Today we will tell you about how to properly smoke fish in a smokehouse. It should be noted that there are several ways to prepare such a dish. We will talk about them a little further.
Features of the finished dish
Smoked fish has an incredible aroma and unsurpassed taste. Moreover, such a product can be stored for a long time without changing its properties and qualities. It is now quite difficult to find real smoked fish in the store. After all, most often such a product is only treated with “liquid smoke” and subjected to heat treatment for a short time, using all kinds of fragrances, flavors and even dyes. It should be noted that such additives are very harmful to the human body. In this regard, we invite you to find out how smoked fish is prepared at home.
Types of smoking
As mentioned above, you can cook fish at home in different ways. So, cold smoking is carried out at a temperature of 30-50 degrees. Such fish can be stored at room temperature for quite a long time (from +17 to +22 °C). As for the hot cooking method (from +70 to +160 °C), as a result you can get a biologically valuable and healthy product in the shortest possible time.
Before properly smoking fish in a smokehouse, you should familiarize yourself with the basic rules of this method of preparing a dish:
- If you smoke eel, you should do it with special care. After all, the raw blood of such a fish poses a threat not only to human health, but also to his life.
- It is not recommended to smoke fish of different sizes at the same time.
- You cannot smoke such a product on the first flammable material you come across.
- It is forbidden to open the drawer of a smokehouse that is either on fire or has just been removed from it. This can lead to a flash fire and you will suffer severe skin burns.
You should also keep the following in mind:
- Be sure to place a container of water next to the smokehouse, which may come in handy during a sudden fire.
- Before properly smoking fish in a smokehouse, you should find out the strength of the fire, holding time and smoking mode for each type and size of fish.
- In the event of a sudden fire, be sure to have medications on hand that relieve pain from burns.
- Make sure that no one comes close to the smokehouse during heat treatment, especially children.
Basic equipment requirements
How to smoke fish in a smokehouse? To do this, you should choose a stainless steel device. It is also necessary to ensure that the lid for the smokehouse fits well and is securely fixed. The shapes and sizes of such a device are a matter of everyone’s taste. But the main thing is that its height does not exceed 50-60 centimeters. Otherwise, the top layer may remain damp and the bottom layer may remain bitter, dry and unusable.
After 5-10 smoking sessions, the smokehouse must be cleaned of carbon deposits and resin. As for the grates, they need to be washed even more often.
How to choose the right firewood?
How long to smoke fish in a smokehouse depends on what size product you use and what kind of wood you use. The ideal material used to produce a fragrant product is alder. Only this wood, when properly laid, can provide you with the highest taste qualities of the finished dish.
It should also be noted that the most important point for obtaining an appetizing and tasty dish is the placement of wood chips. Thus, first you need to place about 2 centimeters of small material mixed with twigs on the bottom of the smokehouse. Next, all this is covered with a small layer of bark. Finally, dry leaves should be placed up to the level of the lower grid. It is better if they are as young as possible. It is this layer of material that will provide the ideal smoking regime.
Preparing the fish
How is hot smoked fish smoked? To do this, the main product must go through three stages of processing:
1. Cleaning the fish. Here the opinions of gourmets are divided. So, some people like well-gutted fish, while others like whole fish. In this regard, whether or not to process such a product is your own business.
2. Salting. What kind of fish can you smoke? Mackerel, bream, herring, crucian carp, carp, perch, etc. are especially suitable for this. After the fish has been processed, it should be sorted into small, medium and large. Next, you need to place it in an enamel container and cover it with salt. Large fish must be kept for about 2-2.6 hours, medium - 2 hours, and small fish - about 1-1.5. The first sign of salting is the appearance of so-called brine. By the way, you should not put any weights on top of the fish.
3. Final processing. After the fish is salted, it should be washed thoroughly in cold water. Next, it needs to be dried in the open air. At the end of the processing, the water-deprived product must be generously lubricated with sunflower oil.
We smoke fish in a smokehouse
After the fish is completely cooked, it should be placed on an oiled grate so that it does not come into contact with the walls of the device or with other fish.
While maintaining the fire, you need to wait until intense white smoke comes out from under the smokehouse lid. This is the first sign of the beginning of smoking. After 7-9 minutes, the heat should be reduced slightly. In this position, we smoke the fish in the smokehouse for about 45-65 minutes (depending on the size of the product).
