Selyodka Recipe (Pickled Herring or Trout)
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
In an effort to take you on a trip down memory lane, I present to you; selyodka. Don’t laugh. I feel brave posting this. Are you a selyodka lover??
My husband went fishing with my parents this week and brought home the limit of large, beautiful trout. We baked some, smoked a bunch, made silodka, gave some away, and froze the rest. If you’ve never tried this, you’re missing out. I guess you could compare it to Italian anchovies.
If this is new to you, just be aware that your family might look at you like you’re crazy. Politely tell them “it is colturrol egsperrience”(in your best Russian accent; rolling your r’s of course), and calmly continue eating your fish. I can just see you now. Ha ha.
I do like silodka particularly with some fresh homemade bread. It’s strangely good and really easy to make.
Ingredients for selyodka:
2-4 lbs trout, herring, or salmon (we used trout here), gutted, washed (no need to de-scale)
2 medium onions, sliced
1 cup grape seed oil or canola oil
For the Marinade:
4 cups water
1 cup salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp coriander
1 Tbsp pepper corns
5-7 bay leaves
How to Make Selyodka:
1. Bring 4 cups water to a boil, then remove from heat. Add the rest of the marinade ingredients (1 cup salt, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 Tbsp coriander, 1 Tbsp pepper corns and 5-7 bay leaves). Stir to dissolve the salt and sugar, then cool to room temp (set it outside if it’s cold).
2. Slice trout into 1-inch steaks, you can cut your steaks in half if you wish. Discard heads and tails. Place fish in a large bowl.
Pour marinade over the fish steaks, weigh it down with a plate to make sure fish is submerged in the brine, then cover and refrigerate (or put in the garage if it’s very cold out) for 12-14 hours. (We let it marinate in the fridge for 12 hours).
3. Remove fish steaks from the marinade and place them in a jar, stacking them tightly with layers of onion in between. Pour in enough oil to fill the spaces and cover the fish. The oil will keep it moist and presentable. Keep refrigerated.
So, do you eat selyodka?
Selyodka Recipe (European Pickled Fish)
Ingredients
- 2-4 lbs trout, herring or salmon (we used trout this time) gutted, washed (no need to de-scale)
- 2 medium onions, sliced
- 1 cup grape seed oil or canola oil
- For the Marinade:
- 4 cups water
- 1 cup salt
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp coriander
- 1 Tbsp pepper corns
- 5-7 bay leaves
Instructions
-
Bring 4 cups water to a boil, then remove from heat. Add the rest of the marinade ingredients (1 cup salt, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 Tbsp coriander, 1 Tbsp pepper corns and 5-7 bay leaves). Stir to dissolve the salt and sugar, then cool to room temp (set it outside if it's cold).
-
Slice fish into 1-inch steaks (discard heads and tails) you can cut your steaks in half if you wish. Place fish in a large bowl. Pour marinade over the fish steaks, weigh it down with a plate to make sure fish is submerged in the brine, then cover and refrigerate (or put in the garage if it's very cold out) for 12-14 hours. (We let it marinate in the fridge for 12 hours).
-
Remove fish steaks from the marinade and place them in a jar, stacking them tightly with layers of onion in between. Pour in enough oil to fill the spaces and cover the fish. The oil will keep it moist and presentable. Keep refrigerated.
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
Can I use this as a base recipe for canning pickled trout!?!? Thoughts?
Hi Dustin, that should work as long as it’s fresh fish. We’ve always used freshly caught trout but as long as it’s from a good source, it should be just fine.
Thank you for an excellent recipe! Will be trying this for Christmas.
How long would say the filets last in the fridge once they’re packed in oil?
You’re welcome, Paul. It should be fine for up to 3 months or so if refrigerated. The salt preserves it pretty well. If you have more than you have room to refrigerate, you might consider freezing it.
Hello Natasha !
Can u use any other oil? Like peanut oil or Avocado oil?!
Thank you
Hi Anastasiya, that may work. I used grape seed oil for this recipe, but my mom uses canola oil :).
when you say herring what type of fish do you mean?
Hi Daniel, herring is the kind of fish. It belongs to the Clupeidae family. Trout will work also.
Very delicious and easy to prepare😋Thank you for the recipe!
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Very delicious and easy to prepare 😋Thank you for the recipe!
Thank you for the wonderful review, Olha!
Hello Natasha, thank you for the easy recipe! I have made that marinade twice already with trout, but the fish turns out to be a little too salty. IF salt and sugar haven’t dissolved all the way, would that make it salty?
Also, is the marinade for 2 or 4 pounds of trout? Do you weigh with heads and tails or without?
