Senapssill

The story

Senapssill, herring in a thick mustard sauce, is just one of the many variations on the fish that make up the sillbricka — the herring platter that is the indispensable opening of the Swedish Christmas table, since it is held that no julbord is complete without at least three or four different preparations of the same fish. The mustard is usually Swedish, milder and sweeter than French Dijon, whisked with a little sugar, vinegar, and oil into a thick emulsion that coats the pieces of salt herring. The tradition of serving herring before everything else dates from a time when salted fish was cheap, readily available winter food for families who had many mouths to feed and few fresh ingredients, and over the centuries it turned into an almost ritual prelude to the feast, accompanied by the first small glass of schnapps. For a diaspora that rarely eats herring outside the holidays, senapssill is one of the most approachable ways into the tradition — sweeter and milder than classic salt herring, yet assertive enough to announce at once that Christmas has arrived.