Golden sprats shining with tender butter will decorate both a modest tea party with sandwiches and the most festive table. Many consider this small fish to be the same indispensable ingredient of the holiday as the Olivier salad. Sprats go well with many products, making them an excellent material for all sorts of culinary improvisations. They are served with fresh and pickled cucumbers, boiled eggs, olives and capers, fresh herbs, peas ... Salads and appetizers, sandwiches and canapes, valvans, baskets, profiteroles and much more are prepared from them.

Cooking sprats at home

Sometimes we fail - opening the can we bought, we find there is not what we expected, and instead of fragrant gold backs we get into the hands of shapeless plain-looking pieces ... Why not cook sprats at home? This will help to avoid such embarrassments, will protect us from useless ingredients, and also save a lot of money. There is nothing complicated in the recipe, and everyone who has learned how to cook sprats on their own has already seen this.

Choose a fish

Biologists say that sprats are a genus of fish from the herring family. Most likely, this is the case, but many of us are used to referring this word rather to a method of processing fish. Therefore, we often call it herring, sprat, sprat, and any other small fish stewed in aromatic oil. To cook sprats at home, you can take any medium-sized fish without scales.

Most often, it is enough to clean the carcass from the insides. Cutting off the heads is not necessary, but desirable. The fish intended for cooking must be washed thoroughly. Of course, it is best to use real sprats for this recipe.

Product proportions

In order to make sprats at home, the following ingredients will be required:

• 500 grams of fresh or thawed fish;
• incomplete glass of aromatic vegetable oil;
• a tablespoon of delicious tea leaves, preferably with bergamot;
• 2-3 onions, the most juicy;
• a bay leaf and a few peas of pepper;
• sea \u200b\u200bsalt.

For this dish, you can use a mixture of vegetable oils. For example, a taste neutral olive with unrefined sunflower. To make the taste of the oil more saturated, you can pre-cook in it ginger, roots, a bunch of herbs, spices.

Cooking Sprats At Home

A cast iron pot is best for prolonged stewing of fish. First of all, you need to pour oil into it and let it warm up. Meanwhile, finely chop the onions and make tea. Dip the fish and onion in oil, fill it with very strong tea and add spices. Cover and reduce heat to a minimum.

The recipe for sprats at home involves quite a long stew. It is necessary that the bones are completely steamed and softened. After all, as you know, they contain a large amount of phosphorus and they are good for health. And from an aesthetic point of view, the whole fish looks much nicer than broken into pieces. Typically, this dish reaches full readiness in an hour and a half or two. You can’t throw a saucepan without supervision, otherwise the fish and onions can burn. Sprats need to be mixed very carefully so as not to break the carcasses. Do it better with a wooden narrow spatula. The liquid should completely cover the fish. If it evaporates too quickly, you can add a little oil or boiling water.

To make the cast iron or pan heat evenly, it is better to use a divider. By the way, this simple device will also protect against burning. And it is advisable to cover the lid with a damp kitchen towel.

Little culinary secrets and tricks

1. If you pre-fry the onions in oil, the dish will be more flavorful.
2. To give the fish an even more golden color, a handful of onion husks can be added to the broth. As a natural dye, turmeric, saffron, cinnamon, paprika are used. Just abuse these spices is not worth it. After all, they have a fairly pronounced taste.
3. Sprats are very tasty at home, cooked in the oven, and not on the stove. The bones are steaming, the flesh is saturated with aromas. For baking, you can use open dishes. It is best to extinguish this dish in a cast iron, and already bring to complete readiness in the oven.

Serve home-made sprats to the table

Cooking sprats at home is so simple that this dish can be considered everyday. In addition, no significant costs are required. You can serve them for breakfast or dinner with a simple side dish. Gravy goes very well with mashed potatoes, boiled porridge, pasta. A salad of fresh herbs perfectly emphasizes the rich taste of fish.

This fish is good for sandwiches. It is only advisable to pre-spread the sprats on a sieve or paper towel to remove excess fat. You can spread bread, bruschetta or toast with butter, cream cheese, sauce. Sandwiches are decorated with slices of cucumber or pepper, fresh herbs, slices of tomatoes. Fruits such as avocados and kiwi go well with them.

Homemade sprats are also suitable for making pastes. To do this, they are crushed and mixed with boiled yolk, cream cheese, butter. You can stuff baskets and unsweetened profiteroles with such a paste. So, making sprats at home is not so difficult. And on the festive table this delicacy is simply irreplaceable.

