How to make smoked mackerel at home?

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

The adequacy of the diet is often determined by the presence of marine fish. Many give preference to smoked mackerel, as it has absorbed a lot of useful properties. Culinary experts appreciate this fish for its delicate spicy taste of meat, thanks to which you can diversify dishes prepared from it. The product contains a lot of trace elements and vitamins necessary for the body, as well as fatty acids.

To keep all the nutrients in the fish, it is better to cook it at home. It is not necessary to have your own site or a special smoking device for this. It turns out that there is another technology that allows you to do this in an apartment. The result will be simply amazing, and the product will turn out no worse than the production one. We will look at how to make smoked mackerel.

How to choose good quality fresh fish?

Choosing a mackerel is a rather simple process, but at the same time a decisive one. After all, it dependsdelicacy taste. There is no need to be shy about smelling a product when you buy it from the market. After all, we want to eventually serve smoked meat with a pleasant smell, without foreign impurities. An important criterion when choosing is the condition of the carcass itself. It should be elastic, not loose when pressed on it. The skin of fresh fish is usually smooth, without spots. If there are greenish stains on the surface, this indicates the spoilage of the product. You need to pay attention to the eyes. If they are sunken and cloudy, then the product is stale, it has lain on the counter for a long time. The gills of fresh mackerel are clean and pink.

What should I look for when buying frozen fish?

But the quality of frozen mackerel is more difficult to determine. In addition, she will have to devote more time to processing and preparation, applying some culinary subtleties. How to make smoked mackerel from frozen blanks, we will describe below. And in order not to make a mistake with the choice of product, you need to pay attention to the volume of ice in the briquettes. If there is too much of it, then the fish was re-frozen, and this significantly affects its quality. In such a product there will no longer be a sufficient amount of useful substances. Yes, and it will taste different.

Preparation

When preparing frozen carcasses, it is important to preserve their natural taste. To do this as much as possible, you need to very slowly bring them to a soft state. This is the only way to preserve the real qualities inherent in seafood. For this purpose carcassesimmersed in ice water or put in the refrigerator.

Fresh fish should be washed well under running water before the smoking process. Then open the belly, gut the insides, cut off the head. And it is better to leave it whole, without even removing the tail. Then you can start the cooking process.

Smoking is, in fact, smoking, which can be cold or hot. The second option involves the heat treatment of fish, and the first is cooking with cold smoke (pathogenic microorganisms in this method die due to s alt). In our case, these are recipes with heat treatment. However, due to some secrets in the use of products, the effects of both cold and hot smoking will be achieved. Moreover, the crust of the fish acquires a golden color and looks very aesthetically pleasing. This nuance will also be mentioned in our recipes. Take note of how to make smoked mackerel at home and delight your family with he althy dishes.

Recipe using onion peel and black tea

This method is suitable for lovers of everything natural. Here, the effect of cold smoking is achieved by a certain technology using onion peel and tea. Thanks to this, you can get the classic skin tone and the same taste of fish as purchased in a store. You need to take one freshly frozen carcass and place it in ice water. It will require the followingingredients:

• tea - tablespoon or 4 bags;
• onion peel - about 3 handfuls;
• sugar - 1 tablespoon;
• spice set - coriander, allspice, cloves, s alt, bay leaf;
• vegetable oil - a little to lubricate the skin;
• water - 1 liter.

If you have all the ingredients ready, then master the culinary process, how to make smoked mackerel in onion peel. So let's get started:

1. When the carcass is completely thawed, it must be washed and dried using napkins. Then you should remove the insides from it, cut off the head, remove the fins.
2. To prepare the marinade, pour water into the pan, pour the husks, tea, s alt, sugar into it and add all the spices at once. Bring the liquid to a boil, then continue to cook for another five minutes.
3. Turn off the stove and put the carcass in the hot brine. Three minutes will be enough for the fish to absorb all the necessary taste qualities.
4. Then you need to clean the carcass from the husk and tea leaves, let it dry. To make it look beautiful, you need to grease the skin with vegetable oil and put the mackerel on a special dish.

You can serve it hot or wait until it cools down. It would be nice to decorate the delicacy with parsley sprigs.

In cold brine

We offer a recipe using cold marinade. In it, we will use onions through zero-waste production. For two large fishyou need to take the following ingredients:

• water - 2 liters;
• s alt - 7 tbsp. l. (no slide);
• onion - 1 large head;
• peppercorns (10 allspice and 20 black);
• black tea without additives - 3 tbsp. l.;
• coriander - a small pinch;
• bay leaf - 4 pieces;
• sugar - 4 tbsp. l.

