A rich Dutch secret of which the finer details are now related by our premier maatjes buyer, who came close to tears when he discovered he could obtain his favourite food in the UK: "I have some info about Dutch 'maatjesharing'. This is the jongest herring, it has not yet developed soft roe and spawn, and therefore better for consumation. A legend has it that in the 14th century Willem Beukelszoon came up with a new idea to preserve herring: as soon as they were caught, he straight away cut open the herring with a tiny knife, removing all the intestines except the pancreas, whose hormones thereupon flowed freely throughout the fish, making it soft en consumable. After this the fish was packed in small barrels and salt was added to conserve. One of the largest fishing villages is Scheveningen (close to the Hague) where I had in my haydays the pleasure of conducting a large mixed choir. I got to hear about the custum of sending away the fleet with blessings, songs and prayer the night before they sailed out, a custum by then lost but I proposed to restore it by organising a concert in the local church which was greeted with great enthousiasm. The first we did so the church was packed (like the dutch saying goes 'packed like herrings in a barrel'!) and people were so enthousiastic about it that every following year we repeated such concerts. Still there is a competition between all the herring villages along the coast which boat will bring in the first herring, the NEW herring. I thought you might be interested. Beste wishes. Niek Schnapps". Thanks Niek (and that is, by the way, definitely the biggest account in English about maatjes herrings on the entire internet.) Niek thinks our maatjes are "excellent, except that they occasionally leave in a couple of small bones. I'm not complaining. it only takes a moment to remove them. But you never EVER get bones on maatjesharing in Holland." But Niek, we get them straight from Holland. "Vell, then, they must be picking out the ones with bones specially for the export market...". ENOUGH!
