Fish is a very healthy and tasty product, and smoked fish is a delicacy.
There is cold and hot smoking of fish. The essence of these processes is reflected in their name: when hot, the fish is processed with hot smoke (up to 170 ° C), while cold smoking is treated with cold (from 20 to 40 ° C). And if for hot smoking it will be quite a few hours, then for cold it sometimes takes several days.
In order to make hot smoking of fish, it is better to choose fish with rather delicate pulp - medium fat or lean (the hot method is generally more often used for low-fat products), although greasy, for example, eel can come down. Similarly smoked fish of the sturgeon family, salmon, asp, bream, whitefish, herring, sea bass, cod. Small fish (herring, vendace, sprat) is also tasty. One thing is inconvenient: tender, hot-smoked fish is an unstable product and cannot be stored for long. Hot smoking of fish is done in special smokehouses, which are simple and complex, for this purpose you can also use the chimney of the country stove. Nevertheless, the smoker is the best, which is arranged on an earthen slope from improvised materials. First you need to dig a small hole - half a meter deep and wide. About a dozen thin sticks should be put on top, on them - pre-prepared fish. It should be laid horizontally: so fat will flow less. Inside such a smokehouse, aspen, birch or alder wood should be kindled so that they smoke more than they burn. Continuous care must be taken to ensure that the smoke is hot and dense. Periodically, the fish must be turned from side to side, from the abdomen to the back.
Readiness is determined by breakdown, when a fish is broken in half. If there is no blood around the ridge, the skin easily lags, there is a certain amount of juice between the meat and the skin, then this means that the product is ready. The fish will have a golden bronze hue and a pleasant aroma.
Hot smoking of fish can also be carried out on a fire in a crevice among stones. In this case, the fish must be strung on a long twig and set near the fire, certainly from the leeward side. You can still hang it in nets made from fruits or vegetables. In the bonfire it is necessary to kindle the dried up aspen or alder, then plant raw branches, wormwood, rye straw. Smoke should be from one to three hours.
Fresh fish should be cleaned of scales, washed, gutted. Then it needs to be salted: first rubbed on the outside, then inside - under the gills and along the cut. Put the fish salted in this way with the abdomen up in the basket and leave for 8-10 hours, you can spend the night. In the morning, string the gills under the gills and hang them in the wind and the sun. For large fish it is better to insert struts from sticks into the abdomen. Drying lasts 3-4 hours. Then, hot smoking of the fish is performed in a forced way.
At the bottom of the smokehouse should put 2-3 handfuls of thin dry twigs, and lay pieces of wood or twigs on top. Then we put the grate with the fish, cover the smokehouse, put it on the fire and surround it with firewood.
After 20 minutes we remove the smokehouse from the fire, let it cool for about 5-10 minutes, without removing the lid. Thus, hot smoking of fish occurs in an accelerated manner.
However, if you don’t have the opportunity to smoke fish in nature, and you really want to eat this delicacy, then hot smoked fish in an air grill is suitable for you. This will require two small carcasses of freshwater fish (zander, pike, asp, silver carp), apple or alder shavings, salt.
Gut the fish and rinse. Then grate with salt, cover and keep for 3 hours at room temperature. Then place the air grill on the grill, put shavings on its bottom and sprinkle them with water a little.
It is necessary to smoke fish in an air grill for about half an hour at a high fan speed and at a temperature of 210 ° C.