Dressed Herring: How to Make Russian Dressed Herring Salad

RUSSIAN DRESSED HERRING

• Author: Romae Chanice B. Marquez
• Recipe Category: Salad
• Cuisine: Russian

Dressed herring salad is famous in Moscow and all throughout Russia. It is one of the traditional dishes served as zakuski (hors d’oeuvre) at New Year (Novy God) and Christmas celebrations. The whole preparation and cooking time is around 6 hours. This recipe is suitable for at least 6 servings. 

The Dressed Herring salad is one of the most popular salads in Russia. Photo credits to: https://milkandbun.com/2014/12/12/herring-under-a-fur-coat-or-russian-shuba-salad/.

Russian Dressed Herring Ingredients

• 4 large potatoes
• 4 large carrots
• 3 large beets
• 1 and 1/2 cups of mayonnaise
• 1 large red onion (finely chopped)
• 4 fillets of pickled herring in oil (finely chopped)
• 4 large hard-boiled eggs (finely chopped)
• Black pepper to taste
• Garnish: parsley or dill
• Optional: 3 hard-boiled eggs

Russian Dressed Herring Instructions

Step 1: Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil in a large casserole and remove the beets. Remove the potatoes after 20 minutes and remove the carrots 20 minutes later. The ingredients will all cook at different speeds in the same pan, but after about 1 hour, they will all be tender. When needed, add more boiling water from a kettle. Drain and let cool before handling for 10 minutes.

Step 2: Peel the potatoes, carrots, and beets while still dry. Set aside to cool off completely. Shred the beets and carrots, and cut the potatoes thinly. Don’t mix the ingredients, but place them in separate containers.

Step 3: Place a ring mould or ring from a spring-form pan on a pretty serving platter. It is also possible to arrange this salad in a round or oval shape or in a 13 x 9 pan.

Step 4: Place half of the beets, then half of the carrots, in a thin layer. Eventually, put half of the finely chopped onion into the process, forming distinctive layers.

Step 5: Use all the pickled herring to cover the beets, carrots, and onions, and use another 1/3 mayonnaise to cover this thick layer.

Step 6: Cover the remaining carrots and onion and all the chopped eggs. Apply black pepper to taste. Fill with the mayonnaise and beets leftover. Store carefully, so nothing else appears except vivid beets.

Step 7: Chill for at least 6 hours. When the time comes to eat, remove the ring carefully if you use it, so the salad layers are shown. Slice them and put them on top of the salad to decorate it if you use the extra hard-boiled eggs. Chop the dill garnish.

Russian Dressed Herring Additional Information

• Per serving has 431 calories, 36 g of carbohydrates, 24 g of fat, 16 g of protein.
• Herring is one of the best vitamin D food sources. Our bodies make this vitamin from the sun, but it’s easy not to get enough in our environment. Vitamin D tends to help you have healthy teeth and bones.
• This recipe takes approximately 6 hours to cook/prepare.
• This recipe will serve around 6 people.