Salting fish at home. How much and how to salt fish: types and methods of salting.

Since the product spoils very quickly, salting fish at home should be done in the first hours after catching or purchasing fresh fish in a store. Salt prevents the growth of bacteria and spoilage of the product, and also accumulates excess moisture.

It is not recommended to salt sturgeon fish at home, since this requires special cooling equipment. The rest of the breeds can be easily and simply salted at home without special equipment.

Finished fish is divided into 3 groups or types based on the degree of salinity. The division into types depends on the percentage of salt in the final product:

- lightly salted (6-10%) - most often mackerel, fatty herring and mackerel are salted this way. They do not require soaking before use, since they contain the optimal amount of salt;

— medium salted (10-14%);

- highly salted or strong (over 14%).

With the last two salting options, the fish should be soaked before use.

A few basic rules for this procedure:

— the water temperature should be 12-15 degrees;

— the amount of soaking time is directly proportional to the amount of salt in the product;

- to get uniform salting, after 3-4 hours of soaking, the fish must be taken out of the water for a couple of hours;

— for herring, mackerel and horse mackerel of medium salinity, “special” solutions can be used when soaking. This can be strong cold tea leaves or cold milk diluted with water;

- lightly salted fish can be easily turned into marinated or spicy. To do this, just sprinkle it with spices, and then pour in a cold decoction of a mixture of spices. If desired, you can add vinegar, and then put it in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks. The ideal temperature is no higher than +2 degrees.

What is important to remember: when salting fish, juice is periodically released (this is a mixture of salt and liquid coming out of the fish), and this is a fairly favorable environment for the development of bacteria. Therefore, as this liquid forms, it must be drained.

There are a number of natural conditions on which the correct method of salting fish depends. Let's look at them.

There are types of fish that just need to go through the salting process, and then they can be consumed, these are herring, salmon, mackerel and other fatty species. And fish such as cod, carp, perch and many other “lean” varieties must first be cooked.

Carcasses weighing up to 500 grams (such as ram, omul, sabrefish) are not gutted, but salted whole. If larger fish (bream, carp, roach, asp, tench, rudd and others) are to be salted, it is cut along the belly from head to tail and the intestinal contents are removed, while the caviar or milt can be cleaned and returned.

Remember that salting fish at home is done only if the carcasses are fresh, without visible damage, foreign odors or other signs of product spoilage.To avoid poisoning, it is better to throw away fish that do not meet the above requirements.

Find out more about:

— dry salting fish at home;

— how to properly salt fish in brine;

— quick salting of fish at home;

— how to salt small fish at home;

— how to salt fish on a ram;

you can by going to the appropriate section using the link.

Methods for salting fish at home depend on many factors - the time of year, the type of fish, its quantity, the required degree of salinity, your taste preferences, etc. When buying salted fish in a store, it is difficult to be sure that all necessary requirements were met during its preparation (as you have noticed, there are many of them), because salt and some special tricks can perfectly hide the “flavored” product. When you salt fish at home, you can be sure that eating it will bring you only positive sensations.