Hareng de Boulogne-sur-Mer

Boulogne-sur-Mer is France's largest fishing port and the center of the French herring industry — a relationship with this small, oily, intensely flavored fish that dates to the medieval period and produces a range of herring preparations that are as central to northern French cuisine as anchovies are to the Mediterranean. The herring (hareng, Clupea harengus) arrives in Boulogne from the North Sea and English Channel, and is transformed into four principal products: Hareng fumé (smoked herring, also called kipper or hareng saur — hot-smoked over beech or oak for 6-12 hours, producing a golden-brown, richly flavored fish eaten for breakfast or as a first course), Hareng salé (salt-cured herring — packed in salt for weeks, creating a firm, intensely salty fish that must be desalted before eating), Rollmops (herring fillets rolled around a pickle or onion and preserved in vinegar — the estaminet staple), and Hareng marinée (herring fillets in a white wine-vinegar-onion marinade — the elegant version for the table). In the kitchen: smoked herring is eaten simply — warm, with boiled potatoes and butter, or cold in a salade de hareng fumé with warm potatoes, shallots, and a cream-and-cider-vinegar dressing. Hareng salé is the base for the hareng à la boulonnaise: desalted herring simmered in a sauce of butter, mustard, and cream. Rollmops appear on every estaminet's charcuterie board. The annual Fête du Hareng in Boulogne (November) celebrates the fish with open-air smoking, tastings, and the traditional hareng grillé — whole herring grilled over beech wood on the quay, eaten from the hand with bread and butter. Boulogne's processing plants (saurisseries) still smoke and cure herring using traditional methods, though industrial competition has reduced their numbers. The herring is to Boulogne what the oyster is to Cancale — the foundation fish, the economic engine, the cultural identity.

• Dutch maatjesharing (raw herring)
• British kipper (smoked herring)
• Scandinavian sill (pickled herring)
• German Bismarckhering (vinegar-cured herring)