The fish has a lot useful properties necessary for normal human development. It contains a large number of easily digestible protein, fats, including fish oil, a lot of unsaturated fatty acids and, of course, phosphorus, which is necessary to strengthen the bones of the skeleton. Currently very importance has the fact that the fish is very affordable for anyone. Everyone has tried dried fish at least once in their life. And the further use of it in the human diet depends on what first impression it made on him. I am an amateur dried perch, which differs from other river fish in more fatty and tasty meat.
My husband has been fishing for a long time. And it doesn’t matter to him whether it’s summer or winter, armed with the necessary gear, he goes to the pond. As a fisherman's wife, I'm already thinking about what to do with the trophy I brought today. Oddly enough, my angler uses only dried or dried fish. Dry perch he doesn't let me down. Everything is done by himself. On the last fishing trip (winter), my husband caught a small number of perches, which we decided to dry.
Perch is the most common fish in our waters. Perch meat is very tasty, but many prefer not to mess with this spiny fish. In addition, it is quite difficult to clean the perch because of the small scales that are tightly located to each other. In order not to mess with him, the husband decided to dry him.
So before how to dry perch, it needs to be calibrated. That is, from the entire catch, we choose the fish we need in size, mostly it is large, since it has more meat and is fatter. If it contains more than a kilogram, it must be gutted in order to remove the insides and for better salting of the entire carcass. We have a medium sized fish, so we didn't gut it. And we also do not remove the scales.
Next, wash the fish and prepare it for salting. Salting is the main operation in drying fish. The salt should draw out excess moisture from the perch. Enamelware is used for salting. Put the prepared fish in a saucepan in layers: salt - fish. My husband also adds seasonings, you can use Bay leaf. We spread the perches as close as possible to each other, for this it is laid in a certain order - the tummy of one fish to the back of the other, the head of one to the tail of the other. Upper layer- salt. We cover the fish with a flat plate or a lid (smaller in diameter of the pan) and put a press on it. It can be a bucket of water or a three-kilogram load. We put the workpiece in a cool dark place. After a few hours, brine forms in the pan. Depending on the size and type of fish, the salting time varies from 1 to 7 days. In our case, the perch was salted in brine under pressure for two days.
Salted fish must be thoroughly washed under running cold water from excess salt, mucus and spices. We put prepared perches on a wire or thread, a puncture should be done on the tail so that the remaining salt goes into the head. Let the excess salt water drain.
You can hang fish to dry in any well-ventilated place - in a fishing line, if possible, or on a balcony. Dry perch on the balcony should only be if the weather is warm and dry outside. Since we decided in winter, it is not dried in the sun, as it should be, but at room temperature. To speed up the drying time, perches can be hung over gas stove but not too low. Drying of fish depends on several parameters - this is the type, size of fish, air temperature, and lasts, depending on them, from two to eight days. We dried perches a few days. You can store fish in the refrigerator in a plastic bag. So, after simple operations, we enjoy home-cooked dried perch in the winter.
Dried fish is considered a traditional Russian treat. For this method of cooking fish, you can use different varieties and views. Often, hostesses and fishermen dry perch, both river and sea.
Dried perch after all processes acquires an amber color, and its meat becomes translucent. To obtain such a result, the technology for each drying point should be strictly observed.
How to wither a river perch
If the decision to cook fish in this way was made for the first time, then you may be faced with the question of how to dry perch correctly.
It is best to take perches before they start to spawn. During this period, they are fatter and tastier (the best individuals can be caught in winter and early spring).
If you dry these fish in the heat in the summer, then the cooking time becomes much longer. So the best time for this - spring, when there is still no heat, and late autumn.
By the way, small carcasses when salted in winter time you can not gut it, it will save fat
How to prepare carcasses
In order to salt the perch, and later wither the carcasses, you should prepare. Fish should be selected the same size. This is due to the fact that the salting period for large and small individuals is different. Perfect size the weight of one carcass is considered to be 250 - 350 g.
