Hot smoked fish. How to salt and smoke fish at home.

Hot smoking of fish at home is a long-term treatment of it with aromatic smoke, the temperature of which is not lower than 45°C and can reach up to 120°C. This is a method of preparing fish, after which it is completely ready for consumption. Therefore, it is popular and often used at home.

Hot smoking of fish can be roughly divided into stages: salting, drying, soaking and, directly, smoking.

Content

1 Salting fish.
2 Pre-drying or drying of fish.
3 Soaking.
4 How to smoke fish in a hot smoker.

Salting fish.

When salting raw materials for hot smoking, 16 kg of fish requires 1 kg of salt. Small fish are salted whole, medium fish are just gutted, large fish are gutted and flaked.

The process of salting fatty fish is different from salting low-fat fish.

For “thin” varieties: sprinkle the cutting board with salt and, pressing, “carry” each carcass with salt. We coat the inside of the abdomen by hand. If necessary, make an additional cut in the pulp and also tamp the salt into it.

For fatty varieties: coat the carcasses or layers by hand and wrap them in parchment. Then, put it in an enamel container, cover it with paper, cover it with a lid and secure it with a rope. Leave it like this for 1-4 days. How much to salt the fish - this time depends on its size.

Cm. Salting fish at home.

Pre-drying or drying of fish.

Next, the fish must be aired outside for 1 hour, hung on ropes and protected from insects with gauze.

Soaking.

After drying, you need to remove excess salt. To do this, wash the fish with cold water. We soak large fish for about an hour.

How to smoke fish in a hot smoker.

We heat the oven in the smokehouse, lay the fish loosely in an even layer on a special grill.

First, we carry out the smoking process over high heat, then add sawdust and close the damper more tightly, this procedure will ensure that the smokehouse is filled with smoke of the required thickness and density. Turn the fish over as needed for more even smoking. Cm. what sawdust and what kind of wood can you smoke fish on?.

Small fish are smoked for 30-60 minutes, large fish – 90-180. Approximately 25% of this time should be occupied by the drying process at a temperature of 80 degrees, the rest of the time by smoking at 100 degrees.

The finished hot smoked fish has a characteristic golden hue, and the skin becomes dry. The meat is easily separated from the bones and backbone, just like boiled or fried fish.

To give finished smoked fish a beautiful look, simply wipe its surface with a piece of cloth soaked in fish oil or vegetable oil.

Fragrant and tasty hot smoked fish has a shelf life of only 3-4 days. When stored in the refrigerator, it doubles in size.

Video: Hot smoked mackerel.