In Russia, almost all people hear such phrases as Tsar Bell, Tsar Cannon. But there is another expression - the Tsar-fish, so called sturgeon. During the reign of the state by royal people, such a fish could only be seen on their table and among people close to them. Today in our article we will talk about how to cook sturgeon, and present the most interesting recipes.
Important information
It must be remembered that fish of this species can only be cut alive, because in the intestines of these marine inhabitants are the causative agents of botulism. Currently, these fish are classified as an endangered species. Nevertheless, sturgeon can often be seen on store shelves due to the fact that they learned to grow it in captivity.
What to cook from sturgeon at home
Russian national cuisine has a huge number of recipes from sturgeon. Dishes made from sturgeon are a real work of art and deserve to become a table decoration. The question arises, how to bake sturgeon at home to get an unusually tasty dish? The answer is simple - cook it whole.
Princely baked sturgeon
When cooking this fish, it should be borne in mind that the use of various herbs and spices is allowed only in minimal quantities, so as not to interrupt the natural taste and smell of this fish. For work, we need:
- 1 large sturgeon;
- sea salt;
- parsley and thyme;
- pepper;
- lemon juice (squeeze immediately on the fish);
- 100 ml dry wine (white)
- R. butter.
For decoration:
- slices or circles of lemon;
- sprigs of parsley;
- mint leaves.
Step by step recipe:
- First of all, you need to gut the sturgeon, rinse thoroughly.
- Outside and inside, gently grate the carcass with salt and set aside for 5 minutes.
- We wash the fish again under running water, dry it with a napkin and let it dry well.
- Once again, salt and pepper. Rub lightly with thyme and parsley, pour over lemon juice.
- Outside, grease the fish with vegetable oil.
- We cover the baking sheet with two layers of foil, spray with oil. We spread the sturgeon, pour white wine and seal it well.
- Place the sturgeon in foil in the oven, preheated, for 10 minutes. After this period of time, we take out the baking sheet and carefully open the foil so that visually you can see all the fish. Using a baking brush, grease the sturgeon with juice. Put back to bake until fully cooked. It is necessary to ensure that the fish does not dry out.
- We put the finished fish on a beautiful serving dish and decorate with parsley, lemon and mint. Cut into sliced sturgeon slices with a thin sharp knife. To the dish you can serve any fish sauce or juice left over from baking.
Kebab
Sturgeon shish kebab can be both a picnic decoration and the main one on the holiday table. This is a fairly light meal. Unlike barbecue of lamb or pork. It can be eaten even by dieters. How to cook sturgeon in this way you will learn from the recipe below. We took it from Georgian cuisine. Let's prepare products for 4 servings:
- 2 kg of sturgeon;
- 4 onion heads;
- 4 bunches of greens (dill and parsley);
- half a lemon;
- lettuce;
- spices to taste.
Cooking Technology:
Sturgeon must be thoroughly washed, remove the skin and all cartilage. Cut into large pieces measuring 6x6 cm. In a separate bowl, prepare the marinade: chop the onion rings, add chopped greens to it, squeeze out the juice of half a lemon, season with salt and pepper. In the mixture we put the pieces of fish and put in a cold place. A couple of hours is enough for pickling. Pieces of fish are carefully strung on a skewer and fried in the traditional way. During the process, we advise you to water the kebab of sturgeon with marinade. Tasty, aromatic, mouth-watering dish served on lettuce, with fresh herbs, vegetables, olives and lemon. Shish kebabs serve dry white wine or stronger drinks.
How to cook balyk?
First of all, we learn what is a balyk? This delicacy is a fish back, which is prepared in a special way. Pre-salted fish with the addition of various spices, and then dried. The result is a pulp that has a very delicate texture with a pleasant aroma. By the way, it is recommended to use fish without caviar for cooking balyk. It is believed that their meat is much fatter and tastier. I would also like to note that it is better to use medium-sized carcasses.
Fish cutting
Before starting work, the fish must be well cleaned, remove all the fins and rinse. After that, make an incision along the ridge, remove the screech and cut off the peritoneum. All parts intended for the balyk are washed and dried with a towel. The carcass can be left in one piece, cut into several parts or in small pieces.
