How to smoke fish: step by step recipe with photo. Recipes and cooking methods

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

How to smoke fish? This question was asked at least once by any person who is hungry for smoked fish. Actually, it's not that difficult. And although nowadays you can buy anything you want in a supermarket, but smoking fish at home is much more interesting and safer.

Choose fish

The fish caught both in the sea and in the river is perfect for smoking. The main selection criterion is the absolute freshness of the product. Frozen fish is thawed gradually, without using fast methods. After defrosting, the carcass is treated as if it had not been frozen.

Smoking Methods

People have been smoking food since ancient times. After all, after fish or meat undergoes smoke treatment, their shelf life increases.

Man invented two ways of smoking - hot and cold. Their difference lies only in the heat treatment of fish, but in both cases, a smokehouse is necessary. But the absence of a smokehouse does not mean that it will not work to smoke a fish. Such a device is sold in specialized stores or is easily made at home.conditions.

In addition to the smokehouse, you will also need firewood, but not any, but special ones. The smoking process should be started early in the morning when the weather is dry and calm.

Choosing firewood

How to smoke fish at home is roughly understandable, but how to choose the right firewood for this? After all, the final taste of the product depends on their choice.

Oak, alder, cherry, grape, apricot and peach chips are ideal for making smoked fish. For a more interesting taste, several types of wood chips are mixed. For example, alder and apricot tree. Adding juniper branches along with berries on them will give a unique taste.

A chip is prepared as follows: dry twigs are cut with a sharp knife or a small ax. And also chips can be cut from a log. Chips need to be cut the same size (two by two centimeters). This is done for uniform smoldering over the entire surface. The moisture content of the chips should not be more than seventy percent. It is this figure that ensures long burning and a sufficient amount of smoke.

It is strictly forbidden to use coniferous trees. When they are heated, resin is released, and the fish acquires a rancid taste and astringent smell. For the same reason, birch firewood should not be used.

To kindle a fire, you can use absolutely any firewood, from poplar to the same cherry trees. The main criterion is a quick ignition and a lot of heat.

Preparing the fish

Before you smoke fish, you need to go through several stages:

• processing;
• marinating or s alting;
• drying or curing.

Processing

Before you smoke fish in the smokehouse, it must be sorted by size. For uniform cooking, fish are chosen approximately the same.

Small fish are not gutted or cleaned. In medium-sized carcasses, the entrails and gills are removed. Large fish are also gutted, but their heads are still cut off. When the fish is very large, it is cut into steaks or in the form of balyk.

When smoking fish of any size, do not remove the scales. It prevents the penetration of harmful substances into the fillet. After gutting, the carcasses are washed and dried with towels.

S alting

How to smoke fresh fish? No way. It must be s alted before smoking.

The easiest option is the dry s alting method. This is done as follows: prepared processed fish are thoroughly rubbed with s alt on all sides, including the entrails and gills. Usually only s alt is used, but if desired, ground black pepper can be added. Then the fish is put in a bowl, where it will be s alted out, and left for a while. S alting time depends on the size of the fish. For small fish, it does not exceed an hour, for medium - two hours, and for large - at least three hours.

Marinovka

Before smoking fish, it can be marinated in spices. So the taste will be richer, and it will take time to marinate.less.

One liter of water is boiled in a saucepan. Fifty grams of s alt, finely chopped garlic (three cloves), ground ginger, thyme and coriander are added to it. Bring to a boil, remove from heat and set aside. The fish is placed in a suitable dish and pour the cooled marinade. The container is placed in the refrigerator for three hours. After a while, the fish is taken out, and from that moment it is possible to decide how to smoke the fish in the smoker.

Drying or drying

S alted fish is dried before smoking. It is strung on wire or hooks and hung near a fan or in a draft.

The fish that was s alted will need to be washed under running water and dried with towels. Marinated needs only drying. For the best result, the fish is left to dry for two hours, and to prevent contact with insects, it is covered with gauze soaked in a solution of vinegar.

Smoked-dried fish is much tastier than dried and smoked.

Hot smoking method

Adaptation for this method of processing fish consists of parts:

1. Twelve liter tank. A barrel of some kind or an iron bucket will do just fine.
2. The saucer, where all the fat and juice that flows out accumulates.
3. Grids for displaying meat or fish or hooks for hanging.
4. Tight-fitting lid with small opening. Commercially manufactured smokers have lids with a water seal that ensures a very tight seal.

How to smoke fish inhot smoked smoker? Not that difficult.

At the bottom of the smokehouse, chips are poured into about a couple of handfuls. Juniper branches are placed on top of the sawdust along with berries.

