Pike marinated in vinegar and onions (no river smell)

Three reasons to choose pike for a pickled snack

If you have a choice of fish, choose pike. Unlike the usual herring or silver carp, pike meat is denser, but at the same time soft, and is quickly soaked in marinade.

Pike meat is considered dietary, it contains no more than 3% fat, vitamins, minerals, easily digestible protein and only 84 kcal per 100 g of fresh fish.

Compared to other freshwater bony fish, pike have fewer muscular bones. At all times it is considered a delicacy.

This is interesting! You can easily get rid of small bones in fish meat by soaking it in vinegar. Small bones will dissolve, and large ones will become softer.

How to choose and cut pike correctly

Choose a small specimen, weighing approximately 1 - 1.5 kg. You can determine the freshness of the fish by its bright red gills, bulging transparent eyes and smooth shiny scales. If you press down on the flesh with your finger, the resulting pit will quickly disappear.

A properly frozen pike should not be “dried out,” deformed, or covered in a thick “coat” of ice. Re-frozen fish have a darkened surface, with yellow spots and an unpleasant non-fishy odor. Even with proper preparation, you will not get good taste.

How to choose the right ingredients?

Pickled pike in vinegar is a simple recipe. It is impossible to spoil the products during the cooking process, but the taste of the finished dish will depend on the quality of the ingredients. The pike should be fresh and juicy, the onion should not be bitter or give off an unpleasant odor, and the vinegar essence should be chosen of the highest quality.

Selection and cutting of pike

Both fresh and frozen pike are suitable for marinating. However, choosing high-quality fish that has been frozen is not so easy. Some sellers may freeze it several times, in which case it becomes unusable. An indicator of the freshness of both fresh and frozen pike is the eyeballs and gills. The eyes should be dense, clear and slightly protruding. The gills should be closed, free of plaque and mucus, and pink or reddish in color. The first sign of a low-quality pike is the absence of eyes and gills. It is dangerous to take such fish, especially when frozen.

We recommend: Recipe for making apple cider vinegar at home

At home, pike must be properly processed and cut. This process includes several steps:

the head is separated behind the gill line, the carcass is cleaned of scales with a special scraper or knife;
open the fish along the lower line of the belly, carefully separate the entrails, if there is caviar, put it in a separate container;
divide the fish along the spine and remove all the bones;
wash the fillet and cut it into even pieces.

It is much more pleasant to catch and marinate pike yourself. However, in this case there is a risk of infection by parasites that live in river fish. Store products are tested, so their safety is guaranteed.

Preparing Onions and Vinegar

Large onions are cut into half rings. Before doing this, it is recommended to peel them and soak them in cold water for a few minutes. This procedure will get rid of bitterness and unpleasant odor, and will also make it possible to cut onions without tears.

Choosing vinegar is no less important than buying fish. It must be natural, and only spices and herbs can be present in its composition. It is not recommended to buy vinegar with dyes and preservatives. The consistency of this product may vary. So, for high-quality balsamic vinegar, the presence of sediment at the bottom of the container is allowed.

Delicious marinated pike with onion, vinegar and oil

An appetizer of pickled pike is a win-win option for the holiday table.

For this recipe, it is better to use unrefined sunflower oil. But, if you don’t like its specific smell and taste, take the vegetable oil you are used to.

Ingredients:

½ kg pike fillet;
2 medium onions;
1 tbsp. spoon of salt;
½ teaspoon sugar;
4 tbsp. spoons of butter;
2 tbsp. spoons 9% vinegar.

Preparation:

Cut the fillet into thin pieces about 1-2 cm thick. Place in a bowl, sprinkle with salt and sugar, mix well.
Cut the onion into half rings and place it in a jar in layers, alternating with fish.
Mix vinegar and oil, pour the marinade into a jar. Close, shake to distribute the marinade evenly and refrigerate for two days (shaking and turning the jar occasionally during this time).

Diet snack is ready! Its calorie content is only 98 kcal per 100 g.

