The best fish is sausage. This is probably the most unfair and far from the truth folk wisdom. Better than a fish - alive, silvering in the sunlight, plowing the expanses of a quiet river - there can only be a fish caught by a fisherman's bait. Her further fate is sad for herself. For the person who caught it, this is a creative task, because fish can be cooked in a variety of ways.
Some people love fish soup, others prefer deep-frying, and still others prefer the freshest rolls. The fish is boiled, baked in foil, salted and dried. Another popular cooking technology is smoking, which can be cold or hot. Further conversation will focus on one of the varieties of this technology, how to smoke fish in a hot smoked smokehouse.
Smoking methods and rules
Smoking refers to the effect on the surface of the product of various substances that make up smoke. There are more than a hundred of them, most of them have bactericidal and antioxidant effects. These substances systematically penetrate into the product, preventing spoilage. The effectiveness of this treatment depends entirely on the permeability of the products available. It can be increased by pre-salting the raw materials. Therefore, in practice, smoking is used exclusively for salted fish.
Thanks to smoking, the fish becomes more tender, it acquires an easily recognizable spicy aroma and excellent taste.
The surface of smoked fish is golden brown. In addition, treating fish with smoke increases its shelf life
The main smoking methods are hot and cold options. Significantly less use is made of semi-hot smoking and baking in smoke. The differences between all these technologies lie in the characteristics of temperature conditions and time duration. The simplest relationship is this: the lower the smoke temperature, the longer the smoking time. But the shelf life will be correspondingly longer.
Drying and drying
Drying or drying fish before smoking is necessary so that the meat loses more moisture and excess salt, it will become denser and will not boil over.
When drying, the washed fish is wiped with paper or cloth towels and left for one and a half to two hours outdoors in the shade. You can hang it by tying it with twine or lay it out on any suitable surface. This drying method is suitable for hot smoking.
If the fish is prepared by cold smoking, the drying process will take longer. Carcasses are salted in more salt (for 5 kg you need to take 500-700g of salt) and for longer than usual.
For small fish, 3 days will be enough, for large fish - two weeks. After salting, you will need to soak it for two hours to a day and dry it, that is, dry it in the open air for 2-5 days, depending on the size of the carcass. If the fish is large, then you need to insert spacers between its abdominal walls. Now it can be placed in the smokehouse and cooked.
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Smoked fish is a product of remarkable quality. It can be eaten without pre-processing. There are also many known recipes for truly delicious dishes, one of the components of which is smoked fish.
Fish is smoked in two ways: hot and cold. Both fresh and salted fish are used. If you plan to smoke salted fish, then it is first soaked in fresh water. Fatty fish is traditionally used for smoking; after cooking, it is the fish that turns out to be the most delicious.
During cold smoking, fish is treated with low temperature smoke. The preparation of fish intended for cold smoking deserves special attention. First, it is defrosted in water whose temperature does not exceed 22°C. It should be remembered that defrosting is a rather lengthy process. If you defrost fish in hot water, its taste will be spoiled. After defrosting, it is washed with running water.
The next stage of preparing fish for smoking is soaking it in a salty solution. It should be saturated, the mass fraction of salt in it should be at least 5%. Keep the fish in it for at least two hours. The soaking period directly depends on the size of the fish. The largest specimens are soaked for up to 48 hours.
Before smoking, the fish is simply cut into pieces or fillets, if it is not intended to be smoked whole. In this case, the duration of soaking in the salt solution is reduced. After soaking, keep the fish in a dry place to remove excess liquid and rinse under running water. If the saline solution was very saturated, keep it in fresh cold water for a while.
Then string the fish onto a wire or place it on racks so that it is easier to smoke. Be sure to open the gill covers. It is very important to position the fish so that the carcasses are turned in one direction. After threading on the wire, rinse the fish again. In some cases, it is recommended to soak it in cold water again for a few minutes.
When smoking, set the mode to no more than 22°C. This is necessary to dry the raw materials. In this mode, process for about an hour, or rather, until its surface becomes dry.
The next stage is smoking. Smoke the fish for about two to three days at a temperature of 23 to 25°C. At the end of cold smoking, the fish should be light yellow or beige-brown in color. In some cases, if it is very large and fatty, after smoking it needs to be dried at a temperature of 22°C for another 3 hours.
