The Simple Trick To Make Canned Herring Taste Fresh

It's time to stop sidelining the canned herring sitting in your pantry. There's endless potential tucked away in this convenient ingredient. Laid over toasted bread, it brings a fun twist to your breakfast toasts, bruschetta, and crostini. Sprinkled into pasta and sandwiches, it's got pops of brininess that can be a real mealtime highlight. Any time you need a quick and easy way to perk up the dish, canned herring can be quite helpful. One of the few drawbacks is that it has a strong fishy and salty taste, which doesn't always scream "fresh." Don't despair and make one of the most common mistakes with canned herring. The fix is surprisingly simple and a milk-soak is the only thing it requires.

Herring, and seafood, in general, often have an organic compound called trimethylamine N-oxide (also known as TMAO), which helps protect them from water pressure, temperature, and other environmental elements while they're alive. Once they enter the decomposition process, TMAO slowly becomes TMA (trimethylamine), which is responsible for their distinctive fishy odor.

Milk has casein — a protein that bonds with this compound when the canned herring is soaked in milk. When the milk is removed, along with it goes the TMA, leaving behind a softer, fresher flavor. This mellowing effect allows the herring's delicate notes, which were previously obscured, to come forward and fully shine. Shifting the flavor profile from pungently briny to pleasantly savory, this trick makes canned herring approachable for even the most discerning palates.

All you have to do is drain the herring from its packaging and soak the fish for at least 20 minutes in cold milk, although overnight is also encouraged. Once done, just drain the bowl, pat the fish dry, and get on with your cooking endeavors. While rinsing is always an option, you can skip this step if you want. It won't have much impact on the flavors or texture of the fish.

Whole milk is an obvious choice, but it's not the only one. You may also find other dairy products such as buttermilk, half-and-half, and sour cream to be worth a try. Lactose-free milk still has casein, therefore it's still a suitable pick for this milk soak hack. As for dairy-free products, which include plant-based ones, the jury's still out since they're essentially casein-free. In case you were wondering, yes, lactose-free milk and dairy-free milk are two different things.

Not just canned herring, but almost any other variety can benefit from this easy hack. Try it with salmon, cod, or other fish the next time you're in the kitchen for a lightly sweet, oceanic freshness that elevates the dining experience by a mile. You can also use a milk marinade when cooking fish to achieve a fall-apart tenderness and ultra-creamy, slightly sweet flavors, or even poach the fish in milk.