Chekhon (other names: saber, Czech, cleaver) is easily recognized by its narrow, elongated body, slightly compressed from the sides. This fish is valued for its dietary and taste qualities. It is prepared in many ways: boiled, baked, salted, used for minced meat. However, saberfish have 2 serious drawbacks: it is very bony and does not live long after being caught.
The most convenient way to preserve this fish for a long time is to salt and dry it. It is better to prepare the fish in spring or autumn: during this period the fish is rich in fat, and the dried sabrefish will turn out more tasty.
Preparing the fish
First of all, individuals must be sorted by size. Small fish, without cutting, are washed in cold water and placed in a container for salting. Medium and large specimens (from 500 g) are carefully gutted, without touching the inner film, which will retain the fat inside the abdomen, then the gills are removed, the carcasses are washed and wiped with clean gauze. In large specimens, an incision is made from the inside along the ridge.
Next, you need to decide how to salt the sanitary fish. There are 2 salting methods: dry and wet. The first recipe is the simplest, it is suitable for preparing smaller fish. The largest specimens can be salted using the wet method.
Drying sabre: cutting and salting
Cooking saberfish is a task everyone can do. Even if you have never cooked fish, you will definitely succeed in using dried sabrefish. And very few ingredients are required for withering: all you need is fish and salt! We take 100 grams of salt per 1 average fish.
Before drying sabre, it must be washed and salted. There is very little work to do with small fish at this stage: wash them and place them in a salting container. There is no need to remove the scales or gut the small saberfish - it will wither perfectly whole. With larger fish you will have to tinker: you need to carefully gut it without touching the film covering the abdomen from the inside (without this film the fat from the abdomen will drain), then thoroughly rinse the inside of the fish from blood clots, remove the gills and make an incision along the spine from the inside (this only applies to very large individuals).
We put the finished carcasses in a plastic, wooden or enamel bucket, sprinkle with salt and put pressure on top. We use coarse salt - it should not salt the fish too much. Its task is to extract the brine juice from the fish, make it drier, and tan it. Cover the bucket with a layer of gauze over the oppression so that dust or insects do not settle on the fish. It can be left in a cool place for 3-4 days. If you dry fish in winter, a balcony or veranda is suitable; in summer it is better to do it in a cellar or refrigerator. While the fish is salting, you will have time to go fishing more than once, read about fishing and invite friends to taste dried sabrefish in a week or two.
Dry salting method
Salting of saberfish is carried out as follows.
- Coarse salt is poured into a prepared enamel, plastic or wooden container (bucket, basin or box). Iodized water is not suitable for these purposes. For 1 kg of sabrefish you will need about 150 g of salt (more is possible, but not less, otherwise the carcasses will spoil).
- The fish are placed on the salt base with their backs down (large ones first, smaller ones on top).
- The sabrefish is sprinkled with a thick layer of salt so that the fish is completely covered. If you need to salt large specimens, each layer also needs to be sprinkled with salt. Particularly large carcasses should be rubbed with salt from the inside.
- A dish, a wooden board or a special circle is placed on top and pressed with pressure: a jar of water or a heavy cobblestone (about 4 kg). This will help the excess gas escape from the salted fish and prevent it from rotting.
- The container is covered with gauze folded in several layers to protect the fish from dust and insects.
- It is correct to salt fish in a cool, dark place: refrigerator, underground, basement. You can dig a hole in the shade and cover it with plastic. In winter, a good place would be a veranda or balcony.
- During the salting process, the fish will release brine. Since the dry method is used, the resulting liquid must be periodically poured out of the container (if the carcasses are salted in a wooden box, the juice will flow out on its own through the cracks). You can make holes in the bucket for the brine in advance and hang it over a large basin.
Experienced fishermen share a secret: if you mix salt with sugar in a ratio of 10:1, the fish will be more tender, softer, and its taste will be richer
How to determine how much to salt sabrefish? Approximately small fish are salted in 2–3 days, large fish in 5.
