Cold smoking is called because of what happens at a temperature of 28-35 degrees for 1 to 4 days, depending on the size of the fish. The fish is smoked by the smoke generated by the combustion of sawdust from wood. Before starting smoking, it is necessary to carry out preparatory measures.
It is necessary
-
- A fish
- salt
- water
- smokehouse
- sawdust
- raw juniper branches.
Instructions
Step 1
Gut the fish, i.e. remove all the insides from it. It is also recommended to remove the gills. Achieve complete exsanguination, otherwise there may be blood stains on the carcass of smoked fish. Scales do not need to be removed.
Step 2
Salt the fish. To do this, first make an 8% solution of table salt: per 100 ml of water, take 8 g of table salt. The volume of the solution depends on the amount of fish. Place the fish in this solution. It should be completely covered with a solution, and there should not be too much of it in one container, otherwise the fish will not be completely salted. Leave it like this at room temperature for about 12 hours.
Step 3
Soak salted fish in fresh water for 1-2 days at a temperature of 12 degrees. You can maintain this temperature with ice. Soaking the fish removes any excess salt that may be present, for example, in the upper layers of the carcass. The salt in the fish is evenly distributed.
Step 4
Hang the fish on metal hooks or a rope and dry it with warm air for about a day. She should wither slightly.
Step 5
Then proceed directly to cold smoking. There are special smokehouses, but if necessary, you can make it yourself in an old barn 1.5 - 2 meters high. The fish should be suspended as high as possible. Before smoking in a bucket, make a fire with alder or aspen sawdust. It is not recommended to use pine wood, because it will make smoked fish taste bitter. When the flame goes out in the bucket and smoke comes out, place it under the fish. At the initial stage of smoking, it is necessary to monitor the constant supply of smoke to the fish. The flame should not flash, it can turn the smoking from cold to hot. At the end of the process, add raw juniper branches, their smoke has antimicrobial properties, so the fish does not grow moldy and keeps longer.
Step 6
After smoking, let the fish hang for about 2 more days without smoke, it will wither a little and become even tastier.
