Mackerel is a commercial fish with tender and nutritious meat, it contains up to 20% fat, vitamin B12. When frying, the fillet becomes a little dry and acquires a specific smell, so salting of mackerel is the best option for cooking fish. Its delicate spicy flesh is good with beer in the company of friends, in the family circle with potatoes, and in the post it is simply irreplaceable.
For cooking, you can take fresh or frozen fish. Frozen fish must first thaw at a temperature of +3 - + 5 º, so as not to disturb the structure of the fibers. In this case, the fillet will not get an unpleasant flabby appearance. The fish must be gutted: we cut the carcass of a mackerel along the abdomen from the head to the caudal fin and take out all the insides. Then remove the film so that the fillet is not bitter. Rinse thoroughly with cold running water several times. If we are waiting for the arrival of guests, then for a beautiful table setting, salting of mackerel in brine will be carried out as a whole carcass (with the head). If this is a culinary impromptu and you just wanted a tasty one, and as quickly as possible, then you can divide the carcass into portioned steaks.
To prepare the marinade, we need: 1 liter of cold water (if possible, use filtered), 5 tablespoons of table salt (preferably large and without additives). You will also need 2 teaspoons of tea leaves (better than large leaves), 3 tablespoons of sugar, 10 peas of allspice, a few pieces of bay leaf, 5-7 buds of cloves and 1 head of onion.
20 minutes before the preparation of the brine, brew large-leaf tea in a teapot, pouring 100 g of boiling water into it. And let us brew. We will prepare the brine in enameled dishes, as aluminum cookware is more oxidized. To prepare the brine, pour water into the pan and add all the components. We put the pan on the fire, stir the brine so that the salt and sugar completely dissolve, put the onion head and cook until the onion begins to fall apart on the scales, then add the strained extractive part of the tea leaves and, after boiling, remove from the heat. Be sure to cover the brine so that odorous aromatic substances do not evaporate. Cool the brine to 18-20º. We put the whole mackerel in a jar and fill it with brine so that it covers the fish completely. We close the jar with a lid and put it in the refrigerator for 12 hours, not forgetting to shake the brine after 3 hours so that salt and sugar do not precipitate, and the mackerel is salted evenly. After 12 hours, we take the fish out of the can and for 5 minutes fill it with the most tender spicy pulp of a beautiful color of smoked fish. So quickly, without too much fuss and special skills, salting of mackerel took place. Such fish is stored in the refrigerator for two weeks. For lovers of bright and rich tastes of salting fish, mackerel is carried out in a more spicy brine. Add vinegar and liquid smoke to it.
Now you need to organize a beautiful serving of dishes on the table. To do this, cut off the head and divide the mackerel into portioned slices 2-2.5 cm thick. We spread it on a beautiful dish, recreating the integrity of the fish. Garnish with finely chopped dill, parsley and onion rings, fanning them out. From above everything can be decorated with soaked cranberries. For dressing salted mackerel, we’ll make a sauce of 4 tablespoons of olive oil and the juice of half a lemon. If we serve the fish individually, and not on a common plate, then the sauce is placed in a saucepan. Dress the mackerel with sauce - the fish will shine. And what a fragrance ...
The salting of mackerel in brine is a quick preparation of the dish according to your culinary preferences. There are a great many recipes, which gives you the opportunity to try and experiment. There is a quick salting of mackerel, there is a longer one, but the result is always the same - you are a wonderful hostess, and all guests want to know this recipe.