There are a lot of ways of salting fish before drying it.

Here we give only general "universal" recommendations for salting and drying different fish. You can also download for review a selection of 17 books on salting, drying and smoking fish and meat (via the link below).

Drying fish at home

1. salting fish;
2. soaking fish;
3. drying (drying fish).

Salting fish for drying can be done in two ways: wet and dry ambassador.

Salting fish in brine

Not very large fish are salted with wet salting(weighing up to 200-500 g). In the cool season, the fish need not be gutted; in the warm season, they must be gutted. Clean fish is not washed, but only wiped with a dry towel.

Prepared fish is placed in an enamel bucket, basin or saucepan, after sprinkling salt on the bottom. The fish is laid in dense rows: head to tail, back to belly. Each row is salted abundantly. So much salt is poured onto the top row so that it covers all the fish. To add a special taste, you can add a little sugar to the salt..

A plate is placed on top in the shape of the dishes and bends on it (only in order to submerge the fish in the resulting brine). In 4-5 hours after salting, the fish itself starts up the brine. The fish is salted for 2-5 days (depending on the size of the fish). For the entire period of salting, the fish must be placed in the coldest place possible (in summer heat, preferably in the refrigerator).

Before hanging out for drying, fish salted in this way is soaked in a large amount of water for 2-5 hours, depending on the size of the fish and the time of salting.

Salting fish with dry salting

Larger fish are salted dry... Each fish is cut along the back and stretched out. Remove the insides, then wipe with a dry cloth. The inside of the fish is sprinkled with plenty of salt. The fish carcasses are laid in rows in a wooden box, so that the abdomens are directed upwards, and salt is also poured onto the scales on top. The box is placed in a hole dug in a cool place, covered with plastic wrap on top.

Depending on the size of the fish, the salting lasts from 3 to 7 days. In the process of salting, the fish also secretes its juice, but it immediately flows out of the box through the cracks. This is the meaning of dry salting of fish.

Dry salt can also be used for small fish without gutting. A clean rag is spread on a wide board, the fish are laid in rows head to tail, on top of each other, sprinkled with salt and wrapped in the same rag. On top of the "package" is covered with another board and oppression is placed on it. The juice flowing out of the fish will seep through the fabric and spill out onto the ground.

The salted fish is washed and soaked for 2-14 hours, changing the water 2-3 times. The soaking process ends when the fish begins to float.

Drying fish

After washing, the fish is very wet, so they hang it out overnight to weather it (flies lay larvae only on a damp surface, and at night there are no flies). In the morning, the fish is sprayed with a solution of vinegar - its smell repels insects. Then the fish is hung out in the shade in a ventilated place.

An ideal place for drying fish is a special ventilated drying cabinet.

It is not necessary, but such fish as vybets, blue bream, shemaya are hung upside down, and sabrefish, bream, ram, zander - head up. Why is that? It is not known for certain, and this is just a recommendation. From the point of view of common sense, it is better to hang any fish that are not gutted by their tails, in order to prevent bitterness from the gallbladder from flowing down all over the fish.

Drying lasts from several days to several weeks, depending on the size of the fish.

Dried fish at home turns out to be much tastier than on sale in stores and on the market!

A selection of books on salting, drying and smoking fish and meat:

The presented collection of books contains all the necessary information about the methods and technology of smoking, salting, drying meat and fish at home. In addition, this collection contains books on making various types of devices for smoking and drying fish and meat from improvised means!

Books included in the collection:

1. Catch preservation and fish preparation methods
2. Delicious meat. Drying, smoking, baking
3. Homemade lard and smoked meats
4. Salting, pickling, drying, smoking
5. Summer kitchen, barbecue, smokehouse, pergola
6. Canning, smoking, winemaking
7. Homemade electric smokehouse
8. Smoking and salting meat products
9. Correct smoking and drying of fish
10. Homemade smoked meats and sausages
11. Salted, dried, smoked fish
12. Salted, smoked, dried fish
13. Smokeless smoking basics
14. All about smoking products
15. A fish. Drying. Smoking
16. Smoke, dry, salt
17. Country smokehouse

Format: PDF
The size: 97 Mb

The recipe for salting red fish or river fish is simple. At home, it is important to correctly determine the ratio of fillets or carcasses and salt. Fish must be taken fresh or frozen, whole or steaks. It takes several hours to obtain a slightly salted product, a more salty taste requires 1-2 days.

