Herring of the year
Herring of the year 2025 will be held on 6 October 2024!
Find tickets here.
Participating restaurants and judges will be announced soon!
This year's Herring 2024 wins – Lilleheden!
We wish Lilleheden the best of luck!
Lilleheden has won the competition 12 times before, even
reigning champion and especially took the victory because they had once again delivered one
excellent marinated herring, which in the blind part of the competition, where the herring is free of decorations, won. Lilleheden's new owner Christoffer Ramberg has obviously learned a lot from his teacher, Lilleheden's former owner Ejvind Keldsen. His herring again bore the simple and very clean expression and once again possessed an absolutely perfect consistency, firmness and gloss.
Lilleheden won against some of Denmark's best smørrebrød restaurants:
- The bear cellar
- Norrlyst
- Kronborg
- Judy
- Cheval Blanc Canteens (3rd place)
- Remoulade (2nd place)
- Appreciated
- Montra Skaga Hotel
- Hjorths Badehotel
- The smallness
The judges
The judges consisted of:
- Svend Rasmussen from Berlingske
- Esben Sverdrup-Jensen from the Danish Pelagic Producers Organization
- Dennis Kindberg head of education at EUC Nord
- Dorthe Vad Larsen product manager at Tenax
- Lars Kragelund development director at Aalborg Akvavit
This year's Herring is sponsored by:
Tenax Sild A/S, Denmark's Pelagic Producer Organisation, North Sea Oceanarium, Jette og Knuds Maritime Foundation and Aalborg Akvavit.
Try the recipe for Lilleheden's Herring with fresh cheese cream, plum compote and mustard sauce
Ingredients (4 pers.):
- 1 glass of Lykkeberg 1899 Herring of the Year 2024
- 4 slices of good rye bread
- Salted butter
- 1 handful of pickled pearl onions
- 100 g Creme fraiche 38%
- 100 g fresh natural cheese, e.g. Philadelphia
- 2 plums
- 100 g rosehip jam
- 1 onion
- 40 g mustard
- 80 g capers
- 30 g heather honey (or other liquid honey)
- 100 ml Elderflower vinegar (Alternatively a little elderflower juice mixed with ordinary vinegar)
- Fresh thyme
- Green herbs for garnish
- Flake salt
- Pepper
Course of action:
Arrangement:
Spread the rye bread with salted butter and place the herring on top. Top with fresh cheese cream and plum compote. Garnish with green herbs and pearl onions and finish with a bit of mustard sauce.
Herring of the Year is produced in collaboration with Hirtshals Fiskefestival and the recipe was developed by the winner of the Herring of the Year competition; Restaurant Lilleheden.
Herring of the year
Since the beginning of the 1990s, it has been a fixed tradition to choose the Herring of the Year at a competition in Hirtshals.
This year's Herring is held in a strong collaboration between Hirtshals Fishing Festival, the North Sea Oceanarium and Denmark's Pelagic Producer Organization as well as Tenax Sild A/S.
Vindersilden must reflect innovation, craftsmanship and, not least, good taste. It must have a balanced and intense taste, which is the special characteristic of an old-fashioned matured herring. The inspiration must come, among other things, from Årets Bjesk, which is awarded every year during the Hirtshals Fishing Festival.
Tenax Sild is responsible for the production of the old-fashioned matured herring and the subsequent serial production for consumers.
The winner is chosen by a competent and dedicated panel of judges, who have the challenge of finding the best lunch herring among the participating restaurants. The participants are chefs from some of Denmark's best smørrebrød restaurants.
Herring and Bjesk – a natural pair of partners
The awards for the Bjesk of the Year and the Herring of the Year are staggered. Thus, the Bjesk of the Year is chosen for the coming year in August in connection with the Hirtshals Fishing Festival. In this way, the herring marinaders (from various restaurants from all over the country) get some flavor notes to match their marinade to when they start creating their take on the best herring marinade in the spring. The Herring of the Year is chosen every autumn at a major event at the Nordsøen Oceanarium, and from this time the Herring of the Year is also released for sale from the laboratory at Hirtshals Museum.
Hirtshals Museum is responsible for the collection of herbs from the large dune area that surrounds Hirtshals. A visit to Hirtshals museum gives you the history of bjesken, the small sharp bitter, which became something very special in Hirtshals, thanks to the former nurse Signe Hansen, who invented the "Klitbjesken" drink from Hirtshals.
At the museum you can see an exhibition of plants from the dune, which are suitable for seasoning brandy - the so-called Bjesk.
