SO YOU'RE WONDERING WHAT THE DIFFERENCE IS BETWEEN HERRING AND SARDINES?

Sardines & Herring

Sardines (Sardina pilchardus) | Herring (Clupea harengus)

MORE AND MORE AMERICAN CHEFS are looking to sustainable fish options and discovering what Europeans have long known: sardines and herring are good eating when freshly caught. Sardines and Herring are both members of the Herring Family – Clupeidae – a family that includes other oily, small schooling fish such as shad and anchovies. Confusion can reign when trying to figure out exactly what their differences are – for example, here in Maine a small, juvenile herring is dubbed a “sardine” and once was canned as such. Some will market domestic herring as “Atlantic Sardines”. For Europeans, larger sardines – those generally longer than six inches – are called “pilchards”. Some sources list almost 20 different species as “sardines”!

The similarities between the two far outweigh the differences, especially from a culinary perspective. Both are “oily” fish – although the smaller they are, the more delicate in texture, and less powerful in flavor than larger specimens. This “oil” is rich in healthful omega fatty acids and is the source of their flavor (lower fat content in some sardines and herring can actually make the fish taste dry when prepared). Both fish have large, shimmering scales that are loosely attached (and easily removed) and are extremely boney. However, when it comes to the primary culinary distinction between Sardina pilchardus – the “true” European Sardine – and our locally caught Atlantic Herring, the Sardine tends to be a bit more plump and meaty than the Herring.

When we think of sardines we most often think of them canned and packed in oil. The name “sardine” itself it is coined after the island of Sardinia in the Mediterranean, where they schooled abundantly and some believe we first canned there. In Maine, “sardine” canning was a massive industry dating back to the late 1800’s that peaked in the 1950’s. Sadly, the industry collapsed, and today there is only one company producing canned Maine sardines – although the canning itself is done in Canada. Herring in Maine is now in highest demand as lobster bait.

Despite our association with these fish coming from a can, both are excellent when prepared super-fresh. The traditional way to prepare both is to scale and gut the fish and grill them, preferably over charcoal or wood coals, with a bit of oil. They are also excellent when stuffed and baked, split and panfried. Some traditional European recipes call for them to be filleted and simply marinated in oil and herbs. Avoid using in soups or stews as they are simply too oily and boney. Care should be taken with fresh sardines and herring as they are delicate fish that bruise easily and have a limited shelf life.

Catch Regions:

• Sardines: Mediterranean Sea to East North Atlantic
• Herring: Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy

 Seasonality:       

• Year Round:  Herring much more abundant in Summer Months

Catch Methods: Trawl Nets, Seines, Inshore Weirs (Maine)

Flavor Profile: Pronounced, rich

Texture Profile: Delicate

Substitute:

• Smelts
• Anchovies
• Mackerel

 source: https://www.brownetrading.com/species-spotlight/sardines-herring/

Yeah? Well what's so funny about herring ??

Norway and Herring

     😎WINDBREAKING NEWS

          

THE FISH THAT TALK WITH FARTS

In addition to being an occasional biological necessity, human flatulence has served a variety of uses, including as a way to clear a room, entertain friends, torture a sibling, and tease a child (pull my finger). But while some humans have elevated farting to an art form (see: The Most Famous Farter in History), perhaps no entire species has elevated farting quite so high as the school-swimming herring, who use their butt vapors to communicate.

Bubbling out of a herring’s back end, the fish farts come fast and furious, and as such scientists have named them “Fast Repetitive Tick sounds” or (I’m not making this up) FRTs. Occurring in “stereotyped bursts of 7-65 pulses . . . lasting 0.6-7.6” seconds at a time, the high frequency FRTs are emitted, as with many human farts, in “a single continuous burst train rather than intermittent bursts.” Believed to be the result of “gas expulsion . . . via the anal duct,” the fish acquire the gas when they surface to fill their swim bladders (not from digestion), although they can save this air for at least a day and release it when needed.[1]

Because of when and how the fish break wind, scientists believe the farts are used to communicate, although they’re not clear on what the herring are saying. By experimenting with disturbances and even adding a bit of “shark odour” to the study (neither of which had any effect on the farting), they concluded that the FRTs are not alarm calls; likewise, as FRTs were being emitted but nobody was getting busy, the researcher also discerned that the farts were not involved with mating (as any female of any species could’ve told them ;-)).

