Smoking is called cold due to what happens at a temperature of 28-35 degrees for 1 to 4 days, depending on the size of the fish. Smoked fish smoke generated during the combustion of sawdust from wood. Before starting smoking, it is necessary to carry out preparatory measures.
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You will need
-
- Fish
- salt
- water
- smokehouse
- sawdust
- raw juniper branches.
Instruction manual
1
Gut the fish, i.e. remove all the insides from it. It is also recommended to remove the gills. Obtain complete bleeding, otherwise there may be blood smudges on the carcass of smoked fish. Scales can not be removed.
2
Pickle the fish. To do this, first make an 8-percent solution of sodium chloride: take 100 g of water for 8 ml of sodium chloride. The volume of solution depends on the amount of fish. Put the fish in this solution. It should be completely covered with a solution, and it should not be too much in one container, otherwise the fish will not be fully salted. Leave it like that at room temperature for about 12 hours.
3
Soak salted fish in fresh water for 1-2 days at a temperature of 12 degrees. This temperature can be maintained using ice. When soaking, all excess salt that may be present, for example, in the upper layers of the carcass, is removed from the fish. The salt in the fish is evenly distributed.
4
Hang the fish on metal hooks or a rope and dry it with warm air for about a day. It should slightly fade.
5
Then proceed directly to cold smoking. There are special smokehouses, but if necessary, you can make it yourself in an old barn with a height of 1.5 - 2 meters. The fish must be hung as high as possible. Before starting smoking in a bucket, make a fire from sawdust of alder or aspen wood. Pine wood is not recommended because smoked fish will taste bitter because of it. When the flame goes out in the bucket and smoke comes out, place it under the fish. At the initial stage of smoking, it is necessary to monitor the constant supply of smoke to the fish. It is impossible that flames flare up, it can turn smoking from cold to hot. At the end of the process, add raw juniper branches, their smoke has antimicrobial properties, so the fish does not grow moldy and lasts longer.
6
After smoking, let the fish hang for about 2 days without smoke, it will dry out a bit and become even tastier.
note
Large carcasses can be cut into pieces before smoking.