Interesting recipe: Delicious pickled mackerel with vinegar and onions

Step-by-step cooking recipes with photos

Pike marinated in vinegar is a common dish in Russian cuisine. It can be served both as a main dish and as an addition. However, there are many recipes and cooking methods. We suggest considering the most common ones.

With vinegar: quick preparation within 24 hours

The recipe allows you to get a spicy and aromatic dish and reduces the cooking time. Instant pike with vinegar is suitable for both the holiday table and everyday use.

Required ingredients:

pike - 1 medium piece;
salt - to taste;
sugar - one pinch;
vegetable oil - 2 tbsp. l;
vinegar 6% - 200 - 300 ml;
ground pepper and peas (black, red);
spices to taste;
one onion.

Cooking method:

Prepare the fish for marinating. You can either leave the bones or remove them to get fillets. The choice depends on personal preference.
Cut the meat into small pieces. Place in a container and sprinkle with salt so that each one is salted. Place in the refrigerator for 3 hours.
Cut the onion into half rings. Put it in a jar. Place a mixture of peppers and spices on top.
After 3 hours, remove the fish, rinse off the salt under running water and place again in a clean container. Pour in vinegar until all the pieces are covered. Leave in this state for 3 hours.
Drain the vinegar and place the pike in a jar with onions and spices. Stir. Add the oil, cover with a nylon lid and shake to combine the ingredients.
Place in the refrigerator for 18 hours. The meat is then stored in the same jar.

Calorie content per 100 g of finished dish - 76 Kcal

To improve the taste, add lemon and bay leaf

In vinegar with onions and sunflower oil for pickling in a jar

Using the recipe, the fillet turns out lightly salted, the river smell is completely absent. Pickling pike in vinegar in a jar is not only simple, but also convenient for later use.

Grocery list:

pike weighing 1 kg;
2 medium onions;
vegetable oil - 5 tbsp. l;
vinegar - 2 tbsp. l;
salt and sugar - 1 and 0.5 tsp, respectively.

Stages:

Prepare the fish by removing the bones to leave the fillets. Rinse under running water and dry.
Cut the meat into thin pieces and the onion into half rings.
In a separate container, mix pieces of pike with salt and sugar, rubbing spices into each.
Place onions and fish layer by layer in a container prepared for marinating, alternating them with each other.
At the end, compact the fillet to make it look more compact.
Start preparing the marinade. Mix vegetable oil and vinegar together. The result should be a liquid of uniform consistency.
Pour the brine over the pike in a jar, cover with a lid and put in the refrigerator for 2 days.

The calorie content of the finished dish is 89 Kcal.

Cooking pike with vinegar?

Not really

Homemade pike herring with vinegar

The recipe will help you make herring from pike, but not everyone will be able to determine the replacement.

List of ingredients:

pike - 700 g;
1 onion;
salt - 1 tsp;
sugar - 0.75 tsp;
vinegar 9% - 2 tbsp. l;
vegetable oil - 50 ml;
ground black pepper - half a teaspoon.

Cooking sequence:

Remove the backbone and rib bones from the pike to form a fillet.
Cut the meat into portions. Peel the onion and cut into half rings.
Place the ingredients in a container, add pepper, salt and sugar. If desired, you can do without the last ingredient.
Pour vinegar and vegetable oil there. Stir the mass.
Distribute the fish among the jars. Place in the refrigerator for 2 days.
In the morning and evening, take out the jars and shake. The marinade will be distributed evenly into the pieces. Afterwards you can take out the pike and eat it.

Author's note

Agapov Vladislav

You can clean pike in water. The scales will not fly apart.

Calorie content per 100 g serving is 67 Kcal.

Fish dishes will decorate any table; learn how to marinate carp with vinegar; it goes well with a side dish of potatoes or rice.

You can watch another recipe for making pike herring in the following video:

Sagudai from pike fillet

Fish meat in Sagudai is not subjected to heat treatment. Pike for cooking must be fresh to avoid health problems later.