Readiness can also be determined by the carcass: it becomes more flexible, harder, the eyes acquire a light red tint. Salted fish is washed and soaked in water for 3 hours to remove excess salt. If you add a little vinegar to the water, there will be no white salt coating on the dried saberfish. In addition, this procedure will help protect the fish from flies during the drying process. For the same purposes, you can wipe the carcasses with a mixture of vinegar and vegetable oil in equal proportions.
After soaking, the saber fish is again placed under pressure for 2 hours to remove excess liquid. Next, the fish needs to be air dried for 2 hours.
Dry salting of saberfish
You will need a container (it can be a bucket, basin, etc.), so that all the fish fits into it. In this container, at the bottom you need to make several holes through which the brine secreted by the fish will drain. The container should be hung over a bowl into which the brine will drip.
Before salting, the saber fish must be thoroughly washed. Salt is poured onto the bottom, then a layer of saber fish is carefully and tightly laid out, and again a layer of salt. This must be done until the fish runs out. To salt approximately 1 kilo of fish you will need 200 grams of salt. You can use more salt, but never less, otherwise the saber fish may spoil. The salt should be coarse.
The container must be covered with a lid, which should be smaller in diameter than itself. Place a not too heavy press on the lid. To salt 2-4 kilos of sabrefish (the approximate weight of one fish is 150-250 grams), you will need a load weighing 3-4 kilos.
The container should be put in a cool place (for example, a cellar) for 2-5 days. If you like lightly salted fish, then salt it for 2 days, if you want it saltier, then for 5. You also need to know that if the sabrefish is large, then it should be salted for a longer period of time.
Finally, the painful wait was over, the sanitary fish was salted. Now you should take it out of the container, rinse it from excess salt and... put it back. And now a little fishing trick. The chekhon needs to be filled with water, to which add a little vinegar. Soak the saber fish in vinegar brine for 45 - 60 minutes
After this procedure, a white coating of salt will not appear on the sabrefish, and vinegar will save the fish from the encroachments of annoying flies and wasps. The fish is ready to dry. You can hang it in the attic, if, of course, you have one. Or on the loggia.
You need to hang the fish in such a way that they do not touch each other. In 4 – 5 days the saber fish will be ready.
Wet salting
How to dry bream
The following instructions will help you pickle saber fish in brine.
- 1 kg of coarse salt and 20 granulated sugar are dissolved in 3 liters of water.
- Place the washed fish in a bucket filled with brine: the larger ones on the bottom, the smaller ones on the top.
- The contents of the bucket are pressed down with 3–4 kg of pressure.
- The container is closed so that there are no holes left and put in a cool place.
- After 7 days, the saber fish prepared by the wet method is soaked in water acidified with vinegar for 7 hours and dried under natural conditions.
The process of salting and drying saberfish
After placing the fish with salt, the container is placed in a cool place protected from the sun. If there is no refrigerator or cellar, and the weather is warm, you can dig a hole in the coastal sand in the shade and line it with film.
Depending on the size and temperature, the saber fish is usually salted:
- large after 3 days;
- average for 2-3 days;
- small in 2 days.
For drying, the finished salted sanitary fish is thoroughly washed to remove mucus. If it seems to you that the fish is too salty, you can soak it a little in cold water, but do not overdo it - this can completely ruin it. Keep in mind that as the fish shrinks, the meat will become increasingly saltier.
Hang sabrefish to dry on thick fishing line, metal wire or rods in the evening to avoid the risk of flies attack - the fish will become quite windy during the night. If there are a lot of flies, you should wrap the rows of drying fish with gauze, mosquito net, etc. or dry it in special rooms. The place should be cool, always with a draft and without direct sunlight.
The saberfish is hung by the head or tail. It is better to hang small and medium-sized fish by the head - this will leave more fat in it, and it is better to hang large gutted sabrefish by the tail - this will allow excess fat to drain and the fish will dry faster.
Dry salting of saberfish
- Select a box or container with holes through which the liquid formed when salting the fish can pour out - the dry salting method does not involve keeping it in brine.
- Rinse the fish and let it dry slightly. Use specimens weighing no more than 500 g.
- Lay a cloth on the bottom of the box and add some salt. It should cover the entire bottom.
- Place the saberfish in boxes with their bellies facing up, alternating the directions of the fish: heads to tails, tails to heads.
- Generously sprinkle the saberfish with the remaining salt.