How to salt red fish

• Time: 2 hours.
• Servings Per Container: 2 Persons.
• Difficulty: easy.

The recipe for salting red fish at home involves the use of good quality fish.

For salting, pink salmon, salmon, and trout are used.

After the end of salting, the finished dish is used for sandwiches.

Ingredients:

• sugar, salt - 15 g each;
• salmon steak - 250 g;
• vegetable oil - 60 g;
• ground black pepper - 3 g.

Cooking method:

1. Start a red fish ambassador at home by processing the carcass.
2. Freeze the fish slightly before use.
3. Combine the spices in a separate bowl.
4. Cut the steak into thin slices.
5. Place plastic wrap on the bottom of the plastic container.
6. Coat with oil, sprinkle with spice mixture.
7. Lay out the first layer of salmon.
8. Pour oil again, sprinkle with spices.
9. Layer all fish pieces.
10. Soak in the cold for about 2 hours.

Quick herring ambassador

• Time: 40 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 10 Persons.
• Difficulty: medium.

Salting fish at home is carried out by dry, sagging salting methods or using brine. The latter method works well for salting herring. It turns out to be spicy, used for garnish, salads.

Ingredients:

• salt - 3 tbsp. l .;
• water - 1 l;
• fresh frozen herring - 4 pcs.;
• sugar - 1.5 tsp;
• bay leaf - 2 pcs.;
• black pepper - 5 peas;
• cloves - 2 pcs.

Cooking method:

1. Thaw herring at room temperature.
2. You don't need to gut the fish.
3. For brine, fill all components with hot water.
4. Bring the liquid to a boil until the salty and sweet crystals dissolve.
5. Remove marinade from heat, cool.
6. Dip the herring into a container of salted liquid for pre-salting for 24 hours. Place oppression on top.
7. Then transfer the carcasses to a food container with a lid, fill with the remaining brine.
8. Refrigerate food for 24 hours.

• Time: 40 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 6 Persons.
• Difficulty: easy.

Peled belongs to the lake and river species. It must be selected in the same size, no more than 25-30 cm long. For salting at home, you can use carcasses, pieces, unpeeled fish with their heads.

Ingredients:

• peled - 1 kg;
• onion - 1 pc.;
• salt - 2 tbsp. l .;
• black pepper - 5 pcs.;
• vinegar 6% - 100 ml;
• sugar - ½ tsp;
• bay leaf - 2 pcs.;
• coriander, nutmeg - to taste.

Cooking method:

1. Rinse fresh peled.
2. Remove scales, heads, entrails.
3. Cut into small pieces.
4. Fold in a jar.
5. Lay the onion on top, cut into half rings.
6. Add all the spices. Shake the can.
7. Pour in vinegar, stir again.
8. Place the peled in the refrigerator or cellar for 3 hours.

Salting river fish

• Time: 30 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 5 Persons.
• Difficulty: easy.

At home, for dry salting, it is better to choose river species. The fish should not be large, it is worth stopping the choice on crucian carp, perch or roach.

It is important to use glass, enamel or plastic dishes for salting.

Ingredients:

• perch - 1 kg;
• water - 500 ml;
• salt - 1 tbsp. l .;
• sugar - 1 tsp;
• peppercorns - 5 pcs.

Cooking method:

1. Gut the perch carcasses, cut off the heads.
2. Mix spices with water, boil.
3. Cool the resulting liquid.
4. Place the fish carcasses in an enamel pot.
5. Fill with brine at room temperature.
6. For lightly salted bass, keep it cold for 2 days.
7. If you want a rich, salty taste - for 5 days.

Recipe in oil

• Time: 30 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 5 Persons.
• Difficulty: easy.

