Herring salted: cooking recipes

Herring salted - the most simple and inexpensive cold appetizer. It can be found on any table and in any corner of our country. However, this was not always the case. This fish appeared in Russia only in the 15th century, when, in fact, it was learned to salt it. Before that, it served as food for the poor and beggars exclusively in boiled and fried form. It is interesting that the name of its fish, most likely, from the word "salt", but through the Little Russian dialect - the word "sil" gradually turned into "sildi". So even the name suggests that the herring should be salty!

The most important step in preparing a dish such as salted herring is the right choice of the source product. We will not bore you with unnecessary details - it is unlikely that the average buyer will be able to distinguish the Baltic fish from the Pacific fish by eye. It is necessary to know the following: the herring for salting should be large (greasy), without visible damage, with a head, with tightly pressed fins, with a natural color without signs of yellowness.

The second important step is the proper defrosting of the fish. You can not defrost the herring under hot and cold water and in a microwave, even in a special "defrost" mode. The best option is to allow the fish to thaw in the refrigerator at a temperature of no higher than + 5 ° C.

The best and simplest recipes

1. Herring salted spicy salting

This is the simplest recipe for pickling. Clean and wash the fish, remove the gills (otherwise the finished product will be bitter) and put it in a suitable container. Brine: one liter of water, two large spoons of salt, one (without a slide) a spoonful of sugar, black and sweet pepper, peas and a pair of bay leaves. Bring the brine to a boil, cool and pour the fish. You can eat in a day.

2. Traditional herring salted herring

For this dish, you need to properly prepare a saturated saline solution - the salt should be added to hot water until it ceases to dissolve. Then the liquid is brought to a boil, if desired, add spices - mustard seeds, coriander, bell pepper and bay leaf. Then a pre-prepared fish is poured into the cooled brine, laid back up. The capacity should be left for about an hour at normal temperature, and then put into the refrigerator for one or two days. Important: if the fish is damaged skin, it will be salted.

3. Herring salted with dry salting

Fish should be cleaned and washed, remove the gills, and then carefully dry the carcass with paper towels. Then mix 1.5 tsp. Salt, 1 tsp. Sugar and 0.5 tsp. Black pepper and rub this herring mixture inside and out. After these manipulations, the fish should be wrapped in several layers of food film, put in a convenient container and put into the refrigerator for two days.

Sometimes the housewives transplant a spicy pickle or use an unsuitable fish. The result is a very salted herring. What to do in this case? You can use the old and well-proven method: soak the herring in milk. It will become very delicate and unusually tasty. Another, equally effective method is to fill the fish with cold water and change the liquid every 3-4 hours. In a day all the extra salt will be washed, though, and the herring will become more fresh. In order to give it a piquancy, we recommend to shift the fish with pickled onion and add a little unrefined sunflower oil. Another excess of salt can be removed if the fish is soaked in tea.

All these methods are good, but a quite natural question arises: "What if the herring is salty to the point of impossibility, but you want to eat it right now?" To do this, you need to mix the fish with some product that absorbs salt well. Of course, for this it is necessary to cut the herring on a fillet and make from it a sandwich mass or minced meat. As an add-on, avocado, boiled potatoes and egg whites are perfect . The prepared product should be spread on white or black (slightly dried) bread. Very simple and incredibly tasty!