It should be especially noted that if not white, but bluish smoke begins to come out from under the lid, this means that your styling has burned out and needs to be changed. However, this happens quite rarely and, as a rule, after the main smoking of the product. If this happened while preparing the dish, then there is nothing wrong with it. You just need to remove the smokehouse from the heat and let it cool completely. Next, you need to carefully open the lid and, making sure that there is no more smoke, you should remove the fish with the grill, replace the smoking material, and then repeat the process again. By the way, such a “failure” in the preparation of a smoked dish most often occurs when a large-sized product is used.
How to determine the readiness of fish?
We talked about how hot smoked fish is smoked. But to make such a dish, you should also know how to determine the complete readiness of the product. As practice shows, from the moment the fish is placed on the fire (about 2 kg) until it is fully cooked, it takes approximately 25 minutes. Of course, these numbers may fluctuate a little, but they should serve as some kind of guide. If the fish has a light golden color after half an hour of heat treatment, then it should be kept in the smokehouse a little longer. If the fish is dark or golden in color, it means it is completely ready.
Cooking fish using cold smoking
Few chefs know how to smoke fish in a cold smokehouse. After all, in this way the product is prepared much longer than in the above-described way. What is the difference between these recipes? The fact is that fish is salted more intensively before cold smoking than before hot smoking. After the product is processed with spices, it must be soaked well (about one day). Next, the fish needs to be washed and dried. Moreover, large ones should be dried for up to five days, and small ones for up to three.
If you purchased a large fish, then several spacers should be inserted into its abdomen.
Heat treatment of the product
How is cold smoked fish smoked? For this, the same smokehouse and the same material as presented above should be used.
Thus, the prepared fish must be placed in a smokehouse with sawdust, and then cooked with cold smoke for 1-7 days (depending on the size of the main product). Moreover, the temperature in the device should not exceed 25-30 °C.
Final stage
After the fish becomes golden in color and acquires a special gloss, it must be carefully removed from the smokehouse. It should be noted that the product prepared in this way can be stored at room temperature for quite a long time. It can be served not only with a tasty and satisfying side dish, but also as a snack for an alcoholic drink such as beer. Bon appetit!
Secrets of delicious smoking
To make delicious smoked fish, you must adhere to the following rules:
- It is better to smoke the product on a fine grill.
- A few minutes before the fish is ready, you can add a fresh juniper branch to the smokehouse. This will give the dish a special aroma.
- If lightly smoked fish looks too smoky, you can wipe it with a cloth previously soaked in sunflower oil or fish oil.
In a smokehouse at the dacha?" - this question is often of interest to those who prefer to spend their free time with friends or family in a country house. But what would a summer vacation be without a delicious dinner prepared with one’s own hands in the open air? And we’re not talking about barbecue at all. After all, the only thing tastier than this meat dish is smoked fish with a pronounced aroma.
Like in a smokehouse in the country: a recipe for preparing a delicious dish
Required ingredients:
- any frozen or fresh fish - 2-3 pcs. (depending on the size and number of guests);
- ripe lemon - half a fruit;
- granulated sugar - 1 small spoon;
- fine iodized salt - half a dessert spoon;
- fresh vegetables (tomato, onion, cucumber);
- greens (parsley, dill) - for garnish.
How to smoke fish in a smokehouse at the dacha: processing of fish products
For this event, you can use fresh or frozen carp, perch, pike, mackerel, etc. Naturally, the fish must be carefully processed. To do this, the carcasses need to be scaled, gutted, all fins, heads and tails removed, and then washed well inside and out in warm water.
Marinade preparation process
Before going to the dacha, it needs to be marinated. Then the product will acquire an amazing taste and aroma. What do you need to prepare the marinade? You need to squeeze half a lemon into a bowl, and then add fine and a little granulated sugar to it.
How to smoke using a special device
Such processing of a river or sea product does not take very much time. And even then, most of it is spent on lighting a good fire. In order to deliciously smoke fish at your own dacha, you need to put alder or fruit sawdust on the bottom of the smokehouse, and then place grates on top of them. After this, you need to correctly lay out the pickled fish carcasses on the mesh - they should under no circumstances touch each other. Next, the smoking device should be closed as tightly as possible and put on fire.
