Israel · Appetizers and Sandwiches · Quick

Forshmak

Name: Forshmak
Prep time: 7 min
Cook time: 16 min
Total time: 23 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Israeli
Ingredients: 500 g lightly salted herring fillet; 150 g stale white bread; 50 ml milk; 3 eggs; 2 apples; 1 onion; 2 tsp sugar; 2 tbsp vegetable oil; 1 tbsp wine vinegar; 1 tsp lemon juice; 1 tsp mustard; to taste salt and freshly ground black pepper

Salt-cured herring ground with tart apples, butter, and a touch of onion into a creamy, pungent spread. A staple of Jewish cuisine that hits every note — briny, sweet, sharp — all at once on a piece of dark rye bread.

23 min 530 kcal 4 serves Medium⚡Quick🇮🇱Israel★★★★★4.9· 7 reviews

Ingredients

ServingsMetric

500 glightly salted herring fillet
150 gstale white bread
50 mlmilk
3 eggs
2 apples
1 onion
2 tspsugar
2 tbspvegetable oil
1 tbspwine vinegar
1 tsplemon juice
1 tspmustard
to tastesalt and freshly ground black pepper

Note from Sergei

Sergei Martynov

“Forshmak is a dish that reveals whether a cook understands balance. The herring must be properly soaked — too salty and it overwhelms everything; not soaked enough and the dish is inedible. I soak salted herring fillets in cold milk for 4-6 hours, which draws out excess salt while adding a subtle creaminess. The apple is the secret weapon here: it provides a fresh, slightly sweet counterpoint to the rich, salty herring that keeps each bite interesting. Do not over-process — forshmak should have texture, a rough chop that you can feel on the tongue, not a smooth purée that could be anything. In traditional Jewish-Ashkenazi cooking, this was the ultimate way to stretch expensive herring into an elegant appetizer.”

Use a tart apple variety like Granny Smith — sweet apples throw off the flavor balance. Mix in a tablespoon of softened butter at the end for a richer, silkier texture that spreads more easily on rye bread.

Method

Grind herring fillets together with white bread soaked in milk and squeezed, and apple. Add vegetable oil and lemon juice and beat with a wooden spatula.
Add finely chopped whites of boiled eggs, sautéed onions, pepper, and salt. Mix thoroughly.
Put the forshmak in a herring bowl in the shape of a fish, pour mustard sauce (beaten yolks with vinegar and mustard) and sprinkle with finely chopped green onions.
Serve on slices of rye bread or pumpernickel, garnished with fresh dill or pickled cucumber.

FAQ

Forshmak (from Yiddish vorshpeis — appetizer) is an Ashkenazi Jewish dish with several key differences from plain mashed fish. Classic forshmak always includes a sour apple (for balance), soaked bread (for texture), and an egg (for creaminess). Everything is ground together and served chilled. Regular mashed herring is simply fish with onion — without the sour apple and bread, a completely different flavor.

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Comments (3)

Сеня
21d ago
Как-то ел у евреев на празднике. Можно литр водочки под нее засадить и не окосеешь. Вообще, у евреев вкусная еда.
Просто Мария
29d ago
Форшмак по этому рецпету прям как у моей мамы делала, аж ностальгия. Селёдку вымачиваю в молоке обязательно, тогда нет лишней соли. С чёрным хлебом и зелёным лучком — лучшая закуска на праздничый стол.
Sergei Martynov✍ Author
29d ago
The quality of the herring makes or breaks forshmak. I use lightly salted herring, never preserved in oil — the texture is firmer and the flavor is cleaner. Soaking overly salty fillets in milk for 2 hours tames the salt without losing the characteristic herring depth.