Cooking process:

1. Remove the husk from the onion, cut it into small cubes.
2. Pour water into the container, in which we will prepare the brine, and pour s alt and sugar into it, stir well.
3. Add the onion along with its husks and all other ingredients, put on fire until boiling.
4. Set the marinade aside to cool completely, then strain.
5. Put whole carcasses in a large jar, fill with brine and leave in a cool place. In two days they will be ready.

Infused

In the arsenal of experienced chefs there is a secret of how to make smoked mackerel at home with tea leaves in order to get a classic hot smoked product as a result. For two large carcasses, we need the following ingredients:

• one liter of water;
• sugar - 2 tbsp. l.;
• rice of any variety - 150g;
• s alt - 1-1, 5 tbsp. l.;
• leaf tea (black) - 2 tbsp. l.;
• bay leaf - 2 pcs.;
• coriander - 1 tsp;
• peppercorns (black) - 10 pcs.

Cooking steps:

1. Pre-soak the rice inwater and let it swell well. To do this, it must be left for a day.
2. Then, the grains must be mixed with dry tea and placed in foil. Wrap the mixture in such a way that there is a small hole for the smoke to escape.
3. Marinade is prepared according to the same principle that was already described above (with the boiling process). Prepared fish carcasses are placed in it using a press and everything is put in the refrigerator for two days.
4. Then we dry the mackerel in a suspended state. And finally, we pass to the most interesting stage. You will now learn how to make smoked mackerel at home using a kind of smokehouse.
5. The bottom of the pan should be covered with foil, put the wrapped mixture of tea and rice into it. Heat the container and wait until the ingredients begin to release a light smoke.
6. After that, we place a grate on the edges of the pan, put the fish on it and cover with a fairly tight lid. After 20-30 minutes, the carcasses should be turned over and smoked on the other side. At the same time, it is necessary to monitor the fire, the temperature must be set no higher than average.

How to make smoked mackerel with liquid smoke: a step by step recipe

Liquid smoke is a ready-made solution for the wet smoking process. A flavored product is able to endow the product with all the relevant qualities. It should be said right away that this method is less useful, so it can be used by those people who do not have problems associated with the digestive tract. Ifyou are all right with this, then cook fragrant mackerel, enjoy its taste and surprise your guests. For three large carcasses, you need to take the following list of ingredients:

• one liter of water;
• four tablespoons of s alt;
• 800 ml liquid flavor;
• one tablespoon of sugar.

Making smoked mackerel with liquid smoke at home is quite simple. Even novice cooks can do it. The whole process consists of several successive steps:

1. Preparation of carcasses in this case is to eliminate the insides, tails and heads do not need to be cut off.
2. Next, proceed to the preparation of the marinade: pour the required amount of water into a container, bring it to a boil. Then we dissolve the bulk ingredients in the liquid, boil for another minute and turn off the fire.
3. As soon as you remove the hot brine from the stove, immediately add liquid smoke. Mix well the resulting composition.
4. Then you can immerse the fish in the brine and press down. In this form, it is left for three days.
5. After that we take out the mackerel, rinse thoroughly. We divide it into portioned pieces, and the delicacy is ready.

Recipe without using water

Another recipe for how to make smoked mackerel, but closer to the production product. The composition of the ingredients does not contain water, but the amount of liquid smoke is increased. You just need to take 3 prepared carcasses, a special flavored product in a volume of 50 ml,spices of your choice (only s alt and pepper is best).

Cooking:

1. The processed fish should be washed again under running water.
2. Further, rub each carcass with spices and s alt on all sides.
3. Place in a container suitable for it in size and pour liquid smoke on top. We put the cargo and send it to the refrigerator for two days.
4. At the end of the allotted time, the fish must be taken out and dried. The last step in this process is weathering. It is necessary for mackerel to find a cool place and leave it for several hours.

Carcasses will not stay in suspension for long. However, if you have chosen a place on a balcony or street, then they should be covered with gauze, thus protecting them from flies.

Conclusion

Now you know how to make smoked mackerel at home. However, the culinary techniques produced with seafood do not end there. After all, there are many salad recipes where this fragrant fish acts as an honorary ingredient. Perhaps you have already tried cooking such dishes, then share your secrets with others.