How much is in the smokehouse
After 10-15 minutes, a pleasant smoke with an aromatic smell will begin to pour out of the dish where the fish is located. As a rule, this indicates that the smoking process has started and your product is already on its way to being fully prepared. It is worth noting that the total time of such processing can vary from 25 minutes to a whole hour (depending on the size of the fish, its quantity, type, strength of fire, etc.). You can tell when the fish is ready by its softness, smell, and color. As for the latter, the pickled river or sea product should acquire a tea-golden hue. In addition, the skin of the finished fish is always slightly wrinkled.
- you should properly build a device for smoking fish - a smokehouse;
- prepare the fish by properly salting and gutting it;
- make a high-quality stack of firewood;
- maintain the recommended temperature regime.
Smokehouse
The smokehouse can be completely or partially sealed. To smoke fish at home, a partially sealed device is usually used. It is inconvenient to smoke fish on the go in a sealed smokehouse, since if the rules for using it are not followed, the structure may become deformed when heated.
Cylindrical smokehouse
It is advisable to use a stainless steel device:
- retains temperature well inside;
- not affected by corrosion;
- does not allow air to pass through.
The optimal height of the device is 50-60 cm, at which you can properly smoke fish. The smokehouse is placed on supports, which can be replaced with ordinary bricks or stones.
There are devices for vertically hanging fish and horizontally placing them on shelves made of metal mesh, the distance between which is at least 15-20 cm. The smaller the smoking box, the smaller the flame should be under it.
A common version of a smokehouse with a water seal
The distance of the bottom shelf when placing fish horizontally from the bottom is at least 30 cm.
In small-sized structures, it is desirable to have a pallet:
- the dripping fat does not fall on the smoking branches;
- holes in the pan help maintain a constant temperature in the smokehouse;
- when smoky branches catch fire, the fish is protected from burning;
- hot air cools slightly as it passes through the holes in the pan, which improves the taste of smoked fish.
DIY smokehouse
You can buy a smokehouse ready-made or make it yourself from scrap materials:
Hot smoking of fish
Since it is better to smoke fish using the hot cooking method, choose low-fat varieties of fresh or defrosted fish. Suitable river and sea fish species:
- carp, carp, pike, catfish, eel, bream, pike perch, and others;
- herring, pollock, mackerel, sardine, herring, capelin, cod, sea bass, flounder and others;
- red fish, sterlet.
Before smoking, it is recommended to prepare the fish: gut it and salt it. Predators up to 400 grams do not need to be gutted, since, unlike other types of fish, their stomach contents under the influence of heat do not spread across the stomach and do not create a bitter aftertaste. It is not recommended to clean the scales - they protect the fish meat from soot and soot.
For one stack in the smokehouse, the raw materials should be selected of approximately the same size and type. Smoking temperature and time depend on the weight and type of fish.
How much and what kind of fish can fit in the smokehouse at one time depends on the size of the device:
The technology of hot smoking fish begins with salting, the quality of which largely determines the taste of the finished product.
Basically, weak salting is used so that the salt concentration is 1.2-1.5%. The recipe recommends adding 1 kg of salt to 16 kg of fresh fish. It is necessary to thoroughly rub the skin covered with scales with salt by hand. If the back is thick enough, then it is recommended to make longitudinal cuts along it, filling them with salt; you should also salt the gutted belly and head, while the cook decides whether to remove or leave the gills.
The recipe for cooking fatty fish advises wrapping each salted carcass in parchment or film so that the fat does not oxidize in the air, thereby losing its taste. It is advisable to place the fish in a heap in a basin, using the lid as a small weight, securing it with wire or placing pressure on top. The resulting brine must be drained.
Preparation for smoking large fish lasts for 2-3 days, small fish takes 12-24 hours. If you use thawed carcasses, you can prepare them in 3-4 days.
Chips for hot smoking
The best firewood used for smoking is alder and juniper. But during the event, those that grow in the area are used. Large wood chips, sawdust, and young twigs are used, which are placed on the bottom of the smokehouse.
