Mackerel meat is tender and juicy. It contains many beneficial trace elements and minerals. Mackerel can be fried, stewed, boiled, baked. Salted fish is usually bought at the store, but it can be easily salted at home.
There are several options for delicious salting of mackerel: dry salted and in brine, carcass and gutted, pieces and fillets, as well as slicing. The cooking time stretches from 30 minutes to three days.
The first step is to choose the mackerel. It can be either fresh or frozen. The mackerel carcass must be free from external damage, the color must be natural. If there are yellow spots on the belly of the fish, then the fish is old.
For salting, it is important to choose a good mackerel. Its carcass must be undamaged and naturally colored. It is best to buy fatty fish with a thick back.
The fish must be chosen large, otherwise it will not be suitable for slicing. Moreover, the larger the fish, the fatter, and this is the main advantage of mackerel. The degree of salting will depend on the exposure time in the brine. To prepare it, you need to observe the proportion: for 1 kg of fish - 300 g of salt. Salt is used only of stone or coarse grinding. The "extra" option will spoil the fish.
To prepare dry salted mackerel, 1 kg of mackerel will need 0.3 kg of coarse salt and 2 bay leaves.
Mackerel must be thawed in the refrigerator and rinsed thoroughly. Be sure to remove the gills, otherwise the fish will taste bitter. Dry the carcasses with a paper towel. Now you need to take a suitable dish. It can be enameled, glass or plastic. Do not use aluminum and cast iron cookware, the fish will taste like iron.
To make salted mackerel look like smoked mackerel, add onion peel and black tea to the brine. Instead of onion peels, turmeric is also suitable. It will also make the fish golden yellow.
A layer of salt should be poured at the bottom, add one bay leaf. Place the mackerel backs down. Sprinkle with salt on top and add the bay leaf again. Put oppression on the carcasses at the rate: for 1 kg of fish - 0.3 kg of cargo. On the second day of salting, you will get very lightly salted mackerel, on the third - lightly salted, on the fourth - salted.
In brine, mackerel is prepared in the same way, only the carcasses are not covered with salt, but filled with strong saline solution. If not a whole carcass is being prepared, but gutted, the fish must be cleaned very carefully. In addition to the viscera, the black film covering the belly of the mackerel must be removed. The fish must be perfectly clean. Tuzluk is prepared at the rate: for 1 liter of water - 3 tbsp. l. coarse salt.
In order for salted mackerel to acquire a light smoked flavor, you need to add smoked prunes to the brine.
When preparing spicy salted mackerel, it is recommended to use the following ratio: add 3 tbsp for 1 liter of water. l. salt and 2 tbsp. l. Sahara. From the obligatory seasonings - bay leaf, black peppercorns, cloves, allspice, coriander seeds, cardamom, mustard seed. To obtain a beautiful golden color, onion husks or a glass of strong tea leaves are added to the brine.
When salting mackerel in pieces or fillets, the salting process does not change, but the exposure time in the brine is reduced. For good salting of fillets, it takes a day, and fish salted in pieces will be ready in five hours.
