What people just do not come up with to satisfy their tastes! Fish and fried, and salted, and stewed and smoked. Today it is quite difficult to find a person who has not tried such a dish as smoked pike.
Each national cuisine has its own recipe, its own characteristics, cooking secrets. To make the fish tasty, you need to not only adhere to the cooking technique, but also experiment with the ingredients.
Only a few can cook hot smoked pike : some have no experience, others have equipment. Therefore, it is very difficult for a beginner from the first attempt to get a result. While high-quality cooking pike will allow you to enjoy juicy and tender meat with a characteristic aroma of smoke. You can smoke pike both hot and cold. Hot involves cooking at a temperature of 75 to 180 degrees. Cold smoking occurs at temperatures below 40 degrees, but, unlike the first method, fish is stored for much longer. The article will offer the reader both options.
A little about flavorings
An experienced smoker himself decides which species of wood to use in his recipes. For beginners, maple, beech, poplar, willow or oak wood chips are perfect. Of course, when there is no classic smokehouse, but you want such a fish, you can use a flavor like liquid smoke. But the taste will not be the same, and studies show that it is harmful to the body. For cooking in a real smokehouse, chips can be bought at any supermarket.
Ingredients
So, for smoking pike you will need:
- salt - 100 gr.;
- pepper - 3 gr.;
- lemon - 50 gr.;
- chips - 2 packs;
- firewood and smokehouse.
Most salting chefs consider it necessary to fill the fish with different herbs: thyme, rosemary, cilantro and others. Some love these notes, while others believe that they interrupt the smoky aftertaste.
Hot smoked
The process of hot smoking consists of several stages. Many might think: what's so complicated? You just need to throw the fish into the apparatus and after a while get it. For experienced smokers, this is the case. And for beginners, you need to train to choose, cut, salt, follow.
Preparatory work
A pike weighing 1.2-1.4 kg is ideal for smoking.
Before you smoke a pike, you need to prepare it: remove the insides, preserving the integrity as much as possible. If the smokehouse is small, then remove the head, tail, and cut the fins with scissors. It is better not to remove the scales: at a high temperature on the fire, it will protect the skin from cracking. So, the algorithm.
1. Thoroughly rinse the pike, you can start salting. To determine the amount of salt, you need to weigh the already prepared fish. There are 40 grams of salt per kilogram of carcass. For flavor and pungency, you can add red and black pepper. It is better not to rub it into the fish, but first mix with salt. The optimal amount is 1.5 grams per kilogram. Sprinkle generously with the resulting spice mixture. If the salt remains - it's okay. Surplus is better not to use: there is a risk of salting the fish. For sourness, you can stuff with lemon.
2. Put the pike in a plastic bag and set aside for 6 hours, preferably in a cool place. After the specified time, rinse the fish well again, wipe dry with a napkin. In general, any product before smoking must be dried as much as possible from excess liquid on the surface. You can also sag a little outdoors.
Smoking process
Can be carried in the smokehouse. Hot smoking machines are different, as well as fuel. Some use small firewood for smoking, others use oak chips.
- Set the smokehouse on fire, pour three full handfuls of oak wood chips or any other to the bottom. They will need to be covered with foil or covered with a pan from dripping fat from fish.
- Put the pike on the grill and send to the smokehouse. As soon as the smoke leaves the nozzle, detect 30–40 minutes. Add a little water so that the smoke does not come out from under the lid, but only from the nozzle. So the smoked pike will not be black.
- If time is short, you can hold the fish longer. The skin should be removed easily - the first sign of readiness. It can also be identified by the fin: it should be easy to remove, and the finished meat under it should have a white matte color.
The smoked pike removed from the fire can already be eaten, but it would be better to hang it in the fresh air in order to stack excess fat.
Cold smoked
Another method of cooking is cold smoked pike. The two methods are a bit similar, but the taste, of course, is different. If the taste of pike cooked according to the recipe for hot smoking is more like fried at the stake, then the cold taste is more like salty or dried.
The process of cold smoking is more time-consuming, since a special smoke cooler should be installed in the smokehouse. The temperature should not exceed 45-50 degrees, and more time is required. But such fish is stored many times longer.
So, to cook smoked pike in this way, you will need to prepare a fish carcass.
- First choose a large fish. For cold smoking, larger carcasses are needed, weighing from 2.5 to 3 kilograms. You can leave the insides, the head and tail, but the gills will have to be eliminated. Rinse thoroughly.
- The next step is to salt the pike. You can do this the same way as with hot smoked, but it is best to marinate in saline. One liter of water needs one hundred grams of salt plus spices. It is better to pre-boil and cool. With this method of salting, the chance to salt the fish is extremely small: the meat absorbs as much salt as needed, no more. Put the pike under the press and leave it for 12 hours in the refrigerator.
Smoking process
Now the plan is smoking itself.
- After the pike has become salted, it must be washed under cold water, rinse off excess salt. Then hang and dry in a gentle breeze. A couple of hours will be enough. After that it can be carried to the smokehouse.
- Put the pike in the chamber of the apparatus, light the fire with oak wood and leave for two days. This applies to large fish weighing 2 kilograms or more. Small fish can be removed after 36 hours. It is important to maintain a constant temperature of 25-30 degrees.
- The cooking process itself is not a hassle, the main thing is to get a quality smokehouse.
Smoked pike is delicious both with a side dish of fresh potatoes and a glass of foamy. Enjoy your meal!