Beckoning its appearance, aromatic smoked fish, many consider one of the most coveted snacks. Mostly in our time, they buy it in a store. Meanwhile, affordable and completely uncomplicated methods of smoking fish at home are known. Information about what is home smoking, about its varieties, about recipes and recommendations of specialists can be found in this article.
What is smoking?
Smoking any product is the process of treating it with smoke, which is formed during the combustion of firewood or sawdust. Smoked fish has a special, unique aroma, melting, delicate taste, it easily stimulates appetite with its appearance and smell. According to experts, the products we buy in supermarkets do not at all reflect the whole rich gamut of the taste of this delicacy, so many decide to smoke fish at home. The result is a very tasty and fragrant snack.
Smoked fish in a home smokehouse
In order to smoke fish, lard or meat at home, it is necessary to have a smokehouse. Today anyone can buy it: this unit does not take up much space and is affordable. Using this device at home, you can cook fish in both cold and hot ways.
For smoking fish at home in the smokehouse, they usually opt for the hot method. This technology is not particularly complex and allows you to cook the product quickly enough. Hot smoking of fish at home involves the use of a temperature of 90-100 degrees, the process usually takes a little time. During cooking, the moisture of the fish is lost in an insignificant amount, it turns out to be soft, juicy and tender. However, hot smoked products have a short shelf life. Home-made cold smoking of fish allows you to cook treats with a longer shelf life, but it will take much more time to cook - up to 5 days! The maximum temperature used for cold smoking is up to 40 ° C, moisture is gradually removed from the product, so cold-smoked fish at home is drier than the one that was cooked hot. Nevertheless, its taste qualities produce hot and cold products in no way inferior to each other.
Hot smoking: how to choose and prepare fish?
Many people think that the best way to smoke fish is hot. For the preparation of delicacies using this technology, non-fat varieties of thawed or fresh fish are selected. Connoisseurs praised some river and marine species: carp, common carp, pike, catfish, eel, bream, pikeperch, herring, pollock, mackerel, sardine, herring, capelin, cod, sea bass, flounder, red fish and sterlet.
Before smoking, carcasses are prepared: gutted and salted. Predators weighing up to 400 g are allowed to not gut, since in them, unlike other species, the contents of the stomach do not crawl along the abdomen under the influence of heat and do not contribute to the creation of a bitter aftertaste. Experts do not recommend cleaning scales - it is needed to protect fish meat from soot and soot.
Placing fish in the smokehouse
Experts recommend maintaining an air temperature in the smokehouse between 80 ° C and 150 ° C. It will take no more than 2-4 hours to cook a meal (depending on the size of the produce). The raw materials for one bookmark should be selected approximately the same type and size. Time and temperature and smoking depend on the type and weight of the fish.
How much fish can fit 1 time in the smokehouse depends on the size of the appliance. Small fish can be cooked in a small box, if placed so that it does not touch the walls of the structure and each other. If the apparatus is the size of a barrel, then there will be enough space in it to cook medium-sized fish.
Large individuals are recommended to be cut along the ridge and placed for better preparation, deployed in the same plane. In a large cabinet, fish of various sizes will fit: large specimens are laid out below, while a spacer from an alder stick is inserted into the abdomen. If all shelves are filled with fish of the same size, then it will not be possible to cook it in high quality. Products hung vertically should be tied with twine with a stick inserted in the abdomen and in the mouth to avoid the fall of the finished fish.
Ambassador
The technology of smoking fish in a hot way provides that the process begins with the preparation of the product. One of the most important points is the ambassador. The taste of finished smoked products depends on its quality in many respects.
Mostly a weak salting is used, in which the salt concentration is up to 1.2-1.5%. For 16 kilograms of fresh fish put 1 kg of salt. Carefully rub the surface of the fish covered with scales with salt. This is done manually. If the back is thick enough, along it the masters recommend making longitudinal cuts and filling them with salt. In addition, the gutted abdomen and head are salted, while the gills are removed. However, the latter is done at the discretion of the cook.