You should not use pine branches and logs, as they contain a lot of resins that will spoil the taste of the dish. Deciduous species are used: willow, poplar, beech, fruit and fruit and berry trees, which give smoked products an original aroma and taste. In the absence of juniper, you can add its fruits to the raw materials for smoking. The best raw material is considered to be alder or rowan, which makes up at least 3/4 of the total quantity.
The addition of spices - cloves, coriander, black pepper, bay leaf - helps to diversify the aroma. Some gourmets fill the belly and head of the carcass with garlic, onion, dill, and parsley. Various recipes help you experience the aromatic bouquet of a dish.
The smokehouse is placed on the base, lighting a fire below. You can adjust the heat by height above the flame, by adding logs to the fire, or by raking burning coals. Under the influence of heat, wood chips or sawdust in the middle of the smokehouse begin to smolder, enveloping the fish in hot, aromatic smoke. Care should be taken to ensure that the wooden raw materials do not catch fire, otherwise the fish may burn, ruining the taste.
The process occurring inside can be determined by the color of the smoke emanating from the structure:
- whitish indicates evaporation of liquid;
- yellowish may indicate burning of raw materials;
- After half an hour, dry smoke appears with an aroma characteristic of the finished product.
The readiness of the fish is determined by its characteristic appearance - golden brown crust. When broken, the meat should come free from the bone and have the color of a boiled product. There should be no traces of blood near the spine.
Safety precautions when smoking fish
When working with hot products, you must follow safety precautions to avoid burns:
- touch the smokehouse while preparing a dish only with oven mitts;
- when opening the structure, do not lean over the lid to protect your face and eyes from being damaged by steam;
- Ensure that there are no unauthorized persons, especially children, near the heating device.
Hot smoked fish can be stored in the refrigerator for no more than 4-5 days. Stored in room conditions for more than 2 days is dangerous due to poisoning.
Hot smoking fish, despite its relative simplicity, still requires adherence to certain rules, thanks to which the end result will exceed all your wildest expectations. Smoking fish consists of several stages, the main of which are preparation, salting (marinade), and, in fact, smoking.
The main point in preparation is gutting, that is, naturally, most people have a reasonable question: “how exactly should you gut fish?” Some fishermen may advise that you can smoke fish “as is”, that is, just rinse it and go to the smokehouse. However, this approach is not entirely correct - for example, some large fish carcasses have a rather thick layer of flesh, which means that if it is not cut, it will not be completely smoked.
Therefore, if the fish is large, it is necessary to cut it, especially since home smokehouses are usually small in size. Rinse large fish thoroughly under cold water, separate the head (do not throw away), remove the entrails, remove the gills and rinse again. Then you need to make a longitudinal incision along the ridge, remove the skeleton, large bones and fins. Thus, you will get two layers of the carcass cut lengthwise, which can now be sent to the smokehouse.
If the fish is not too big, and not quite small, that is, medium, it will also need to be gutted and the heads cut off. You don’t need to cut a medium-sized fish into two halves, like a large one, but simply clean the carcass of excess entrails.
And finally, if the fish are very small, then you can not gut them, but simply rinse them thoroughly under running, cold water. Such fish can be especially tasty if they are smoked whole.
Whatever the size of the fish, after the carcasses have been washed, they will definitely need to be dried to remove excess moisture. This can be done using paper towels or regular kitchen napkins.
Salting or pickling
Marinade is an effective way to impart a delicious flavor to fish, making it tasty and tender. But pickling or marinade also has another culinary value: if the degree of salting is optimal, the taste of the product will be richer and more intense. In addition, while the fish is salted, it loses its specific fishy smell and also retains its freshness longer.
Salt also speeds up the process of protein coagulation in fish, which stops fermentation processes and prevents the fish from spoiling.
To properly salt fish, you will need a wooden cutting board and coarse salt. Sprinkle a thin layer of salt on a cutting board, then place the fish carcass on top of it and sprinkle with coarse salt again. But it’s not enough to just roll the fish in salt; you also need to rub it in with your hands, especially if the fish are large. If the fish is very large and fleshy, several cuts can be made along the spine, in the thickest places, and salt can also be rubbed in.
We have articles on our website with recipes for various.
