How to make cold smoked fish: fish preparation, smoking technology

• October 29, 2018
• Miscellaneous
• Bolshakova Yulia

Cold smoking allows you to preserve fish for quite a long time. In addition to the pleasant taste and aroma, the resulting product is the safest preparation option. Thanks to wood smoke, bacteria responsible for rotting the product are destroyed. Many people are interested in the procedure for cold smoking fish. You can learn how to make a smokehouse and prepare fish from experts in their field.

The harm and benefits of smoked fish

This procedure is one of the ways to preserve and preserve food. It has both positive and negative sides. For example, many people know that when processed with smoke, the product receives a large dose of carcinogens. Regular ingestion of it into the body leads to a fairly large concentration of these substances and subsequently affects human health. Scientists suggest that one of the causes of cancer lies precisely in carcinogens that come from food. In addition, during preliminary preparation, the fish is kept in a fairly large amount of salt, which is why it turns out to be extremely salty. This product is not recommended for use by people with kidney disease and hypertension.

As for the benefits of smoking fish, nutritionists note a fairly large amount of vitamins preserved in it. Among them, vitamins D, A and E are especially prominent. The extremely important polyunsaturated amino acids omega-3 and omega-6 also remain in the fish without being destroyed by smoke.

Features of the procedure

There are three main ways to smoke foods:

• No use of smoke. When the fish is kept in a special liquid solution, which can be purchased at any supermarket. When using this recipe for cold smoking fish, the meat ends up a little watery.
• With the help of smoke from a fire, the most delicious product is obtained, which has a pleasant aroma of wood, and also preserves juicy fat and perfectly dry pulp.
• You can also find a mixed method, which includes both smoke treatment and soaking in a liquid solution.

Before you start smoking fish, it should be prepared. The carcass can be either simply salted or marinated.

Preparing large fish

If the size is large, the head is removed and all the insides are taken out. Since the layer of meat on fish is quite impressive, it is extremely important to create all the conditions so that it is completely salted. How to smoke cold smoked fish? Experts recommend rubbing the product with coarse salt. Next, it is transferred to a previously prepared container. After a day, the fish is removed and placed in brine. It is prepared as follows: for four liters of clean water you will need one kilogram of salt and half a glass of sugar. The water is heated so that the sugar and salt can dissolve. You can also add bay leaf and a few peas of allspice to the composition.

The fish is removed from the salt, lightly shaken and transferred to the cooled brine. After five days you can start smoking.

Smoked salmon in the oven

If you want aromatic, tender fish with a smoky taste, then you can use simple options for cooking in the oven. Such a delicacy will differ very little from a truly smoked product.

Option No. 1: flavorful fillet

A step-by-step plan for cooking chopped fillet looks like this:

1. The halves are thoroughly sprinkled with sugar and coarse salt.

2. Pour 1-2 handfuls of wood chips into a small mold.

3. The oven is turned on at 180 degrees.
4. While the fish is salting, the mold with wood chips is heated on the stove until intense smoke appears.

5. The fish is washed from salt and wiped dry. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Place in the oven and immediately begin preparing the wood chips.

6. The wood chips are set on fire with matches and immediately placed in the oven. When the wood chip fire goes out, turn off the oven. This should only be done with the convection mode.

7. While the fish is baking, prepare the sauce: 2 parts mustard and 0.5 parts honey. Begin to beat the mixture, adding refined vegetable oil - about 1 part. Add a little salt.
8. After 25–30 minutes, the fish is removed from the oven and immediately tasted.

Serve by separating the meat from the skin with a spatula - it remains on the parchment.

In foil and sleeve with wood chips

Steaks are ideal for this smoked salmon recipe. You will need a set consisting of wood chips and a package of special thick foil. For 1 steak also take 0.25 tsp. seasonings for fish. You can limit yourself to salt and black pepper.

This recipe takes very little time to prepare. First, the fish is left to salt for 20–30 minutes. Then they take the foil, fold it in half, make holes and sides in it. Place a piece of salmon in the middle. A wood chip is placed in the smoking bag.

An improvised plate with fish is also placed in the bag. Close tightly and place in the oven for 40–50 minutes at 200 degrees.

