal · 0 g protein · 0 g fat · 0 g carbs per 100 g

Per-100 g values shown for ingredients verified against Nutrition data: USDA FoodData Central (snapshot 2026-09-11). Ingredients not yet verified show no nutrition line.

Recommended Tools

  • Glass preserving jarNon-reactive and keeps the fillets fully under brine.
  • MandolineShaves the onion into fine, even rings.
  • Small saucepanDissolves the sugar cleanly as the brine boils.

Product suggestions are editorial references only; no purchase or affiliate links are currently configured.

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. 1

    Soak the salted herring in cold water for 1–2 hours to draw out the excess salt, then pat dry and cut into 2-cm pieces.

  2. 2

    Combine the vinegar, water, sugar, allspice, mustard seeds and bay in a pan, bring to the boil and stir until the sugar dissolves, then leave to cool completely.

  3. 3

    Layer the herring and onion rings into a sterilised glass jar and pour over the cooled brine so everything sits fully submerged.

  4. 4

    Seal and refrigerate for at least 48 hours before eating.

Chef's Tip

The brine must be stone cold before it meets the fish. This is a refrigerated pickle, not a shelf-stable preserve; follow the herring supplier’s use-by guidance rather than assuming a long home shelf life.

How this page was made

Written by
The Norcook editorial archive. No individual author is named yet — see the editorial and food-safety policy for what that means and what has to happen before a byline appears.
Content last checked
— “checked” records an editorial check, not a qualified review. Where one exists, the recipe-specific review record appears in the food-safety callout.
Regional context
Sørlandet — the hub carries the wider background, the ingredient glossary and its own sources.
Sources
The public-health sources for this recipe are listed in the food-safety callout above. No further page-level sources are recorded yet.
Notes
Written as a refrigerated pickle from commercially salted herring. No shelf-stable canning process is implied or tested here.

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