Herring Under a Fur Coat

Boil the potatoes, carrots and beetroot separately in their skins until tender — the beetroot takes about an hour. Cool completely and peel.

💡 Separately, always. Beetroot boiled with anything else stains it, and half the point of the dish is the clean bands of colour when you cut it.

Grate each vegetable coarsely into its own bowl. Grate the eggs too. Rinse the onion and dry it.

Spread the diced herring over the base of a glass dish and scatter the onion over it.

Layer in order: potato, mayonnaise, carrot, mayonnaise, egg, mayonnaise, beetroot, mayonnaise. Season the potato and egg layers lightly.

💡 Spread the mayonnaise right to the edge of every layer. Any gap lets colour bleed through and the bands blur.

Smooth the top layer flat and chill at least 6 hours, ideally overnight.

Scatter with dill and cut into squares straight down so the layers show.