Small and medium size

Small fish, as a rule, are not gutted, but left whole, including the head. It is also ground with salt and placed in a previously prepared container. To make cold smoked fish at home perfectly tasty, experienced experts advise keeping the fish under pressure for 48 hours. As a rule, brine is not prepared for small fish. After the allotted period has expired, it is simply shaken off the salt or washed in clean water. Then they are hung out to dry for twenty hours.

Salted smoked salmon with liquid smoke

A simple and tasty recipe that will help you prepare an amazing holiday snack in just a day:

• 1200 g salmon;
• 4 tsp. Sahara;
• 5 tbsp. l. salt;
• 2–3 tbsp. l. liquid smoke.

Follow the recipe plan strictly, and the dish will turn out beautiful and fragrant:

1. Salmon steaks or fillets are marinated in liquid smoke, salt and sugar. You need to thoroughly coat the meat with a brush or your fingers, layer by layer.
2. Wrap the pieces in several layers of cling film so that there are no gaps.
3. Leave to dry for 24 hours.
4. Then the salmon is washed under water and dried with paper towels.
5. Now the fish is sprinkled with just a little salt and wrapped in clean film.

Salted-smoked salmon is cut into thin pieces and served with canapés, sandwiches or as part of salads.

Salting salmon and pike perch

Preliminary preparation of fish will differ not only depending on the size. How is cold smoked fish made from salmon or pike perch? For example, when smoking pike perch, you can cut its belly from the side. This way the bones are cut off, making the finished carcass more attractive and appetizing. Sometimes you can find interesting tips on the Internet about cooking this type of fish. For example, some experts advise that after cutting the carcass, sprinkle it with salt, put it in a plastic bag and bury it in the ground. After about ninety minutes, the carcass is dug up, turned over and buried again in the ground. After another ninety minutes, the fish is washed and hung to dry, after filling the belly with garlic and allspice.

To preserve the juices of fish such as salmon, the carcass is usually not gutted. It is recommended to cut very large fish into pieces, while the bellies of a medium-sized carcass are cut and left unfolded. To do this, it is even recommended to make a support using matches or wooden sticks.

How to smoke fish correctly

Serving size for dinner for two.
Photo: Andrey Yanshevsky. The process of smoking fish is used as a method of preserving fish, based on the effect of table salt and various chemicals contained in wood smoke or smoking liquid on fish.

There are two main smoking methods: hot smoking at a temperature of 80-170 degrees and cold smoking at a temperature not exceeding 40 degrees.

Hot smoked fish has a slight saltiness, tender, juicy, fully cooked meat with a slight aroma of smoke, contains a relatively large amount of water and is not intended for long-term storage.

The shelf life does not exceed three days.

Cold-smoked fish is a more shelf-stable product, with a delicate smoked aroma, dense meat texture, and contains much less water and more salt than hot-smoked fish.

In industrial conditions, smoking in high-frequency fields is also used, as well as mixed smoking using a special smoking liquid.

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When smoking, the source of smoke and heat is wood fuel in the form of firewood, shavings and sawdust.

For smoking, only deciduous trees that do not contain resin are used; for this reason, birch is not suitable either.

It is best to use beech, hornbeam, oak, maple, alder, poplar, ash and fruit trees. For smoking, firewood and shavings with a moisture content of no higher than 25 percent are used.

When the smoke humidity is more than 50 percent, a product with a bitter and resinous aftertaste is obtained.

When the smoke humidity is 75-80 percent, practically no moisture is extracted from the fish, and instead of smoked fish, the result is dark-colored boiled fish.

With incomplete combustion of fuel, with a lack of oxygen, combustion products are formed, which give the fish reserve, taste and color.

The degree of wood grinding has a significant influence on the amount of smoke. Thus, firewood produces 5-6 times more smoke than sawdust.

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The smoking speed depends on the concentration of smoke in the smoking chamber and its temperature. The greater the density of the smoke, the faster the process, but thick dense smoke gives the fish a dull dark brown color and a sourish-bitter taste.

With low smoke density, the proper golden color is not formed, and the smoked smell is weak.

Hot smoking process

Hot smoking is used for preparing bream, carp, catfish, perch, whitefish, eel and other common types of fish.