At home, you can carry out salting using oil. This marinade helps to cook the product quickly. It turns out delicious, with the aroma of pickled onions. The recipe is more suitable for oily fish.

Ingredients:

• mackerel s / m - 3 pcs.;
• sunflower oil, boiled water - 125 g each;
• salt - 3 tsp;
• mustard, sugar - 1 tsp each;
• onion - 2 pcs.;
• vinegar - ½ tsp.

Cooking method:

1. Peel the mackerel of entrails, scales and heads.
2. Slice in portions.
3. Combine all ingredients except the onion.
4. Put fish pieces into the resulting brine.
5. Fill with chopped onion, stir.
6. Cover the container with cling film, put in the cold.
7. Shake the salted fish container occasionally.
8. It will be ready in 36 hours.

Video

How to salt the fish yourself? With a strong rise in prices for imported vacuum-packed trout, this issue is more urgent than ever. Moreover, the domestic product has solid pluses, and the foreign one has minuses. See for yourself: Norwegian, and the fish from the Faroe Islands is too fat, raised in captivity. Although it is beautiful (remember the white stripes - this is fat), it is not at all as healthy and tasty as the wild Murmansk salmon or the Far Eastern sockeye salmon.

You know what you put in your fish, but what you watered and how you salted salmon from the store - it's better not even to know. It should be remembered that salting can serve as one of the ways to sell fish of the second freshness.

The only drawback of homemade salted fish: you have to cut it yourself. But it only takes about 15-20 minutes.

Advice. Better not to buy chilled fish. Most likely, this is the same frozen one. The fact is that our fishermen usually freeze it right on the ship.

What kind of fish to take

Almost any red fish is suitable for salting. Coho salmon and chum salmon perform excellently, but they are rather dry for stewing and frying. Trout, salmon, red salmon are simply wonderful fish. You can take more fish, salt only a part, and put the second on steaks or fry the fillets, you can also stew them in sauce ... Yes, even pink salmon is very tasty when salted, and by the way, very cheap. Only her appearance is the most modest of all salmon. Pink salmon meat is rather gray and holds its shape worst of all when slicing.

Butchering

Tip: It is very convenient to cut the fish with scissors. They somehow cut everything very easily. You can take a knife of medium length, it will help to peel meat from the ribs.

Another tip: it is more convenient to cut fish if it is not completely defrosted.

Cut off the tail and head, if any. A lot of fish is sold gutted, it is more convenient and easier to cut it.

Peel off the scales and then wash the fish. It does not always need to be cleaned, but if there are a lot of scales on the skin, you will not get rid of it later.

Cut the skin along the ridge, going around one or both sides. Use your fingers to separate the ridge from one side, reach the spine with your hand and separate all the meat from the back from the bones.

Use scissors to cut out the pelvic fins.

Turn the fish over so that the part to be separated is at the bottom and the bones are at the top. Helping yourself with a knife, separate the ribs from the meat, then the tail of the ridge.

If films remain in the area of ​​the insides, remove them. But the main film leaves along with the ribs.

Separate the dorsal fin and also cut the fin from the bottom of the tail.

And use a knife to separate the ridge from the second half of the fish. It is also better to start at the top, and then rip off the ribs.

And you have two halves of a red fish fillet.

If you wanted to use some of it on steaks, then, of course, you first had to cut them off, and then cut the fish into fillets.

Salting

Mix 2 tbsp. sugar and 1 tbsp. salt (per 1 kg of fillet). Sprinkle the meat with a thick layer. Fold the fish so that the skin is facing out. Place in a bowl with a lid. Cover with foil. If the fish is thick, then you can put a small load. Not more than half a kilogram. Usually I salted 2-3 kg fish and do not put the load.

The fish itself gives juice and is perfectly salted in it.

What to add

Dill is in perfect harmony with fish. They can be sprinkled with fish during salting or after.

A few pinches of lemon zest will suit red fish; it must be added to the salting mixture. If you want to add lemon when serving, then garnish the sliced ​​fish in thin wedges.

To make the fish salted and more tender, you can grease it when salting with odorless oil.

