As you know, among a variety of beer snacks, dried fish remains a favorite treat . Many have long abandoned the harmful chips and crackers stuffed with dyes, preservatives, flavor enhancers and artificial additives. Natural products, including beer snacks, are now in fashion.
Unfortunately, it is not always possible to buy fish in a store in good quality. It comes across either too salty, or too old (yellow, "rusty"), or with an unpleasant odor. Let’s take smelt fish as an example today . This small fish has long won the hearts of foam drink lovers. However, the smelt dried in the store is quite expensive.
How to save on a beer snack? The answer is very simple - to buy fresh fish, the price of which does not bite so, and cook it at home yourself. How to make dried smelt at home - we will tell in this article.
Salting fish
Proper salting of fish is an important step in cooking. In order to properly salt the smelt, you will need a pound of fresh fish and a pound of salt. If there are more fish, then it will not be difficult to calculate the regularity of the ratio between salt and the main product.
Salting process
Smelt dried is good because in the process of its preparation it is not necessary to remove the entrails and suffer with scales. The fish will only need to be thawed, washed under cold water and put in previously prepared dishes. Remember that each fish carcass must be covered with salt. Either dipped each in salt and then put in a bowl, or sprinkle on top and mix thoroughly. It is recommended to lay a plastic wrap over the dishes. Some housewives still put a load of fish, for example, a three-liter jar of water. But you can not do this. If you cooked the fish correctly, then it will saline perfectly even without pressure.
Next is the waiting stage. First, the salt will dissolve, then the fish will give its own juice and in this form will insist. The waiting time, as a rule, is about twelve hours. That is, if you salted the fish in the morning, then by the evening you can proceed to the next stage of cooking. Putting fish in the refrigerator, afraid of spoiling the product, is not necessary. Salt will not let her go.
After salting, the fish must be washed. You can try it on salt. If it turned out to be too salty (lying for more than 12 hours), then the fish must be soaked in cold water. To do this, put it in a bulk container with water and leave it for a couple of hours. At the same time, remember that every hour it is recommended to change the water.
Dry fish
There are several ways that smelt dried at home is no worse than the store version. There are several ways to dry salted fish. Which one to choose is up to you.
Newspaper for fish
Since ancient times, fishermen dried fish using a regular newspaper. Currently, many are doing exactly the same thing without using the suspension method. When you washed the fish, saved it from excess moisture, it can be dried. A newspaper (any paper) spreads on a wide baking sheet, and fish is laid on it. Try to prevent the fish from touching each other. There should be a distance between them.
In this form, we send the pan with the fish to a well-ventilated place, for example, to the balcony. In order for the dried smelt to turn out tasty, not to deteriorate during the drying process, it should not be put in place in which direct sunlight has access. In a day or two, the fish is ready for use.
We use the suspension method
The most commonly used method of drying fish is hanging on a thread or fishing line. Fishermen advise taking a thicker thread so that it can withstand the total weight of the product. We thread the needle with a large eye and make the fish “injections” in the eye. Connoisseurs do not recommend immediately hanging fish by piercing the tail. During drying, the water will drain into the fleshy part of the carcass, which, in turn, will dry out worse. It is better to hang it first by the head, and in a day by the tail. So the fish will dry evenly, excess fluid will leave correctly, there will be no unpleasant smell.
Remember that you must observe the distance between the carcasses. So you provide sufficient air access, proper drying and preservation of the taste of each individual fish.
Hanging fish is dried on a balcony or in any other place with good ventilation. How long will dried smelt be prepared? Everything will depend on your taste preferences here. Someone like raw fish, someone prefers an almost “oak” dry version. In any case, you should not remove the fish from the fishing line before two days later.
How to keep smelt dried
Sometimes, especially true for families of fishermen, a rather decent amount of fish appears in the house. What to do with her? Of course, salt and dry. But how to maintain this abundance of fish?
Suspend
Experts say that dried smelt, the recipes for which are described above, can be stored for a long time in several ways. The most common is in limbo. If the weather is suitable, then on the balcony on which the fish was dried, it will be stored further. If you live in a private house, you can use a barn, a garage or a veranda as a place to store dried fish.
However, the fish should be stored in limbo properly. It is better to wrap it in newspaper or paper. No need to pack each fish, you can take a "bunch" and wrap it. So the fish will not dry out and for a long time will retain its taste. But remember, if in the bundle there will be at least one spoiled dried smelt, then the rest of the fish is better not to eat. Therefore, make the "bunch" small - 5-7 carcasses in one.
Freeze
Of course, cold is the best way to store food. The used container is a wooden box, plastic or glassware, in which the dried smelt must be placed after drying (photo attached). Many housewives simply wrap the fish in paper and put it in the freezer. There are many options, choose the one that is more convenient specifically for you.
Can
An excellent way to store dried fish is also considered the use of tin containers. Of course, it is not always possible to find a real tin can, but if you succeeded, then you are a happy hostess. Salted, dried smelt dried fits neatly in tin dishes. Close the lid tightly and put it in the cabinet in the kitchen. In this form, without access to sunlight and insects, the fish will last about three months.
Calorie dried fish
To so many people who are on a diet, it seems that eating dried fish is not worth it. However, experts argue that dried fish does not harm a losing weight. Including smelt dried. Its calorie content is only 146 kcal per hundred grams of product. Some types of fish, cooked "according to the rules of losing weight" in the oven or steamed, can be much more high-calorie.
In addition, dried smelt is a source of a large amount of protein. It consists of only 5 grams of fat and 0.07 grams of carbohydrates, the rest is protein. One hundred grams of this fish contains about 25 grams of protein. Nutritionists call this combination of BZHU ideal for those who decide to lose weight. Few foods can boast so much protein with a low total calorie count.