Fish weighing up to one and a half kilograms is smoked uncut. Large fish are gutted and then the abdominal cavity is cleaned.

The cut fish is thoroughly washed in water at a temperature of 15-20 degrees.

Of the existing salting methods, dry and brine salting are used.

Fish from the sturgeon family is salted dry. For this purpose, the fish is rubbed with salt into the abdominal cavity, gills and placed in rows in salting baths. The rows of fish are also sprinkled with salt. Salt consumption is 7-15% of the weight of the fish, salting duration is 6-12 hours.

Other types of fish are salted in brine solutions with a density of 1.18-1.2 g/cc with a ratio of fish to solution of 1:2. The duration of salting is 2-6 hours, depending on the size of the fish and the method of cutting it.

After salting, the fish is rinsed with fresh water. Sometimes over-salted fish have to be soaked. An over-salted carcass does not float in fresh water; floating indicates the readiness of the fish.

Small fish are speared or skewered through the gill slit and mouth or through the eyes. Medium and large fish are stitched or tied, hung on slats and placed in cages. Before hanging, large fish can be cut along the back and wooden spacers inserted.

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When smoking fish at home, it makes sense to adjust the taste of a particular fish by adding spices, herbs or ready-made spice mixtures intended for preparing dishes or sauces to the salt solution. It makes sense to do this when smoking fish that have their own strongly pronounced taste and aroma (whitefish, grayling, carp, trout, pike and eel).

Before adding spices to the salt solution, they need to be doused with boiling water for better extraction. The most commonly used are dill, thyme, fennel, allspice and cumin.

In the process of hot smoking there are three stages: drying, baking and smoking itself. Drying is carried out with the oven door or lid open, with firewood burning brightly and the temperature in the oven gradually increasing to 70-80 degrees. Drying duration is 30-40 minutes, it is considered complete when the surface of the fish becomes dry.

At the same time, the fish will become slightly harsh, and the fins will begin to turn pale. Heating too quickly can lead to the formation of steam, which will soften the fish and cause it to fall off the hangers.

Drying can also be done in advance “in the breeze”, in the open air. After drying is complete, the smoking chamber should be closed. Do not put a lot of wood into the oven at once, since the temperature in the oven must rise gradually, otherwise the fish will lose fat.

It is advisable to maintain the smoking temperature in the oven no higher than 110 degrees. It is maintained until the fish warms up.

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Baking lasts 30-60 minutes, as a result of which the meat will begin to separate from the bones. Next, the actual smoking process begins.

It is necessary to periodically check the readiness of the fish. Small fish are controlled by the dorsal fin. To do this, the fin is removed from the fish. The meat at the base of the fin should be white, not glassy.

Large fish are controlled using a thin, clean stick, which is used to remove pieces of meat from the back, in the area of ​​the fish's spine.

In order for smoked fish to have a golden color, you need to sprinkle almost burnt wood with ash, and for stronger smoke formation, add additional sawdust. It will take approximately another forty minutes until the desired color is obtained. The total smoking time is approximately two hours.

Semi-hot smoking

Rarely, but still used, semi-hot smoking of fish. To do this, salted and soaked fish is smoked at a smoke temperature of 50-60 degrees. The vent of the smoking device is opened slightly to ensure smoldering in the firebox, and the fish is hung at some distance from the end of the pipe, in the area where the smoke mixes with air. They smoke for 12 hours, mainly perch and pike.

Hot-wet smoking

Eels containing a large amount of fat are smoked using a hot-moist method. To do this, heat the oven strongly to a temperature of at least 90 degrees. Before placing the eels in the oven, it is recommended to dip them in warm water. Then the skin of the fish will become more elastic and will not crack. Wet eels are hung in the oven. The temperature in the oven should be maintained at 90 degrees for at least half an hour. It is easy to determine whether the smoking temperature is correct by looking at the abdominal folds of the eel. If the temperature is lower than required, the folds are rolled up.

When the temperature is too high, these folds expand and stretch. In most cases, the skin cracks and the eel loses oil, moisture and taste.

The eels remain in the oven until their bellies turn golden yellow. After this, the temperature in the oven is reduced to 60 degrees.