Here in the photo you can clearly see the transverse cuts:
Salted fish should be placed in one cup and wrapped well with parchment or food film. Cover the cup with a lid of a smaller diameter, so that the lid fits closely to the fish, and place a press on top. Most often, an ordinary can of water is used as a load. If the fish that you plan to smoke is very fatty (mackerel, flounder, etc.), then you need to make sure that the access of oxygen to such fish is completely closed. The fact is that fish oil, which is contained in large quantities in such fish, begins to oxidize in the air, from which the fish only acquires a more pronounced odor, which many may not like. To prevent this from happening, it is advised to completely eliminate exposure to oxygen.
Here in the photo it's hard to see under the salt; it seems to be a small carp or crucian carp:
As for the salting time, again, it all depends on the size of the fish, as well as the degree of freshness. If we talk about supermarkets, then the fish on store shelves is most often frozen, which means that such fish requires more time for good salting than fresh fish - it will need to be defrosted first. On average, this period can reach up to a day, again depending on the size of the fish. If we are talking about a fresh catch, then an hour is enough for small fish, 2-3 hours for medium fish, but large fish will require 3-5 hours for salting.
Drying
Drying is a drying process that allows you to get rid of excess moisture and prepare the fish for smoking. After the fish are removed from the salt brine, they need to be tied with twine, strung on a thin rope and hung out in the fresh air to dry. Tying fish for hot smoking allows you to maintain the shape of the fish and make sure that the fish does not sag or fall apart. It is recommended to cover the top of the fish with a thin layer of gauze, which will best protect the fish from flies.
You don’t need to dry the product for very long; half an hour will be enough. And finally, the last operation is to rinse the dried fish again under cold water to remove salt particles from its surface, and wipe dry with kitchen paper towels. Now the salted and dried fish is completely ready for smoking. Well, it's time to get started!
Smoking
How to smoke fish in a hot smoker? You need to start with the fact that there are several types of smokehouses - there are small garden ones, there are ones, and if there is no smokehouse, you can use an ordinary metal bucket or.
This is where small fish are hung for smoking in a barrel:
You first need to add sawdust and wood chips to the bottom of the bucket or smokehouse. For hot smoking, sawdust from deciduous wood is the best choice. Pour sawdust into the bottom, but not too much, a layer of 1.5-2 cm will be enough. If there is such an opportunity, a sprig of juniper is perfect, which you need to throw into the sawdust - it gives the fish a wonderful aroma and an appetizing, golden hue.
Above the layer of sawdust, you need to place a tray for the fat draining from the fish. Usually all hot smokers have it. And it is needed so that dripping fat does not fall on the hot bottom and smoldering sawdust - burnt fat can ruin your product.
Pay attention - here a regular plate is used as a fat tray:
Next, they are placed directly above the layer of sawdust or wood chips. If this is a smokehouse, then there are always some kind of fastenings for them. If we are talking about a bucket, then a lattice can be built from simple branches inserted into the bucket at random. It is recommended to install them at half the volume of the bucket.
Place the dried fish on the grill and cover the top with a lid. For uniform smoking, the fish must be placed at a short distance from each other, at least 2-3 cm. If smoking occurs in a bucket, then the lid must be selected so that it fits tightly to the bucket. This is done to ensure that all the smoke remains inside and does not escape outside. In addition, direct exposure of sawdust to oxygen will only ignite it, but you want it to smolder slowly.
Now you need to light a fire under your smokehouse. If smoking occurs in the yard, light a fire and make sure that the fire is not too strong. Otherwise, if the fire is too big, the sawdust will burn rather than smoke. Then you need to set the smokehouse on fire - it is very important not to let the wood chips dry out. After all, the most important thing in smoking is that there is a sufficient amount of smoke. For this purpose, sawdust is sometimes soaked in water before loading into the smokehouse.
The temperature inside the smokehouse should be about 80-90 degrees, not higher. After some time, the process of active smoke formation should begin in the smokehouse, and the first smoke will appear from under the lid. This serves as a signal that you can detect the smoking time.
Here you can see both the grate for food and a tray made of a simple sheet of foil:
To determine the temperature to which the smokehouse is heated, simply drop a few drops of water on the lid of the smokehouse. If the water immediately begins to hiss and actively evaporates, then the temperature inside is too high. In this case, you will need to remove the smokehouse from the heat for 10-15 minutes.