A saucer is installed above the chip. Its main function is that it does not allow juice or fat to get into the sawdust. Food foil will also perfectly cope with this task in the absence of a saucer. Requires three layers of foil to use.

A grate is installed on top of the container for collecting juice and fat, where the fish will be placed. Carcasses should not be placed close to each other; air must circulate between them. The whole structure is covered with a lid and a fire is kindled under it. A brazier, tile or a regular burner for kindling a fire is perfect. The fire is not needed very strong, the temperature during smoking should not exceed one hundred and twenty degrees. For small fish, half an hour is enough to cook, for larger fish, it takes fifty minutes.

Periodically open the lid to check the doneness. But you need to do it correctly so as not to get burned. Raise the lid very carefully and slowly so that the sawdust does not flare up from the influx of oxygen.

After cooking, the fish is taken out of the smokehouse and cooled in the fresh air. It is possible to eat only after complete cooling.

According to the algorithm of actions, it is clear that there is nothing difficult in how to smoke fish in a hot way. Such an appetizer is stored for four days in the refrigerator, but most often the question of storage does not arise, since the fish is eaten very quickly.

Preparation for cold smoking

You can also smoke fish at home using the cold method. To do this, you must first prepare it.

In principle, there are no special differences from preparing for the hot method. In large fish, the gills and entrails are also removed. After processing, the carcasses are washed under running water and wiped with a towel. Next, the fish is s alted out. For the cold method, the dry method is considered the classic s alting. S alt is poured into the dishes, fish are placed on top, which were previously rubbed with s alt from all sides. S alt is again poured over the fish. With a large number of fish, it is laid out in layers, and s alt is poured between them. When the layers of fish run out, oppression is placed on top and removed for five days in a dark, cool place.

After five days, the fish is taken out of the s alt and soaked in clean water for at least four hours. After this procedure, the fish is lightly wiped with towels and strung on a wire or thread. Such fish "beads" are suspended in a well-ventilated room for a day. Dried fish are being smoked.

Smoking process

Due to the fact that the fish is processed not with hot, but with cold smoke, its shelf life is much longer than that of a hot-smoked product. But cooking also takes a long time.

The cold smoker is constructed from three important parts. This is:

• part in which the firebox is placed;
• the place where the products themselves are located during smoking;
• channel connecting the smoking containerand furnace part.

Devices that are produced at enterprises have a different structure, and constant monitoring is not required.

The fish is placed in a place where it will be smoked, and a fire is lit. This is where cooled smoke comes in. Chimney work for the best result should be at least one and a half meters long.

Thus, the fish will be cooked for a day, and especially large fish for five days. You can not take a break in the first eight hours of cooking, for this reason you need to take care of the right amount of wood chips and firewood in advance. After eight hours, overnight breaks are allowed. Naturally, increasing the number of breaks increases the cooking time.

The temperature for the cold smoking method should not be higher than thirty degrees. After cooking, the fish is taken out of the device and laid out in a ventilated room without moisture. She stays there for another week. Only after a week of "laying out" the fish can be eaten.

Smoked Mackerel

How to smoke hot-smoked fish, in theory, is understandable. Let's analyze the nuances using the example of mackerel.

In order to cook mackerel, first it is s alted. After s alting, the fish is dried and only after that they start smoking.

First of all, make a fire. About a hundred grams of wood chips are poured onto the bottom of the smoking device. It is best to choose plum, cherry, alder or cherry wood chips.

A saucer is placed on the chips, where the juice from the fish and fat will be collected. It is easy to replace it with a sheet of foil folded into threelayer.

The grill is placed in the smoking container, on which the fish will be cooked. So that the latter remains intact and does not fall apart, it is tied with twine.

As soon as the fish is on the grate, close the smokehouse tightly with a lid and leave for forty minutes. After cooking, the fish are taken out and cooled in the open air for two hours. After cooling, smoked fish can be consumed. The video details how to prepare and smoke fish at home.

Smokehouse in the apartment

Now there are many different options for buying a compact smoker that will not interfere even in the kitchen. Consider several options.

• Multicooker with smoking mode. Very easy and convenient to use in the kitchen. Due to the small volume of the bowl, the output of the smoked product will not exceed one and a half kilograms.
• Smokehouse for a gas stove with a water seal. In fact, this is a metal box with bars inside.
• Electro-smoker. The product is placed in it, chips are poured, and that's it. Then she cooks herself.
• Smokehouse in the shape of a cylinder. Inside the container there are pins on which the products are put on.