Lightly salted pink salmon: the best options for cooking at home - how to salt pink salmon for salmon

If you are still afraid to start salting red fish right away, you can practice on inexpensive herring. Read about options for preparing lightly salted herring in our article.

Selection of pink salmon

Fresh fish is the key to the success of any fish dish. Unfortunately, not everyone can boast of having markets with fresh seafood nearby. Large hyper- and supermarkets and small shops come to the rescue. The former can offer us chilled fish, both whole and in steaks of various sizes, while small retail outlets mainly specialize in selling frozen products.

Of course, it is ideal to use freshly caught pink salmon, but you have to be content with chilled or frozen specimens. In this case, chilled fish are undoubtedly preferable.

How to determine freshness:

• the fish should smell like raw fish, without a hint of rottenness or mustiness;
• the skin of chilled fish should be shiny, without damage or dry spots;
• frozen pink salmon should be covered with a minimum amount of ice;
• the abdomen and fins should be light, without “rusty” yellow spots;
• Those specimens whose fins are broken and clearly look dry can also be classified as stale.

As for whether to take gutted pink salmon or not, decide for yourself. Of course, paying for giblets is not very advisable, but whole carcasses are less weathered in stores, and may also contain a bonus in the form of tasty and healthy caviar. Caviar is also salted. You can find out more details Here.

Fish processing

So, the fish is bought. First of all, it is defrosted. The ideal defrosting option is in the refrigerator. Place the fish on a plate and put it in the plus compartment of the refrigerator for a day. Do not under any circumstances attempt to place the carcass in the microwave. The fish will be spoiled for salting purposes, and boiled pink salmon awaits you for dinner.

Transparent scales are removed from thawed pink salmon with a sharp knife or a special tool. The carcass is rinsed. The head, fins and tail are cut off. At the final stage, the fish is thoroughly washed again and left to flow around the grill.

If the recipe requires the use of fish fillet, then the bones are removed from the pink salmon and the skin is removed. You can learn all the intricacies of this process by watching a video from Alex Raigorodsky

Options for salting pink salmon

Dry method

Pink salmon freed from bones (no need to remove the skin) is cut into strips 3-4 centimeters wide.

In a separate plate, prepare a salting mixture of 1.5 tablespoons of coarse salt, 1.5 teaspoons of sugar and chopped bay leaves. If desired, add a few black peppercorns. There is no need to crush it.

The spicy mixture is poured over the pieces of fish and mixed so that all the slices are evenly covered with it. The bottom of the container or plate is generously greased with vegetable oil (it must be refined). The pieces are placed skin side up quite tightly. If all the fish does not fit in one layer, it is placed in the second layer, greasing the pieces of the first layer with oil.

Cover the bowl with a lid, keep it on the kitchen table for 2-3 hours, and then put it in the refrigerator. After 24 hours, red fish can be served.

You can find another method of dry salting in article.

The “Delicious Cooking” channel offers a video version of a recipe for salting fillets with skin

In brine

You can salt pink salmon in brine using a deep enamel or plastic bowl, but the best option is a glass jar.

First of all, cook the pickling base. To do this, boil spices in a liter of water for 5 minutes: salt (3 tablespoons), sugar (1 tablespoon), bay leaf and 5-6 grains of black pepper. The boiled liquid is cooled.

The fish is gutted, skinned and filleted. The width of the pieces is 3-4 centimeters. Pieces of pink salmon are placed in a plate or jar of a suitable size without compacting them. The fish is poured with saline solution on top and left at room temperature for a couple of hours. Then the container with fish is put into the main compartment of the refrigerator for three days.

You can read about salting fish in parchment paper with dill Here.

Spicy pink salmon in marinade

This recipe differs from the previous one in the large number of spices. In addition to the main products, add 1/3 teaspoon of coriander grains, the same amount of cumin and sweet paprika flakes if desired. The amount of sugar, salt and water does not change.

Quick way “Salmon”

Making pink salmon into something like an expensive fish is quite simple. First, prepare the so-called brine - a very concentrated saline solution. To do this, dilute 5 tablespoons of coarse rock salt in a liter of cold water. Some people recommend using sea salt, but, in our opinion, this ingredient is completely unsuitable for salting fish.

You can check the salt concentration in water using potatoes. Potatoes the size of a chicken egg are peeled and dipped in brine. If the root crop stays on the surface without sinking to the bottom, everything is fine!

Freed from bones and skin, pink salmon is cut into 2-3 centimeter slices. After the grains of salt have completely dissolved, add the fish. Usually there is enough water for the pieces to float freely in the brine. There is no need to put additional weight on top; pink salmon is already well salted. Exposure time 40-50 minutes. Don’t worry, this time is enough for the pink salmon to eventually “turn” into wonderful lightly salted salmon.

The salted pieces are removed from the solution and lightly dipped with a paper towel. Pour 2-3 tablespoons of odorless vegetable oil into the bottom of the container, and place fish slices tightly on top. Pour another 2-3 tablespoons of oil on top of the pink salmon, and, if necessary, lay out a second layer. The top of the fillet must be seasoned with oil.

After 5-6 hours, the fish will be completely ready for consumption, and it is unlikely that anyone will distinguish it from expensive salmon.

In a jar of oil

This is another salting option that will make dry fish fatty and juicy. It involves the use of an oily saline solution.

So, the fish is cut into small boneless pieces as usual. The skin here will also be superfluous. A large juicy onion is peeled and cut into half rings.

Combine 1.5 tablespoons of salt and 2 teaspoons of sugar in a plate. A large bay leaf is broken into several pieces. The fish is thoroughly coated in this mixture. Next, take a clean liter jar and begin collecting layers. A little oil (necessarily refined) is poured onto the bottom, a layer of fish and onions are placed. Oil is poured again, and all steps are repeated until the main products run out. The top layer is oil. Seal the jar and put it in the refrigerator for 2 days.

With lemon

Use the previous recipe for the base, only replace the onion with a large lemon. The final layer in the jar is citrus.

Important note: it is necessary to ensure that the pink salmon with lemon slices is completely covered with oil. After just 24 hours, a sample is taken from the fish!

Pieces

This method is the least time-consuming, as it allows you to do without first filleting pink salmon. The fish is simply cleaned, the skin and the inside of the belly are thoroughly washed. After cutting off the head, the carcass is cut into pieces 4-5 centimeters wide. Each slice is generously rubbed with a sugar-salt mixture. The amount of salt and sugar is 2:1. That is, for two tablespoons of coarse salt, take a tablespoon of granulated sugar. The fish is sprinkled with chopped bay leaves (2 pieces) and peppercorns (4-5 pieces) on top.

Place the pieces in a container of a suitable size in one layer, quite tightly to each other. In this form, the pink salmon is sent to the plus section of the refrigerator. After 12 hours, the pieces are turned over and left for another 12 hours. Ready lightly salted pink salmon is served with fresh lemon slices and parsley sprigs.

The “Know and Be Able” channel offers you a recipe for salting uncut pieces of fish in brine with dill

How to store lightly salted fish

A prerequisite is coolness, so you can’t do without a refrigerator. If pink salmon has been salted in brine, then after 3 days it is best to transfer the pieces to a container and cover with oil. Oil, as a natural preservative, prevents food from spoiling. The maximum shelf life is 7 days, but usually delicious home-salted fish is eaten much faster.