The new herring is fattier and tastier than ever (and: more expensive)
Global warming has at least one positive effect: as a result, the new herring is more tender and fattier than in previous years. This week, it is back in stores, and the experts are waxing lyrical. ‘This is wonderful,’ says the chairman of the association of fish shops.
A Hollandse nieuwe is caught in May and June. In mid-June, the first barrel of fish is ceremonially auctioned, marking the start of the period in which you can buy new herring. The fish may be called a Hollandse nieuwe if it has been gutted in a special Dutch way and contains at least 16 percent fat. And this year, that fat content is even higher: more than 20 percent. This gives the herring a deliciously creamy taste.
Time to fillet
‘Wonderful,’ says Adriaan van Moort, chairman of the Vereniging Nederlandse Visspecialisten, an association representing more than five hundred fish shops. Such fatty herring is also easy for the fishmonger to clean, he explains to Nu.nl. ‘Look, the fat is between the flesh and the skin, and the skin comes off easily when filleting.’
You pay a hefty price for the fish
The fish is a little more expensive this year, due to rising transport, staff and packaging costs. This means fish is 15 to 20 percent more expensive, but it is not yet known how fishmongers will pass on that price increase to enthusiasts at the fish stall.
No bad herring
There are also critical voices: every spring, the fish bureau sends out a press release announcing that the herring is once again fatter, tastier and more tender than the year before. Surely that can hardly be true? Marketing, critics conclude. IJsbrand Velzeboer, a food technologist, tells Omroep West: ‘For forty years now, they have been able to preserve that herring so well that it tastes just as excellent as it does fresh. The only difference is that during storage, a little more salt penetrates it. Bad herring is no longer sold in the Netherlands.’
Deliciously fatty
But this year, the fish may actually be a little fattier than in previous years. The herring is being caught in increasingly northern waters, as a direct consequence of global warming. And this year it became fatty more quickly than in previous years because the fish could find more food so far north. It is actually very simple.