However, as herring work together in coordinated groups, and even shoal together in the dark, the researchers hypothesized that the FRTs were used as “contact calls.” They note that this social communication would only make sense if it couldn’t be heard by predators (who would then be wise to the herring’s location), and it turns out the frequency of most FRTs, at above 2 kHz, is outside of the “known auditory range of most predatory fishes.” Although they also note that FRTs are within the range of hearing of marine mammals.[2]

In any event, this explanation is plausible, and would help explain how herring typically shoal, which is in a grid pattern where the distance between each fish matches the distance that their desired prey will jump away. By emitting noxious gases (which in humans is a long-practiced way of establishing a safe distance between individuals), the fish establish the precise interval between school members for optimal fishing.

The intrepid researchers who discovered this miraculous use of butt gas, Ben Wilson, Lawrence Dill, Robert Batty, Magnus Whalberg and Hakan Westerberg, were honored with an Ig Nobel Prize in Biology in 2004, for their achievement in science that makes people first laugh, then actually think. Other noted Ig Nobel Prize winners include a group that discovered that strippers earn more when they are at their peak fertility than otherwise (One can only imagine the significant time they had to spend at strip clubs FOR SCIENCE!!!); a group that discovered that when people have a strong urge to pee, they consistently make better decisions with certain types of things and worse decisions with others; and, of course, Sir Andre Geim, who won an Ig Nobel Prize in 2000 for successfully figuring out a way to levitate a frog using magnets. A decade later, he also won a real Nobel Prize “for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene.” 

source: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/01/whatd-butthole-say-talking-farts/

LEARNING ABOUT THE RED HERRING

Source: https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/words-and-their-stories-smelly-fish/3703914.html

How Can a Smelly Fish Help You Avoid the Truth?

German chancellor Angela Merkel eats a pickled herring during a ceremony for a fishing boat, 2015. (AFP Photo)

Today, we talk about a small, silvery fish, called herring.

In some places, herring is a popular food. In the United States, herring is also part of a curious expression. We call unimportant information that is used to distract a “red herring.”

For example, mystery writers often use red herrings as plot devices. In her book “The Sittaford Mystery,” writer Agatha Christie gives many characters a reason for killing the rich Captain Trevelyan. But those reasons turn out to be red herrings. Christie uses them to throw the reader off the scent of the real killer.

In a mystery, a red herring is something the writer presents as a clue, but actually isn’t. Mysteries aren’t the only places that use red herrings.

People who work in government or write about politics also commonly use this expression. Politicians are sometimes guilty of drawing people’s attention away from serious issues by throwing out red herrings that they know will get a reaction.

People also criticize the media for creating red herrings – reports that are used to purposefully distract readers from more important issues.

As you can see, the expression red herring is useful … but it is odd. How did herring turn red? And why does it mean something that is purposefully misleading?

The first part, about the color, is easy to answer.

Before modern transportation and cooling equipment, fish was difficult to ship to customers. It would go bad before reaching stores. So, people began curing fish for later use. They added salt to the fish or left it hanging in a smoky room. After this process, the fish skin would darken, changing to a reddish-brown color. In this way, some herring literally turned red.

In our examples today, however, a “red herring” means something that takes attention away from the real issue. How did it come to mean that? Well, language experts do not really agree.

Some word historians point out that these smoked fish have a very strong smell. So, they might have been used to train hunting and tracking dogs. They suggest the scent of red herring could trick a group of hunters and, more importantly, their dogs. In other words, red herring could throw even the best hunting dogs off track, making them likely to go in the wrong direction.

However, to other language experts, this explanation makes no sense. It suggests that people were following the hunters, secretly plotting to ruin their day. Who would do that? More importantly, there doesn’t seem to be any written evidence to support that claim.

So, there are things we don’t know about the origin of “red herring.” But we do know this. From politics to the news to mysteries, we commonly use “red herring” in written English. But it can sound more formal and even a bit dated in everyday conversations.

There are some words that mean about the same thing but that are more commonly used in spoken English -- words like ploy, a ruse or subterfuge.

They all mean to trick someone or to send someone up the garden path, whether in search of stinky fish or anything else that is not the truth.

This is kind of intense

These guys have the right idea !!

