Classic Herring Under a Fur Coat salad
This classic Soviet-era layered salad is still popular, and I suspect it will remain so. We no longer save it just for special occasions: in our family it is equally welcome at Sunday lunch or a midweek dinner.
I don't make a full layer of carrots. If there is a lot of it in the salad, it will overwhelm other tastes. I like it much better this way.
For the “Herring under a Fur Coat” salad, choose spicy salted herring. This is how it’s supposed to be according to the classic recipe and it’s much tastier.
Boil vegetables until tender in their jackets. Cool. Hard boil the eggs.
Clean the fish, remove the skin and fins, and take out the backbone and larger bones.
Cut the finished fillet into small cubes, removing small bones along the way. Distribute the herring pieces in an even layer on a flat dish.
Peel boiled vegetables and eggs. Finely chop the onion and sprinkle on the herring. Apply a thin thin lattice of mayonnaise on top.
Coarsely grate the potatoes directly over the onion, spreading them evenly as you go. Drizzle with a thin lattice of mayonnaise.
Distribute the eggs, grated on a coarse grater, over the potato layer. And again we draw a thin lattice of mayonnaise.
Grate the carrots and beetroot separately. Arrange the carrot around the edges and fill the center with beetroot. Decorate with mayonnaise.
Refrigerate for 3 hours to allow the flavors to develop, or preferably overnight.