How to salt chum salmon at home - 7 most popular ways to prepare lightly salted chum salmon

Subtleties of choosing and preparing fish

So, the first thing you need to decide is what kind of fish will be used for salting: fresh, chilled or frozen. Fresh frozen fish is available to almost everyone, but not all stores offer its chilled counterpart. In any case, you need to pay attention to the appearance of the carcass in order to choose the freshest possible product:

• Chum salmon when frozen should not have a thick ice shell. In general, there should be as little ice as possible.
• The fins of both fresh and frozen fish should be light in color, and the belly should be free of yellow “rusty” spots.
• The scales of the fish should be shiny and the skin without damage.

It is best to opt for a whole chum salmon carcass, preferably not gutted. In this case, there is a chance that you will become the owner of not only a good piece of red meat, but also delicious chum salmon caviar.

Before salting, the carcass must be thawed. The best place for this is the refrigerator. You can speed up the defrosting process, at least at room temperature, by placing the chum salmon on the table. Thawing methods in warm water or in a microwave oven are not suitable.

The next stage is cutting the chum salmon into fillets. The whole procedure is very well demonstrated in the video from the channel “Granny Emma’s Recipes”

To prepare lightly salted chum salmon, you do not need to remove the skin from the fillet. This way the meat will not fall apart when salted. However, some quick recipes involve salting chum salmon in pieces. In this case, the skin is immediately removed from a large layer of red meat, and then cut into plates or cubes.

Proven methods of salting chum salmon

The simplest option

In this classic version, a cut piece of chum salmon is sprinkled with a curing mixture, which is prepared from 1 tablespoon of sugar and 2 tablespoons of salt. This 1:2 proportion is the basic and most successful.

The fillet is sprinkled with the mixture quite thickly, not forgetting the side with the skin. Then the fish is turned over with the skin up and the container is covered with a lid. If the container is not equipped with a lid, you can close it with a plastic bag or cling film.

The time until the dish is completely ready is 24 hours.After a day, remove excess salt from a piece of chum salmon with a knife or rinse it under running cool water.

Channel "Postripucha" offers salting chum salmon with pieces of garlic

In brine

Dissolve 4 tablespoons of salt and 1 tablespoon of sugar in a liter of water. For spices, add 1 large bay leaf and 6 black peppercorns. Place the marinade on the stove and boil for 2 minutes. After the liquid has cooled to room temperature, a piece of chum salmon is placed in the brine for 6 hours. To reduce salting time, cut the fish into pieces 3-4 centimeters wide. In this case, 3 hours will be enough for the chum salmon to be sufficiently salted.

After the set time, the fish is removed from the liquid, lightly dried with paper towels, and transferred to a clean plastic container for further storage.

With mustard powder in a jar

In a small saucepan, boil 1 liter of water with the addition of 3 tablespoons of sugar and salt, a couple of bay leaves and 5-7 black or allspice peas (at your discretion). Add a tablespoon of mustard powder to the marinade that has cooled to a temperature of 50-60 degrees and mix everything well so that no lumps form. Let the broth sit for 5-10 minutes. At this time, chum salmon is processed. The fillet is cut into strips 2-2.5 centimeters wide and placed in a jar of a suitable size. Top the slices with mustard marinade for 3-4 hours. The salted fish is removed from the liquid and transferred to a dry tray, covered with a lid.

Oleg Severyukhin talks in great detail about salting chum salmon with vodka in his video tutorial

With onions in a jar

The fish is cut into strips in the same way as in the previous recipe for ease of placing in a jar and quicker salting.Each layer of chum salmon is sprinkled with salt and sugar in a 2:1 ratio, topped with several half rings or quarters of juicy onions, and lightly sprinkled with lemon juice. All layers are repeated until the very top of the jar. When the container is completely filled, lightly compact the fish with your hand and add onions as the last layer.

The chum salmon should be salted in the refrigerator, covered, for 1.5 days. Periodically turn the jar upside down so that the resulting brine is distributed more evenly. Transfer the finished fish from the jar to a clean container, removing the onion half rings.

In oil composition

Salting chum salmon in oil will make it look like salmon, as the fish turns out fatty and tender. For preparation, take a deep container or glass jar. Pieces of chum salmon are generously rolled in the curing mixture: salt - 3 parts, sugar - 1 part. The fish is transferred to a plate and allowed to stand on the table for 2 hours. Then remove some of the salt and sugar from the pieces using a knife blade (no need to wash the pieces). The curing mixture is removed without fanaticism! The chum salmon is transferred to a jar and filled with refined vegetable oil. The container with homemade lightly salted fish is put in the refrigerator. In a day you can try chum salmon!

Two-hour express method

This option is suitable for a small amount of fish. The chum salmon fillet is lightly frozen (literally 30-40 minutes in the freezer). This is done so that the fish can be cut thinly with a knife. The thickness of the pieces should be 2-3 millimeters. Place the sliced ​​fish on a wide plate and sprinkle with the salting mixture. It is prepared from a teaspoon of salt and ½ spoon of sugar. Add ground black pepper to taste.

Sprinkle lemon juice on top of the fish and sprinkle with any fish spices that do not contain salt. After 2 hours, the fish can be used to decorate sandwiches.

With "Smoke"

“Liquid Smoke” can add a smoked aroma to lightly salted chum salmon. This composition can be purchased at any grocery store or supermarket.

A piece of chum salmon is coated with “Smoke” and then salted using the classic dry method: salt and sugar in a 2:1 ratio. There is no need to salt in a thick layer, since excess salting mixture is not removed later. Until fully cooked, 12-20 hours, put the chum salmon in the refrigerator, wrapping it in cling film or transferring the fish to an airtight container.

Storage options and periods

Ready lightly salted chum salmon is stored in the main compartment of the refrigerator for 2-3 days, sealed off from foreign odors. To extend this period a little more, pieces of chum salmon are poured with vegetable oil.

The ideal place for long-term preservation of large volumes of lightly salted chum salmon is the freezer. Tightly packed salted fish can be refrigerated for up to 6 months.

If you are interested in the topic of salting fish, then we invite you to familiarize yourself with the recipe collections for preparing lightly salted salmon, pink salmon or inexpensive herring.