If you like to eat sprats, but do not completely trust the products from the store, there is the opportunity to cook homemade sprats from river fish. This process is not at all time-consuming, requiring no cash costs. The only thing that will have to be spent is time, since sprats are cooked at home by prolonged languishing, either in a pot or in the oven. If you have two hours free, you have a little freshwater small fish, then you can make great tasty and tender sprats. By the way, they do not differ in taste from those sold in cans. But this product will definitely be safe for health, because you will cook it yourself.

Which fish is suitable for cooking sprats?

If you decide to make homemade sprats, you need to choose the right fish. Since sprats eat together with the skeleton, whose bones become boiling and soft during cooking, you need to use a small fish. Small crucians, perches, roaches, bleak are suitable - any small fish that they do not like to use for frying precisely because of the abundance of bones. For sprat, it’s just that. Of course, it should be fresh, ice cream is also suitable.

Homemade river fish sprats in a pan or slow cooker

If you want to make sprats not in the oven, but on the stove, prepare a pan with a wide bottom and a tight-fitting lid. You can use a slow cooker.

Ingredients: small river fish - 1 kg, 2-3 handfuls of onion husks, a glass of strong tea leaves, vegetable oil - half a glass. Spices: a tablespoon of salt, half as much sugar, 5 leaves of laurel, 7 peas of pepper (both black and fragrant will do).

First, it’s worth preparing the fish. Since it is small, you need to get the hang of cleaning it quickly. Take the scissors, trim the ponytails. To gut the insides, make incisions with a knife in the head area in the direction from the back to the abdomen (but not to the end). Now remove the head with your hands - when you pull it, the insides will follow it, they will come out.

Such cleaning allows you to reduce the time of the preparatory process, in addition, the abdominal part of the fish will remain uncut. Now you need to rinse the fish well under running water. To glass excess liquid, put the carcasses in a colander.

Now we will make a fill in which the fish will languish. Make very strong tea - use 5 tea bags of good quality per cup of boiling water. Dissolve sugar and salt in it, combine with vegetable oil. Wash the peel of the onion. First place the onion husks, peppers, laurel leaves in the selected pan or multicooker bowl. Gently place the fish on the resulting "pillow". Lay it in layers. Now pour the pot into the pan.

Set the pan on the stove, wait until the liquid boils. After boiling the fire should be reduced to a minimum value. Having covered the pan with a lid, simmer the fish for at least one and a half to two hours. Monitor the fluid level, add water if necessary.

If you are cooking home-made sprats in a slow cooker, then set it to the "Stew" mode for an hour. At the same time, close the cover and valve tightly to ensure complete sealing. Under pressure, the fish cooks faster.

When the sprats have cooled, they can be eaten. We assure you that they will not have to be stored for a long time. They are so tender and tasty that they disappear from the dish faster than they cooked.

Homemade river fish sprats in the oven

Similarly, you can cook homemade sprats from river fish and in the oven. Then all the ingredients are put in a baking dish, and on top of it is well closed with two layers of foil. Fish should languish for at least two hours. The main thing is that the liquid from the container does not evaporate. Keep the temperature around 130-140 degrees.

Sprats can be served with jacket potatoes or mashed potatoes, with vegetable stew or freshly sliced \u200b\u200bvegetables. This dish does not need decoration, sprats look appetizing on their own.

If you want to preserve sprats  from river fish at home, then read the following recipe:

Ingredients: take 3 kg of fresh small river fish, 3 heads of onions, one and a half glasses of vegetable oil, a quarter glass of vinegar, 0.5 liters of water, 2 teaspoons of salt, the same amount of sugar, peas, bay leaf - 7 pcs.

First gut and rinse the fish, let the water drain. Peel the onion from the husk, it will come in handy for us to color the sprats. Immediately boil the husk in the prepared water, strain the broth. We will use the obtained coloring liquid. Cut the onion into rings. Sterilize small jars and lids while the fish is cooking. Place the finished hot sprats in a container and seal. Wrap the jars with old blankets for a day. When they have cooled, put them in storage.

Take a stew pan, put a thin layer of onion rings on its bottom. We put fish on top of it, then onions and fish again. Add spices, onion broth, vinegar and vegetable oil to the pan. Cover. Set the fire to the minimum, put out future sprats for at least 3 hours.

If someone in the family often fishes, these recipes will definitely come in handy, because sprats are loved by everyone, without exception. They make great sandwiches for the festive table, take it as a snack for a picnic to treat friends. Home-made fish sprats are also safe - you can be sure of their quality, because you cook them yourself. When you are fed up with sprats, you can cook something else. For example, ear from river fish at home is also prepared quickly and easily. You can read about its preparation in the section “Healthy nutrition”.