- Cover with the edges of the fabric. Place a board or lid slightly smaller than the brining container on top. Place a small weight. A jar of water can play its role.
- Place the box on a tray where liquid will flow out of it.
- Leave in a cool place for 3 to 5 days (depending on the size of the fish being salted).
All that remains is to wash the fish, soak it for 24 hours in clean water, changing it sometimes, and you can start drying it.
About saberfish in general
Chekhon is a schooling, semi-anadromous fish of the carp family. Chukhon, Czech, boknya, saber fish, sablica - that’s how it can be called in different places. It has a long narrow saber-shaped body up to 60 cm long and weighing up to two kilograms.
Chekhon spawning occurs in early May - mid-June, when the water temperature reaches 12 - 15 °C and above. Before this, a massive spring movement of sabrefish begins, which in huge flocks rises along the rivers, adhering to the upper and middle water horizons.
How to salt sabrefish using the dry method
Most often, sabrefish is a small fish, and quite bony. That is why it is most often consumed salted or dried.
First, you need to prepare a container of suitable size. It is better if it is not too high, but with a wide bottom. Now fill the bottom of the container with salt; the layer thickness should be approximately one centimeter. Now we need to deal with the saberfish carcasses. They need to be washed thoroughly under running water. Do not rush to immediately put the fish in a container, because the carcasses should not be raw, so first remove excess moisture with paper towels. Now you can place the saber cap into the container. The fish should be placed quite tightly to each other, and their bellies should always be directed upward. Don’t forget that you also need to salt the fish well on top. Experienced housewives recommend using about 150 grams of salt per kilogram of saberfish.
When salting, not too large sabrefish carcasses need not be gutted. This will allow the fish to be better soaked, which means it will be more juicy and flavorful.
If there is a need to lay the saber fish in several layers, then do not forget to sprinkle each of them with salt, and in this case the carcasses need to be stacked as tightly as possible, otherwise all the salt will end up at the bottom of the container.
When salting sabrefish, it is very important to follow one simple rule: large carcasses should be placed on the bottom of the container, and small ones on top. This will make the fish more convenient to eat, because small carcasses will be ready much faster than large ones. On average, it takes about four days to salt a small carcass, and ten days for a large one. It is very important to be able to correctly determine the readiness of the fish. This can be done based on eye color and carcass density. It is believed that a saberfish is ready if its eyes have acquired a reddish tint, and its back has become quite flexible and dense. Another sign of readiness may be the absence of juice from the fish, but this is more relevant for small sabrefish carcasses.
When you are sure that the saber fish has been thoroughly salted, you can proceed to the next stage - soaking. This is necessary in order to rid the fish carcasses of excess salt. There is nothing complicated here, just place the fish in cold water for a few hours. Gourmets claim that the optimal soaking time directly depends on the duration of salting. For example, if the carcasses have been salted for four days, then they need to be placed in water for four hours. After the soaking process is completed, place the casing on paper towels and dry. That's all, the fish is ready to eat. Now you can go straight to the meal, delighting yourself and your loved ones with the amazing taste of salted saberfish.
How to dry saber fish?
If you have a lot of freshly caught sabrefish, you can prepare it in the following way.
We wash the ungutted fish with water, place it in a container (basin, pan), and sprinkle it with coarse rock salt. We put a load on top and send it to a cool place for 7-10 days. After the specified period, fill the fish with water. Let stand for 7-10 hours (the time spent in water should be equal to the time spent under pressure). We take out and dry the chekhon. In a bowl, mix unrefined vegetable oil and vinegar. Quantity is at your discretion. Gently rub the fish with the oil mixture. Then we hang it up to dry for 4-7 days. It is better to lay something on the floor, as juice will drip from the saber fish.
To prevent flies from landing on fish hung for drying, it should be wrapped in gauze soaked in vinegar.
Salting sabrefish is a fairly popular method of preparing this type of fish. With this method of preparation, it can be eaten after 4 - 12 days. Also, salting sabrefish is the first stage of drying and withering fish. An alternative way to prepare saberfish is baking. Whatever method you choose, the sabrefish will turn out delicious as long as you follow the cooking times.