When hot smoking, the preliminary preparation of fish is similar to the method described above. Only the smoking temperature differs - initially from 50 to 90°C. At this temperature, the fish is dried, which lasts until its surface is completely dry - 15-30 minutes.
At the next stage, the temperature should be from 100 to 140°C. With this heating, the raw materials are cooked. It is carried out until the blood clots and the meat begins to easily separate from the bones, depending on the size of the pieces - from 45 minutes to 3 hours.
Then you should adjust the temperature in the smoking oven to 80-120°C. At this temperature the actual smoking occurs. You need to smoke it until it turns light brown - from 30 minutes to 3 hours.
If the fish is very large and fatty, you can lightly cook it before smoking. Cooking is also used in cases where you want to make the taste even more delicate. You should not cook the fish until it is completely cooked, the main thing is to make it softer.
It is very important to choose the right wood. A very aromatic smoke is obtained when using alder, birch, and oak sawdust. It is also advisable to add berries and juniper wood, pine needles and aromatic herbs. It is undesirable to use raw wood; it can spoil the taste of the delicacy. For cold smoking, you should not use excessively dry wood. Dry firewood, if it is intended for smoking, must be moistened. When cold smoking, you can place a container of water on the floor or bottom of the smokehouse.
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Smoker's ABCs
To hot smoke fish, you will need a special device that will close hermetically. This can be either an industrially produced smokehouse for hot smoked fish, or a homemade container based on a large pan, barrel, bucket or metal box. For a “designer” smokehouse using improvised means, you will need a reliable grate for food. The smokehouse itself must have a protective internal coating that will not release anything harmful to the fish.
The second important part of preparing the entire process is the correctly selected fuel for smoking. And finally the recipe. The end result of the whole thing - delicious hot smoked fish - is impossible without the necessary smoke, which will make it aromatic and appetizing.
Hot smoked fish recipes
There are many recipes for home-smoked fish. We will present two of the most popular ones.
Hot smoking mackerel
- The store purchases several medium mackerel carcasses and prepares them for the smoking process in the manner described above. Note that mackerel meat goes well with various spices, in particular ground pepper.
- Two or three handfuls of slightly damp sawdust are poured into the smokehouse. It is better if they are made from deciduous trees.
- After this, the carcasses are placed on the grill. This must be done so that they do not touch each other.
- Cover the smokehouse with a lid and place on medium heat.
- After ten to twelve minutes, lift the lid and release the smoke from under it: this is a preventive measure to ensure that the fish does not taste bitter after cooking.
- Then the smokehouse is covered again and kept on fire for about twenty minutes.
- After this, the flame under the smokehouse is extinguished, and the fish is removed from it. She's ready.
- To fully enjoy the taste of hot smoked mackerel, it should be consumed after it has cooled slightly.
The following recipe will certainly be of interest to fishermen who often return with a catch of small fish.
Hot smoking small river fish for beer
- Small fish are cleaned, excess is removed, salted and left under pressure in a basin or barrel for three days.
- After this, it is washed with water and dried and placed in a smokehouse.
- First, the bottom of the smokehouse is covered with foil, on which a little clean sand is poured, and sawdust is placed on top. It is best to use alder or cherry.
- Smoking fish should occur at a temperature not exceeding seventy degrees Celsius, then it will be moderately dry and very aromatic.
- The entire process of preparing fish according to this recipe takes approximately forty minutes.
Smoked fish is a real delicacy, which after preparing it according to our recipes you can fully enjoy.
Important!
Find all the equipment and accessories necessary for smoking (smokehouse, wood chips, hooks for smoking, etc.) on the website russkayadymka.rf. We, as a manufacturer, offer low prices for goods.
About fuel
The ideal fuel for hot smoking is hardwood, including branches, shavings and, especially, sawdust. Deciduous trees (oak, beech, maple, alder, aspen, rowan, etc.) emit a small amount of resin, unlike their coniferous counterparts. Professional smokers also add dried branches of fruit trees and berry bushes (cherry, plum, pear). The smoke after they burn gives the fish interesting aromas.