Which of us does not remember small jars of sprats, which were considered a delicacy. Riga was especially appreciated, they were reserved for the festive table. Small fish, neatly arranged in two rows, smoked, tasty. How to cook sandwiches with sprats for a celebration - immediately got their supplies.

In fact, "sprat" is not the name of a fish. Sprat, salaga, any small fish are placed in the jar. Today at fish markets you can buy it exactly as much as your soul desires, then salt it. But instead, you can try to cook sprats at home. Do not be surprised, the process is not so complicated, and how long will it take you for a small fish no larger than 10 cm to be ready?

How to make sprats?

First, you need to clean all the fish. If you have patience, then stock up on a kilogram or two, drive away the cat and proceed to clean future sprats. Then you need strong tea "a la chifir", it is he who will give the sprat or any other fish the desired color. Well, of course, a frying pan, liquid smoke and onion husks. That's all the secrets. As you can see, making sprats is easier than withstanding the obsessive meow under the kitchen door, namely you will hear it while cooking. Spices and additives are the ingredients that you put, focusing on your own taste.

Home-made sprats - recipe

If you have already been patient, with small fresh fish and all the necessary ingredients, then let's find out how to cook sprats at home.

Ingredients:

• small fish - 1 kg;
• onion husks - 3-4 handfuls;
• vegetable oil - 0.5 cups;
• salt - 2 tbsp. spoons;
• tea brew - 1 tbsp. a spoon;
• sugar - 2 tsp;
• liquid smoke - 1 tsp;
• peas, bay leaf - to taste.

Cooking

To start, we brew strong black tea. Then we wash the onion husks, fill with water and boil for about 20 minutes. We clean the small fish, cut off the head, fins, if necessary. If the fish is very small, then the fins can not be cut. Filter the onion broth, throw out the husks and measure out a liter of liquid, which we will need to prepare the sprat. Mix broth, tea and oil in a separate bowl, add salt, sugar, peppercorns, black pepper, bay leaf and fish. Cook for about 1.5 hours on low heat. At the end of cooking, add liquid smoke.

Now do you know how to cook homemade sprats? You can try to make a larger amount and put the fish in the refrigerator. It will be stored for about 2 months.

Sprat recipe

It is worth noting that you can not boil the fish in a pan (although it is cooked in this way, it is much faster), you can try to darken it in a pan.

Ingredients:

Cooking

We carefully clean all small fish from the guts, separate the head and fins. We brew strong tea in a mug (250 ml). We put onion husk at the bottom of a deep frying pan, a layer of peeled fish on top of it. Sprinkle with salt, seasonings, add 4 bay leaves. Then again a layer of fish and spices. On the last layer of fish we do not put a bay leaf. Now we pour oil, strained tea, vinegar, sugar, liquid smoke, cover with a lid and leave to simmer for 4 hours over low heat. Then let the sprats cooked at home, cool and spread on a dish.

For a long time I wanted to cook and this day has come. The recipe has been tested and the result is approved. It turns out that cooking home-made sprats is not at all difficult, besides they turn out very similar in appearance to the original sprats from a jar.

Of course, many still remember those times of shortage, when it was considered a real success to buy a jar of delicious Riga sprats in oil. Nowadays, the range of sprats is so large that sometimes you do not know which one to give preference to. And even despite this, many are wondering how to cook homemade sprats. There are several explanations for this phenomenon. Well, firstly, home-made sprats at a cost price are cheaper, and secondly, such sprats will be more useful and even safer than store sprats.

What about taste, you ask? Sprats cooked at home, like mine and many others, if smoking was not used in the process of preparation, differ from purchased ones by the absence of smoked taste. But this is easy to fix if a small amount of liquid smoke is added to the marinade. To date, there are several ways to prepare sprats.

You can cook them by stewing or stewing in a marinade, or by smoking. In the latter case, they are kept in a marinade, after which they are smoked using cold or hot smoking. From the above it becomes clear that for the preparation of sprats you can use not only a stove, but also an oven, a smokehouse, a slow cooker or a microwave.

For cooking sprat, you can use sprat, capelin. All this fish is small and belongs to the herring family. At the factory, the fish is soaked in special brines, after pickling it is smoked, poured with oil and rolled into jars.

Today I want to show you how to cook sprats from herring at home step by step with a photo. The fish will be cooked (languished) in the oven in a mixture of a decoction of onion husks and strong tea leaves. Thanks to these ingredients, the fish becomes golden dark brown during the stew, similar to the color of smoked products. At the same time, tea brewing rich in tannins, in addition to color, will make it harder, and the fish will not be able to keep their shape ready. Well, and, of course, for flavoring sprats you will need spices - bay leaves and black peppercorns.

