Humanity made a big leap forward when it invented ways of preserving food. Smoking is one of the ways to preserve food. Thus, it is possible to preserve production directly in field conditions, having at hand a minimum of aids and consumables. There are two ways of smoking: cold and hot.
It is necessary
-
- a fish;
- coarse salt;
- hardwood.
Instructions
Step 1
Prepare the fish: gut it, rinse it thoroughly and put it in a bowl, sprinkle with salt at the rate of 1.5 kg of salt per 10 kg of product. You can add a little sugar to the salt, this will improve the taste of the finished product. Add your favorite spices: pepper, aromatic herbs. Cover the fish with a flat dish, press down with something heavy and let it sit in the brine for 3-5 days, depending on the size of the fish.
Step 2
Remove the fish from the brine and rinse: shallow in running water for 1-2 hours, and large ones can be soaked for up to a day. Then the fish needs to be dried: collect small pieces on a string of 5-6 pieces, stringing them through the eyes. It is better to tie a large one by the tail and hang it upside down. Take the fish out to dry in the open air. Make sure that the fish is weathered from all sides, if necessary, insert wooden spacers into the abdomens so that everything inside is also dried.
Step 3
After 2-3 days, hang the dried and dried fish in the smokehouse and start smoking: the coals should smolder and smoke, avoid open flames. Make sure that the smoking temperature remains within 25 degrees, otherwise you will get a hot method. The smoking process is very delicate, it is almost impossible to get the same results, even if you really strive for it. The taste of the final product depends on smoke production, which, in turn, depends on wood, weather and many other factors. Smoking is a process that requires constant attention, since it is necessary to maintain heat in the coals around the clock.
Step 4
For smoking, take hardwood, conifers are not suitable for smoking, it contains too many resinous substances, as a result, the products acquire bitterness. Birch is suitable for smoking, but you need to remove the bark from it, otherwise the tar contained in it settles on the product. Southerners try to use firewood from fruit trees for smoking products: they enrich the taste of smoked meats with their aromas. That is why, by the end of smoking, it is recommended to add tree branches with aromatic wood or spicy grass to the coals. For example, juniper smoke has disinfecting properties and has a wonderful aroma.
