Salted herring is served on weekdays and holidays. But the quality of purchased fish is not always at its best. Therefore, it is better to cook the salted herring yourself.
Products for salting herring
To prepare 1 liter of herring brine, you will need the following ingredients: 30-40 ml of 4% vinegar, 6 tablespoons of salt, 4 tablespoons of granulated sugar, 1-2 bay leaves, 3-5 black peppercorns.
The finished herring is stored in glass jars, filled with vegetable oil. As a rule, 2 cut herring are placed in a liter jar, for pouring 0.5 liters of brine are needed.
Homemade salted herring recipe
Fish carcasses are gutted and washed under running cold water, heads and tails are trimmed, fins and gills are removed. Prepared carcasses are transferred to a colander and left for 40-60 minutes to drain all the liquid.
You can remove the backbone from the fish by cutting the carcass along the back. The rib bones are usually removed along with the ridge. You can salt the herring whole, or by cutting the fillet into pieces.
A liter of water is poured into a saucepan and put on high heat. Salt, sugar, bay leaves and black peppercorns are added to the water. The brine should be boiled for no more than 2-3 minutes. Then remove the pan from heat and add vinegar to the brine.
The herring is transferred to a glass jar and poured over with cooled brine. After closing the lid, the jar is placed in the refrigerator for a day. If you decide to cook lightly salted herring, this time is quite enough. Very salted herring will turn out if you keep the fish in brine for 2-3 days.
The finished herring is transferred to another jar and poured with vegetable oil. If desired, sprinkle the fish with ground black pepper. Salted herring, cooked by yourself, is stored in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks.
The nuances of cooking salted herring at home
It is imperative to remove the gills, otherwise the fish will turn out with a pronounced bitter taste. For salting, it is better to choose ocean fish, since sea herring can contain a large amount of toxins due to pollution of coastal waters.
A good quality herring should have light bulging eyes, natural coloration, and fins and gills tightly pressed against the body. It is advisable to choose large, heavy carcasses with a sufficient amount of fat. It is this herring that turns out to be the most tender.
You can cook savory salted herring by brushing mustard on the carcass and then pouring it with brine. The herring is kept at room temperature for 2-3 hours, and then put into the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