Each fish should be gutted and washed well in cold water. After that, the gills and eyes must be removed from the head. To leave the abdomen intact, you can make a small incision near the ridge and remove the insides through it. Some fishermen find that rinsing after evisceration takes the taste out of the meat, so they simply wipe them down with a clean, natural cloth.
It is best to use glass, enameled, wooden and plastic dishes for salting. It will not oxidize and will not spoil the taste of the future dish.
How to salt fish
There are two ways to salt fish.
- dry method. It is best suited for larger carcasses. In order to salt perches in this way, you should take a wooden basket or box, 250 g of salt per 1 kg and oppression. Prepared carcasses are rubbed with salt and laid out tightly in a container. During the laying process, you can additionally sprinkle the layers of fish with a small amount of salt. After that, a plate of a suitable size is placed on the contents of the container and wooden shield and is pressed down by a weight from above. In this state, the carcasses are 6 - 10 days (depending on size).
- Salt method. In this case, it is recommended to use a container made of plastic, glass or enameled basins. Salt is poured at the bottom of about 3 - 4 mm. After that, fish are laid out on it in dense rows. Sprinkle again with a layer of salt (copiously). Cover with a lid right size and put oppression on top. After that, it is cleaned in a cool place and left for 4 to 7 days. Approximately on the 2nd day, juice will begin to stand out from the fish, and when it mixes with salt, a brine (brine) is formed.
If necessary, between the carcasses, you can put bay leaves and allspice peas. This will give the fish new notes of taste and aroma.
If during the process the brine acquires a reddish tint or becomes cloudy, this will mean that the fish has deteriorated. This happens when the carcasses were prepared incorrectly or the fish was not quite fresh.
To salt perches correctly, you must use only freshly caught specimens that have not been frozen.
How to soak carcasses after salting
In order to properly rinse and soak perches, you should know the following.
The fish is soaked only in cold water. If it was heavily saline, then the water must be changed periodically.
The time for washing is determined as follows: for every 24 hours of salting, it is necessary to keep the carcasses in water for 1 hour. However, there is one exception. If salting took place in brine, then the time is reduced to 40 - 50 minutes for every day.
It is necessary to monitor the condition of the carcasses and not let them get wet. Otherwise, the meat will become too loose.
Before placing half the finished dish in water, rinse the carcasses from the mucus formed from the water and spices.
Fishermen usually soak medium-sized river bass in cold water for about 3 hours.
How to dry them properly
After the carcasses are of the required salinity, they must be dried. To do this, excess water is allowed to drain in a ventilated place in the shade.
Then each fish is threaded through the eye sockets or gill slits and hung in special box from mesh or gauze for drying. Such a barrier protects the treat from insects that can spoil it.
By the way, the carcass itself is not damaged by this method of stringing, and all the fat remains in the meat.
More fish can be hung on hooks. They are made of wire (steel) and bent so that there is a hook at each end (outwardly it looks like the letter Z). If the carcasses are very small, then simple paper clips (stationery) can be used for drying.
In this state, the drying process lasts 5-6 days. However, if the carcasses are damp, then you should leave them for another couple of days.
It is best to put the dryer on the balcony or outside in a shady place. After these steps, you can dovyalit perches.
If the attic is well ventilated, then you can use it
How to milk perches
No matter how strange it may sound, but drying and drying are almost the same thing. However, there is one difference. In order for the dried perch to take its right kind, they should be laid out in the sun. You can wither perches at home in 60 - 120 minutes.
During this period, the carcasses will release a small amount of fat, which will dry out and give the perches an amber hue, and make their meat a little transparent.
After this, the dried perch can be served on the table.
Provided that all items were made according to technology, the fish will be stored for quite a long time. On average, it is 6 - 10 months, but usually the treat ends much earlier.
Store dried fish in the refrigerator, wrapped in paper
Step-by-step recipe for salting in brine
The following ingredients are used for this recipe:
- 2 kg perch;
- 500 g coarse salt.