Thanks a lot for your time and your recipes!!
Hi Lena, you do want both the salt and sugar to disolve before putting it on the fish to ensure it’s evenly distributed over the fish and doesn’t concentrate in spots. We’ve done it with 2 lbs and 4 lbs – you just have more marinade but it penetrates and flavors the fish the same way. I hope that helps! I weighed the fish without the heads.
Love all your recipes. I was wondering if I could use mackerel instead of trout. Thank you for your response in advance
Yes!! It will be even better! This is the most common fish used for selyodka in Ukraine 🙂
Hello, my husband and I went fishing this weekend and caught some shad that we will use to make seliyodka. I was wondering how long can it stay in the refrigerator before it gets old and I need to throw it away? We have a large quantity of fish so I wonder if I could marinate a lot of it or if I should freeze some and then use it later.
Hi Natasha it should be fine for up to 3 months or so if refrigerated. The salt preserves it pretty well. If you have more than you have room to refrigerate, you might consider freezing it.
Hi Natasha, quick question, everytime we would salted fish we just used salt and fish put tightly in jar, squish with something heavy and only in 3 says we were allowed to eat. Your recipe calls for only 12 hours. kinda questions me if it is ganna be ready to eat..?? Thanks 😉
Maybe because your method is different? With the amount of salt and sugar in the marinade, it’s ready after 12 hours. You can let it sit longer and it’s still great after a week in the fridge, so you can do that if it makes you feel better about it 🙂
I am Russian-born, and always loved the way mama made her selyodka. Your recipe sounds pretty much the way she made it.
My whole family was also heavily involved in a Ukrainian parish in NYC – for about 10 years. I was choir master during that time, and loved the entire experience, from the singing, to the food, to the folk dancing.
Wow that does sound like an amazing cultural experience! Thank you for sharing that story with us :). I hope this selyodka brings back great memories for you 🙂
I realize this is an old post, but I do have a few questions…
First, after you put them in the jar with the onions and oil, how long does the fish stay in there? Does it need to be refrigerated in the oil?
Can you remove the scales if you want to?
Hi Georgette, you can remove the scales if you want to. Also, yes, refrigerate the fish in oil (I’ve updated the recipe to include that!) Great questions! 🙂
I’m not trying to be rude I love your site and recipes but do you know thay silodka is a species of fish. So you can’t make silodka from another fish lol. Silodka is herring. You can’t make salmon from carp. This is marinated or brined trout
I guess I’ve just always referred to it as silodka. I use the word as a verb! 😉 Oh well.
great answer Natasha .aya know ya rite a recipe ,its your recipe if folks want change it to their recipe than they haven’t tried yours ,, pickled herring I can buy that trout I can’t I know this rude post was 4 years ago ,,,,and just packing in salt is for storage tons were stored in oak barrels carried on wood ships from America to Europe and ,they were rinsed before putting into many eastern recipes and salted dried cod hey Italy. yum ya done good oh Im gonna try this with cat fish and still call it SILODKA
Thank you for the best recipe!!!!!
🙂
You are welcome Olga, enjoy :).
Thanks for posting this! My fiance is a big fishing guy and he’ll love that I know how to make it 😉
You’re so welcome. I hope you both love it! 🙂
There are many tiny bones, do I remove them as well…or can they stay
HI, Audrea, with trout, we usually just leave them in and deal with them when enjoying the fish.
Thank you is much for this easy recepie! We just got back from kayak fishing fri. The ocean. So I have tried this with mackerel. Super delishious. The only thing is Mackerels skin is faster perishable, so I recommend after marinating, peel the skin off. I does comes off like butter 🙂 thanks again, brings back memories.
Thanks for sharing your mackerel tip! That sounds great with mackerel! 🙂
Now I feel a tad ashamed of myself. My Russian friend from New Zealand left this a.m. and yesterday she made sushi with wild salmon. She had brined it with sugar & salt etc for 24 hours and said she was going to put it in sushi. I protested and asked her to please cook it first. I thought it should be brined for at least three days. Her sushi was fabulous, but the salmon was definitely cooked.
I did try their herring and found it to be a bit slimy..think I need to stick with my kippers.
I am definitely going to try this recipe…looks interesting.
I imagine brining is safer than just using raw fish unless it just jumped out of the ocean; but I’m afraid of raw fish anyways. I’m not a big fan of herring either. This fish recipe is definitely not slimy 🙂
Yum!!!!
This is my and my husbands favorite food!!(we dont eat much meat, but lots.of fish!!)
I got three fresh trout at sams club for like $8… And er were hoping to make oir own selyodka so we wont have to buy it at the russian store.
