How to dry pike perch at home!

How to properly prepare fish for salting

There are two types of carcass preparation.

For big fish. If the carcass is more than 30 cm in length, then it must be gutted. To do this, it is washed, the abdomen is ripped open and the entrails are removed. Then wash everything again in cool water. It is not recommended to cut off the head, but the gills must be removed.
For small fish. Small carcasses up to 30 cm practically do not need to be prepared. They can be salted ungutted. The only requirement is that the gills must be removed.

If the gills are left, the carcasses will begin to disappear due to the fact that harmful bacteria will begin to develop in them. Even a large amount of salt will not save you from this, because it does not completely disinfect them.

How to cook “Balyk from pike perch”

Prepare the fish carcass, remove scales, trim the fins, tail and head. Next, you need to carefully make an incision from the back along the entire spine, cut off the fillet, trim the ribs and, very carefully, so as not to damage the bile, remove the entrails. After this, remove the backbone, trying to trim it so that there is practically no meat left on it.

Lay out the cut carcass, make even cuts on the meat, trying to cut as deep as possible, but not touch the skin (the distance between the cuts depends on the size of the fish: the larger it is, the smaller the gap).

Rinse the pike perch with cool water (preferably boiled or filtered). At the bottom of a clean and dry container of suitable size, pour a small even layer of a mixture of salt and sugar (proportions 3 to 1), place the fish on it skin side down, then evenly sprinkle the carcass with the same mixture on top, making sure to get into the cuts.

Fold the carcass in half (fillet to fillet), put it in a bag or wrap it in cling film, wrap the resulting package tightly with thick thread and send it to a cool place for 4 hours.

After the allotted time for salting, take out the fish, rinse it from excess salt, make a through cut from the tail side and use a hook to hang the carcass in a well-ventilated place protected from insects.

In approximately 2-3 days, depending on weather temperature conditions and the size of the carcass, the pike perch balyk will be ready and you will be able to enjoy its original, delicate taste!

Salting recipes

There are many recipes for salting fish. But not everyone can preserve the taste, as well as give the meat the necessary firmness and fat content.

You can salt fish for drying and subsequent long-term storage in the traditional way, but if you process it and eat it right away, it is better to choose a spicy method.

Dry or traditional method

For this method, you will need a deep wooden container with holes (a box made of boards is best), a linen bag, coarse rock salt and prepared carcasses.

The bag is laid out on the bottom of the box, and salt and carcasses are already laid out on it.

Each fish is well rubbed with salt and placed in a container. You must first pour about 1 cm of salt onto its bottom. The carcasses should be laid so that they lie very tightly. Therefore, it is better to lay them head to tail. Each layer must be sprinkled with a small layer of salt. After everything is laid, salt is poured on top in a 1 cm layer. Place a lid over the contents of the container and press it down with a heavy weight.

Everything stays in this state for about 8 - 10 days in a cool, shaded place. When the juice begins to release on the 3rd – 4th day, it will not linger in the container.

After salting, you can begin soaking and then drying the fish.

Wet method or salting in brine

You can salt fish in this way in a container that does not oxidize (bucket, pan, barrel or tank). To do this, it is placed tightly in a container, belly up, sprinkled with salt (1 kg of salt per 10 kg of prepared carcasses).

The lid is placed over the contents of the container and pressed down with a weight. Around day 2, juice will begin to release. It will be mixed with salt and you will get a brine in which the carcasses will remain for about 5 - 10 days. The duration of salting depends on their size.

Pink salmon

Time: 2 days.
Number of servings: 8-10 people.
Calorie content of the dish (100 g): 182 kcal.
Purpose: snack.
Cuisine: Russian.
Difficulty: easy.

If you often have guests or organize long gatherings with friends, then be sure to pay attention to this simple recipe. The delicacy is excellent consumed alone or with an intoxicating drink. Pink salmon is not too fatty, so it is suitable for those who are watching their figure. Balyk is delicious to eat with bread and vegetables: you can form canapés and sandwiches.

Ingredients:

pink salmon – 1.5 kg;
salt – 3 tbsp. l;
sugar – 1 tbsp. l.;
spices - optional.

DIY coffee table
Poor blood clotting - treatment and symptoms. How to treat poor blood clotting
Potatoes with mushrooms in a slow cooker: recipes with photos

Cooking method:

Defrost, rinse, cut the carcasses into plates.
Combine salt, sugar, spices. Sprinkle the mixture over the meat and stir. Leave everything for a day.
Place the pink salmon on a baking sheet and place in the oven at a temperature of 40 degrees for 4-6 hours. The oven door must be open.
The finished delicacy is cooled in the refrigerator and then served.

Soaking after salting

If the fish was salted at home using a dry, brine or hanging method, then this procedure is required.

For the rest, before drying, you can simply rinse it (if necessary) under running water.

Soaking instructions.

For convenience, sort the carcasses by size.
Large fish are soaked for 1.5 - 2 days. In this case, it is necessary to change the water three times.
Cool water must be used and the procedure should be carried out in a cool place.
Small fish are soaked for 24 hours, and the water is changed only 2 times.
After the procedure, the water must be drained and the fish allowed to flow around.

After these manipulations, you can safely move on to drying or drying.

Cooking process

— It is necessary to remove the entrails from the fish, remove all the fins and rinse it thoroughly.

