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Śledź w Śmietanie (Polish Herring in Sour Cream)
Salted herring soaked mild, cut into pieces and folded through sour cream with grated apple, onion, dill and chives, a cold starter for Christmas Eve and every family feast.
Polish · easy · serves 6
prep 25 min · cook 0 min · plus 3 h hands-off time
~483 cal · 20g protein · 30g carbs · 31g fat · 3g fiber · 14g sugars · 16g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Herring is the fish of the Polish festive table, and herring in sour cream is its most loved form. It is one of the dishes that cannot be missing from Wigilia, the Christmas Eve supper, when meat is traditionally not eaten, and it comes out again as a cold starter at name days, weddings and parties, usually with a glass of cold vodka.
The fish is salted herring, bought as whole fillets or as milder matjas fillets. It is soaked in cold water, and in many homes then in milk, to draw out the salt and soften its sharpness, and cut into bite-sized pieces. The sauce is thick sour cream with grated or diced apple, which gives a fresh sweetness, onion that has been scalded with boiling water to take the edge off, and plenty of dill and chives.
Recipes vary from house to house: some add pickled cucumber, some a little mayonnaise or lemon juice. It is best made a few hours ahead so the herring can take up the cream, and it is served cold with rye bread or boiled potatoes.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
- 400 g salted herring fillets (matjas or plain salted)
- 500 ml milk, for soaking the herring, optional; it mellows the herring
- 2 sweet-tart apples, peeled
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 300 g thick sour cream (18%)
- 2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
- 2 tbsp chives, snipped
- a pinch sugar
- to taste black pepper
- to taste salt, you may not need any
- 6 slices rye bread, to serve
Instructions
- 1Rinse the herring fillets and soak them in cold water for 30 minutes. Taste a corner: if still very salty, soak for another 30 minutes in the milk (or fresh water). Drain, pat dry and cut into 2 cm pieces.✎ Chef’s noteMatjas fillets are milder and may need only a short rinse. Very salty whole fillets can need a few hours in several changes of water.
- 2Put the diced onion in a sieve and pour just-boiled water over it, then rinse with cold water and drain well. This softens its bite.
- 3Coarsely grate or finely dice the apples and toss them straight away with the lemon juice so they stay pale.
- 4Stir the sour cream with the apple, onion, most of the dill and chives, the sugar and plenty of pepper. Taste before adding any salt.
- 5Gently fold in the herring. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours so the flavours come together.
- 6Scatter with the rest of the herbs and serve cold as a starter, with rye bread or warm new potatoes.
Polish Christmas Eve (Wigilia) tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Masovia (Warsaw). Bigos is a national dish rather than a Warsaw one, and there is more in the pot than cabbage and meat: forest mushrooms, juniper, allspice, and often prunes or plum butter. Its best-known appearance in print is in Mickiewicz's Pan Tadeusz of 1834, which has it being reheated out in the forest.
🗺️
Poland. Poland preserves the year rather than shopping around it. Cabbage and cucumbers go into brine as kiszonki, rye is left to sour into the zakwas that gives zurek its edge, and beetroot gets a ferment of its own for barszcz. Forest mushrooms gathered and dried in autumn carry that season into soups and pierogi fillings months later.
🌍
Europe. European cooking is built on the land and the seasons, wheat, butter, and cured pork in the north; olive oil, tomatoes, and seafood around the Mediterranean; preserved vegetables and hearty stews through long winters. Centuries of peasant tradition, guild craft, and royal courts refined techniques from French mother sauces to Italian fresh pasta and Central European baking. Regional identity runs remarkably deep, with a single dish often changing from one valley to the next.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Poland
Pierogi Ruskie (Potato & Cheese Dumplings)Tender dumplings stuffed with potato and farmer's cheese, finished in butter with golden onions.
Żurek (Sour Rye Soup)Poland’s tangy, smoky sour rye soup, built on a fermented rye starter, simmered with white sausage and marjoram, and crowned with a halved egg.
Bigos (Hunter’s Stew)Sauerkraut and fresh cabbage slow-cooked with assorted meats, mushrooms, and prunes, Poland’s national stew, better each day.
Browse all Poland recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Fried food is best eaten fresh while crisp. Re-crisp leftovers in a hot oven or air fryer; the microwave makes them soft.
Make it a Poland meal
KompotDrink
SernikDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Śledź w Śmietanie (Polish Herring in Sour Cream)?
Salted herring soaked mild, cut into pieces and folded through sour cream with grated apple, onion, dill and chives, a cold starter for Christmas Eve and every family feast.
Where does Śledź w Śmietanie (Polish Herring in Sour Cream) come from?
Śledź w Śmietanie (Polish Herring in Sour Cream) is a Polish dish from Masovia (Warsaw), Poland.
Can Śledź w Śmietanie (Polish Herring in Sour Cream) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Śledź w Śmietanie (Polish Herring in Sour Cream) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Śledź w Śmietanie (Polish Herring in Sour Cream) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Śledź w Śmietanie (Polish Herring in Sour Cream) take to make?
About 3 h 25 min in all: 25 minutes prep and 0 minutes cooking, plus 3 h of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 6.
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