Probably, there is no such person who would not like salt fish. Chum is especially popular among the people. Its meat is fatter and more tender than that of pink salmon, so it is often used for salting. Let's consider how to cook balyk chum salmon yourself.
What is a balyk
This is the back of a salted fish, then dried in air, of valuable breeds (chum, pink salmon, beluga, stellate sturgeon, etc.), which have a minimum of bones and a lot of meat. It has a delicate texture, pleasant specific taste and smell. Ketu, which goes to the balyk, is divided by size. The middle one uses the carcass almost entirely, and the large one must first be cut.
If desired, smoked balyk can be prepared from pieces of fish prepared for drying. Consider how to cook a chum salmon from a chum.
What do you need?
To cook cold-smoked chum salmon, you can use a smokehouse from barrels in which the temperature of the smoke should not exceed 25 degrees. This helps preserve the structure of the fibers, all the beneficial properties and calories. The meat is elastic with a pronounced smell of haze.
A good material for receiving smoke is wood chips, sawdust. For smoking, you do not need to take conifers, as they contain many resins, as a result of which the fish will become bitter. Ideal alder and juniper. You can also use:
- apple tree;
- ash;
- beech;
- maple;
- a pear;
- plum;
- mountain ash;
- hazel.
Each time you can try a different wood to find your taste. Some people use birch for smoking, but then the balyk acquires a specific tar aroma, and not many like it.
If you use dry wood, the finished product will acquire a delicate taste and a golden hue, and coals and wet sawdust will color the fish in brighter shades.
Smoking preparation
Gutted large fish, remove the head and fins. After this, the carcasses are washed well and dried. Then they rub the fish with a pre-prepared mixture of salt and spices (thyme, dill, red and black pepper) and put for 3 - 5 hours under oppression. After this time, the carcasses must be removed and the remaining salt removed.
You can also use a special marinade:
- bring the water to a boil;
- add salt at the rate of 60 g of salt per 1 liter of water and 20 g of sugar;
- add peas, garlic, bay leaf, basil or thyme;
- boil the brine for 10 minutes.
Pour the cooled marinade over the fish and soak the carcasses in it for 2 days. Then with the help of wipes to remove excess moisture from the product. Before placing in the smokehouse, the fish must be dried for several days in the fresh air. It is only necessary to cover it from insects with a mosquito net or gauze.
Smoking process
This will take from 24 hours to two to four days. The exact time is difficult to name, it all depends on the size of the pieces. To understand whether the chum salmon is ready or not, one must carefully examine the meat section. It should be homogeneous and opaque, it should not have moisture.
Salted carcasses of fish are strung on a metal or wooden rod. If the fish is large, it must be additionally fixed to the tail. To make the chum salmon tasty, you must constantly maintain the established temperature regime in the smokehouse.
The finished product is stored in the refrigerator for two weeks. If you cook large quantities of cold-smoked chum salmon, it is better to freeze it.