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, the 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 a hot smoking, it sometimes takes several days for a cold smoking.
In order to produce hot smoked 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 can also come off. Similarly, fish of the family of sturgeon, salmon, asp, bream, whitefish, herring, sea bass, cod are smoked. A 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 in depth and width. 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 it is necessary to kindle aspen, birch or alder firewood in such a way that they smoke more than burned. It must 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.
The readiness is determined by the breakdown, when the fish is brokenin 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 bea fire in the crevice among the stones. In this case, fish should be strung on a long twig and set near the fire, certainly on the leeward side. Still it is possible to hang it in nets from under fruit or vegetables. In a fire it is necessary to kindle a dry aspen or alder, then lay damp branches, wormwood, rye straw. Smoke should be from one to three hours.
Fresh fish should be cleaned from scales, washed,to gut. Then it must 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 in 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.
At the bottom of the smokehouse should put 2-3 handfulsthin dry twigs, and from above put pieces of wood or branches. Then we put the grate with the fish, cover the smoking smoker, 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, hot smoking of fish takes place according to the accelerated method.
However, if you do not have the opportunity to smoke fishon the nature, and to eat this delicacy very much it would be desirable, to you the fish of hot smoking in aerogril will approach. This requires two small carcasses of freshwater fish (pike perch, pike, asp, carp), apple or alder chips, salt.
The fish should be gutted and rinsed.Then rub with salt, cover and keep for 3 hours at room temperature. Then place on the lattice of aerogrill, put chips on its bottom and sprinkle them with a little water.
Smoke fish in aerogrills should be about half an hour at a high fan speed and at a temperature of 210 ° C.