Instead, you can use any of the above types of fish instead of herring. As for me, the sprat with herring is just perfect for these purposes. Capelin has a distinct specific smell, slightly different from the smell of sprats.

Ingredients:

• Salaka - 500 gr.,
• A decoction of onion husks - 1 glass,
• Strong welding - half a cup,
• Salt - 1 tbsp. a spoon,
• Sugar - 1 tbsp. a spoon,
• Black pepper peas - 4-6 pcs.,
• Bay leaf - 2-4 pcs.,
• Refined sunflower oil - 0.5 cups.

Sprats from herring at home - recipe

Having prepared all the necessary ingredients, you can start cooking home-made sprats from. First of all, you need to prepare a decoction of onion peel. Onion peel, no matter how clean it may seem, must be washed with warm water before use.

Pure husk of onion (take two handfuls) pour a half-liter can of water. Cook the onion husk broth over low heat for 20-30 minutes. The longer it cooks, the richer it will turn out.

While it will be ready, you can prepare herring. If the fish is frozen, it must be immediately thawed.

Traditionally, sprats are prepared from gutted fish, without heads. Therefore, at the herring, cut off the heads, using an incision on the abdomen, remove the insides. Wash the fish thoroughly inside.

Put the prepared herring in a heat-resistant form in rows.

In the event that you want to cook a lot of sprats, it is better to take a larger shape and lay out the fish in rows than to lay out the fish in two layers. If this is done, then, most likely, sprats will lose their appearance, especially those that will be in the lower row. In a form with herring, put peas of black pepper and bay leaf. In addition to these spices, you can add cloves or nutmeg.

Pour in sunflower oil. Give preference to refined oil.

Prepare a strong tea leaves.

Mix a decoction of onion peel with tea leaves. Add salt and sugar. The amount of these ingredients can be adjusted as you wish. Mix marinade for cooking sprats from herring until salt and sugar dissolve.

Pour the fish with the resulting marinade. Please note that the marinade should not cover the back of the fish. Pour the marinade into the container (form with the fish gradually). If there is an extra marinade left, and this can be, depending on who’s shape, just don’t add it.

Put the fish in the oven heated to 180C. After 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 120 C. Extinguish the herring at this temperature for an hour and a half. The time shown is approximate and will depend on several factors.

Larger sizes will take longer to cook than small ones. If you want to get softer and dried sprats - you need to hold them in the oven a little longer. Ready sprats, take out their ovens and let them cool completely to room temperature.

The fact is that hot sprats are quite brittle, so if you put them on a plate without letting them cool properly, you risk breaking them all.

Sprats from herring at home, a step by step recipe  which we examined, like ordinary sprats can be used for canapes, sandwiches, salads and other dishes. Good appetite. I would be glad if this recipe for sprats from herring is useful to you.

Sprats from herring at home. Photo

In fact, cooking sprats at home is not difficult. Made from herring or large sprats, they taste not too different from high-quality canned goods. Although today the notorious "high quality" of these canned fish is very doubtful. Therefore, why not try to cook delicious home-made sprats yourself? Record the ingredients.

So, for cooking sprats with your own hands you will need:

• Frozen herring or sprat - 1 kg;
• Strong chilled tea - 350 ml;
• Salt - 1 dessert spoon;
• Turmeric - 1 tsp;
• Bay leaf - 1 pc.;
• A couple of cloves and peppercorns to taste;
• Vegetable oil - 100 ml. It's all. Agree, you can easily remember.

Sprats at home - recipe

The hardest part of this recipe is cleaning the fish. Defrost sprat or herring, cut off her heads and throw out the insides. Then we wash the carcasses well under running water and put them in a small saucepan with their bellies down (in fact, as they lie in cans).

Pour future sprats with strong tea (or rather, tea leaves) in which salt and turmeric were previously bred. To make tea you need 2 tablespoons with a slide of 350 ml. water. Put a bay leaf on top and pour oil on it. All.

It remains to turn on the stove and simmer the fish for 2-3 hours on a small fire. On a very small one! Fish should languish, not boil. If you are using a slow cooker, select the "quenching" mode.

Advice! If you took a sprat for cooking sprats, the cooking time needs to be slightly reduced - about half an hour. Make sure that the fish does not boil.

Hot home-made sprats taste completely different from the store. Let them cool and you will be pleasantly surprised. Sprats from herring or sprats go well with sandwiches or in combination with a vegetable side dish, and together with eggs, cheese and herbs, they can be a great filling for pita bread and cooking fish salads.

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