Pickling
Consider the following recipe for sturgeon balyk. The technology of salting can be of three types: wet, dry or mixed. At the bottom of the tank provided for salting fish, 1 kg of salt is poured. On it in several rows the fish is laid down crosswise crosswise, each layer is sprinkled with salt. The container is placed in a cool place. You can use oppression. After a day, brine is poured, the amount of which depends on the amount of fish. The solution should have the following concentration: 1 tbsp. Take 1 tbsp. Of water. l salt, brine should be enough to hide all the fish. It is aged in it from 4 to 7 days, after which it is removed and washed. After this, the soaking process begins. With its help, excess salt is removed, and the fibers are saturated with moisture, which makes the fish more tender and juicy. Soaking lasts as many hours as the number of days of salting.
Drying and drying
To equalize salinity, fish are hung out in the open air for two to three days, after being protected from insects. During this process, it is slightly dried up and its taste is significantly improved. If the weather is warm, the process can be completed after two days, with cool - after four. A balyk prepared according to all technologies can be stored for about a month and a half at zero temperature. It should be noted that when frozen, its taste deteriorates. The ratio of products during salting is as follows:
- 1 kg of sturgeon;
- 120-150 g of salt;
- 1 tsp pepper;
- spice.
Smoked balyk
We offer one more method by which you can cook sturgeon. Salty balyk can be made even tastier if it is smoked. The following components are required per 1 kg of sturgeons:
- ground pepper - ½ tsp;
- salt (not less than 100 g);
- bay leaf - 2 pcs.;
- cinnamon - 1/3 tsp;
- white wine - 200 ml;
- cloves - 2 buds.
All dry components are crushed and mixed. The resulting mixture is rubbed with pieces of fish and cleaned in a cold place for 24 hours. After a day, the sturgeon is poured with wine and left for another day. After that, the pieces are removed from the wine brine and hung out for several hours in the fresh air. You can start smoking. Dumplings are placed in a smokehouse and subjected to heat treatment at a temperature of 70-80 ° C. This procedure should not exceed more than 2 hours, otherwise the product turns out to be overdried and less tasty. You want to get fish with a more pronounced smoked taste, you need to increase smoking to 2-3 days, or even 5-7 days. But at the same time, the temperature must be lowered: during the first day it should be no more than 25, and by the end of the process reach a maximum of 30 ° C.
Cooking fish soup
Which fish soup just does not exist: double, triple, Rostov-style, fishing, Cossack, rural. Today we’ll talk about the sturgeon ’s ear in a royal way. Our recipe is the closest to the old version of cooking fish soup. Interestingly, chicken stock is used to make fish soup. The main purpose of making double or triple broth is that you need to hide most of the fishy smell, replacing it with chicken flavor. To prepare 3 liters of fish soup you will need:
- ½ part of the chicken;
- fish trifle;
- 500 g of small pike and sturgeon;
- a glass of vodka;
- 1 pc. onions and carrots;
- four potatoes;
- 2 chicken proteins;
- 60 g oils;
- clove of garlic;
- 300 ml of milk;
- 1 tbsp. flour;
- 30 ml p. oils;
- 20 g of sugar;
- sea salt and spices;
- 2 eggs;
- greens.
Step by step recipe:
- How to cook sturgeon ear? On the basis of chicken, we cook a strong, saturated broth with spices.
- We take out the meat from the broth, remove the skin and bones, and leave the meat for pancakes.
- Filter the broth. We put all the fish stuff in a fabric bag and cook in chicken stock until the fish is completely boiled. We remove the trifle, we will not need it to prepare the dish.
- We clean the carcasses of pike and sturgeon, wash, cut into large pieces. We leave part of the fillet for pancakes, cook the rest of the fish until cooked, all in the same broth.
- The next step will be clarification of the broth with chicken protein. This is done as follows: tightly beaten chicken protein interferes in 100 ml of warm broth and mixes.
- The triple broth is clarified with a protein mixture and filtered again.
- Potatoes are cut into large cubes and put into the finished broth.
- Onions with carrots are fried in butter and released into the broth.
- After the potatoes are completely ready, vodka is poured into the soup and, without closing the lid, let it brew.

This dish is usually served unusually delicious pancakes stuffed with chicken and fish. Thin pancakes are baked, stuffed and baked in the oven. Ear is poured into a deep portioned plate, sprinkled with herbs on top. Nearby put a plate with pancakes cut in half.