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The duration of smoking is one and a half to two hours. To check the readiness of the fish, make an incision near the spine and check the meat. If the temperature in the oven was elevated, then so-called “jelly tails” appear.

The fact is that the subcutaneous fat in this case becomes liquid and flows down the inner surface of the skin to the end of the tail. Once cooled, it turns into jelly.

Cold smoking

The most common cold-smoked products are bream, roach, pike, catfish, trout, herring, mackerel and a number of fish included in the Red Book.

Fish salted dry or in 20% brine is smoked at a temperature of 30 degrees.

Then the fish is washed in water, for example, a 3-kilogram fish is salted for 12 hours and after salting it is left for 3 hours in 20 liters of water.

Before smoking, the fish is dried under natural conditions for 0.5 to two days in the warm season, or up to 4 days in the cold season.

Fish with tender meat should be wrapped in paper or canvas before smoking.

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The smoking time for small fish is at least 24 hours.

Trout, carp, whitefish, and eel are smoked for up to 4 days. Pike, especially large ones, are smoked for up to 2 weeks. To increase the shelf life of cold smoked fish, it needs to be dried in air for 24 hours.

If smoked fish is not intended for immediate consumption, it is stored at an optimal temperature of 2 degrees.

Andrey Yanshevsky. October 22, 2021 at 10:39 am

Creating a smokehouse

For cold smoking you will need a special structure, which will consist of a chimney, a fire pit and the smoking chamber itself. It is any metal container that will have no bottom or top. A hole with a small trench is dug in advance. It will represent a chimney. A fire is lit in the pit, the smoke of which will rise up the barrel and smoke the food.

Prepared carcasses are hung on a wire and attached to the walls of the barrel. To start a fire you will need a wood chip. The fire must burn for at least 10-12 hours.

In a pressure cooker

All you need to prepare this perfect dish is fish and salt. It is better to use fillet or steaks. You can add pepper and fish seasoning to taste. Then everything is very simple:

1. The fish is sprinkled with salt, and sawdust is placed in a container for wood chips.
2. Place the container in the pressure cooker.
3. Pour 0.5 cups of water into the bottom. Install a grid with pieces of fish.
4. Turn on the cold smoking mode for 10 minutes. Then switch to hot for a quarter of an hour.

Serve tender salmon with cherry tomatoes, iceberg and lemon wedges for drizzle.

Temperature and shelf life

Beginners are often interested in what temperature cold smoked fish should be kept in a barrel. In order for the final product to be as soft and juicy as possible, the temperature should not exceed thirty degrees and also fall below 25. The carcasses are stored in the refrigerator for a week and a half without loss of taste. Subsequently, the product noticeably loses its aroma, becomes somewhat damp and even watery.

If desired, smoked fish can even be frozen. In this form, it is stored for ninety days, after which it defrosts perfectly in the microwave. It should be borne in mind that the ideal taste is preserved only in a fresh product during the first week.

Heat parameters in a smokehouse for hot smoking fish

The temperature of hot smoking fish in a smokehouse reaches 60-140 °C. The prepared fish is first placed on hooks and tied with twine so that its structure does not fall apart during cooking.

Smoking fish using the hot method

Cooking process:

1. Place in a smokehouse heated to 60-80 °C only for a very short time to dry the skin. This helps give the finished product a smoky aroma and intense color.
2. The main process is carried out at a hot smoking temperature of 100-120 °C. At the final stage, it is saturated with smoking components, acquiring the aroma and taste of smoked meat.
3. The readiness of the product is determined by the appearance of the fish, which has a golden tea color. It acquires this color due to exposure of the product to strong heat.

Completing the cooking process

1. Check the temperature of the fish during hot smoking near the spine - it should be more than 80 °C.
2. After this, be sure to reduce the temperature of the finished delicacy to an acceptable temperature for storage – 8-12 °C.

Ready smoked fish

This prevents:

• waterlogging of packaged fish;
• the appearance of mold along with moisture;
• drying out.

If the delicacy is frozen to -18 °C, it can be stored for up to 1 month.