Ingredients:

pike (fillet) - half a kilo;
lemon juice - from one half;
2 onions;
sunflower oil (even better - olive) - 4 tbsp. l;
vinegar 9% - 50 ml;
spices (bay leaf, ground pepper and peas, salt) - to taste.

Step-by-step cooking recipe:

Cut the fillet into 2 cm cubes.
Place the pieces in a container. Do not use aluminum cookware.
Pour lemon juice over them and sprinkle spices on top. Stir.
Add vinegar and oil. Cover and shake to combine ingredients.
Place in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. After Sagudai it is considered ready to eat.

Author's note

Agapov Vladislav

It is better not to replace or omit vinegar and lemon juice in the recipe. The first of them eliminates the specific odor of river fish, and the second works as an antiseptic and preservative.

The calorie content of the final dish is 143 Kcal.

Sagudai - a snack that is suitable for any occasion

With vinegar and carrot pieces

Adding carrots to pickled pike makes the recipe very similar to Heh fish. The recipe for pike heh with vinegar at home is similar to the recipe presented below.

List of required products:

1 carrot;
pike - half a carcass;
liquid Korean seasoning - 15 g;
garlic clove;
vinegar 9% (or wine) - 40 ml;
vegetable oil - 50 ml;
1 onion;
salt - to taste.

Cooking method:

Remove the bones to leave the fillet. There is no need to remove the skin.
Cut the pike into small pieces and place in a container.
Salt and add vinegar. Stir.
Chop the garlic (or pass through a press) and add to the mixture. Cover the container with a lid and marinate in the refrigerator for a day.
Grate the carrots using a Korean grater. Season it with liquid seasoning.
Cut the onion into half rings and fry it in vegetable oil until golden brown.
Mix fish, onions and carrots in one container. Stir and let sit for 1 hour. Afterwards you can eat it.

Calorie content per 100 g - 120 Kcal

Pike with vinegar and carrots

You can find another option for preparing pike with vinegar and carrots in the video available at the link:

Daily recipe for pickled pike with vinegar

For a quick marinating recipe, choose industrially frozen fish, where temperatures of minus 30 - minus 40 degrees are used. With this shock-freezing method, parasites that could potentially be in the meat die. For greater guarantee, you can keep the purchased pike in the freezer for 2 days before cooking.

Ingredients:

400–500 g pike fillet;
salt for brine;
1 teaspoon sugar;
1 clove of garlic;
2 tbsp. spoons of vinegar 9% for the marinade (plus you will need vinegar to soak the fillet);
2 bay leaves;
3-4 black peppercorns;
3 tbsp. spoons of vegetable oil.

The spiciness of the snack and its saltiness can be changed to your taste by increasing or decreasing the amount of vinegar and salt.

Preparation:

Cut the fillet into small pieces, no thicker than half a centimeter.
Prepare a saline solution in a saucepan: pour enough salt into the water so that the lowered raw egg floats to the surface.
Dip the fish into the solution and put it in the refrigerator for 4 hours.
Then rinse the pike under running water, place it back in the pan, and pour in vinegar so that it completely covers the fish. Place in the refrigerator again for 4 hours.
Mix vinegar, oil, spices, sliced garlic, sugar.
Rinse the pike with cold water, place in a jar, fill with marinade, shake well. Leave to marinate.

You can try the snack within a day. And if you wait three days, the fillet will turn out even more tender and flavorful.

Pike in spicy marinade

Compound:

pike fillet – 0.5 kg;
onions – 0.2 kg;
water – 0.5 l;
vinegar essence (70 percent) – 5 ml;
salt – 20 g;
sugar – 10 g;
bay leaf – 2 pcs.;
allspice peas – 6 pcs.;
coriander seeds – 2 g;
cloves – 2 pcs.;
refined vegetable oil – 80-100 ml.

