Trying fresh smoked fish cooked at home or in the field is an incomparable pleasure. Especially if it is from its own catch. However, in order to make the product tasty and stored for quite some time, you need to try. The key to success will be the proper preparation of raw materials, the ability to work with a smokehouse. Various nuances of taste and aroma of smoked fish add brines and marinades.
Pick your recipe
Hot and cold smoked fish
Hot smoking of fish is carried out at temperatures from 45 ° C to 150 ° C and, on average, lasts from 20 minutes to 1.5 hours. Before processing, the raw materials are rubbed with spices or spices, or they are pickled, as a result, the fish turns out to be soft and juicy, golden-reddish. The product is immediately ready for use.
Hot smoked fish is stored at a temperature not exceeding 5 ° C for a week, but it is best to eat it for three days. To smoked fish does not absorb odors, it is recommended to wrap it in parchment or cling film.
Before cold smoking, carcasses are usually salted out for 1-7 days, then washed and dried well. Smoked, on average, 3-5 days at a temperature of no higher than 27-40 ° C. Then the drying is dried.
Smoke gives the fish a flavor, a piquant taste, the carcass acquires a beige-brown hue. This smoking method preserves the maximum nutrients in the fish. The product can remain fresh for half a month if stored in food film at temperatures from 0 ° C to 5 ° C.
Preparing fish for smoking
Any fresh fish can be smoked tasty, it is only advisable to select one type and size of carcasses. If hot smoking is considered universal, then for the cold method, experts advise choosing fatty varieties:
- trout;
- tuna;
- Mackerel
- eel;
- beluga
- Iwashi et al.
Before smoking, carcasses are processed depending on the weight:
- trifles up to 400 grams are not gutted, salted and smoked;
- gutted fish up to 3 kilograms for the hot smoking method; gills, entrails and dark films are removed;
- large carcasses must be gutted, removed the head, sometimes cut along the back;
- large fish are sometimes cut across slices.
Scales protect smoked carcasses from contamination and retain moisture. It is usually removed from radiant whitefish, or if the plates were already damaged during fishing.
Home and street smokehouses
A smokehouse is a large metal box or tank with a bottom, a tray for fat, a grate (as an option - with pins, a rod-holder with rays), a hermetically closed lid.
In order for the fish to be smoked well, the container should be at least half a meter high. Cold smoking is usually carried out in fresh air, since the chilled smoke (15-30 ° C) enters the appliance, the processing itself takes a long time.
Hot smoked smokehouses, where open fire is ignited - devices for personal plots, courtyards. The most popular hot-smoked appliances are gas stoves or electricity. This is ideal for apartments. However, homemade smoked meat lovers need to get a good extract, or at least carry out the procedure infrequently and with the window open.
As fuel for smokehouses, you can not use wood chips, branches, shavings of conifers. Recommended Wood:
- alder (the most popular option);
- willow;
- oak;
- Apple tree;
- ash;
- pear;
- hazel;
- Birch.
The bark must be removed, chopped wood and moisten a little before being placed in the smokehouse.
Spicy hot smoked mackerel at home
Carcasses of fresh mackerel (the amount depends on the size of the home smokehouse) thoroughly rinse, gut. Pisces chop off the head. Cook spicy marinade. To do this, pour water at a rate of 1 liter into 2 large fish in a saucepan, bring to a boil.
Dissolve a couple tablespoons of coarse salt and a teaspoon of granulated sugar in boiling water. Then add:
- 2 bay leaves;
- a sprig of rosemary;
- a pinch of dried sage;
- a teaspoon of cinnamon;
- a teaspoon of pepper mixture.
Wash, peel the onion and half an orange and lemon. Chop the onion very finely, cut the citruses into slices and dip everything into a boiling marinade. Simmer for 5 minutes, cool.
Pour the mackerel with marinade and leave it cool for 12 hours, then remove, hang by the tails, dry and ventilate for a couple of hours. At the bottom of the smokehouse, pour an even layer of sawdust, shavings, chopped branches without bark or special alder briquettes for smoking.
Lay out the grate with foil and bend the edges so that a container is obtained. Place the mackerel in an even layer on its bottom. If the design of the smokehouse involves pins, a rod with rays, hang fish on them. For convenience, you can bandage the carcasses with twine.
The electric smokehouse of industrial production is switched on according to the manufacturer's instructions. It is mounted on a fireproof surface, such as a grill table. The smokehouse should be placed on the stove so that the fire is evenly distributed along the bottom. If the fish is processed on gas, first you need to turn on a strong fire, after 10 minutes, change it to moderate. Cook the mackerel for 40-45 minutes.
Smoked carps in a homemade smokehouse
Gut the carps, rinse, prepare for hot smoking. Big fish can be cut into steaks. Boil 2 liters of water for the marinade and completely dissolve half a glass of brown granulated sugar and table salt in it, then let cool.
Pour a glass of dry white wine and half a glass of soy sauce into the marinade. Squeeze 150 ml of lemon juice, combine with the resulting mixture. Add 4 crushed garlic cloves and spices and spices to taste: coriander, dried basil, pepper. Karpov completely immerse in the marinade and send for 10 hours in a cool place. Then rinse the fish, hang in a draft, dry.
Make a home smokehouse. You can make it from a cast-iron stewpan or pan with a thick bottom, which is lined with foil in advance. Culinary experts use a simple trick: create a smoke with rice and black tea. Croup must be covered with water and wait until it is completely absorbed. Then take a couple of tablespoons of black tea and mix with rice.
