How to salt and dry fish

Delicious dried fish is easy to cook on your own. To do this, you need to know how to dry fish at home. A bit of trouble, a few days of waiting - and you can enjoy the delicacy yourself, as well as boldly treat guests. Slices of fragrant dried fish will surely please everyone.

dried fish

Dried or dried - what's the difference

Sun-dried fish is obtained by drying pre-salted raw materials. This is a familiar, ready-to-eat product. Many people call dried fish it is dried fish. Therefore, asking the question: how to dry the fish? - people usually mean - how to dry it.

Dried receive both from unsalted raw materials (fresh-dried), and from salted fish. Dried fish is considered a semi-finished product requiring further cooking. It is usually dried in the northern regions, harvested in reserve for use in winter. Dried carcasses can be stored for a long time without losing their nutritional qualities.

Selection and preparation of fish

In principle, at home, any fish can be dried, but it is better not too oily, small in size for this purpose. The following species can be successfully used for this purpose: roach, bream, sabrefish, podust, rudd, dace, silver bream, perch, ram, pike perch, roach and others.

Preliminary raw materials must be prepared:

  • Wash the fish well, gut it (without removing the scales) and rinse thoroughly again.
  • If there is a large amount of it, then it is better to sort by size, since fish of different sizes require different processing times.
  • Salt the prepared raw materials.

You can not gut the fish, but in this case the finished product will turn out with a bitterness, which will give it bile.

dried fish

Prepared fish can be salted in two ways: dry - by filling carcasses with dry salt, or wet - in brine (brine).

Dry ambassador

This method of salting is most often used, since it is very simple. Dishes should be chosen so that the carcass fits easily in it (a wide pan or cup). At the bottom should be poured a thin layer of coarse salt, lay a row of fish, cover it with salt so that it is completely closed. From above in the same way it is necessary to lay the next row. And so it is necessary to lay out the carcasses in rows, each of them abundantly sprinkling with tar.

After the last row has been laid, put a plate or a lid on top, which freely enters the pan, and press down with pressure (for example: a can of water or a weight).

dry fish ambassador

Place the dishes in the refrigerator for 4-7 days (depending on the size of the carcasses). After the specified time, the fish must be removed, rinse the salt well, and then soak in water (4-7 hours), changing it several times. Moreover, the number of hours is equal to the number of days of salting.

After that, you can dry the fish. It should be hung in a well-ventilated place. In summer, you can dry outside, and in winter, a balcony or kitchen is suitable for this. Can be dried on the veranda or in the summer kitchen. The main thing is that direct sunlight does not fall on it. The carcasses can be suspended by piercing the wire through the eyes, or you can make hooks from paper clips that hook them onto the upper lip, and hang them on a drawstring or fishing line with the other side. You can hang the fish by the tails, but in this case the fat and juice will flow out, and it will turn out to be drier and more fresh.

Salt in the brine

This method is also well suited for home use. It allows you to get evenly salted fish for a shorter period. To do this:

  • Prepare a supersaturated saline solution (brine). To do this, dissolve the salt in water, gradually increasing the concentration.The solution is considered ready if it does not sink a piece of potato or a raw egg. It will take about 1 liter of brine per 2 kg of raw materials.
  • At the bottom of a wide tank, a thin layer of salt should be poured.
  • Place the carcass in a container.
  • Pour brine so that it covers the fish completely.
  • Cover with a plate or a lid, put oppression on top.
  • Place the container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days (depending on the size of the fish).
  • After the right time, remove the carcass from the brine and soak in clean water for about 30 minutes, changing the water every 10 minutes.

fish in brine

After that, let the water drain and dry, hanging in the same way as with the dry method of salting.

What is the time to dry fish

Drying time to readiness depends on fish size and conditions. On average, it is 4-6 days. On the street, blown by the breeze, it dries faster, at home - longer. In winter, in a cool room, this period is further increased. Therefore, after 4-5 days, fish should be tried for preparedness. If it is damp on the back, leave to dry for another 1-2 days.

dried fish

Very quick and easy to dry the fish at home in an electric dryer. Forced ventilation and elevated temperature accelerate the process of dewatering the semi-finished product. In a standard electric dryer at a temperature of about + 55 ° C, it crashes until it is ready for only 5-7 hours!

In the northern regions, fish are frozen on the street for a month and a half.

dried fish

Some tips

  1. So that in the summer, during drying, insects do not land on fish, you can sprinkle it with vinegar or grease with sunflower oil, or you can make a mixture of them in a ratio of 1: 3 and grease the fish with it.
  2. For the same purpose, it can be covered with gauze or small tulle.
  3. It is better to hang ready-made raw materials for drying on the balcony or on the street in the late evening, then before morning it will have time to weather and dry. Flies and wasps will practically not touch her.
  4. To speed up drying and protect against insects, it is necessary to open the abdomen by inserting matches with cropped heads or short sticks into them.
  5. During dry salting, some carcasses are poorly salted. They can be easily identified - during the soaking, they pop up. Such fish should be dried separately and put on food in the first place.
  6. Stored fish should be stored in a cool, dry place wrapped in parchment paper and cotton cloth, or in a glass jar with a lid closed. However, it will not lose its properties within 4-5 months.

We recommend reading the article on how to clean pine nuts correctly

material author changes from
leave a comment

Cleaning

Wash

Stains