Vodka. Vodka and food.

We did vodka pairings. Our choice this time was a schnaps, based on aquavit with a very light touch of vermouth and gin, so the results might be slightly different with plain vodka. Experiments are ongoing.

A well known combination with vodka around here is pickled herring. This really is a classic and in some ways one of the best dishes you can combine with vodka. The fish in itself is moderately fat, and no matter how it’s pickled, mustard, garlic, French or whatever; vodka really works well.

A slice of pickled herring, some new potatoes and then a sip of vodka, yeaahh…singing is optional. In some ways preferable to both beer and wine.

Smoked salmon also meshes well, although less so if mixed with crème fraîche. In that case you might prefer beer or wine.

The other common suggestions seem to be pickled vegetables (we tried cucumber) and rye bread. We missed out on a more uncommon suggestion: dark chocolate, due to forgetfulness at the store, but will rectify this at some point.

The cucumber is good, it’s salty and mixes well with the vodka. Rye bread however is a bit meh. On it’s own it’s not brilliant, but when mixed with salmon, pickled cucumber or caviar it turns into a perfectly decent combination.

Spicy sausages also work well with vodka. We tried a local salami and the spiciness adds a bit of sting to the vodka. Subjectively, of the combinations tried it might be second only to pickled herring.