Spekesild

thumb|Spekesild (salt cured herring) the Norwegian way, with potatoes, raw onions, dill, pickled beets, butter and flatbrød. Spekesild (Norwegian for "salted herring") is Atlantic herring preserved using salt.

== Salt curing == The preservation takes place by the salt extracting water from the herring, and thus poorer growth conditions are created for microbes. Until the 1960s, herring was an important export item for Norway, but the decline in the herring fisheries led to these exports stagnating sharply. In the 1990s, exports picked up somewhat, and Russia, Sweden and Poland are important markets.