Cooking method:

Clean and gut the pike. After removing the head and fins, rinse and dry the carcass well. Using a sharp knife, cut the pike meat from the spinal bone. If desired, remove the bones from the fillet.
Cut the pike fillet (along with the skin) into pieces 1-1.5 cm thick. Place them in a container or jar.
Boil water, dissolve salt and sugar in it. Add spices, boil for 5 minutes.
Remove the brine from the heat, mix it with vinegar essence. Pour the resulting marinade over the pike pieces. Leave for 2-3 hours at room temperature, stirring occasionally.
Place the container with the pike in the refrigerator and leave it there for 8-12 hours.
After the specified time, drain the marinade. You will notice that the pieces of pike have turned white, that is, they have been marinated.
Place the fish pieces in a bowl.
Peel the onion and cut into thin rings.
Place a few onion rings on the bottom of the jar, put a layer of fish on it, and put the onion in the next layer. Fill the jar, alternating layers of fish and onions until the ingredients are gone. The top layer should be onions.
Pour oil over the food and put it back in the refrigerator.

A sample from the snack can be taken 12 hours after it has been filled with oil.

Korean marinated pike (pike heh)

This dish belongs to the national Korean cuisine. In Asia it is eaten half raw. But we advise you to follow the recommendations for pre-freezing fish from the previous recipe and keep the fish in the marinade longer when cooking.

Ingredients:

1 medium pike;
1 large carrot;
1 onion;
1 package of Korean carrot seasoning;
1-2 cloves of garlic;
2 tbsp. spoons of wine vinegar;
2 tbsp. spoons of 9% table vinegar;
100 ml vegetable oil;
1.5 tbsp. spoons of salt (reduce or increase to your taste).

On a note! If you don’t have a store-bought Korean seasoning for carrots, mix coriander, red and black pepper, paprika, and dried garlic in equal proportions.

Preparation:

Cut the fillet from the carcass, cut it into small equal strips (no thicker than 1 cm), sprinkle with salt.
Add chopped garlic, wine vinegar, and refrigerate for 12–15 hours.
Grate the carrots on a special grater, cut the onion into thin half rings, mix, add Korean seasoning.
Combine marinated fish with vegetables.
Dilute 2 tbsp. spoons of 9% vinegar in 100 ml of water and pour into the preparation, mix well, put in the refrigerator for 2 hours, then drain the marinade.
Heat the vegetable oil to a boil, carefully pour into the fish and vegetables. Stir quickly and place in the refrigerator for another hour.

When serving, the appetizer can be garnished with finely chopped cilantro and parsley.

This is interesting! Pike has fairly dense meat. Adding vinegar makes it juicier and softer.

Pickled pike with apple cider vinegar

Natural apple cider vinegar gives the marinade a light fruity flavor and softens the spiciness, making the taste more delicate.

Ingredients:

0.7 kg pike fillet;
1 pod of hot pepper;
1 onion;
250 g apple cider vinegar;
2 tbsp. spoons of salt;
10 peas of black allspice;
½ cup vegetable oil.

Preparation:

Cut the fillet into pieces of equal size, salt (or soak in saline solution, as in the daily recipe), leave for 3-5 hours (you can even overnight).
Then rinse the fish, put it in a clean container, cover it with vinegar and leave it in the refrigerator for another three hours.
Cut the onion into half rings, hot pepper into rings.
Without washing the fish, place it in a jar, alternating layers with onions and peppers.
Pour in oil and refrigerate for two days.

Tender pickled pike can be served with boiled potatoes and vegetables.

How to marinate pike at home?

Housewives who often cook pike know that there are two ways to marinate fish:

hot;
cold.

The difference lies in the preparatory process - pre-heat treatment of the fish. In the first case, the fish can undergo primary cooking in different ways (boiling, frying, smoking), in the second, the flesh is poured with vinegar and saline solution.

Hot way

Hot smoked fish, cooked at home, is a delicious dish that is always enjoyed by all family members and guests at the festive table, but you need to know some secrets to get a good quality product:

Sawdust and firewood from coniferous plants are unacceptable for use for smoking;
before smoking, the fish is marinated in brine for about three hours;
if for some reason the fish was not marinated, it can simply be salted before smoking;
spices can be added to the marinade to taste or the fish can be fried with dry herbs.