If necessary, in a small amount, you can add a little bay leaves, peas allspice and other herbs for fish to taste.
Delicious perches can be prepared according to the following instructions.
- Examine the carcasses for signs of spoilage. They shouldn't have weird spots bad smell, cloudy eyes and other imperfections.
- Rinse and butcher the fish, gut and remove the eyes and gills. After that, wipe each carcass well with a natural, clean cloth.
- Rub each fish well inside and out with salt, avoiding hard-to-reach places.
- After that, place them in an enameled container of a suitable size so that they lie very tightly. The abdomen should be turned up.
- Pour the remaining salt into a container and cover everything with a lid of a smaller diameter and put oppression on top.
- After 3 - 4 days, remove the perches from the formed brine and rinse from the mucus in running water.
- Spread them on the table and let the excess moisture drain. After that, prepare them for drying.
- String each carcass through the lip or eye socket on a wire or fishing line and hang it in a shaded, ventilated place. The balcony is ideal.
- Insert spacers from toothpicks into the abdomens. After that, protect them from insects.
After 3 - 4 days, the fish can be removed, laid out for 40 - 60 minutes in the sun and invite friends. The dried meat of the finished dish will have a pleasant amber and a little golden hue, and if you look through it into the light, it will be slightly transparent.
They prefer to eat such a treat with boiled potatoes or foamy drinks.
If, during gutting, there is caviar inside, then it should be collected in a separate plate and then salted. This will be a great addition to the main treat.
According to this recipe, a delicious ram is obtained.
What can be done with dried fish
After the dish is ready, it can be smoked a little. This will require a smokehouse and prefabricated wood chips (usually birch barks with currant branches are used). Dry-cured fish is loaded into the upper compartment of the smokehouse, and wood chips are placed in the lower one and set on fire. After it burns out, you can take out the perches.
Do not keep dried fish in the smoker for more than 50 minutes, otherwise it will become too soft and lose its shape.
The treat will acquire a beautiful bronze hue and a delicious aroma. His taste will also change a little and become brighter and more saturated.
Every angler has not rare cases when the catch is not just plentiful, but very large, and it needs to be processed quickly so as not to be lost. The first option is to fry the fish. But if the family is small and cannot eat much, you have to try other ways of processing. For example, salt. This is the easiest and most versatile harvesting method if you know how to properly salt fish caught in the river. There are a lot of recipes offering salting fish at home. They will be discussed further.
spicy salting
For work it is necessary to prepare:
- Container. It can be a deep bowl or a basin, an enameled bucket, wooden box. You can also take Plastic container. Just don't use any metal.
- Spices. Be sure to have black pepper and laurel.
- Food salt. Preferably - not very small, and in no case iodized.
- Cargo. They can serve as a not very heavy stone, a couple of bricks wrapped in plastic bag, a jar or a small enamel pot of water or any other similar object.
- The lid is slightly smaller than the top of the salting container.
Salting fish should be carried out immediately after catching
This salting option is designed for perch, bleak and other medium-sized fish. The catch must be fresh, freshly caught is best. You need to choose instances of approximately the same size weighing up to 1 kg.
The catch must be washed and gutted. Next, salts (0.5 cm) are first poured into the salting dishes at the bottom and fish are laid, starting with larger individuals. After laying the first layer, sprinkle it with a thin layer of salt on top, add a few sheets of laurel, 2-3 grains of pepper, coriander. Then fish again, salt and spices, and so on to the top, or until the fish runs out.
Attention! It's time to make oppression in order to force out all the air from the fish - the cause of putrefactive reactions. To do this, you need to take the lid, put it on the fish, and put the "salting" load on top.
Now you need to move all this stuff to the coolest place in the house (or apartment) for 72-96 hours. After the end of the salting process, remove the lid and rinse the fish under running water so that all the salt is washed off. When the water becomes clear, leave the pan for 60-90 minutes.
