BORIS BURDA: How to Make a Horrible Fish Beautiful
Photo by Lance Anderson on Unsplash
ATTENTION — QUESTION!
This rare word has only seven letters, and two of them are «R». In the Polish film Vabank, the hero is asked to find an ear on the thing this word refers to, and although he fails, the one who asked has reason to regret it. Name this word.
ATTENTION — THE CORRECT ANSWER!
The word is «herring». In Vabank, Quinto is asked to find an ear on a herring, implying that he won’t be able to expose the criminal — and that was a mistake!
CATCH ON, LITTLE FISH…
I
t appears that even Neanderthals managed to catch fish with their bare hands in shallow waters. A little later, during the Paleolithic, fish began to be struck with harpoons and spears, lured into fish traps, and poisoned in backwaters with plant toxins. And as early as 23,000 years ago, on the island of Okinawa, the first fishing hooks were already being made — interestingly, from shells.
After the Paleolithic came the Mesolithic, during which fishing technologies were supplemented with the most powerful tool of all — the fishing net. Catches immediately increased, and in many places fishing became the third most effective way of obtaining food after gathering and hunting, and in some coastal regions even the second.
About 4,000 years ago in Ancient Egypt, people figured out how to make fish life even less safe — they began catching it not only from the shore but also from boats. Soon, inhabitants of coastal areas in a number of places started fishing not only for their own consumption but also for sale to residents of regions far from water.
Fresh fish is a problematic commodity: if it is not sold within a few hours, no one will buy it — it spoils. To make fish last longer, people began to cure, dry, salt, and smoke it. Such fish not only did not spoil but also acquired new shades of flavor, sometimes even becoming tastier than fresh fish and, of course, more expensive as a result.
PLENTY, BUT TASTELESS
At the beginning of the second millennium AD, fishing vessels crisscrossed all the waters close to Europe. Fish were everywhere, and some of their varieties quite literally flooded the sea — at least during certain seasons. It was even somewhat disappointing that the most accessible fish, the easiest to catch, tasted simply awful.
Its abundance boggled the imagination. Saxo Grammaticus, a 12th-century Danish historian, wrote that it moved in shoals so dense that oars could barely push a boat forward, and the fish were caught with bare hands. His colleague Olaus Magnus mentioned that it was so numerous that it tore fishermen’s nets, and that a spear thrust into the thick of the shoal would remain standing upright.
Yet it was worth pennies, and whenever possible fishermen tried to catch other fish. Usually it was taken only at the beginning of summer, when no other species could be found. And no wonder — the taste of this fish had a pronounced bitterness, and it also smelled of rancid fish oil. Try finding anyone willing to sample that…
Nevertheless, it was still caught and eaten — not everyone could afford to be picky. For instance, King Louis IX of France, Saint Louis, regularly purchased this fish and sent it as alms to leper colonies. It also served as a charity for monasteries with especially strict rules. And the poor had no time for gourmet preferences…
THE MIRACLE-WORKING FISHERMAN
So what is this disgustingly inedible fish we are talking about? And why go on about it — surely we don’t eat such filth and have no intention of doing so… Well, how shall we put it — it’s herring! One of the most popular fish, revered by many, with a wonderful taste and not the slightest trace of bitterness. How could that possibly happen?
Not by itself, of course — that is obvious. It took a whole series of non-obvious insights, literally small miracles. All these brilliant solutions were found within a very short period of time — in the 1380s. So it is quite possible that they occurred to a single person, and almost simultaneously.
There was no one to take out patents in those days, so this was never recorded precisely, but there is a general consensus that this person was Willem Beuckelszoon, a resident of the village of Biervliet. It is to him that the invention of several techniques transforming a throwaway product into a delicacy is attributed. And apparently, not without reason.
What did he do? First, he began removing the gills from the caught fish — it was they that gave herring its unpleasant bitterness. Second, he gutted the fish immediately but left the liver and part of the pancreas — this improved the taste. Third, he salted the fish at once and stacked it in barrels in the proper layers, crosswise, like firewood in a woodpile.
The advantages of herring cured in this way hardly needed advertising — any fisherman who tried such fish would never again preserve it differently. At any cost, they would find out, steal, or beg for the technology devised by Beuckelszoon and head out to sea to catch herring and salt it in the new way.
Soon after his discovery, in 1397, Willem Beuckelszoon passed away. But his grave was honored — in 1556 it was visited by none other than the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his sister Mary, Queen of Hungary. Even the emperor’s laudatory speech in honor of Beuckelszoon has been preserved — proof enough of his merit!
A DISCOVERY THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Can the discoveries of a resident of a Dutch village be considered achievements of a purely culinary nature? Almost certainly not — the emergence of such a popular, relatively expensive, and easily transportable and storable product undoubtedly acted as a stimulant for the entire economy of Northern Europe, leading to far-reaching consequences.
Almost simultaneously with Beuckelszoon’s discovery, the Hanseatic League took shape — a kind of superstate of free cities in Northern and Western Europe. The presence of such a liquid commodity as salted herring, which enjoyed strong demand, certainly influenced the fact that by the beginning of the 15th century the Hanseatic League already united some 160 cities.
This is to say nothing of Beuckelszoon’s homeland, the Netherlands. Such a highly sought-after product as Dutch herring, with enormous export potential, clearly played a role in the small Netherlands’ rapid rise to the ranks of the world’s strongest military powers, acquiring colonies and successfully competing with Great Britain and France.
As is always the case, the herring boom also had less pleasant consequences. Numerous small vessels transporting this costly and highly liquid cargo became a coveted prize for many greedy hands and triggered an unprecedented surge of piracy in the Baltic and North Seas, which lasted for more than two centuries.
The need for salt to cure such vast quantities of herring led to the prosperity of a number of cities (for example, Lüneburg) located near salt mines. The Danes, meanwhile, still say with sadness: «The herring ate our forests» — they produced salt by boiling seawater and indeed destroyed their forests for the firewood used to boil it.
THE PRIDE OF THE NETHERLANDS
In Bruegel’s painting Netherlandish Proverbs, one can spot several sayings about herring: «That’s not how you fry a herring» (things aren’t going your way), «Frying a whole herring for the sake of a single roe» (wasting effort), «The herring hangs by its own gills» (be responsible for yourself), and «There’s something more here than just herring» (not everything is visible at first glance).
It is not without reason that people say of Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands: «It is a city built on herring bones». And even today, herring is loved here no less. The first barrel of herring at the start of the fishing season is presented personally to the king; the second is sold at auction, and whoever buys that barrel for an insane sum takes pride in the certificate of purchase — it is considered extremely prestigious.
Freshly cured herring is immediately sold and eaten. The vendor deftly separates the fillet; the buyer dips it into a plate of finely chopped onions, takes it by the tail, and lowers it into their mouth, chasing it with local gray bread. Given the absence of vodka in traditional Dutch cuisine, it is washed down with special varieties of beer — and that’s a pity!
Such herring is commonly called «Matjes» — from the Dutch word meaning «virgin». All year round, kiosks operate in Amsterdam selling the simplest food: a bun with a herring fillet (as well as with smoked eel and shrimp). This delightful food alone is worth living on there — Dutch cuisine is very much an acquired taste…
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