Source: https://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/a-fish-story-to-get-hooked-on/

A fish story to get hooked on

Netivot Shalom serves up a herring festival with more than just matjes

By HEIDI MAE BRATTDecember 6, 2018, 11:56 am  

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The Bergen County Herring Festival at Teaneck’s Congregation Netivot Shalom offers a smorgasbord of classics as well as new-wave sauces and flavors.

Can a fish evoke emotion? You betcha!

I remember how my father carefully cut pieces of the glistening bony fish and placed them in a bath of oil and onion, stored in glass jars in the refrigerator. Each evening when he started his meal, he would take a piece and eat it with rye toast. He looked forward to it with such pleasure, that “shtickel” (piece) of herring.

Without it, his dinner wouldn’t be the same.

Herring, at once evocative and provocative, brings back old world memories for some, and new connections for others.

For herring aficionados and the newly curious, the 2018 Bergen County Herring Festival, a much-anticipated event that has spawned imitators, will take place on Saturday, December 15, at Congregation Netivot Shalom in Teaneck. The biennial festival (actually it has been three years since the last one) is a fundraiser for the synagogue and for a local nonprofit. This year, the festival will benefit the Jewish Family and Children’s Services of Northern New Jersey.

“The biennial herring festival held at Netivot Shalom is an event that brings together many diverse groups of people both from within and without our Bergen County area,” said Nathaniel Helfgot, the Orthodox synagogue’s rabbi. He favors “a really good smooth plain and simple matjes herring on a cracker,” he said.

“We come together to share some delectable treats and to share in the warmth and hospitality that are the hallmarks of the Netivot Shalom community,” Rabbi Helfgot continued. “In the process, we also help raise some funds for the shul programming as well as donate a portion of the proceeds to a local tzedakah.”

More than 100 pounds of herring, in a dizzying array of classic and newfangled flavors from purveyors including Ma’adan Catering in Teaneck, Rockland Kosher Supermarket in Monsey, and Raskin’s Fish Market in Brooklyn, will be available to sample. Expect to find classics like a variety of matjes herring as well as herrings in new-wave sauces like mustard, wasabi, and other creative spins.

It will be possible to pair specialty fish with the selection of premium vodkas and single-malt scotches that will be on hand. There also will be breads, fingerling potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, pickled beets, salmon roe, and other victuals that fit with the theme.

“It’s a nice social evening with good food, good drink, good music and good friends,” said Barry Herzog, one of the three organizers — the other two are Noah Rothblatt and Shanan Cohen.

This year’s Bergen County Herring Festival is the fifth such event. The first once was in 2009; the festival has grown in both scope and popularity since then. It grew out of a typical Shabbat kiddush, which Netivot Shalom congregant Jonny Shore helped set up each week. Mr. Shore started bringing in a variety of herrings he found when he worked on the Lower East Side. The festival itself was born after he and his friends learned about an upscale herring tasting at a Manhattan penthouse by appetizing icon Russ and Daughters.

With that inspiration — and their love of all things herring — they figured why not create an elegant herring tasting in Bergen County?

As the new owner of Ma’adan, Mr. Shore, who has switched from herring festival organizer to herring festival provider, said that a new flavor will be unveiled at this year’s festival. (He didn’t say what it would be, but hinted that it would be savory.) In addition, Ma’adan will bring its popular matjes with scallions, Tex-Mex, and other favorites.

“Herring has become quite mainstream,” Mr. Shore said. “There are many people who appreciate a good herring. Here at Ma’adan you can buy herring, and walk in to see the people who made it,” he said referring to former Ma’adan owner, Stuart Kahan, whom he called “the herring maestro.”

One of the event organizers, Mr. Shanan, who at 33 and the group’s millennial member, said he first was introduced to the herring festival in 2011, when he attended with his father-in-law, Elliot Fuld, who lives in Englewood. Since moving to Teaneck in 2014, Mr. Cohen has become very involved in the synagogue, and with the herring festival.

Herring, Mr. Cohen said, is a great connector.

“You meet people at the herring table that you wouldn’t normally engage with otherwise because people tend to stay with people their own age and in their life stage,” he said. “But at the herring table, there are people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s. The interest in herring spans the generations.”

“People have been waiting three years for this,” Mr. Rothblatt added.

The herring festival starts at 8 p.m. at Congregation Netivot Shalom, 811 Palisade Ave., Teaneck. The cost is $55 per person in advance or $75 at the door. There is more information at www.netivotshalomnj.org/herring.