Some fishermen claim that it is necessary to keep the fish in the water for every 24 hours of brining - 1 hour. For example, if the fish were in salt for a day, then soak for 1 hour, if 2 days - 2 hours, and so on. Then drain the water, cover the table with newspapers in several layers and put the fish on top to dry.
After 3-4 hours, it will become dry, which means it is ready for use. This treat has excellent taste and excellent smell. You can use it with beer, and with mashed potatoes and porridge - a universal snack is obtained. The spicy salted fish is stored for a long time, but only in the refrigerator. However, it usually doesn't last long.
dry salting
Usually roach, gobies, perch are harvested this way. It is necessary to prepare them in the same way as in the previous recipe - rinse, gut and pickle, laying in layers in the selected container. You do not need to use spices, but still some add sugar or your favorite spices. After two, maximum three days, the fish carcasses are washed, wiped dry with cloth napkins and hung behind the eyes or tail on a rope.
Advice. Experienced fishermen advise hanging the fish by the eyes - so all the bad liquid will easily drain. And if the fish hangs on the contrary, with its tail up, then a liquid of an unpleasant taste and smell will collect in the head.
You need to hang tightly, but in such a way that air passes between the individual carcasses. Moreover, place the product not in the sun, but in the shade. For example, on a balcony or in a room where there is a constant draft. So the catch will dry better, and then it will not become damp.
If the process takes place in the spring, when there are no flies, then nothing needs to be done, just wait until the product is ready, but in the summer the catch hung out for drying must be wrapped in gauze folded in 3-5 layers so that the flies do not get. If this is not done, then maggots will quickly start up in the fish, and it will be unsuitable for consumption. How much to dry carcasses depends on the taste of the owners. Someone keeps it for several days, someone for half a day.
If a large vobla, perch, goby is caught (which, although rare, does happen), then it must be gutted and freed from the head. Then - make several cuts along the back from the head to the tail and rub into their salt. Maybe with spices. After pouring the entire catch with salt, leave it for 8-10 days in a cool room. The emerging brine (brine) must be drained every day. After washing, when hanging to dry, each individual is inserted into the abdomen with a wooden spacer (for example, toothpicks or twigs peeled from the bark).
For salting fish you need a press
If the whole process is carried out correctly, then the carcass appearance will look like balyk, which is why this option of salting is popularly called "balykov". The taste of the resulting product is very refined.
Small fish, such as roach, are even easier to salt because they do not need to be gutted. It is washed, salted, laid in layers, and the container is placed in the refrigerator for 3, maximum 5 days. Then the product is washed, kept in clean water hour. After that, they are dried on paper towels and the carcasses are hung on a thread or on a skewer. The catch is dried for 5 to 10 days - it all depends on the size of the roach and the air temperature in the street or in the room where the product is dried.
Wet Ambassador
The process goes like this:
- The fish should be laid with their bellies up. Salt. For 1 kg of catch - 100 g of salt. To make the taste more tender, you can add sugar - 0.5 tsp.
- Place a lid on top, a circle - which fits under the pickling container. You can make a circle of linden, aspen.
- Put the container in a cool room for 4-8 days. Do not touch the protruding brine.
- Take the fish out of the liquid, rinse. Dry in the open air.
- Store in a shopping cart. You can use a wooden box.
If the fish is small, it can be immersed in brine for salting. Prepare it from 3 liters of water and 1 kg of salt. Next, rinse, dry and store.
sagging ambassador
Used for fatty fish. Large representatives of fish are prepared and hung on rods. Then - placed in brine. The brine should be so salty that the raw potato floats. Place the carcasses so that they do not squeeze one another too much. After a week, the product can be taken out of the brine and, washed and dried, eaten.
If a big catch is caught in the summer heat far from home, you can do the following:
- Salt fish carcasses in a large plastic bag.
- Bury the bag in the soil (it doesn't matter if it's sand or earth). Burying depth - 0.7-1 m. A layer of soil will serve as protection from heat and at the same time - oppression.
- To prevent moisture from dew or rain from entering the bag, a small bag must be put on the neck.