As for smoking time, there are several main factors that you should definitely pay attention to. First of all, the smoking time depends on the amount of fish, its size, and the intensity of the fire. Most often, this figure ranges from half an hour to an hour and a half, although for very small fish 20 minutes will be enough. If hot smoking has not yet become part of the list of ingrained habits, and therefore you have little experience in such smoking, it is better to be on the safe side and periodically look into the smokehouse. You need to open the smokehouse for inspection very carefully, so as not to get burned by hot smoke. Over time, you will gain more experience, so you can safely set the right fire and the right time for smoking.
The smokehouse sits on a simple fireplace made of bricks; Moreover, note that this smokehouse is not for an apartment - it does not have a water seal:
How long does hot smoked fish last? The peculiarity of the finished product is that such fish will not be stored for a very long time, so even in the refrigerator this period will be no more than 3-4 days. The shelf life of hot smoked fish is significantly lower than that of cold smoked fish. If you need to preserve fish for a longer period, it is better to use the cold smoking method, but this will be discussed in another article.
- Fresh fish is ideal for smoking; however, unfortunately, it is not always possible to purchase freshly caught fish. Then all that remains is to use frozen. It is best to defrost the fish naturally, namely, on the top shelf of the refrigerator, and then completely take the fish out and put it on the table. Do not use microwave ovens or other methods of temperature exposure for defrosting, as they take away most of the taste of the fish.
- Before starting the hot smoking process, it is important to choose the “right” wood, namely, the most suitable sawdust and wood chips. The best of their kind for smoking are fruit trees, as well as alder, oak, ash, maple, etc. Coniferous species cannot be used, with the exception of the juniper mentioned above.
- How to store hot smoked fish? As a rule, the most common method of storing fish involves storing it in the refrigerator. True, the fish must first be placed in paper or wrapped in cling film, since free access to oxygen will make the fish windy, and the fishy smell will transfer to other products. If you need an even longer shelf life for hot smoked fish, you can put it in the freezer, but then you need to be prepared for the fact that the fish will subsequently lose half of its taste.
These simple tips will help even a beginner cope with hot smoking, and if you try, the result will exceed all your wildest expectations!
Here is a good video on how to smoke fish while fishing in a cauldron:
Sitting with a fishing rod on the bank of a river or lake, a real fisherman is already thinking about how he will use his catch, especially a large catch. Without a doubt, a true fisherman knows all the secrets and rules of how to smoke fish in a smokehouse, how to properly ensure this smoking in order to be proud of the result. Bringing home a good catch is a man's luck, but the fisherman gets his main pleasure if all the catch is processed into delicious dishes!
How to save your catch?
A tired but happy fisherman brings his catch home and sorts the fish himself for different dishes. What can you cook?
- Fish soup is aromatic and rich.
- Fried or baked fish with potatoes.
- Salt the catch or dry it.
- Smoked fish, hot or cold smoked.
Smoking fish in a smokehouse as an option for processing the catch will be discussed in our article. Information will be needed by those fishermen who have just set out on the path of obtaining their own smoked product. Believe me, all the technology seems complicated only at first glance.
In fact, after trying it at least once, you will become an enthusiastic smoker even of fish that were caught not by you, but by fishing fleets!
You can smoke absolutely any fish – both river and sea. The method of its preliminary preparation and the salting time before smoking depend on the type and size.
You can smoke a fresh catch brought from fishing, or you can buy frozen fish in a store and prepare a delicacy from it.
It is better to defrost a frozen product naturally in the general section of the refrigerator, only then wash and cut it up. Next, all the carcasses need to be dried with napkins and get to work.
Methods of smoking fish
Smoking involves treating fish carcasses with smoke. Smoke has the ability to penetrate deeply into the fibers, thereby disinfecting all their layers, i.e. smoke has the properties of a reliable natural antiseptic.
In addition, smoke treatment allows you to obtain a beautiful, aromatic and very tasty home-smoked product. Active smoking is ensured by the slow smoldering of wood chips and sawdust of certain types.
How can you smoke fish?
- Hot smoking;
- Cold smoking;
- Semi-hot smoking.
To generate hot smoke, you need to prepare a special, hermetically sealed container (pan, bucket, steel box or barrel, etc.).
