Brathering

A traditional and simple lunch in Hamburg: Brathering with fried potatoes

Brathering (/ˈbrɑːtˌheɪrɪŋ/  listen ; English: ″fried herring″) is a simple and traditional German dish of fried, marinated herring. It is typical for the cuisine in northern Germany either for lunch or as a snack at fast food stands or take-out restaurants.^[1]

Preparation of the herrings

Two cans of Brathering as sold in German supermarkets

Usually, the green (i.e., fresh) herrings with the heads and guts removed are either breaded or simply turned in flour, then fried, and finally pickled in a marinade of white vinegar and briefly boiled water, onion, salt, spices like pepper, bay leaves, mustard seeds, and a little sugar. The thin bones of the green herring are partially dissolved in the marinade, so that they hardly interfere with eating.^[2]

If refrigerated, fried herrings may be preserved for up to two weeks. Brathering is also available as a commercial product in cans.

Typical servings

Brathering itself is served well pervaded and cold, together with warm fried potatoes (Bratkartoffeln) or cold potato salad (Kartoffelsalat).^[3]

Sometimes, Brathering is also offered as part of fish sandwiches (Fischbrötchen).

Trivia

• Martin Luther once stated that Brathering served with cooked green peas and mustard (an unknown combination nowadays) was one of his favorite dishes.^[4]
• The dish Brathering was mentioned in the diary novel Lieber Niels by author Matthias Zschokke and criticised in it as "a weird recipe", for being "old fashioned" and tasting like mud.^[5]

Literature

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brathering.

• Koios, Eloi Rylan (2011): Brathering. List of Raw Fish Dishes, Fish (Food), and Seafood. TRACT. ISBN 978-613-8-59305-8.
• Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (2009) Multilingual Dictionary of Fish and Fish Products Page 147, John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-140-5-15760-5.

References

Herrings
True herrings	Clupea Araucanian herring Atlantic herring Baltic herring Pacific herring Chosa herring White Sea herring
Other herrings	Freshwater herrings Longfin herrings Round herrings Thread herrings
Misc herrings	Alewife Atlantic thread herring Australian herring Blueback herring Deepsea herring Hilsa herring Scaled herring Skipjack herring Wolf herring
Herring boats	Herring buss Herring seiner Drifter (fishing boat) Tradewind (schooner) Lydia Eva (steam drifter) Reaper (sailing vessel)
As food	Herring (food) Avruga caviar Bloater Brathering Buckling Dressed herring Gibbing Gwamegi Herring soup Kibinago Kipper Craster kipper Pickled herring Schmaltz herring Solomon Gundy Soused herring Surströmming Rollmops Vorschmack
Related topics	Herring gull Red herring Herring fair The Herring Song Herringbone Scania Market Scottish east coast fishery Marc Guylaine Netz über Bord Herring Hunt