Canned herring is cooked.

Canned herring is cooked when you open it and eat it straight away, but because the flavor of canned herring is so distinctive, you need to be careful not to open it in an airtight environment when you eat canned herring.

Canned herring is one of the world's most foul-smelling delicacies and is available in the Swedish summer around August each year. By mid-August, the herring in the can becomes slimy and juicy, and the gas in the can expands as the herring ferments, bulging the can, which means the herring has been pickled.

Canned herring

Canned herring is one of the world's most foul-smelling foods, and is marketed in the Swedish summer around August each year. By mid-August, the herring in the can becomes slimy and juicy, and the gas in the can expands as the herring ferments, bulging the can, which means the herring is cured and ready for market.

How it's made

Every year from April to June when herring spawn, fishermen salvage hundreds of tons of herring to prepare the ingredients for pickled herring. The uniqueness of pickled herring lies in its natural fermentation. In order to ensure that the herring does not spoil during the fermentation process, the makers always boil the freshly salvaged herring in lightly salted water over a warm fire, and then put them into cans and let them ferment naturally.

It is said that this process of pickling herring has been passed down for nearly 300 years, and the fishermen came up with the natural fermentation method of pickling herring to save money, as it would cost less salt.