Hot smoking of fish

Fish is a very useful and tasty product, and smoked fish is a delicacy.

There is a cold and hot smoking of fish. The essence of these processes is reflected in their name: when hot, fish is treated with hot smoke (up to 170 ° C), while cold smoking is cold (from 20 to 40 ° C). And if it takes quite a few hours for hot smoking, it sometimes takes several days for a cold smoking.

In order to make hot smoking of fish, it is better to choose a fish with a rather tender pulp - medium fat or lean (the hot method is generally more often used for low-fat products), although fatty, for example, eel. Similarly, fish of the family of sturgeon, salmon, asp, bream, whitefish, herring, sea bass, cod are smoked . Tasty and small fish (Baltic herring, vendace, sprat) is also tasty. One is inconvenient: a tender hot smoked fish is a fragile product, it can not be stored for long. Hot smoked fish is produced on special smokehouses, which are simple and complex, for this purpose you can also use the chimney of the stove. Nevertheless, the most good smokehouse, which is arranged on the earthen slope from improvised materials. First you need to dig a small hole - half a meter deep and wide. From above it is necessary to put about ten thin sticks, on them - in advance prepared fish. It should be laid horizontally: this way less fat will flow out. Inside such a smokehouse you should kindle aspen, birch or alder firewood in such a way that they smoke more than burned. It should be continuously monitored to ensure that the smoke is hot and thick. Periodically, the fish should be turned from side to side, from the abdomen on the back.

Readiness is determined by breakdown, when the fish break in half. If there is no blood around the ridge, the skin lags easily, there is some juice between the meat and skin, it means that the product is ready. The fish will have a golden-bronze hue and a pleasant aroma.

Hot smoked fish can also be carried out, on a fire in the crevice among the stones. In this case, fish should be threaded on a long twig and set near the fire, certainly on the lee side. Still it is possible to hang it in nets from under fruit or vegetables. In a fire it is necessary to kindle ashes of aspen or alder, then to put damp branches, wormwood, rye straw. Smoke should be from one to three hours.

Fresh fish should be cleaned from scales, washed, gutted. Then it should be salted: rub first outside, then inside - under the gills and along the incision. Put the fish so salted into the basket and leave it for 8-10 hours, at night. In the morning, thread under the gills on a string and hang out to the wind and sun. A large fish is better to insert spacers from the sticks into the abdomen. Drying lasts 3-4 hours. Then the hot smoking of fish is done in a forced manner.

On the bottom of the smokehouse should put 2-3 handfuls of thin dry twigs, and on top lay pieces of wood or branches. Then we put the grate with the fish, cover the smokehouse, put it on the fire and we surround it with firewood.

After 20 minutes, remove the smoke from the fire, let it cool for about 5-10 minutes, without removing the lid. Thus, the hot smoking of fish takes place according to the accelerated method.

However, if you do not have the opportunity to smoke fish on the nature, and you really want to eat this delicacy, then the hot smoked fish in aerogril will suit you. This requires two small carcasses of freshwater fish (pike perch, pike, asp, carp), apple or alder shavings, salt.

The fish should be gutted and rinsed. Then rub it with salt, cover and hold for 3 hours at room temperature. Then put on the grate of aerogrill, put chips on its bottom and sprinkle them with a little water.

To smoke fish in aerogrills should be about half an hour at a high speed fan and at a temperature of 210 ° C.