Can i cut it into fillets to marinate it?
Do i really need the sugar? ( i dont want my.fish to taste sweet)
Thanks.. Wanna try to makr it today.
Ps. Please post very bold traditional russian recipes, in fact ur selyoka and kvass recipes etc. are some of my favs!!!
Oh, and is one trout about 1 lb?
Each of my trout were about 1.5 lbs. You can use 2 to 4 lbs of trout for this recipe.
I think you can as long as it’s fresh fish. We’ve always used freshly caught trout but as long as it’s from a good source, it should be just fine :). The sugar doesn’t make the fish taste sweet. It contrasts the rest of the marinade ingredients and also helps to preserve the fish.
This is a long awaited recipe for me.I have lived in Kharkov Ukraine for 7 years and haven’t tasted it in 5 years.Really miss those zafkousky.Going to the market to buy fresh fish….i am in pondicherry so going to try it with mackerel.Thanks a lot,really appreciate.
I hope you love it! Let me know how it goes with the mackerel! I’m curious. I wish we could get fresher fish in the market in Idaho. You have to catch your own here for it to be truly fresh 🙂
🙂 good recipe!
Actually I was looking if you have a recipe of salted or cured salmon in your blog and found this one. I might give it a try!
Have you ever made cured salmon? It is so addictive. Can I share my recipe? I take a very fresh salmon filet with no skin. Make a mix of sea salt and sugar 1:1, plus some black pepper. In a container, cover the filet with the dry mix from all sides, put the lid on and refrigerate. Usually in 10 hours my fish is perfectly salted and ready to eat. Wipe the salt, or rinse it. Dry the fish very well, wrap it in a plastic film and keep it refrigerated. Smaller pieces will need less than 10 hours. There will be some juice from fish in the container, it is ok. It doesn’t matter how much salmon I make this way, it is always gone in 24 hours.
Thank you so much for sharing! I actually don’t have a recipe for that! Do you skin the salmon before you start the process?
Yes. Or just buy with no skin. You should try this recipe! And if you like fresh dill, you can add it to the mixture too.
Thank you so much! Where have you found the best/freshest salmon? Or do you catch yours; that’s definitely something I miss about living in Seattle 🙂
Whole foods. Or any other grocery store. I ask for the freshest and trust them :-). You can use frozen salmon too, but it has to be defrost the right way.
I insist you should try this recipe! 🙂
Thank you! We recently got a Whole Foods in Boise!
Hi Natasha, thank you for your wonderful and helpful recipes, I’m your biggest fan! I just a have a question about this particular recipe, can’t wait to try it but my concern is that it will to be sweet due to the fact that I have to put 1/2 cup sugar. Please let me know if it will be sweet and if yes can I exclude the sugar from the recipe. Thank you!
I didn’t think it was sweet at all. The salt counter balances it really well. 🙂
Hi Natasha, I love your site and to see a recipe for selyodka, just takes me back… You mentioned that you guys make smoked fish. Do you care sharing the recipe with us? Thanks.
My parents smoke fish all the time but I hesitate to post a smoked fish recipe because it requires a smoker and not many people have one, or maybe that’s the wrong assumption? I dunno???
I think what matters is how you prepare the fish before you smoke it and then which wood is used to smoke the fish is important too.. But it is ok if you want to keep it a secret.. Thank you for your reply
Hi , Natasha , i think it’s to much salt -1cup! Is this a mistake ?
It really is 1 cup salt. It’s just right for the amount of water and this selyodka is not overly salty at all. It’s mildly salty. 🙂
To my knowledge most brine solutions for this fish are made with vinegar. Is there a reason why this brine solution has no vinegar?
You’re right, this recipe does not call for vinegar. The salt and sugar do the job 🙂 I haven’t tried adding vinegar to this particular recipe.
I have tried all these recipes and let me say as an Englishman they are all superb efforts.I love Russian food.
Your comment is music to my ears, thank you :).
Hello! Quick question: did you use grape seed oil or canola oil when you were filling the fish in the cans?
I used grape seed oil for this recipe, but my mom uses canola oil :).
Natasha- we make this with herring and call them oseledsty. I think this is the same thing, from western Ukraine immigrants.
Sound like the same thing but a different name 😉
Hi Natasha!
Just a quick question: would red onions be okay to use when stacking the fish? (I’m using salmon that my hubby caught a few days ago. It’s actually marinating as we speak:) ). Thanks for the response & for this recipe. Can’t wait to eat this fish with mashed potatoes!!!