Alder and juniper wood is considered the best. It has the most pronounced bactericidal properties. Hot smoked fish cooked in the smoke of this wood has the longest shelf life. Coniferous wood is rarely used for hot smoking of fish. Fish cooked with such smoke does not look very appetizing due to excess soot. Its smell also leaves much to be desired.
What can you smoke in a smokehouse?
Birch wood, the symbol of Russia, contains a lot of tar, so it is not used for smoking.
The following are good natural flavorings and taste enhancers: grapevine, juniper berries, and in microscopic quantities - pine cones, herbs, and spices.
In this case, it is better to use small dry twigs, cleared of bark. Large branches and logs should be cut into small chips (5 cm) in length.
For effective smoke production, it is necessary to use sawdust and shavings. They need to be stocked up thoroughly.
What is absolutely not suitable for hot smoking fish is plywood, fiberboard or chipboard sheets, painted or glued boards, laminate and other wood products treated with polymer resins and other “chemicals”.
Ambassador
Before smoking, fish is usually salted for several hours; this process allows you to remove excess water from the carcasses, make the taste richer, and destroy the specific raw fishy smell.
Ambassador can be done in several ways. Under pressure, any small fish, carp, pike, burbot, pike perch and other species are salted. They are covered with coarse salt, rubbed with salt from the inside, you can add onions and spices, and oppression is placed on top and small fish are kept for about 6 hours, large fish for up to 12. To ensure that the meat is evenly salted, you can make cuts on the backs of large fish along the fins and rub them with salt. After aging, the brine is drained, and the fish is washed and, changing the water, kept in the container for at least 2 more hours.
You can salt the fish in a bag or bag - this method is similar to salting under pressure, but is more convenient if smoking is done outdoors. The cleaned fish is placed in a bag with its belly down and covered with salt, followed by a layer of fish with its belly up and another layer of salt. To distribute the salt evenly, shake the bag periodically. The bag, half filled, is tied and buried in the ground or sand; the soil will then need to be compacted. Depending on the size, it will be salted in 6-10 hours.
Light salting method:
Preparing fish for smoking can go faster if you prepare brine, a strong salt solution. Small fish or large fish cut into pieces are dipped into it and kept for 20-30 minutes.
Fatty fish - silver carp, flounder, halibut and others - are salted in a special way. Fish that have been cleaned and rubbed with salt and spices should be wrapped in parchment or foil to prevent fat oxidation in the open air. Open air will spoil the product and give it bitterness. The carcasses are placed in an enamel pan, food-grade plastic or glass container, tightly closed with a lid and left to infuse: for small fish, a day of salting is enough, for large fish - three days, defrosted fish is salted for 4 days.
During processing, you can add onions, black peppercorns, bay leaves and other spices to the salt. It is important not to overdo it with bay leaves, otherwise bitterness will appear. The wrong selection of sawdust can also spoil the taste. Any smoked product becomes bitter if tree bark gets into the sawdust, or if the sawdust itself is made from coniferous wood. Birch bark will also add bitterness because it contains resins.
After salting, the washed fish is left in the air for 1-2 hours - excess moisture in the smokehouse can lead to overcooking of the meat.
About smokehouses
The main requirement for any smokehouse is tightness. Air should not get inside, as this can lead to firewood, which means it will reduce the quality of the future fish delicacy. The smokehouse should also have significant depth. Otherwise, the fish hung in it will touch the firewood and the bottom. This will either cause them to burn or cook them instead of smoking them.
As for the smokehouses themselves, it is difficult to find a cooking device that is more democratic and diverse in the number of items used
You can smoke fish in a smokehouse at home, in the country, or on the river bank. A barrel or bucket, or, for example, an old beehive, can be used as a container. More “advanced” options include smoking in a metal box on a grill or using charcoal or gas grills. Owners of private houses can install a smokehouse in a chimney in the attic or adapt a stove.
The most correct option is to purchase a reliable portable smokehouse of industrial production, which will already have all the necessary equipment for effective, high-quality smoking.
What fish is suitable for smoking?
You can smoke the fish that suits your liking or wallet. Both sea and river fish, caught independently or purchased on the market, are suitable. The main thing is to be sure of the freshness of the product.