It happens that pepper, spices, bay leaves, garlic are added to fish during salting. The taste turns out to be interesting, but it is very different from what we are used to.

How much salt

Lightly salted fish will turn out in just 8-10 hours. But this is not the safest option, since another life can lurk in the fish. Therefore, it is better to salt for a day or two. It will be saltier, but safer.

To stop the salting process, you need to drain the juice that the fish gave. For reliability, cut it into pieces.

How to cut

It is convenient to cut the fillets skin side down. I would not recommend turning meat on a board when it comes to our fish. It is very soft and will fall apart instantly.

Cut with a sharp knife, slightly obliquely, so that the pieces are wider. The remaining skin can be used to cover the fish in the tray from airing.

Important! Before slicing, check to see if you removed all the bones when slicing.

If you like to feast on delicious dried fish, you will be interested in how to salt fish for drying, and how to dry it properly.

It is difficult to find tasty, fresh and moderately salted dried fish in stores. Remember how often you buy dried (dried) fish, go home in anticipation, expect that the fish will be oily and moderately salty, because it is so good with cold beer. But when cutting the fish, most buyers are disappointed. The fact is that salted fish is often stored in store refrigerators for weeks or even months.

So, if you want to eat fresh dried fish, you need to learn how to dry it at home.

What kind of fish can you dry at home?

The best fish for drying and curing are:

• crucian carp;
• vobla;
• Pike;
• silver bream;
• char;
• perch;
• Pike;
• silver carp;
• goby.

Here you are guided solely by your own preferences. If you have a river nearby with crucian carp, then it hardly makes sense to buy a pike in the store. Remember that freshly caught fish for salting and drying is just perfect, it will be very tasty.

The whole process of drying and drying fish consists of three stages:

• salting;
• soaking;
• drying.

We will give you recommendations and step-by-step instructions for completing each of these steps.

Salting fish for drying and drying

In order for the dried fish to be tasty, it must be properly salted. The preparation of the brine is the main task that needs to be dealt with at this stage. That is, the ratio of water to salt is important. And so, we begin:

• Rinse the fish in running water. You can gut it before salting, or you can leave it that way. This will not change the taste of the finished fish. But keep in mind that gutted fish will end up being drier.
• Prepare an enamel container corresponding to the amount of fish.
• It is good to sprinkle the bottom of the container with salt, the layer should be about 1 cm.
• Put the fish sideways on the salt, so put one layer. This is followed by a 1 cm layer of salt, followed by a layer of fish again. Do this until the fish runs out.
• The top layer should be saline. Place a load on the fish, such as a kettlebell or a pot of water. The fish, under the influence of the additional mass, lets out juice, its meat becomes denser.
• Place the container with fish in a dark place for 15 days.
• The fish is ready for the next step.

Soaking fish before drying or drying

• If the fish is large (bream, pike, ide), then it needs to be soaked for 2 days, smaller fish (up to 0.5 kg in weight) can be soaked for 1 day.
• Prepare a container for soaking, fill it with cold water.
• Remove the fish from the brine, rinse under running water, and place in a steeping container.
• After the end of soaking, remove the fish from the water, hang it up, let the water drain.
• The fish is ready for the last stage of cooking - drying or drying.

Drying or drying fish

• To dry fish, you need a closed, but well-ventilated and always warm room. Do not allow insects, cats or other animals to have access to fish. Some people dry fish in attics, while others make special boxes with a wire stretched in the middle, and replace two walls with fine mesh or gauze.
• The fish must be strung on a wire, passing it through the fisheye.
• The drying time depends on how humid the air is in your area, as well as the size of the fish itself and your preferences. Some people like dry fish, others - slightly dried. You can always sample 1 fish. You can simply determine the degree of dryness of the fish by pressing with your finger.

It is best to store dried fish in the refrigerator or in a dark, dry place. In any case, it must be wrapped in parchment paper. Just do not use plastic bags, they quickly spoil the fish.

Now you know how to salt, dry and store fish properly. Buy fresh fish, preferably still alive, salt and dry. Your guests will definitely ask you to tell them the store where you bought such delicious fish.