Fatty fish, having salted each carcass, is advised to wrap it in a film or parchment in order to avoid oxidation of fat in the air (this results in a loss of taste). The fish is laid in a basin in a slide, the lid is used as a small load. It is fixed with wire or oppression is placed on top. The resulting brine is drained. About 2-3 days are allocated for preparing for smoking large fish, small fish is salted out for 0.5-1 days. Thawed carcasses can be prepared in 3-4 days. After salting, they should be thoroughly washed under running water. Large ones, in addition, are soaked for about 1 hour.
Pickling
This is another favorite way to prepare fish for smoking. The recipe for marinade, which is given below, as the masters assure, will certainly give smoked meat an interesting “highlight”. Required:
- fish (of any kind);
- white wine (better, semi-sweet) - 250 ml;
- soy sauce - 250 ml;
- citric acid diluted in water - per glass of 1 tbsp. the spoon;
- rosemary;
- thyme.
Cooking
All components of the marinade are placed in a deep saucepan and put on fire. No need to bring to a boil! Then cool the finished marinade and put fish in it. The mixture should completely cover the product. Pickling should last for 10 hours, so it is recommended to do it overnight. After this time, the pickled fish can begin to smoke.
Smoking process
The smokehouse is placed on the base under which a fire is lit. Heating is regulated by the height of the device above the flame, the addition of sawdust or wood chips to the fire, as well as the raking of burning coals. Sawdust and wood chips in the middle of the smokehouse under the influence of heating begin to smolder, while the fish is wrapped in fragrant hot smoke. The cook must make sure that the wooden raw materials do not catch fire, otherwise the fish, if burned, may lose its taste. What happens inside the smokehouse can be judged by the color of the smoke emanating from it: if whitish smoke rises, then the liquid is evaporating from the fish at the moment; yellowish indicates that the raw materials are burnt. Dry aromatic smoke, which begins to rise above the smokehouse half an hour after the start of work, indicates that the product is ready.
How to determine the readiness of fish?
The readiness of the fish is judged by the appearance of a characteristic golden brown crust. During the break, the meat freely lags behind the bone and has the color of a cooked product. There should not be any traces of blood in the spine.
What to drown?
Masters say that it is best to use alder and juniper as firewood for the smokehouse. But any shrubs and trees growing in the area will do. Use both large chips and young twigs, as well as sawdust, which are laid at the bottom of the smokehouse. It is not recommended to use logs and conifers: they contain a large number of resins that can ruin the taste of the dish. Various types of hardwoods are also used for hot smoking: willow, beech, poplar, fruit and fruit, which give the smoked meats an original taste and aroma. In the absence of juniper for smoke, you can add its fruits. Many praise alder and mountain ash as the best raw material. To add piquancy and variety to the aroma, spices are added - cloves, coriander, pepper (black), bay leaf. Some gourmets recommend filling the head and abdomen of the carcass with greens, garlic, onions, dill, parsley.
Recipe
There are many recipes for hot smoked fish. We give one of the most popular. To prepare the delicacy use:
- rice: 100 g;
- black loose tea: 30 g;
- mackerel (or other fish): 2 pcs.;
- salt: 2 tbsp. l .;
- sugar: 3 tbsp. l .;
- cinnamon: 1 tsp;
- sauce (soy).
Cooking product
Sprinkle the fish with salt (2 tbsp. L.) And sugar (1 tbsp. L.), Clean them in the cold, leave them there for 8-10 hours. Then it is washed, dried, poured with soya marinade and allowed to marinate for one hour. Next, mix the rice with sugar, cinnamon and dry tea leaves. A foil folded in 3-4 layers is laid out on a thick-bottom pan, a mixture of rice with spices and tea is poured on top. A grid is installed in the pan (better, suitable in diameter or ordinary - from the oven). The pan is set on high heat and heated for 5 minutes. Then the fire is reduced to medium, spread the fish on the grill, cover with a lid on top. Smoked fish for half an hour (after 15 minutes it needs to be turned over).