It is worth noting that fatty fish are tastier, for example: mackerel, catfish, herring, cod, pike perch, red fish. But if you caught carp, crucian carp or perch, you can safely cook them too.
If you bought a frozen product, the fish must be defrosted naturally in the upper part of the refrigerator before cooking. Next, the process of preparing for smoking occurs in the same way as with a fresh product.
How to smoke hot?
Now let's look step by step at how to smoke hot smoked fish.
What kind of fish is best to smoke?
A novice smoker is primarily interested in what kind of fish is suitable. It can be anything, sea or river. The main thing is that it is fresh. Of course, defrosted fish are also smoked if they are frozen fresh. Most often in practice, fish of carp species (asp, bream, sabrefish), sturgeon (sterlet, sturgeon), as well as catfish, eels, smelt and cod are smoked.
The size of the carcass is not particularly important. Preference can be given to fatter individuals. It is better if in one batch there are fish of the same species, approximately the same size. Then all this fish will be salted and then smoked evenly.
Small fish weighing up to 400 g, as a rule, are not gutted: they are salted and smoked whole carcasses. Medium-sized fish up to 3 kg are most often gutted, leaving the scales and head.
Large specimens are gutted and then stripped, always cutting off the head. They can be halved along the back or smoked in pieces cut crosswise.
Pickling
This is an extremely important stage, because the final taste of the fish depends on the degree of salting.
Fish or fillet pieces prepared for smoking are salted in brine (high concentration brine) or dry.
Small individuals are “put on” twine through the eye sockets. Large ones are tied in pairs by their tails. Large pieces of fillet are simply tied with twine.
When dry salting, the fish is placed in layers in some container, sprinkling salt on each layer. Particularly large fish are simply rubbed with salt, then wrapped in parchment.
When wet salting, the fish are immersed in brine. With this method, the salting time is greatly reduced (up to two hours).
The salting stage for hot smoked fish lasts from three hours for small fish, up to 12 hours for large ones.
Drying
After salting, the fish must be dried to ensure even saltiness. The fish need to be tied with twine and hung so that the brine drains. To protect against insects, you can make a gauze canopy by folding the fabric several times, then moisten it with vinegar.
You need to dry the fish for about an hour, then wipe the fish with a rag
Before smoking begins, all prepared carcasses must be carefully tied with twine for easy hanging in the smokehouse. This will also prevent the fish from falling apart during cooking.
Cooking in a barrel smoker
At the bottom of the barrel you need to place pre-prepared wood chips with sawdust of suitable wood species. Layer thickness is 2 cm. Be sure to prepare several juniper branches for flavoring.
One or two grates and a lid must be adjusted to the size of the barrel in advance. Install the gratings at a suitable height, one above the other. It is better to lay the fish in one layer; the carcasses should not touch each other. It is better to place large fish on the lower grid, closer to the bottom, and small ones - at the top. There is no need to remove the twine straps from the fish: the smoked fish will simply fall apart.
Then it’s time to make a fire. Let it be small, but give a uniform, long-lasting heat. After this, the smokehouse must be closed with a lid. The first stage of cooking fish in a smokehouse is about a quarter of the time, this is the drying stage. The smoke temperature is approximately 80 degrees Celsius. Smoking itself will begin when the smoke temperature in the barrel reaches 100 degrees.
By splashing water on the lid of the barrel, you can determine in general terms the “conditions” inside the smokehouse. Evaporating rather than boiling water is a sure sign that smoking is going well.
It is better not to open the lid itself during the process so that the penetrated air does not ignite the chips.
How to cook hot smoked fish: preparation process
The process of preparing fish for smoking at home consists of the following steps:
- Freshly caught fish - and it is advisable to use this kind for smoking - is thoroughly washed, cleaned of scales, and the entrails are removed. When cutting large fish, their heads are removed, and the body is first cut and then unfolded into a layer. When preparing small fish, simply wash it thoroughly.
- The cut fish is rubbed with salt, the consumption of which is one kilogram, three hundred grams per five kilograms of fish. Spices lovers can add them there according to their taste.
- Some amateurs soak fish in a saline solution. When preparing fish in the field, this method is unlikely to be convenient, but if you do it at home, anyone can use it.