Red onions should be fine. Traditionally it is made with yellow onion, but it shouldn’t make a difference 😉
Hi natasha! First of all I want to say I love your recipes! Thank you for sharing.. and I has wondering since I have never jard anything, so when I put this in the jar .fo I have to do anything special to it so it keeps safe for a couple weeks? I’m sure it will be gone way before that though..
Thanks
You do have to keep this refrigerated to keep it safe for a couple weeks. 🙂 enjoy!!
This looks fantastic! But did you know that селедка is an actual fish that you can pickle if you chose to:) Селедка is herring.
Yeah and funny enough I’ve never pickled herring myself, just the fresh trout or salmon that we’ve caught. 😉
Hi Natasha,
Can’t wait to try this recipe. I went to the store and they told me that they will get trout for me for this Tuesday. My husband has been bothering me to ask you for the smoked trout recipe ( the picture you posted). Can you please share it on your site so I could finally make it for him. As soon as he saw the picture of the smoked trout he wanted it.
You have to have a special smoker (my parents built theirs) and I’m not sure that a store-bought smoker will work well. Has anyone else tried to smoke fish in a store-bought smoker?
All together fish is my weakness but this made drooooool.. I wish we were neighbors 🙂
I’d give ya some!! 🙂
This looks yummy to me! Я американка…..but my 14-year-old Russian born son says it makes him want to puke! I think this makes him glad he was adopted! haha! Of course, he also hates cabbage and beets! 🙂
I forgot to say…..I hope to try this sometime. I came to your blog on the advice of a friend, looking for Russian foods to give my Russian-born children to try. My other Russian son is more adventuresome and wants to try Selyodka. Thanks for posting it.
Welcome to the blog and I hope you find new favorites (hopefully ones that all the children will love!) 🙂
ha ha (lol). He just doesn’t understand what he’s missing out on! 🙂 It’s not more unusual than sushi.
Natasha, first of all, the trout looks gorgeous! I know you always have lot of fishing stories, and I think I read on your site that your family like to fish – so, did you catch this beautiful trout yourself, too? I never actually thought of making seledka myself, but now, seeing how easy it is, I am tempted to try. 🙂
My husband caught these with my parents. They went again yesterday and caught the limit again. We’ll be all stocked up with smoked frozen salmon for winter 🙂
Can you freeze the type smoked salmon that you post in picture before?
You can freeze smoked fish. My parents freeze their smoked trout and it works really well. It tastes exactly the same when it’s thawed.
Seeing selyodka, reminds me of my grandma 🙁 she loved fish in any shape or form and would make it for us kids with mashed potatoes.
I just had selyodka with sweet onion and baked potatoes the other day, I think it is my most favorite comfort food.
Love the background color on the last picture 🙂 and I see you got a new favicon 😉 I like it 😀
Thank you! You’re the first person to notice! I didn’t have a favicon before. Can you believe it? I’m pretty excited about it too. Props to my husbands computer skills 🙂
This recipe is absolutely Russian to the core and I love it:). Selyodka is such a classic and especially delicious when it’s homemade.
It felt like a bold recipe to post, but how could I not? 😉
I love selyodka!!! Growing up, we always had selyodka in our family 🙂
My husband is going fishing again tomorrow… more selyodka :).
Oh my… I check this website religiously because you always have such gems! I can’t wait to try this recipe! You bring back Turkmenistan for me, in a good way!
Are the foods very similar? Russian/Ukrainian and Turkmenistan? Are there any awesome dishes that you’d recommend I try from the Turkmenistan cuisine?
Actually, the Turkmen adopted a lot of food from Russia and Ukraine. One of my host families was actually Tatar so their food was REALLY similar to what I see on your blog. Turkmen food is famous for manty and polow, but taze borek isn’t bad either. My favorite was a yogurt and rice soup that I ate a lot. There’s actually a really fantastic Turkmen food blog that you can find here: http://www.turkmenkitchen.com/en/meat-stuffed-flatbread/
You’ll notice that not a lot of spices are used. Turkmen like simple food! But a lot of it is simply good!
this recipe here though was my least favorite. Oh, I hated slaughter days because it meant we got all the organs at once cooked this way!
http://www.turkmenkitchen.com/en/gowurdak/
Slaughter days? ewe. That does sound unpleasant! lol
I haven’t seen that blog before, but yes it does look very similar to Russian/Ukrainian cuisine. I’m looking forward to exploring it more! Thank you!
Thanks again for making me feel 10 “again”… so many childhood memories 🙂 My son is going salmon fishing tomorrow – and hope he gets a bit catch ’cause I’ll be making selyodika ..and potatoes on the side…
and do tell your husband Дякуємо вам за “kholodetz” I made it and it tasted just like my Mom’s I use a bit of vinegar instead of horseradish and then used both hmmm hmmm!!!!