Also, this container should be provided with a grid on which the product is laid out. The main requirement for a hot smoked smoking container is its chemically resistant internal coating. Not a single harmful compound should be released into the product.
Of course, the best solution would be to buy a factory-made smokehouse - a convenient hermetically sealed container for smoking food. It is equipped with a grill and a tight-fitting lid, which allows you to smoke fish directly in the kitchen.
To obtain a high-quality smoked product, the correct choice of wood is also important.
The best materials for obtaining aromatic haze are:
- chips of juniper (and berries, including),
- fruit trees, alder, oak, etc.
The main thing is to avoid using wood from species rich in resins: all conifers (except juniper), birch, etc. The use of grapevine (dry) gives excellent results.
We cut dry tree branches with a knife. The thickness of the shavings should not exceed 4-5 mm, and the length 5-6 cm. If we use sawdust from the types of trees mentioned above, they must also be dry.
During the smoking process, the fish should lose up to 50% of its moisture, and therefore there should be no excess moisture in the smokehouse.
How to smoke fish
Let's look at the technology of each method of preparing smoked fish at home. The entire technology can be divided into several stages:
Stage I: Preparing fish for smoking
- The fish needs to be sorted and prepared for salting.
- We do not gut small fish, but only wash them.
- We gut a medium-sized fish and cut off the heads.
- In large fish, be sure to take out the insides, clean the membranes from the inside and cut off the head.
Many fishermen (and not only) like to smoke large catches “as is,” but according to technology this is considered incorrect. Large specimens have thick flesh, which may not be smoked during the smoking process, so we also cut large specimens into two parts along the spine, removing the skeleton and large fins.
After cleaning and cutting off unnecessary parts of the fish, rinse and remove moisture using kitchen napkins. Next, we proceed to dry salting of the product.
Stage II: Salting fish before smoking
The taste of the smoked product depends on the degree of saltiness of the carcasses. Therefore, at this stage you need to be more careful and trust your intuition. During the salting process, fish loses its specific smell, since salt promotes the coagulation of proteins and the fish fibers become denser.
For salting, take a wooden cutting board, preferably of a large area (plywood will also do), sprinkle it with salt and lay out the carcass and also sprinkle it with salt.
Next, we begin to move the fish along the board with light pressure, rubbing salt into the carcass. Rub the inside of the fish with your fingers. If there are fleshy parts along the spine, then we make a cut there and rub a little salt into this cut (we don’t pour salt, but rub it in).
If you smoke fatty fish, for example, flounder, halibut, silver carp or mackerel, then provide it with additional protection from oxygen - fish oil quickly oxidizes and the product may acquire a not very pleasant smell.
Therefore, after rubbing in the salt, each fish must be carefully wrapped in parchment paper, placed in a bowl, covered tightly with parchment for safety, pressed down with a plate and pressed.
Most often, we buy fatty sea fish frozen in the store. Such fish takes longer to salt than fresh fish - up to a day.
We keep fresh fish in salt for the following time:
- Small fish – an hour is enough;
- Medium fish – a couple of hours;
- Large fish – up to 3 hours.
Stage III: drying fish carcasses
At this stage, we need to dry the fish a little to achieve the correct salinity - no more than 2%. Fish carcasses need to be tied with natural twine, strung on a rope and hung so that excess brine drains away. Be sure to cover the fish with gauze to prevent flies.
Let the product dry for an hour or a little more. If you want to simplify the drying procedure, you can wrap the fish in cling film and keep them in the cold - instead of hanging them.
The last thing we do before treating fish with smoke is to rinse it under running cold water and wipe it dry. We rinse in order to wash away the salt crystals and be sure that the product is not over-salted. The fish is ready for smoking!
There are a lot of recipes for smoking fish. Each smoker chooses his own method. We offer you a classic smoking option - in the garden or while fishing.
We take a bucket or barrel, put sawdust and chips of the selected tree species on its bottom in an even layer, no thicker than 1-2 cm. Try to find at least a couple of dry juniper branches, preferably with berries. Juniper gives the product a beautiful golden color and an indescribable aroma.