It has become much more expensive than some five or six years ago. Coming to the market or the store, you catch yourself thinking: "Should I drink a beer with dried fish?" And then you go to the counter, look at the price and understand that one fish is not enough, and two are already expensive to buy. So you return home with nothing. But now, thanks to this article, you will learn how to salt fish for drying or drying.

Primary requirements

Before drying or drying fish, you need to decide what kind of salting it should be. Now we'll talk about how much to salt the fish for drying, and you can make this delight yourself at home or in the country. If the fish contains ten percent salt, then it is considered lightly salted, from twenty and more - highly salted. Tuzluk (the juice that the fish secretes, mixed with salt) is periodically drained to prevent bacteria from multiplying and spoiling for drying or drying, it must be fresh and chilled. Only then can you start gutting. Salting fish for drying is a very responsible business. It is necessary to gut the insides so that microbes do not get on the meat.

Salting small fish

For salting small fish, a barrel or enamel pan is considered ideal. In order to salt the fish for drying, you need to wash it and rub it with a special mixture of saltpeter and salt. The proportions for such a mixture are 10: 1. Saltpeter is an excellent preservative. It prevents food from spoiling and gives them a beautiful reddish tint. On the bottom of the keg or saucepan, lay out in layers: fish - the mixture, cover and put under oppression. Keep containers in a cool place. If you suddenly did not have saltpeter, then the recipe for salting fish for drying becomes a little more complicated. In this case, you will have to gut the fish and remove the gills. Various spices can be added to the salting to taste: currant leaves, blackberries, bay leaves, cloves, black, allspice, cumin and even rosemary. It all depends on your preference. you can dry it, or you can eat it like that by washing it with water and sprinkling it with sunflower oil.

Fish processing

In order to properly gut the fish, you need to make a transverse incision between the head and the anus. Do not cut in the opposite direction, as this can damage the internal organs. Pull out the insides, gills, rinse thoroughly. Rinse until there is no blood under the spine.

How to wet salted fish for drying or drying

For drying, they choose not very much up to half a kilogram. In the hot season, you need to beg, in the cold - no. You do not need to wash the fish, just wipe it with a dry towel to remove excess moisture. For cooking, you must always take coarse salt. Any other will not work, since our goal is not to give the fish a taste, but to remove moisture from it. Such fish, salted for drying, will have an excellent smell and taste. The only disadvantage of coarse salt is that it dissolves slowly, but absorbs more moisture.

Next, we do this: pour salt into a bucket or basin (if there is neither one nor the other, you can take a pan), pour salt, just not very much. The fish should be laid out so that the head of one touches the tail of the other. Salt each layer well. After the fish is finished, you need to pour salt on it so that it covers the entire surface. You can add some sugar for flavor. Cover with a lid and put under oppression. The harder the oppression, the tastier the fish will be. It prevents air from seeping into the container and prevents the growth of bacteria. After about 5 hours, the fish releases its juice - brine. It should be kept as cool as possible, even on ice.

How much salt to dry or dry fish? Salt in this way takes about two to three days. After this time, the meat of well-salted fish turns gray. The next step will be preparation for stringing and hanging. Salted fish should be soaked under running water until it begins to float. The fish is hung in the following way: special hooks are passed through the eye and hung on a rope. The fish should dry out after soaking, so it is better to hang it out overnight so that the flies do not sit on your catch. In the morning, to scare off flies, the fish is sprayed with a solution of vinegar and water. Drying or curing lasts up to eight days, it all depends on the size of the fish.

Salting fish for drying or dry-drying

How to dry salted fish for drying and which fish is more suitable for this? There are answers to these questions. for drying or curing in this way, it is more suitable for large fish. With wet salting, we did not cut the fish, immediately it is necessary not only to take out the insides, but also to divide the fish into two halves and wipe it with a dry towel. The inside should be well sprinkled with salt. For such a salting, the fish is placed in layers in a box. It is best to take a wooden one - the juice secreted by the fish will flow through the holes. The box must be placed in the pit. They usually dig it out in the shade and cover it with a film so that insects cannot get to the fish. The ambassador lasts up to a week. This method is also suitable for salting small fish. You don't even need to gut it.