Put the mixture on a foil sheet, wrap and make holes for the exit of smoke on top. Place all this at the bottom of the cast-iron bowl, heat over high heat until smoke appears from the holes.
Place a grill with carp on top, close the smoking lid tightly and wrap it with a moistened towel. If there is no lattice of suitable diameter, you can use a rectangular one from the oven and put a ring from the detachable baking dish on top, and then a lid.
A good home smokehouse will also come from wok with wire rack. To lay the foil on the bottom, bending the top edges, place the fuel in an even layer. You can mix the sawdust with sugar. Put another sheet of foil on top, make holes in it. Grease the grate with vegetable oil, put the fish and close the lid tightly. Make a moderate fire and cook the carcass for 20 to 40 minutes, depending on their thickness.
Hot smoked honey marinade fish
Prepare the fish for smoking: gut, peel, make cuts along the ridge and remove the gills, heads, dark films. Rinse and dry the carcasses. Per kilogram of raw materials must be mixed in a deep container:
- half a glass of freshly squeezed lemon juice;
- a glass of olive oil;
- 150 ml of not sugared or melted natural honey;
- packaging of ready-made seasoning for fish;
- a teaspoon of table salt;
- a pinch of freshly ground black pepper;
- half a glass of finely chopped dill;
- a pair of crushed garlic cloves.
Drown the fish in the mixture and leave it to cool for 10 hours. Then let the marinade drain, dry the carcasses for 1-2 hours. Lay on a wire rack or hang on the pins of a home smokehouse and cook for half an hour. The finished fish should have a golden, dense crust with a sweet-spicy taste and wonderful aroma.
Hot smoked fish in a street smokehouse
6 fresh mackerels or sea bass (you can take both types of fish in equal parts), rinse, dry, gut. Cut off the head, perches can be cleaned scales. At the bottom of the enameled basin, pour a centimeter layer of coarse salt. Lay carcasses on it and cover with a second salt layer.
Put the lid on, bend and salting out the fish for 3-5 days, turning over from time to time. After that, transfer the carcasses to a clean container, pour cold water. Soak for 4 hours, then hang in a well-ventilated place. Dry for a day.
On the street, light a brazier, prepare birch coals. Pour sawdust with a layer of 2 cm to the bottom of the smoker. Install a drip tray, put fish on the holder pins, tie together with twine. Close the smokehouse tightly, set it on burning coals and smoke fish for 30 to 50 minutes, depending on the thickness of the carcasses.
Cold smoked fish in a street smokehouse
Rinse prepared carcasses, dry, clean. Boil the oxen for brine. For 1 liter, take a glass of table salt, dissolve it completely in boiling water and allow the brine to cool. Put prepared for smoking fish carcasses and salt in a cool place for 4-5 days.
Then a couple of hours soak the fish in clean cold water, air dry. If the carcasses are large, insert spacers into the abdominal cavity and dry for up to five days. If small, the drying process can be limited to three days.
Arrange the prepared fish or hang it in a street smoking shed for cold smoking and cook, keeping the temperature regime from 25-27 ° C, in extreme cases - up to 40 ° C.
To achieve this result, you need a device through which the smoke will cover a distance of at least two meters and cool. The best option is an industrial smokehouse with a special smoke injection device, or a portable smoke generator.
A cheaper analogue is a temporary home-made device for cold smoking, which can be built on a personal plot or in a private yard. The smokehouse is installed on a hill, the furnace is at the lower level in a dug hole.
The tightly sheltered trench will serve as an ascending channel for cold smoke. The process of cold smoked fish can last from three to five days, depending on the size of the fish.
Methods for salting fish of different types for cold smoking
There are different ways to prepare fish for cold smoking. They do this in a container with brine or marinade, others just rub the carcasses with salt and spices, and the third - buries bags of salted fish in the ground or sand. The method of salting can be selected based on the type of fish.
To prepare pike perch for cold smoking, cut the abdomen at the side of the carcasses and chop the ribs. Salt generously, put in a plastic bag and tie tightly. Dig a small hole in the ground, place a bag of fish in it and dig it in.
After 1.5 hours, take the pike perch out of the ground, turn the packaging over and bury again for 1.5 hours. Then get the carcasses, rinse thoroughly in running water. In each belly place a couple of fragrant peas of pepper, lavrushka, a teaspoon of chopped garlic. Hang by tails to dry. After 12 hours, zander can already be placed in a smokehouse.
Large perches, salmon are cut into pieces, or the abdomen is deployed and spacers are inserted. Prepare brine - a highly concentrated saline solution. Soak the fish in it for about half an hour. In each carcass put on a lavrushka, a pair of peppercorns, onion, a bunch of dill.
Depression is recommended for salting small fish, as well as zander, pike, chubs, ides, and carps. Gut carcasses, cut several times along the ridge. Coarse salt densely pour the fish and lay under oppression for a period of 12 hours to several days, depending on the thickness of the carcasses. Then drain the brine, rinse the carcasses and soak in cold water for a couple of hours.
Any fish can be salted in bags in just a day. In large carcasses, first remove the heads and ridges. Bag in layers:
- coarse salt;
- carcasses down pulp;
- sprinkled with salt carcasses top pulp;
- coarse salt;
- carcasses down pulp, etc.
Thus, between the fish pulp will always be a salt layer. The bag is half full and twists tightly to squeeze the salted carcasses. The packaging is buried for a day in the sand and compacted. After that, the fish can be washed, dried and smoked.