Wooden smokehouse

How is cold smoked fish made in stationary smokehouses? Some owners, instead of iron barrels, make more serious structures in the form of a wooden cabinet. It can be made from wooden blocks measuring 1 x 1 x 1.5 m. As in the first option, you will need a pit with a trench covered with a metal sheet. The trenches are also covered with a small amount of turf and covered with earth. All sides of the wooden cabinet are wrapped with film. A fire will be lit at the base of the trench, the smoke from which flows directly into the cabinet.

In order to create as much smoke as possible, a thick wet cloth is placed on the surface of the frame. Many beginners do not know how long cold smoked fish is smoked. The usual period is two or three days. Everything will depend on the size of the fish itself. For example, for small fish thirty hours is enough, while for large fish sometimes even five days are not enough.

At the beginning, as a rule, a strong fire is lit to burn the wood. Then it is simply supported with wood chips. The best option would be firewood made from pear, cherry, alder or grapevine. It is prohibited to use coniferous species. In addition to wood, spicy herbs are added to the fire: basil, rosemary or sage.

Carcasses should be protected from flies and other insects. Sometimes they manage to lay eggs even at the very first stage of smoking. That is why wooden or brick smokehouses are covered with mosquito nets.

Advantages of an iron barrel

How to cook delicious fish at home? To do this, you can build a cold smoked smokehouse from a barrel with your own hands. It is recommended to use a housing from a refrigerator or an old Soviet washing machine. If you can buy a barrel, you can make an excellent smokehouse in it. It has a number of advantages:

• A smokehouse from a barrel is quite easy to make, even on your own.
• There are many models that you can choose to suit your taste.
• It is quite inexpensive and has a fairly long service life.

Inside the barrel there will be gratings that are strengthened with hooks. Once the fish is prepared for cold smoking, it will not need to be hung. It is simply placed on the grill and then only turned over. A trench is laid or a pipe is attached as a smoke outlet. A good smokehouse is made from a barrel with a capacity of two hundred liters. It allows you to cook a lot of fish at the same time, which significantly reduces the time spent.

Cold smoking

Salmon is ideal for cold smoking. Moreover, it is not necessary to use expensive equipment with an integrated smoke generator. The compressor can be connected to a regular commercial smokehouse.

For the recipe, it is better to use steaks or fillets; do not smoke the whole carcass, it is too large.

For 1 kg of fish take 1 tbsp. l. salt, 0.5 tbsp. l. sugar and a handful of chopped dill for dry salting. You can make a brine by taking 3 parts salt and 1 part sugar. The fish is left in the brine for a day, then washed and dried for another 1–2 days.

Before smoking, carcasses can be hung under a fan, covered with gauze to protect against flies. Then the drying time will be reduced to 3-4 hours. The meat should not be wet on top.

Next, prepare the smokehouse by placing wood chips in the smoke generator. Connect it to the container in which the fish is suspended or laid out on racks. It will take at least 5 hours. Then the carcasses are aired for another 8–12 hours.

Materials for production

First of all, you will need a grinder and a welding machine. In addition to a 200-liter barrel, you will also need fittings with an approximate diameter of eight millimeters, sheets for the chamber four millimeters thick, corners and legs on which the smokehouse will stand. For the chimney you will need a pipe with a diameter of about ten centimeters. Inside there will be gratings made of wire.

The barrel is thoroughly washed, after which they begin filling. In order to quickly remove ash from the firebox, longitudinal holes should be made at a height of about fifteen centimeters from the floor. It should be taken into account that the height of the pipe should not be too high, otherwise the temperature inside the barrel will increase noticeably. There is a door at the bottom for storing firewood. You should also make a lid that will cover the barrel.

Useful tips

Experienced craftsmen are happy to share some secrets about how cold smoked fish is made. For example, you should be careful when choosing wood chips. It should not pose a threat to human health, as well as the quality of the prepared product. The recommended time should be maintained, which is at least twelve hours. If smoking is completed ahead of schedule, the carcasses may remain raw. In such cases, there is a risk of the development of microorganisms that very quickly start the process of decay.

To make cold smoked fish at home tasty, you must go through all stages of preparation. You cannot reduce the time of salting, marinating or drying. You should also take the gutting of the carcass responsibly. After finishing smoking, the fish should be allowed to air out in the fresh air for about fifty minutes.