Baltic sprat is one of the important fish used in the food industry. Fish likes to populate the oceanic expanses of the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. The size of the fish is small. On average, its length does not exceed 16 centimeters. However, in industry they prefer to use individuals with a length of eight to ten centimeters.
Outwardly, the Baltic sprat is very similar to herring. Only herring sizes are much larger than sprats. This flock fish prefers to eat small clams, but does not disdain plankton and all kinds of larvae.
To spawn, she enters the bays. In particular, the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Riga are considered favorite places for this. Fishing sprats are caught from September to November. A few days after the fish is caught, it is left in the water. During this time, Baltic sprat manages to cleanse its intestines and becomes more suitable for subsequent processing. This small fish is a very important element in the production of canned food. The rejected individuals go to the production of fishmeal and fish oil. In addition to the usual, canned product, the sprat can be fried or cooked using the grill.
Sprat composition
The fillet of this fish has a rich taste, contains elements and vitamins useful for humans. Despite the fact that the fillet of Baltic sprat is very dense, it departs well from the bones. Fresh fish contains more than 60% of water. The most important vitamins included in its composition are A, B12, as well as vitamin D, which is necessary for bones and teeth. Omega-3 fatty acids are a part of any marine and ocean fish, and Baltic sprat, of course, is no exception.
The benefits of sprats
If you add about twenty grams of sprats to your diet daily, you can saturate your body with micronutrients and vitamins that are deficient in it. Sodium, chlorine, calcium, sulfur, magnesium and iron - all these elements will support your body. Not without reason, the use of sprats is useful for pregnant women, for children. People who are recovering from a past illness must also include foods containing sprats in their diet. The body is very easy to absorb this fish.
Using sprats in cooking
Sprat, as the Baltic sprat is otherwise called, is considered one of the most delicious and healthy types of kilka. This is the most worthy raw material for the preparation of canned food and sprats of spicy salting. These products are popular and used not only in our country. Sprats from Baltic sprats, as well as paste from it, are loved by the British. The British people love sprats and pastes so much that even the herring is behind in use from this small, but healthy and tasty fish.
You can cook canned sprats even in the home kitchen. Try to cook Baltic sprats in oil (sprats) according to this recipe.
Home sprats
Required Products:
- sprat - 1.5 kilograms;
- 300 milliliters of water;
- black tea leaves - one tablespoon;
- lean oil without aroma - at least one glass;
- a tablespoon (with a large slide) of salt;
- a tablespoon (without a hill) of granulated sugar;
- peppercorns (allspice) - six pieces;
- laurel leaf - five pieces.
Detailed cooking instructions:
- Brew tea from a tablespoon of tea leaves and 300 milliliters of boiling water.
- Rinse and clean the inside of the sprat. Remove the heads. Lay beautifully with a jack a fish in a bowl in which you will make sprats.
- Put all the spices listed in the recipe into this dish.
- Strain well brewed, strong tea. Introduce sugar and salt into the tea infusion. Mix the resulting concentrate vigorously.
- Pour vegetable oil into a sprat.
- Following the oil, we send the tea solution.
- Put the dishes with fish on the fire. But as soon as boiling begins, reduce the temperature to a minimum. It is necessary that the sprat is slightly stewed in this solution and not digested.
- Cook fish in tea solution for exactly two hours from boiling.
- After this time, the fish should cool in brine and at the same time well infused. It will take another three hours. Home-made sprats in Baltic sprat oil are ready!
In tomato
Baltic sprat in tomato sauce, unlike its "mates" - sprats, is not very popular among lovers of fish delicacies. But this is completely unreasonable. In vain, they immediately placed her on a step below the sprats in oil. Baltic sprat in tomato sauce is an inexpensive product. It is available to a wide range of consumers. And the vitamins and minerals in it are all the same - useful, even despite the not very pleasant (for someone) type of the finished product. It often happens that the sprat in tomato is too boiled and the fish are destroyed. Sprat canned food in tomato has a decent calorie content (about 150 kilocalories per hundred grams). It’s more useful to eat than any kind of fast food.
Cooking homemade sprats in tomato sauce
And if you cook such a snack at home, then the sprat in tomato, without a doubt, will become your favorite.
We collect the necessary ingredients:
- sprat - a pound;
- A glass of tomato juice;
- onion;
- carrot;
- flavorless oil;
- three peas of allspice;
- ground coriander - half a teaspoon of tea;
- three leaves of laurel;
- a tablespoon of flour;
- a tablespoon of sugar;
- pepper and salt to taste;
- two tablespoons of 9% vinegar.
Step-by-step cooking technology:
- Defrost fish. Scrub the inside and remove the head.
- Turn the peeled onions into thin half rings.
- We wash the carrots and three on a coarse grater.
- Fry onions with carrots in vegetable oil for about six minutes.
- In a bowl, mix tomato juice and flour. Stir the food until the lumps of flour disappear.
- Transfer the fish and vegetables into a non-stick form and mix with tomato sauce.
- Add here: bay leaves, salt, coriander, pepper.
- In a preheated oven, simmer a sprat for an hour and a half. The temperature inside the oven is up to two hundred degrees.
- If your plans include the production of canned homemade sprats, add vinegar 10 minutes before turning off the oven. If you are going to eat kalechka directly from the oven, then vinegar is not an obligatory element.
Salad with sprats in tomato
Grocery list:
- two potatoes;
- one carrot;
- two eggs;
- one onion;
- sprats in tomato sauce - about 180 grams;
- salt;
- mayonnaise;
- vegetable oil - three spoons;
How to cook:
- Boil carrots, eggs and potatoes. Then grind them into a salad as you like.
- Chop the onion finely and fry until golden brown in vegetable oil.
- Mash the sprat with a fork.
Now lay the salad in layers:
- first layer: potato;
- second: mayonnaise;
- third: sprat mint;
- fourth layer: chopped boiled carrot;
- fifth layer: mayonnaise;
- sixth: golden onions;
- seventh: finely chopped eggs;
If desired, the top layer of eggs can also be greased with mayonnaise so that the eggs do not dry out and remain beautiful.
Here it is - healthy, tasty and versatile - Baltic sprat.