- The average time it takes to salt fish is from five to ten hours. After this process is completed, the salt is removed from the surface of the fish with a rag or simply shaken off.
- Then the fish carcasses are dried in a well-ventilated area. For these purposes, you can use a stretched rope with hooks suspended on it. The duration of this process is approximately two hours.
Some fans of smoking fish at home have concerns that the fish prepared in this way will be too salty. As practice shows, there is no need to be afraid of this: the fish takes exactly as much salt as it needs.
How long to smoke fish in a smokehouse
The desired dry smoke with a recognizable classic aroma will appear within half an hour to an hour, depending on the size, quantity of fish, and volume of the smokehouse. In fact, this is a sign of the successful completion of the process.
How long does it take to smoke fish? For a small one, 20-30 minutes is enough, for a large one it may take from one to three hours.
Properly cooked fish will have golden scales, a dry surface and a great, instantly recognizable smell.
Well-smoked fish is baked through. Its meat extends freely from the ridge. The density is the same as that of fried fish. Immediately after smoking it can be safely served.
How to clean fish before smoking
Before smoking, the insides of the fish are removed and washed. If the head is not intended to be removed, then the gills still need to be removed. They gut the fish by cutting the belly, removing the milk or caviar, removing the films and blood underneath them, after which the carcass must be thoroughly washed with water.
There is no need to remove the skin or scales, just like the fins; they will be easily removed after cooking in the smokehouse, and the scales, moreover, will preserve the aroma and juiciness of the meat, and will take away all the bitterness from the smoke. Small specimens are not cut, but large fish can be divided into pieces or cuts made along the dorsal fin, which will allow the meat to be evenly salted and smoked.
About the benefits and harm
The benefits and harms of hot-smoked fish are a debatable issue. Due to the high smoke temperature, it cooks quickly. The price for speed and excellent taste is the amount of carcinogens noticeable by our body. It is even more dangerous if the fish was bought secondhand - it could well be smoked using “liquid smoke”, and this is a complete “chemistry”. Moreover, the bulk of substances hazardous to health are contained in its skin.
As for the benefits, it should be recognized that hot smoking of fish leads to the destruction of most of its beneficial properties
Alas, such fish is an undeniable delicacy, having an amazing taste, but containing almost nothing useful for human health.
However, when it comes to hot smoked fish, little things like healthfulness or vitamin content definitely fade into the background. True fish gourmets are not deterred even by poisonous fugu, not to mention benzopyrene and other carcinogens.
Drying
The next stage is drying. This allows you to remove excess moisture and cook hot smoked fish in a smokehouse without cooking the product in its own juice. After removing the carcasses from the brine, they are wrapped in rope, strung and hung in a well-ventilated place. Winding with twine will help maintain the shape of the fish during hot smoking. Otherwise, the meat will spread. To prevent insect damage to carcasses, fish is wrapped in gauze when drying.
Drying fish
This drying will not take much time. For a medium-sized product, 30 minutes is enough. After time, the fish is removed, washed with water to get rid of excess salt, and thoroughly dried with paper napkins before smoking. After this, the fish is completely ready for smoke treatment. A product with a minimum water content will be more densely saturated with smoke particles and the aromas of the selected wood chips. If you do not dry the fish, the meat will cook in the smokehouse and will not receive the intended taste and smell.
Storage of smoked product
Cold smoked fish is stored on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator for no more than 7 days, wrapped in foil or a plastic bag. The shelf life of a hot smoked product is 2-3 days. It should be kept in the refrigerator at a temperature of about 0 degrees. Fish should not be frozen.
It is unacceptable to leave a smoked product in the heat; it will quickly deteriorate and acquire an unpleasant taste. Fish smoked with liquid nitrogen is wrapped in cling film and stored in the refrigerator for about a week.
The humidity level should be approximately 90 percent, otherwise the fish will dry out and lose its quality. It is necessary to periodically open the refrigerator compartment to change the air. Before storing the product, it is recommended to defrost and wash the shelves.
If there is no refrigerator, it is recommended to place the fish in fabric bags and store them in the attic, in small boxes with sawdust. The main thing is to keep insects away from it and protect it from foreign odors. During smoking, it is recommended to place juniper branches on the bottom of the smokehouse. They will increase the shelf life of the product.