Place a grate over the sawdust at the level of half the volume of the bucket (or two - one above the other), which you can easily make with your own hands from steel wire. Place salted fish on the grates (large ones on the bottom, small ones on the top level).
Close the lid tightly. We must ensure that the lid fits tightly to the bucket so that the smoke stays inside and does not escape out. A gap-free fit is also ensured so that the sawdust inside does not burst into flames due to the influx of oxygen, but actively smokes.
We place fish carcasses with free space between them - for uniform smoking. We do not remove the twine with which the fish were tied.
We build a fire and let it burn until the firebrands still generate enough heat. The fire should not be hot, otherwise the wood chips inside the smokehouse will ignite instead of smoldering. This can be achieved with a small fire area.
A barbecue could be a good option - convenient and optimal!
We place the smokehouse over the fire and begin to heat it. This technological stage can be conventionally called “drying the chips.” At this stage it is important not to overheat the smokehouse. If the wood chips with sawdust inside are too dry, they will not produce enough smoke.
The temperature inside should not exceed 80-90 degrees, and the drying period should not exceed a quarter of the total smoking time.
At the next stage, active smoke formation begins. The temperature inside rises to 120 degrees, and at this temperature the fish is hot smoked.
Determining the temperature inside the smokehouse is quite simple: drop some water on its lid and observe. If the water hisses as it evaporates, the temperature is too high. Then the smokehouse should be removed from the heat and allowed to cool a little.
How long does it take to smoke fish?
The time depends on the volume of the smokehouse, the number of fish and, of course, on the strength of the fire.
Typically, the time ranges from 30 minutes to 1 hour; for small things, 15-20 minutes is enough. While you have little experience in hot smoking products, open the lid periodically and taste the product.
Open the smokehouse slowly and carefully, otherwise the air flow may cause the wood chips to ignite and burn you. If you cook smoked foods frequently, you will already have a practiced skill.
Hot smoked fish cannot be stored for a long time. This is the same boiled product, only with a fragrant smoky smell. Store it in the refrigerator for no more than 3 days. Although, who will save such a product if you want to eat it all at once, without leaving the smokehouse?
Watch the video for another recipe for smoking fish at home. It is very easy and simple to smoke the product on a gas stove, within the confines of a city apartment.
Cold smoked fish in a smokehouse
Cold smoked products take longer to prepare – several days. This method of obtaining a smoked product requires a smokehouse of a different design. Most often, outbuildings (barn, bathhouse, etc.) are used for cold smoking, and keen fishermen build a smokehouse separately.
This method is called cold because the temperature inside the smokehouse does not exceed 35 degrees, and the processing of products with smoke lasts at least 3 days.
Unlike the technology of processing the product with hot smoke, fish is salted not for several hours, but for several days. Moreover, when placing it in a container for salting, each layer is sprinkled with additional salt.
In such a strong salt environment, the fish should lie for about 5 days, and then it should be washed and soaked in cold water for 5-6 hours. All fish must be gutted, and the head must not be cut off, but only the gills removed.
The following stages actually repeat the stages of preparation for hot smoking, including drying for 24 hours. Those. All preparatory stages for smoke treatment are several times longer in time.
After soaking, we tie the carcasses with their heads, dry the product for about a day, hanging small items by the tails, and large specimens by the gills. We hang it directly in the smokehouse, but without smoke yet.
Next, take a deep barrel, pour wood chips and sawdust into it and place it on the fire to dry for an hour and a half. We maintain the fire in such a way as to maintain smoldering and the formation of smoke inside the building. The distance between the wood material in the barrel and the rope with products should be at least 1.5-2 meters.
To prevent ash, soot and resins contained in smoke from settling on fish carcasses, it is advisable to place a filter over the sawdust. A grate is installed in the barrel and sprinkled with wet straw, large woven burlap or wet sickle cloth.
One last note: the saltier the fish, the longer the cold smoking process lasts and the cooler the smoke should be.
Semi-hot smoked fish
To prepare this fish delicacy, the conditions vary, oscillating between hot and cold smoking technology. Those. The smoke temperature should not exceed 50-60 degrees. Fish is also not salted for a short or long time, but the average between them - about a day, and is also necessarily soaked from salt in water.
The semi-hot smoking technology is developed by the smoker himself. That is why this method of preparing fish has not yet found many followers.