Herring
Herring: Nutrition, History and Cooking Guide
The Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) has shaped European history and culture to a degree matched by few other fish. The enormous herring shoals of the North Sea and Baltic were the foundation of the Hanseatic League's commercial power in the medieval period, and control of the herring fisheries drove significant political conflict between the fishing nations of Northern Europe. In Britain, the herring was once the most important food fish by volume — the "silver darlings" of the Scottish east coast ports, from Yarmouth to Aberdeen, were the basis of an enormous fishing and curing industry that employed hundreds of thousands of people throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Herring is preserved in many ways: smoked as kippers (cold-smoked, split) and bloaters (whole-smoked), pickled in vinegar as rollmops and soused herring, salt-cured, and in Scandinavia, fermented as the famously pungent surströmming. In the Netherlands, "Hollandse Nieuwe" — freshly caught herring eaten raw with onion — is a beloved seasonal tradition.
Nutritional Value of Herring
Herring provides 195 kcal and 16.4 g of protein per 100 g, with 13.9 g of fat — one of the fattiest commonly eaten fish. This fat makes it one of the best dietary sources of omega-3 fatty acids, typically providing 1.5–2.5 g of EPA and DHA per 100 g. Herring is also exceptional for vitamin D, B12, niacin, selenium, and B2 (riboflavin). The pickled or cured forms retain most of these nutrients though sodium content is significantly higher.
Health Benefits of Herring
Herring's outstanding omega-3 content supports cardiovascular health, brain function, and anti-inflammatory mechanisms. The vitamin D content is among the highest of any food and is particularly valuable for populations in Northern Europe with limited sun exposure. Regular consumption of oily fish like herring is consistently associated in research with reduced risk of heart disease. The B12 in herring supports neurological health and is especially important for older adults and those with reduced dietary diversity.
How to Select and Store Herring
Fresh herring should have bright, clear eyes, firm flesh, and a clean sea smell. It is very perishable — use the same day or the day after purchase. Kippers and other smoked forms keep refrigerated for up to a week. Pickled herring and rollmops keep for several weeks refrigerated in their brine.
How to Cook Herring
Fresh herring is excellent grilled, barbecued, pan-fried, or baked. Score the skin to prevent bursting, season, and cook for three to four minutes per side. Rolled in oatmeal and pan-fried in butter — a classic Scottish preparation — produces excellent results. Kippers can be grilled, poached in water, or cooked "jugged" (in a jug of boiling water poured over them). They pair well with butter, poached eggs, and brown bread.
Herring in more detail
Herring shaped northern European history more than any other fish. The Hanseatic League was built substantially on the salted herring trade, and the techniques invented to preserve a fish that spoils within hours — salting, smoking, pickling, fermenting — produced kippers, bloaters, rollmops, matjes, söströmming and schmaltz herring, all of them the same species handled differently.
Those preserved forms are nutritionally quite distinct from the fresh fish, and the difference is almost entirely salt. Fresh herring, which is what the figures on this page describe, carries 0.185 g of salt per 100 g. A kipper or a rollmop carries many times that. The omega-3 content survives smoking and pickling largely intact, so the preserved forms remain worthwhile — but they belong in a different column of a salt budget.
A kipper, specifically, is a herring split along the back, brined and cold-smoked. A bloater is smoked whole and ungutted, which gives it a gamier flavour. Neither is cooked by smoking, which is why kippers are then grilled or poached.
Fresh herring is cheap, sustainable in most North Sea and North Atlantic fisheries, and awkward — it has a great many fine bones. Filleting is worth learning, or ask the fishmonger. It is at its best from late summer into autumn when the fat content peaks.
Nutrients worth knowing about
Per 100 g, this page's panel shows Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin) at 15 µg — about 1,000% of the adult reference intake — and Vitamin D at 16.1 µg (161%), which is the more remarkable of the two in a UK context. It also shows Selenium at 46 µg (61%), Phosphorus at 310 mg (56%), Vitamin B3 (Niacin) at 7.8 mg (46%), Iodine at 38 µg (27%), Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine) at 0.35 mg (25%) and Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) at 0.27 mg (21%).
The vitamin D figure is the reason to care. Between October and March, UK sunlight is too weak for the skin to make any vitamin D at all, and NHS advice is that everyone should consider a 10 µg daily supplement over winter. A single portion of herring exceeds that.
At 13.88 g of fat per 100 g, herring is firmly an oily fish and a strong source of the long-chain omega-3s EPA and DHA. UK guidance is at least one portion of oily fish a week, with a limit of two portions for girls and women who are pregnant, breastfeeding or may become pregnant.
Other oily fish
Micronutrients (per 100g, cooked)
| Nutrient | Amount | % adult reference intake |
|---|---|---|
| Minerals | ||
| Iron | 1.6 mg | 11% |
| Calcium | 79 mg | 11% |
| Magnesium | 42 mg | 14% |
| Potassium | 430 mg | 12% |
| Sodium | 160 mg | 10% |
| Chloride | 220 mg | 9% |
| Phosphorus | 310 mg | 56% |
| Zinc | 1.2 mg | 13% |
| Copper | 0.19 mg | 16% |
| Manganese | 0.05 mg | 4% |
| Iodine | 38 ug | 27% |
| Selenium | 46 ug | 61% |
| Vitamins | ||
| Vitamin A | 34 ug | 5% |
| Vitamin C | Tr (trace) | . |
| Vitamin D | 16.1 ug | 161% |
| Vitamin E | 0.64 mg | 16% |
| Vitamin K | not measured | . |
| Vitamin B1 (thiamin) | Tr (trace) | . |
| Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) | 0.27 mg | 21% |
| Vitamin B3 (niacin) | 7.8 mg | 46% |
| Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) | 0.78 mg | 11% |
| Vitamin B6 | 0.35 mg | 25% |
| Vitamin B7 (biotin) | 7 ug | 4% |
| Vitamin B9 (folate) | 10 ug | 5% |
| Vitamin B12 | 15 ug | 1000% |
Source: CoFID 2021 (McCance and Widdowson, UK), code 16-176 (matched record: "Herring, flesh only, grilled"). N = present but not quantified; Tr = trace; not measured = no value in the source.
What this food is a source of
High in by content (per 100g): Vitamin B12 (1000%), Vitamin D (161%), Selenium (61%), Phosphorus (56%), Vitamin B3 (niacin) (46%).
A source of by content (per 100g): Iodine (27%), Vitamin B6 (25%), Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) (21%), Vitamin E (16%), Copper (16%).
These figures are the amount in the food. How much the body absorbs can vary, see each nutrient's entry for detail.