Let's talk about how to quickly, tasty and independently pickle herring at home, because pickling herring at home is not inferior in taste, and often exceeds the quality of store products. And, herring, in turn, is not expensive, but at the same time beloved by many fish. Many varied dishes are prepared from it, but salting herring at home, rightfully, occupies a leading position.
When buying salted herring in a store, it is quite difficult to visually determine how salted herring is, therefore, focusing only on the comments of the seller who wants to sell his product, it is difficult to understand whether the fish we bought will be slightly salted, as the price tag says, and how fresh its ambassador is. It is even more difficult, standing at the counter, to determine which fish, namely, in what condition it was salted by freshness. As a rule, the taste qualities of purchased salted fish rarely meet our expectations. It is much easier to pickle herring yourself at home. At the same time, salting herring at home will be made taking into account all your gastronomic preferences, and its freshness will not cause a shadow of doubt.
Choose frozen herring for homemade salting.
First, go to the store for freshly frozen fish. It is advisable to buy large and even specimens. The body should not have unusual colors and spots, do not buy fish that has acquired a reddish hue, a dull and darkened cover or has a not quite pleasant smell. The scales of the frozen fish are tight to the skin. Thawed herring should not lose its elasticity and move away from the bones. After defrosting, it is recommended to use the fish completely, since repeated freezing will negatively affect both its appearance and its taste. For defrosting fish, do not put it in water, since this method takes a lot of nutrients, and this will undoubtedly affect the taste of dishes.
Various options for salting herring at home.
For starters, one of the not complicated, but very tasty recipes for salting the whole fish:
Prepare the marinade: in 3 cups of boiled, but not hot water, it is enough to dissolve a tablespoon of salt and granulated sugar. Add for taste a little black pepper with peas, a few leaves of bay leaves and 2 cloves. In the future, you can combine the components for the marinade to your taste.
We put the washed fish in the prepared marinade so that it completely covers the herring, close the container with the fish lid and leave it to be salted. In order to get a spicy ambassador, it takes only 12 hours to find the fish in the marinade. Further, on the rise: the longer you keep the herring in the marinade, the more salty it will become.
Another option is how salting of herring can be done at home. It is worth noting that it is he who is dearly loved by all members of my family for the unusual taste and speed in cooking.
We take a larger fish and do not defrost it completely, and after washing, let it thaw for about 20 minutes and start cooking. We remove the head, tail and fins, then cut the carcass into slices across the spine, not more than a centimeter thick. We cut onions at will, i.e. can be cut into rings, half rings or cubes, as you prefer. Put the chopped onion on the bottom of the plastic container (I use the container from under the herring), the next layer is the prepared fish, pour a small amount of vegetable oil, and sprinkle a small pinch of sugar on the top, and a pinch of salt more, you can add allspice and Bay leaf. After closing the container with a lid, shake the contents intensively for 2-3 minutes. The process called "salting herring at home" is over, but it remains to withstand a couple of hours and start a meal, but as a rule, no one can stand it for so long and begin to eat after half an hour. The fish turns out amazingly tasty, fatty and slightly salted. Bon appetit to all.