Depending on preference, herbs are mixed and salt is added. The mixture is rubbed into the flesh of the pike. Set the fish aside for marinating for 3 to 12 hours. After the allotted time has passed, the fillets are washed and, if necessary, soaked. All pieces are dried with paper towels.

Sawdust is used for smoking in the following proportions:

alder - 2/3;
cherry - 1/3;
juniper berries - a handful.

There shouldn't be a lot of sawdust. It will be enough if they just cover the smokehouse grate. When the smoke becomes more intense, cover the pike with foil and close the smokehouse. The fish is cooked at a temperature of 110 degrees, about half an hour.

The smokehouse is opened, the foil is removed, the pike is dried until the excess moisture evaporates - you can blot it with napkins. Again cover the smoking area with foil and add more smoke depending on the volume of fish - 15 - 50 minutes.

Let's celebrate! The foil is removed and the fish is given time to rest. Fish prepared in this way has a dense structure and a pleasant smoky aroma.

Cold method - recipe

Cooking pike cold is a must at least once. This is a way to surprise guests and leave a lasting impression of the hostess’s culinary abilities.

Ingredients:

pike pulp - 2 fish;
onion - 2 heads;
vegetable oil;
table vinegar - 3 tbsp. l;
salt with sugar.

In a bowl, sprinkle pieces of pike pulp with sugar and salt (2 tbsp. l sugar and 1 tbsp. salt). The onion is cut into rings. Place a layer of onion rings and fish in the jar.

Alternate layers and compact tightly until the jar is full. Cover the contents of the container with oil and vinegar. For a spicy touch, you can add a few allspice peas and a bay leaf.

Note! Marinate in the refrigerator.
For uniform impregnation, it is recommended to shake the jar periodically or turn it over and leave it in this position for a while.

Lemon marinade for pike

Not always, but it happens that river fish smells like mud. If you bought exactly this, lemon will help, as it perfectly eliminates this smell.

Ingredients:

Juice of 1 lemon;
4 tbsp. spoons of vinegar (apple, table, wine or balsamic are suitable);
4 tbsp. spoons of olive oil;
1 clove of garlic;
1 tbsp. a spoonful of mustard;
½ tbsp. spoons of salt;
½ teaspoon fish seasoning;
¼ teaspoon ground coriander.

To prepare the marinade, you need to mix all the ingredients (squeeze the garlic through a press). Pour the resulting solution over the fish pieces and leave for 24-48 hours (longer is possible, this will only make the fish more tender).

Note! The larger the pieces of fish, the longer it takes for them to marinate.

This marinade can be used when preparing pike for frying, but you need to soak the pike for 3-5 hours.

FAQ

How to remove the river smell (smell of mud) from pike meat?

To do this, we recommend soaking the fish in a strong salt solution for 12 hours, and then in vinegar for another 12. This is the surest way to get rid of the smell and small bones.

If you don’t have much time, you can rub the carcass with black pepper, sprinkle dill seeds on top and let stand for 20-40 minutes.

To remove the smell from frozen fish, defrost it a little and cut it into pieces. Place in a bowl, sprinkle with ground bay leaves, and add lukewarm water (you can add lemon juice). Close the container with a lid and leave for an hour. Then drain the water and, without washing the fish, begin cooking.

If you are the happy owner of a fireplace, just put two or three hot birch coals into the water with the fish - the smell of mud will go away.

How long and under what conditions should pickled pike be stored?

Pickled pike can only be stored in the refrigerator for no longer than two weeks.

What types of vinegar are best to use for pickling pike?

Traditionally, ordinary table vinegar 9% is used. But we recommend giving preference to organic apple juice, as it is milder in taste, contains a large amount of useful substances and is less irritating to the stomach.

You can also marinate pike with rice, wine or balsamic vinegar, which are great for fish dishes. However, in this case, choose white varieties. Due to its dark color, pike meat may not look very appetizing.

Any pike dish has always been considered a delicacy. And when marinated, this original appetizer will not go unnoticed on your table. Be prepared to share the recipe with your guests!!