I’m glad I found your “Natasha’s Kitchen”.
Irena
That’s awesome! I just told my husband and he was all smiles 🙂
I have eaten smoked seliodka several times with a Russian friend. It was very good.
Thanks for sharing this recipe.
You are welcome Pelusa :).
The photos and the recipe brings back memories of my father. He ate and made this picked fish often. He was German though but he would eat the fish as an afternoon lunch break when he came in from the field or from tending to the cows.
That’s sweet that it reminds you of your father. I think there are lots of similarities between Ukrainian and German food :).
I have some frozen salmon. I want to try your recipe, as weird as selodka is 🙂 we love it…
p.s. I need to kick your butt 😉 I had to go to Russian store to get some cold smoked trout. After seen your Instagram pics
Neener neener. lol. It’s funny that we crave such things huh?
Thank you for posting this recipe!!! I love seliodka with baked potatoes. And you know, I’ve tried it firstly being frozen, it is GOOD!!!!!
That’s great to know! Thank you!!
My parents make something like that but it has carrots too. I always ask my parents to marinate it when dad goes fishing. It Works with all the fish I like with trout best. It’s called “ХЕ”- KHE I believe its one of the Tatars recipe. We had a lot of them live in Crimea.
I think trout is my favorite too, well I guess it’s a tie with salmon 🙂
My husband loves this! We always take a jar when his mom makes it and now can try this 🙂 by the way even my kids eat it with zaryna kartoshka for breakfast 😉
You’re the second person to say you have it with potatoes for breakfast. Looks like I’m missing out! 😉
🙂 I remember offering it to some of our non russian friends, and they didn’t know how to politely tell me that they were super grossed out by the “raw” fish! 🙂
Your next question should have been: Do you eat sushi? I guess this is our version of sushi, but at least it is pickled so it’s not completely raw like sushi fish.
Yes, love it! My mom made some with salmon. Still in my fridge. We love offering “ikra” to all of our Canadian friends. Their faces are priceless. But not too much, just a little bit, don’t waste my precious stuff.;)
This is awesome with salmon. How do you make the “ikra”?
Clean with tennis raquet. And then brine.
Yam! I used to love this when we lived in Ukraine, the best breakfast ever is salad, Seledka , and жареная картошка. Non Russians just don’t get it, my husband cannot even look at it, his lost.
ha ha. So true. Try the line at the beginning of this post: Politely tell him “it is colturrol egsperrience”(in your best Russian accent; rolling your r’s of course), and calmly continue eating your fish. Yes, give us fish, potatoes and bread and we will survive. lol
Селедка made with trout! Sounds pretty good, considering that my husband will not eat it – too many small bones. I might make it soon too. Usually I dry cure salmon to get “lox”.
Thank you, Natasha!
Salmon works really well in this recipe too, wee just has trout so that’s what we used :).
Omg, Natasha, my mouth is watering just by looking at this!!
I can tell you are European, LOL :D.
Wow! Trout! I make seledka from herring, but never tried trout before. It can not be a frozen fish though. right?
I think it’s best fresh. I don’t recall my parents ever making it with frozen either.
Reminds me of gravlax and other cold and raw fish marinades. Will definitely try this!
I had to google gravlax, but yes, it seems similar! 🙂
Valerie, I googled gravlax. We also dry rub salmon(and other big fish) this way and get what is close to lox.
Thanks for a great recipe! I have some fish to marinade with this good stuff.
You’re welcome. It’s nice to finally get it recorded. I hope you love it!
Absolutely!! I love this stuff. What a great recipe! Thank you!! 🙂
You’re welcome Oksana. It’s one of our stranger foods, but it is surprisingly good 🙂
Girl, you are brave. Thank you for sharing, looks amazing. Hopefully i’ll be breve enough some day 🙂
Ha! I know it! That’s how I felt the first time making it, but it is one of those dishes that will definitely impress your parents if they are familiar with it.
Ah, yes! With mashed potatoes for breakfast haha. My non-Russian husband just doesn’t get it! This looks delicious!!
For breakfast? Wow! Now you’re the brave one! lol. I’m sure there are more than a few people that look at it and say, “what is it?!”
Facinating, thanks for sharing!
How long do they keep for (refrigerated óf course)?
http://maryamsculinarywonders.blogspot.com/
My sources tell me you can keep it in the fridge up to a month. You’re blog is nice; I was just perusing it. 🙂
I like it with mashed potatoes. I feel hungry just by looking at those pictures.
I’m so glad it’s familiar to you too. Yesss!!! 🙂