If the fish carcasses are large, then they must first be gutted, wiped dry (you can’t wash it!), Cut off the head and tail. Grate each carcass on the outside. Pour salt into all cuts and inner part. Wrap in clean burlap. You can also use a tissue paper. Wrap tightly with twine, bandage. Before cooking, the carcasses are soaked using milk or water. Then they cook - boil, stew, fry. The choice of option is to taste. You can also eat it raw, seasoned like a herring.
Advice. If a large catch was caught in the winter and thoroughly frozen on the way home, you should not salt such fish: after defrosting, the tissue structure is already broken, so it picks up a lot of salt. Because of this, it is very difficult to catch the moment when the carcasses are salted and you can significantly oversalt the fish. In addition, carcasses may disintegrate when soaked and hung. It is best to process the catch that has survived freezing and thawing into stew.
Salting large river fish: video
How to salt river fish: photo
Today I will tell you how to salt small fish at home for drying. In our case, this is a small perch. It is not necessary to gut the fish before salting. Many do not wash it from mucus. I flush a little with running water cold water right in the sink. Decide for yourself.
We lay the first layer of fish. The right way stacking fish head to tail. This will fit more. Sprinkle the layer of fish with salt. You don’t need to salt a lot, as we did when salting large fish.
So, layer by layer, one across the other. Last layer Sprinkle the fish on top with salt.
Now we need to match the plate to the size of the pan or something similar. We lay it upside down on the fish and put the load on top. This helps to squeeze out excess air from the fish, which contributes to the formation of putrefactive bacteria in the abdomen of the fish. As you remember, we do not gut small fish for drying.
We remove the pan in the refrigerator for three days. During this time, the fish is completely salted and there is no need to soak it. The salinity of the fish will be moderate if you only rinse each fish with running tap water. You can leave the fish to salt for up to 5 days, but in this case you need to hold the fish in the water a little. Let it release excess salt, about 30 - 40 minutes.
After that, lay out the small fish on a paper towel. Let the water drain and the paper towel absorb it. For this, 1 hour is enough.
Dried fish is one of the oldest Russian dishes. Residents of the coastal districts usually stored dried sea bass, silver carp, and cod for the winter. And the inhabitants of the middle regions of Russia dried pike, crucian carp and other river fish.
Dried sea bass: cooking secrets
Dried perch - a recipe for cooking delicious fish at home
Sea bass is very oily and delicious fish. That is why it is often used for curing. You can take both chilled carcasses and fresh ones. Frozen fish is not recommended. But if there is no choice, you can cook it. Just choose carcasses carefully. Perch should be fresh, fins and tail - not broken, eyes - transparent, round, not sunken. Before drying, the fish must be thawed.
For salting, a large sea bass is selected. Carcasses must weigh from 500 g to a kilogram. Freshly frozen fish is weighed after thawing. Then the head, caudal and lateral fins are separated, the insides are removed. The carcass is thoroughly washed.
For the ambassador, you need to choose the right dishes. It is better that it be an enamel basin or a deep saucepan. The bottom and sides of the container are sprinkled with coarse salt. Then the sea bass carcasses are laid out in layers on top of each other. Each level is sprinkled with salt. The amount of salt is about a kilogram per 5 kg of fish. Don't be afraid to oversalt the dish. The degree of salinity can be controlled by checking the fish from the top layer. As soon as it seems to you that it has dried enough, the carcasses can be freed from salt.
After salting, the fish is put under oppression for 18–20 hours. This is enough for carcasses weighing up to a kilogram to dry well.
As an oppression for salting fish, you can use a three-liter jar of water. Its weight is enough to create the right pressure
The finished perch is washed under running water to wash off excess salt. The fish can then be hung to dry. It is better to place carcasses near a heat source to evaporate excess moisture and the fish kept longer. In summer, perch can be dried on the balcony. After 3-7 days the fish will be ready.
Dried perch can be stored for six months. And if you put it in the refrigerator, then up to ten months
