Smoked pike, or How to become a smoker

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

Things people come up with to satisfy their tastes! Fish are fried, and s alted, and stewed and smoked. Today it is quite difficult to find a person who has not tried such a dish as smoked pike.

Each national cuisine has its own recipe, its own characteristics, cooking secrets. To make the fish tasty, you need not only to strictly adhere to the cooking technique, but also experiment with the ingredients.

Few people can cook hot-smoked pike: some have no experience, others have equipment. Therefore, it is very difficult for a beginner to get the result on the first try. While high-quality cooking of pike will allow you to enjoy juicy and tender meat with a characteristic smoke flavor. You can smoke pike both hot and cold. Hot means cooking at a temperature of 75 to 180 degrees. Cold smoking occurs at temperatures below 40 degrees, but, unlike the first method, fishstored much longer. In the article, we will offer the reader both options.

A little about flavors

An experienced smoker decides for himself what kind of wood to use in his recipes. For beginners, maple, beech, poplar, willow or oak chips are great. Of course, when there is no classic smokehouse, but you want such a fish, you can use a flavor such as liquid smoke. But the taste will not be the same, and, as studies show, it is harmful to the body. For cooking in a real smokehouse, you can buy wood chips at any supermarket.

Ingredients

So, for smoking pike you will need:

• s alt - 100 gr.;
• pepper - 3 gr.;
• lemon - 50 gr.;
• wood chips - 2 packs;
• firewood and smokehouse.

When s alting, most cooks consider it necessary to stuff fish with different herbs: thyme, rosemary, cilantro and others. Some love these notes, while others find them to overpower the smoky flavor.

Hot smoked

The process of hot smoking consists of several stages. Many may think: what's so difficult? You just need to throw the fish into the apparatus and after a while get it. For experienced smokers, it is. And for beginners, you need to train to choose, butcher, s alt, follow.

Preparatory work

Pike weighing 1, 2-1, 4 kg is ideal for smoking.

Before smoking a pike, it must be prepared: take out the insides, preserving integrity as much as possible. If the smokehouse is small, then remove the head, tail, cut off the fins with scissors. It is better not to peel off the scales: at a high temperature on the fire, it will protect the skin from cracking. So, algorithm.

1. After thoroughly washing the pike, you can start s alting. To determine the amount of s alt, you need to weigh the already prepared fish. There are 40 grams of s alt per 1 kilogram of carcass. For flavor and spiciness, you can add red and black pepper. It is better not to rub it into the fish, but first mix it with s alt. The optimal amount is 1.5 grams per kilogram. Sprinkle generously with the mixture of spices. If the s alt remains, it's okay. Surplus is better not to use: there is a risk of s alting the fish. For sourness, you can stuff with lemon.

2. Put the pike in a plastic bag and set aside for 6 hours, preferably in a cool place. After the specified time, rinse the fish well again, wipe dry with a napkin. In general, any product before smoking must be dried as much as possible from excess liquid on the surface. You can also dry a little in the fresh air.

Smoking process

Can be carried to the smokehouse. Apparatus for hot smoking are different, as well as fuel. Some use small firewood for smoking, others use oak chips.

1. Set the smoker on the fire, pour three full handfuls of oak chips or any other into the bottom. They will need to be covered with foil or covered with a pan from fat dripping from the fish.
2. Put the pike on the grill andsend to the smokehouse. As soon as the smoke leaves the nozzle, detect 30-40 minutes. Add a little water so that the smoke does not come out from under the cover, but only from the nozzle. So smoked pike will not be black.
3. If time is short, you can hold the fish longer. The skin should peel off easily - the first sign of readiness. It can also be identified by the fin: it should be easy to remove, and the finished meat under it should have a white matte color.

You can already eat smoked pike removed from the fire, but it would be better to hang it in the fresh air in order to stack excess fat.

Cold smoked

Another cooking method is cold smoking pike. The two methods are a bit similar, but the taste is certainly different. If a hot-smoked pike cooked according to a recipe tastes more like fried on a fire, then cold-smoked pike tastes more like s alted or dried.

The process of cold smoking is more laborious, since a special smoke cooler must be installed in the smokehouse. The temperature should not exceed 45-50 degrees, and more time is required. But such fish is stored many times longer.

So, to cook smoked pike in this way, you need to prepare a fish carcass.

1. First choose the big fish. For cold smoking, larger carcasses are needed, weighing from 2.5 to 3 kilograms. Remove the insides, the head and tail can be left, but the gills will have to be eliminated. Rinse well.
2. The next step is to s alt the pike. You can do this in the same way as with hot smoking, but it is best to marinate in s altsolution. For one liter of water you need one hundred grams of s alt plus spices. It is better to pre-boil the brine and cool. With this method of s alting, the chance of s alting the fish is extremely small: the meat will absorb as much s alt as it takes, no more. Put the pike under the press and leave for 12 hours in the refrigerator.

Smoking process

Now the plan is to smoke itself.

1. After the pike is s alted, it must be washed under cold water, wash off excess s alt. Then hang and dry in a light breeze. A couple of hours will be enough. After that, you can carry to the smokehouse.
2. Put the pike in the chamber of the apparatus, make a fire with oak wood and leave for two days. This applies to large fish weighing 2 kilograms or more. Small fish can be removed after 36 hours. It is important to maintain a constant temperature of 25-30 degrees.
3. The cooking process itself is not a hassle, the main thing is to get a quality smokehouse.

Smoked pike is delicious to eat both with a side dish of fresh potatoes and with a glass of foam. Bon appetit!