Here's what you need to do for this:

1) Take a cutting board, put a clean towel on it.

2) We put the fish in a row like "sprats in a jar".

3) Sprinkle with salt and wrap in a towel.

4) We cover with another board and put oppression.

With this salting, juice flows out through the fabric. After the fish is salted, it is taken out of the towel, washed in cold water, soaked for a short time and hung out. The best drying method is a wooden box prepared in advance with gauze or mesh walls, but you can do it in a simple way. We take a "gypsy" or boot needle, thread a nylon thread or fishing line through it and string the fish, threading the thread through the eye holes. Put on gauze or a mosquito net on top of the rope and dry for seven to ten days. Large fish are best hung on a pole at a high altitude.

Drying and drying fish in nature

Many people wonder how to salt fish for drying in nature. If you went on a picnic with friends for a couple of days and caught fish, you can safely dry it or wither it right on the spot. How to salt fish for drying in field conditions? The gutted catch is placed in a bag of salt for a day, and then hung in the fresh air. You can fix the fish with clothespins, hanging them by their tails in the fresh air. The most acceptable weather for this is windy. To protect against insects, the fish is wrapped with gauze and wiped with sunflower oil or manganese solution. The optimum temperature for drying or curing is up to twenty degrees. In its natural environment, the fish is dried up to two weeks. It is better to store dried fish in a cloth bag in a ventilated place, but it should be borne in mind that after drying it should be "infused" for up to a month.

How to pickle fresh fish? Cold pickling

To marinate small fish, you do not need to gut it, for large fish this condition is necessary. There are two types of marinating fish: cold and hot.

1. Prepare the marinade: 200 milliliters of water, 100 grams of salt, 200 grams of sugar. Mix and dissolve in 300 milliliters of boiling water.

2. Refrigerate.

3. Pour 500 ml of vinegar and boiled water into the brine.

4. Add one gram of bay leaf, one gram of dill, three grams of pepper, preferably allspice, one and a half grams of mustard in grains.

5. Put the dishes with the fish in the refrigerator for five days, pre-arrange with onion rings and pour over the marinade (1: 1). The onion turns out to be no less tasty than the fish itself.

Hot pickling

1. Cut the fish into pieces, after removing the entrails.

2. Sprinkle with fine salt and set in the cold for 30 minutes.

3. For the marinade: Boil two liters of water, add four onions and three chopped carrots.

4. After ten minutes of boiling, add two tablespoons of vinegar, pepper, bay leaf, salt, sugar to taste.

5. Pour the marinade over the fish and cook for twenty minutes over low heat.

6. Scald the jars, put the fish there and pour the marinade.

7. Close the plastic cover.

You can store the fish in the refrigerator for up to three days.

Delicious salty balychok

Well, who doesn't love fish balychok? It is not only tasty, but also healthy. The balyk can be made from fatty fish: sturgeon, salmon, trout and others.

Cooking method:

1. Separate the backrest from the skin, fold into a saucepan.

2. Sprinkle with salt and saltpeter (400 grams of salt per 5 grams of saltpeter).

3. Put under oppression for three days.

4. Stir the balyks, rubbing with your own juice, and leave for another three days.

5. Take out, hang in the sun for drying.

6. Smoke or rub with liquid smoke.

We store fish correctly

Fish products spoil very quickly and the fishy smell is strongly absorbed by neighboring products. It is for this reason that fresh fish should be stored in an enamel bowl with a lid. You can keep it in this form only for two days. Fish can be stored frozen for up to two weeks. The salty product is kept in the refrigerator at a temperature of up to 12 degrees. Dried and dried are stored in the refrigerator in paper or a rag bag. If you have fish in barrels of brine, then you need to store it in a cold basement. Place the barrel on the bricks and cover the floor with sawdust. It is necessary to change sawdust often in winter (about once a week), in summer - once every two weeks.

We hope that this article was informative for you, and you will definitely become a professional in marinating, drying and drying fish.