Cold smoked
Before cold smoking, a little more salt is used than before hot. After salting, it is soaked well (during the day), washed and dried. Large smoked for 5 days, small - about 3. It is recommended that spacers be inserted into the abdominal cavity of large carcasses. As ingredients are used, in addition to fish, spices and salt. Fish thus prepared is placed in a smokehouse with sawdust. It is smoked with "cold" smoke (temperature is about 25 ° C) for 1-6 days (this depends on the size of the fish). The more salted the product, the lower the temperature used for cooking.
Preparation
The cold smoked fish recipe implies mandatory processing before smoking. Specialists argue that different types and varieties of the product require different preparations. It is recommended to take into account the weight and fat content of the fish. Consider what methods of preparation are provided for different sizes of products.
How to prepare small fish?
Small carcasses can not be gutted, using them whole. They wash the fish, special attention is paid to the gills. At the bottom of the enameled pan pour a little salt (large table). Each carcass is wiped with salt (do not forget about the gills!). Lay the fish in layers, pouring salt. A plate of a smaller diameter is placed on top, on which oppression is placed (a stone or a bottle of water). The fish is left for 2 days, then washed and left for a couple of hours in clean water. After this period it is hung out for one day in the shade in a ventilated room.
How to prepare large fish?
Carcasses are prepared by removing the entrails and heads. Fish are well washed inside and out. Salting begins with rubbing the carcasses with salt (coarse). After that, the product is placed in a deep container and left for one day. Next, the brine is poured into the container and left for another five days. Salt (0.5 packs) and water (2 L) are used to prepare the brine. Sugar (25 g) is added there and the pan is placed on the stove. Stirring, bring to a boil, add laurel and peppercorns. After the brine has cooled, it is poured into a pan with fish. After the allotted time, the carcasses are dried until the liquid stops draining from them.
Is cold smoked pickling used?
Experts believe that it is best, as a preparatory stage for cold smoking, to use not pickling, but pickling. As a result of applying this method, the fish is more tender and mouth-watering. In addition, it acquires taste notes of the ingredients of the used marinade. The marinade recipe is presented above in the article.
Cold Smoked Process Description
Many consider the cold method more labor-intensive than the hot one. At first, small fish, for example, perch or roach, 4-10 pieces. string on twine 70-90 cm long, moving it through the eyes. The ends of the twine are connected and fixed, creating a ring. Large carcasses, for example, bream, carp, put on a twine of 50 cm long, piercing the tails. They tie the fish in pairs with an ordinary knot. Then the method of salting or pickling is used (the recipes are described above).
First, the fish is soaked from excess salt. For this, carcasses are left in the water: large ones for one day, and small ones for several hours. After that, the products are dried or dried. Inside the large carcasses, masters recommend inserting spacers, which will speed up the drying process. It usually takes up to 3-5 days. The small fish is dried for 2-3 days.
Next, the fish is placed in a smokehouse created from barrels. The temperature of the smoke should not be higher than 25 ° C. To ensure a sufficient amount of smoke using sawdust or tyrsu. Depending on the size of the carcasses, the process of cold smoking lasts about 1-6 days.
Cold-cooked fish storage
Smoked fish is wrapped in foil or food paper and sent to the middle shelf in the refrigerator. You can also use a container equipped with a sealed lid. Shelf life of cold smoked products is about 10 days. In spoiled fish, mucus, plaque and an unpleasant odor appear. It should be noted that decompositions in fish usually begin in the region of the spine.
Finally
The masters also use the semi-hot smoking method: the fish is salted during the day, then smoked at a temperature of 50-60 ° C. The whole process lasts no more than one day. Also known is the option of treating the product with "liquid smoke" (this is how store smoked products are prepared). Experts consider it very harmful.