Initially, Forshmak appeared in Sweden, where he was a hot snack. Later, the dish migrated to Jewish cuisine, but in a different capacity - as a herring pate, which can be served before meals or as a supplement to it. Translated from the German word Vorschmack means “anticipation”, which is more consistent with the Jewish presentation of this dish. Every Jew woman knows how to cook forshmak, and she has at least one favorite recipe for this unusual snack. There are many variants of this dish, because each culinary specialist tries to bring something in him, to change the ratio of ingredients to his taste. A classic recipe is considered to be herring, eggs, onions, apples, butter, and bread soaked in milk. Only herring and butter (butter or vegetable) are obligatory, but it can additionally include cheese, carrots, potatoes, cottage cheese, nuts. If you like salted fish, you should cook forshmak according to several recipes.
Cooking Features
Cooking forshmak often, the housewives find the perfect, from their point of view, the balance of components, but the advice of more experienced colleagues will be useful to the novice cook.
- Recipes often indicate the weight of a herring fillet, and not the whole fish. However, it is desirable to use herring, salted whole, the best homemade salting. Cutting herring into fillets is troublesome, but the result is worth the effort: store preserves cannot be compared with natural salted fish.
- The most delicious forshmak is obtained when the herring takes a third or half in the composition of the snack. If it is more, it clogs the taste of the remaining ingredients, in a smaller quantity it is not sufficiently noticeable.
- If the herring is too salty, you can soak it in milk or tea.
- Most often, the products for cooking the forshmak are crushed using a meat grinder or a blender, but for many it seems more tasty when pieces of herring are felt in it. Herring and other products can not be mashed, but simply very finely chopped. Initially, Forshmak was prepared that way.
- Wheat or rye bread can be used for the forshmak. Before it is soaked in milk, therefore, yesterday’s bread is used more often, that is, it is not too soft.
- Eggs can be used entirely, but some recipes suggest using only egg yolks. Protein halves can be used to serve up the noodles — you can fill them with pate and decorate with greens, turning them into a buffet snack.
Forshmak is served in herring bowl or on a dish, laid out in the form of fish. It is considered traditional to serve herring paste on slices of rye bread. Before serving the dish is cooled in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.
Classic recipe for herring from herring
Composition:
- herring slightly salted - 0, 4-0, 5 kg;
- chicken egg - 2 pcs .;
- sweet-sour apple - 100 g;
- onions - 25 g;
- butter - 150 g;
- stale bread (white or rye) - 60 g;
- milk - 100 ml;
- mustard (optional) - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Warm up the milk (not boiling), pour the pieces of bread to them, leave them to soak them.
- Cook boiled eggs, cool under cold water, free from shell, chop as finely as possible with a knife or rub, put in a bowl.
- Remove the oil from the refrigerator and place it in a warm place to soften it.
- Peel the onions, chop finely, fill with boiling water, squeeze after 2-3 minutes and put to the eggs.
- Fillet the herring by removing all the bones. Chop the fillets as small as possible and place them against the eggs and onions.
- Apple peel, remove the middle with the seeds. Pulp chop grated, put to the rest of the products.
- Mash hands the soaked bread, combine with the rest of the ingredients.
- Add butter and a little mustard, mix thoroughly, you can even beat with a mixer.
- Put it in the herring bowl, put in the fridge for 2 hours.
There are variations of this recipe, in which onions are taken more (it is fried in refined vegetable oil), while in others more apples and eggs are taken, and bread is not used.
Forshmak with potatoes
Composition:
- fillet of salted herring - 0, 3 kg;
- chicken egg - 3 pcs .;
- long loaf - 100 g;
- milk - 100 ml;
- potatoes - 150 g;
- flavourless vegetable oil - 50 ml;
- green onions - 30 g;
- table mustard - 10 ml;
- sugar - 10 g;
- table vinegar (9 percent) - 20 ml;
- black ground pepper - a pinch.
Method of preparation:
- Soak bread in warm milk.
- Boil the potatoes in a uniform, cool and peel, coarsely chop.
- Chop the green onions.
- Eggs boil hard boiled. Cool and peel, divide into whites and yolks.
- Dissociate the herring, cut the fillet into small pieces.
- Fish fillet, potatoes, egg whites, green onions and loaf scroll through a meat grinder.
- Mash egg yolks with a fork, add sugar and mustard, grind to obtain a homogeneous mass.
- Pour in vinegar and oil, mix thoroughly, to obtain a homogeneous sauce.
- Combine the main products with the sauce, pepper and mix thoroughly. You can beat the blender.
- Put the pate on the dish, giving it the desired shape.
- Refrigerate for at least an hour.
Green onions can be not scrolled through the meat grinder with other products, but finely chopped with a knife and used to decorate the dish when it is served at the table.
Forshmak with nuts
Composition:
- salted herring - 0, 4-0, 5 kg;
- walnut kernels - 100 g;
- long loaf - 100 g;
- milk - 0, 3 l;
- green apples - 0, 4 kg;
- onions - 100 g;
- table vinegar (9 percent) - 5 ml;
- sugar - 5 g;
- vegetable oil - 80 ml.
Method of preparation:
- Fish is filleted, put it in a bowl, fill it with a glass of milk.
- In the remaining milk, soak the bread sliced in small pieces.
- Peel the onion, cut it into 4 parts.
- Peel the apples, cut the seed boxes out of them. Pulp cut into large cubes or slices.
- Herring fillet, onions, apples and bread, twist twice through a meat grinder or chop with a blender.
- Combine sugar, vinegar and butter in a separate container, whisk together.
- Add dressing to chopped products, whisk them with a blender or mixer.
- Put the pate in the herring bowl or vase, put it in the fridge for an hour.
It is not a shame to make herring paste prepared according to this recipe for the holiday table, although your guests will almost certainly like the other forshmak options.
Forshmak with carrots and melted cheese
Composition:
- herring fillet (slightly salted) - 0, 25 kg;
- carrots - 120 g;
- processed cheese - 80 g;
- chicken egg - 2 pcs .;
- butter - 100 g.
Method of preparation:
- Cut the herring fillet into small pieces, put it in the blender bowl. Crush. Transfer to a bowl.
- Remove the oil from the refrigerator so that it becomes soft.
- Grind melted cheese on a grater. It will be easier to do this if you put the cheesecake for 20 minutes in the freezer before.
- Eggs boil hard boiled, cool, peel, finely grate.
- Wash carrots, boil in uniform. When it cools down, clean it and chop it in a grater with small holes.
- Combine all the ingredients in the dish, whisk with a mixer or blender.
- Spread the sandwiches with pate and put them in the fridge so that the forshmak froze.
Forshmak prepared according to this recipe can be served not only on bread, but also separately.
Forshmak is a traditional dish of Jewish cuisine. It is prepared from salted herring fillets with oil and other products. Most often, the composition includes eggs, apples, bread soaked in milk. The result is a pate in which herring takes 25-50%, although it is the main ingredient. There is no unified forshmak recipe, as each housewife prepares it in his own way.