Dried mackerel at home

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

Mackerel meat is famous for its set of nutrients, vitamins and minerals. This fish is good in any form. It is stewed and fried, baked and stuffed, s alted, smoked and dried mackerel is prepared. By the way, you can cook hanging fish with your own hands. From the hostesses, only patience and a margin of time are required. No complicated recipes, no expensive ingredients.

Cooked and ate

The first homemade dried mackerel recipe suggests that the fish will be cooked and eaten almost immediately. The shelf life of mackerel in the cold is only 3-5 days.

Ingredients:

• Several carcasses of mackerel.
• Half a spoon of sugar and a teaspoon of s alt per fish.

Description of the cooking process

Fresh fish must be thoroughly gutted and washed. The insides should be removed through the gills. Then, with a sharp knife, the fish is carefully cut along the spine and flattened on a cutting board. The carcass is covered with s alt and sugar. Put the fish on clean paper (a sheet of plywood, a large flatplate) and remove for s alting in the cold. Mackerel ripens for two days, then washed under cold water.

After that, the fish must be placed in the refrigerator or hung on the balcony for another two or three days to mature. If you choose the option with fresh air, we recommend putting the fish in the refrigerator at night. Changes in temperature and humidity inherent in the air at night will only harm the process of cooking dried mackerel.

You can also s alt fish for drying in another way, using brine. It is prepared from a liter of water and 220 g of s alt. The fish is gutted, cut, soaked in brine for 8-10 hours. Then it is dried and dried in the refrigerator.

For long term storage

Home-cooked dried mackerel can be stored for more than five days. We will no longer dry the whole fish. You can cut the carcasses into portioned pieces or into large halves. Experienced housewives advise using the first option, since it is convenient to put such fish in a container, it is pleasant to eat, and you can serve it beautifully.

Required products:

• Mackerel.
• S alt.
• Bay leaf.
• Sunflower oil.

How to store dried mackerel for a long time

Firstly, the fish, as in the previous recipe, must be scaled, gutted and removed all unnecessary and inedible. Then the fish is s alted. Any s alting method can be used. There is no need to flatten the fish, it can be dried whole at once.

When the dried mackerel is ready, it is cut into pieces. We send the pieces into a glass jar (be sure to dry!). Add a bay leaf and a few peppercorns to it. Now it remains to pour sunflower oil almost to the very edge of the jar. We close the container with a lid and send it for storage in the refrigerator, cellar or pantry. At any convenient time, you can open such a jar and treat yourself, family or guests with delicious home-made dried fish.

Tips

• If possible, dry the fish only in the fresh air. Fishermen believe that such fish is the most delicious. The ideal temperature for cooking is 18 degrees.
• Do not lay or hang carcasses close together.
• No open and bright sun. The fish will cook before it even starts to dry.
• If you use a refrigerator or a cellar for drying fish, then after the required period it is recommended to dry it for another day in a warm room or in the air.
• Draft also helps make dried fish tastier. Yes, and the process will go faster if you hang the fish on the balcony and create a draft by opening all the windows of the glazed loggia.
• If there are no other ways to dry fish, then use a home oven. The temperature should not be more than 80 degrees. Drying time 5-7 hours. Periodically open the oven door slightly to allow air to flow.