— It is necessary to prepare a large container for the fish. A large saucepan works well for this. Our grandfathers salted fish in wooden barrels or sealed wooden boxes. Today, probably, a few fishermen have similar containers, so take saucepans or large plastic salad bowls.

- Next, pour salt onto the bottom of the container, rub the fish with salt both inside and outside. As soon as we have grated the fish, we put it in our container and sprinkle it with the seasonings that we prepared in advance. You can add: Coriander, hops, mustard seed, allspice, dill seeds, black pepper, cloves, bay leaf. It's up to your own discretion and passion.

Attention: in this case, the most important thing is not to overdo it with seasonings. They can both improve the taste of fish and significantly spoil it.

My grandfather followed the 5 to 30 rule. He added about 30 grams of hops and the same amount of other seasonings per 5 kilograms of fish.

— After all the fish have been placed, it must be thoroughly compacted in the pan.

— We put the pan with fish in a cool place so that there is no direct sunlight.

Salting fish lasts at least a week.

— The next stage is standard. It is necessary to remove the fish from the pan and thoroughly wash it from salt. Today this can be done quite quickly - with tap water. And in the good old days, people collected water, carried it into the house and washed the fish in basins.

— This recipe does not have a strict time frame for how long to dry the fish before it’s ready. Since one likes to tap the fish like a stick on the table (it’s very dry). Others like it slightly dried and soft (dry for up to 5 days). Each fisherman dries fish as much as he sees fit. It is better to dry fish in a shady place where there is no direct sunlight.

Dried fish can be stored all winter if you follow the storage rules.

How to dry pike perch

The recipe is simple, salting, soaking and drying. At home, it is better to salt pike perch for drying by dry salting; everything tasty remains in the meat + soaking time is reduced. Fresh fish carcasses are not washed; external dirt and mucus are wiped with a rag, paper towels... Salted with coarse salt, 250 grams of salt per kilogram of fish. Strong salt kills parasites that are abundant in freshwater fish. Otherwise it will turn out like in the joke:

— Congratulations on the birth of a new life! - Doctor, I'm a man. - Well, actually, worms don’t give a damn!

Salt in enameled, wooden, food-grade plastic containers that have holes for liquid drainage. As it salts out, brine appears; if there is no drainage, it must be drained. The released fish juice reduces the salt concentration of the brine. Each fish is rubbed with salt against the scales; the gills (can be removed) are salted especially generously. The carcasses are placed back down in a bowl, the remaining salt is poured on top. The salting container is covered with a smaller plate and pressed down with heavy pressure to squeeze out air and ensure uniform salting.

The released brine should be clean, cloudiness + an unpleasant odor is a sign that the pike perch has begun to spoil before salting! If the first brine is bloody, drain it and add a little salt! Small fish are salted for 6-8 days, from 2 kilograms for thirteen or more days. Maintaining temperature is very important! Salting is stored at a temperature of 7-10 degrees. If it is higher, only a refrigerator or a cold cellar, otherwise an unpleasant odor may occur and it may disappear altogether. A properly salted carcass is firm, the thick back is shrunken, the belly is dense and does not squish. A soft back means the salting is hopelessly spoiled, decomposition has begun!

The next stage is soaking. There is a rule: the number of days it is salted, the number of hours it is soaked in cold water. It doesn’t always work, I advise you to try the fish meat with salt, then the dried pike perch will turn out moderately salty and tasty. If you can hardly feel the salt, then it’s time to hang it out for drying. Place the fish on newspapers and let them dry thoroughly. To remove abdominal fluid, the fish are hung upside down. The gill covers and mouth open. After a week and a half, it is advisable to rehang the weight the other way around, then the carcasses will dry evenly. It is better to dry pike perch in the fresh air, in a well-ventilated place. In rainy weather it is necessary to move it to a room with good ventilation. In spring/autumn, dry a kilogram of ungutted pike perch for an average of 2.5-3 weeks. You can store it in the fruit drawer of the refrigerator; tightly wrapped in baking paper, it will last for 2-3 months.

We also read: Drying perch.

Salting predatory fish: how to prepare pike perch for drying

First of all, let’s select medium and small pike perch from the catch: they will pickle faster and dry better, and large pike perch can be prepared in many different ways. And besides the fish itself, which, by the way, we take about 4 kilograms, we need:

horseradish leaves - 400 grams,
dill seed (you can take fennel seeds) - 100 grams,
1 kilogram of coarse rock salt,
table vinegar 9% – 200 milliliters,
milk or kvass - 250 milliliters (can be omitted).

We begin preparing dried pike perch, as always, by cleaning the fish. We gut the pike perch (if you are drying for the first time, it is necessary; if you already have experience in drying and drying, you can leave the giblets inside, but then the taste will be sharper, with a bitter taste). Then we remove the scales slightly, cut out the gills and remove the eyes. Now the pike perch need to be thoroughly washed and dried a little with towels. Rub each carcass with vinegar and then a handful of coarse salt.

Chop the horseradish leaves and mix with dill (fennel) seeds. Pour a half-finger-thick layer of salt into the bottom of a plastic container. Place the pike perch on top of the salt in a jack-like pattern, again pour salt and mixed leaves with seeds on top. So we alternate until all the fish is in the container, covered with salt and spicy mixture. Leave the container covered for a couple of days in the refrigerator.

The salted fish then needs to be soaked to remove excess salt. Add milk or kvass to the soaking water, then the taste will be more pleasant. Place the soaked pike perch again on towels and dry a little.