Photo: Rollmops Recipe
Ingredients
For the brine:
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
- 1 quart water
- 1 pound trout filets from small, 6 to 8 ounce whole fish, scaled, skin on, and cut into 16 to 20 (4 to 6-inches long by 1-inch wide) pieces
For the pickle:
- 2 cups water
- 2 cups cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 8 whole cloves
- 8 whole allspice berries
- 6 whole black peppercorns
- 4 dried bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 16 to 20 cornichon and/or pickled onion
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 1 medium onion, julienned
Directions
Place the salt and water into a 4-quart container and stir until the salt has dissolved, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the trout filets, making sure they are submerged. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Combine water, vinegar, sugar, cloves, allspice, peppercorns, bay leaves, and red pepper flake in a 2-quart saucepan set over medium high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid comes to a boil, approximately 5 minutes. Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight.
Remove the trout from the brine and rinse thoroughly under cold running water for 1 minute. Submerge the filets in clean cold water and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Drain and rinse the filets. Pat dry. Lay the filets in a single layer, skin side down and brush each with mustard. Place a cornichon or a pickled onion on the filet. Roll up each filet and secure with 1 or 2 toothpicks. Alternate layers of rollmops and julienned onion in a glass jar or ceramic crock.
Pour on the chilled pickling mixture, cover and refrigerate for at least 5 hours and up to 2 days. Drain and serve chilled with crusty bread.
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By DrJon
Norman, OK
on October 17, 2012
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Sour isn't really my thing, so I wrapped the fish around sweet gherkins. Delicious. Awful big mouthful, though. I'd recommend 1/2 inch wide strips of fish.
By mrmambo
Atlanta, GA
on September 01, 2011
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I made these a few weeks ago and was a little disappointed at first; they were much firmer and less sweet than any pickled herring/fish I've ever had. I had let them sit in the pickling liquid for 2-3 days and all my guests agreed that they were too firm and didn't have much flavor. I then added some agave syrup (dissolves in cold liquid to sweeten it up and left it for another week or so...success! It really does taste like pickled herring now and is much better. So, I guess Alton doesn't like his as soft, as he suggested pulling them after 2 days max.
By Bill in VA
Tidewater area ...
on November 14, 2009
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When I saw AB do recent ?The Once and Future Fish? episode, I new I had to try those rollmops. I lived in West Berlin during the early 1980?s ? brought back a lot of memories of the good food to be found. Does anyone remember ?Green Week? in Berlin?
The recipe is easy to follow. I could not get the fish to say submerged when it was soaking in the brine. Just poured everything into a zip top bag and it worked out well. Same as when the fish needed to be soaked in cold water.
Tip, found the cornichon?s at my local Trader Joe?s. None of the local Mega Marts had them.
I came up a tad short on the pickling liquid for my 1lb of trout in a half-gallon mason jar. The pickling recipe did not completely cover the rollmops. I just poured in the remainder of the cornichon pickling liquid; it was a water and vinegar mix ? no problems.
They tasted best after the second day in the pickling liquid. They really are a good accompaniment for beer.
Hey AB, how about a good Doner Kebab recipe?? You no doubt had some of these during your ?Berlin pub crawling days.?
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