How to pickle carp, marinated salted carp. How to salt carp pieces in a jar with brine. How to quickly and correctly salt carp at home. Delicious marinated carp at home How much salt is needed for 1 carp

You can not only fry carp, make fish soup from it, but also pickle it, eating it as an appetizer or with a side dish.

Preliminary preparation

Before you start salting the carp, it will need to be processed. Processing refers not only to the removal of scales, but also the removal of entrails, and sometimes it is even necessary to remove the skin. In principle, removing the skin is an optional step in fish processing, but some people prefer to prepare pickled carp this way.

The head and tail are removed immediately as they are not needed. The scales are removed with a knife or a special device similar to a vegetable peeling tool. They move from the tail to the head, against the location of the scales. On carp they are easily removed, so the process does not take much time.

If you plan to salt the fish in pieces, then you can not cut off the fillet, but simply clean the stomach cavity from the intestines, rinse the fish well and cut it into small thick steaks. The thicker the piece, the longer it will marinate. This is the advantage of fillet, that it only takes overnight to cook.

The fillet is very easy to remove. The fish is cut along the ridge with a special knife, so that two parts of the fish without a head and tail are left in the hands, that is, meat on the skin. You can hold the skin with one hand and cut clean meat from it with the other. In this form, the carp is ready for salting.

Marinade

Marinade plays an important role in the process of salting carp, since it is thanks to it that the fish turns out juicy, tender, and aromatic. Every recipe uses sugar and salt. Seasonings and herbs can be added according to your own taste, whatever you like. Ground black pepper and bay leaf work very well; you can use a mixture of peppers and cloves.

Marinades come in both liquid and dry form, that is, when the carp is simply rubbed with a mixture of salt, sugar and seasonings, placed in layers in a container and put in the refrigerator. This method is best for marinating fillets, but not steaks, since they will not be able to reach readiness.

To prepare a liquid marinade, the mixture will need to be pre-cooked over a fire. To do this, take plain water, add salt and pepper, a little sugar, and after complete dissolution, add spices and herbs.

It is better to add more salt; in any case, the fish will not take more than it needs. When the marinade has cooled, add a couple of tablespoons of vinegar to it.

The total cooking time for carp is from 2 to 5 days, it all depends on the thickness of the pieces.

Recipes

There are many options for how to marinate carp at home. Before cooking fish, it must already be prepared, that is, cleaned of scales and entrails.

For the marinade in the simplest version, you can take dill, salt with black allspice and orange zest.

First, sprinkle the carp with spices, salt and sugar to taste. Dill and orange zest are added, and then packed into a pre-prepared pickling bag or placed in a container. In this form, the fish is left for 48 hours in the refrigerator so that it absorbs the flavors. Marinated carp is served on barley or pumpkin puree with lemon zest and olive oil.

You can make fish in Korean style, its taste will resemble heh, but only cooked without soy sauce. First, the fish are placed in very salty water for five hours. Afterwards it is taken out and left on paper towels to remove moisture. While it is drying, chop the onions and carrots, finely chop the greens. All ingredients are mixed in one container and poured with olive oil. Add a few tablespoons of vinegar, mustard seeds, coriander and dill.

In this form, the dish should stand in the refrigerator for at least twelve hours. Carp marinated using this method can be served with potatoes or fresh salad.

You can marinate fish in a glass jar. For this, in addition to the indicated ingredients, garlic is additionally used.

No matter how strange it may sound, fish and citrus fruits go well together. The dish acquires an incredible aroma and wonderful taste. The carp fillet is first well salted and sugared and placed in a container under a press. After five hours, the fish is washed and placed on paper towels.

You will need to squeeze the juice out of the orange and grate the lemon zest. Grated ginger, spices and fennel are added as additional ingredients. Mix everything, pour two tablespoons of vinegar and add oil. Place the fish in a glass container and pour the marinade on top. Cooking time: 24 hours, served with boiled potatoes.

It is not always necessary to marinate carp using the above compounds - you can simply rub the fillet with a mixture of your favorite seasonings and salt.

Most marinades consist of an oil and an ingredient that provides the necessary acid to activate the process. Usually table vinegar, lemon juice, and soy sauce are used for this.

Each ingredient in a marinade serves a specific purpose: the aromatics provide flavor and aroma, the oil keeps the fish from drying out while it marinates, and then helps transport the fat-soluble flavor molecules of herbs and spices to the surface of the fish.

The problem is that the increased acidity can cook the fish if it is left in the marinade for a long time. Therefore, culinary professionals advise correctly calculating the amount of acid in the mixture if you want the fish to be tasty longer.

It is worth listening to the following advice from experienced chefs:

• if you want to leave the carp longer in the marinade, then you should use the dry method;
• some spices release their aroma very hard, so they should be rubbed into the fish;
• you can preserve fish longer if you add acid to the marinade two hours before serving;
• You shouldn’t add a lot of vinegar, since it can cook carp meat in a few hours - it’s better to use lemon juice.

It must be remembered that fish overexposed to marinade begins to disintegrate into fibers, the meat becomes dry and tasteless. It is better to cook as much fish as you can eat in a couple of days; this is how long it costs to store carp in the marinade after it is completely cooked. Storage location: refrigerator; at room temperature, the product will quickly deteriorate.

To learn how to marinate carp at home, watch the video below.

Many people love salted fish so much, especially river and lake fish, that they are ready to sell their souls for it, because it is incredibly tasty and healthy.

Having bought fish in a store or waited for a big catch from their husband, housewives want to know how to salt carp or other fish at home.

Today you will learn how to salt it in various ways to serve with boiled potatoes and please your household.

The benefits of salted carp

• Salted fish improves digestion and metabolism, especially fat.
• Salted carp prevents early aging of the skin and internal organs, as well as osteoporosis.
• Fish replenishes iodine deficiency, which is especially important for those who have problems with the thyroid gland.

In addition, carp meat is not very high in calories, which is especially important for maintaining a normal figure: per 100 grams of product there are only 124 kcal.

Subtleties of carp salting

Salting carp involves several subtleties that affect the taste and quality of salted fish, namely:

Coarse salt

Carp, like most other fish, is salted only with coarse salt. Only such salt can remove excess liquid from the carcass. Fine salt is not capable of this; it only quickly salts the meat.

Competent carp cutting

Before salting carp, it must be properly cut. Unlike small and medium-sized fish, large fish are gutted and, if desired, cut into pieces. The main thing is not to remove the film covering the fat layer from the abdominal cavity.

We cut the carcasses lengthwise along the back, cutting off the ribs from the backbone on one side. After cutting, we do not wash the fish, but wipe it with a cloth, carefully blotting the belly area.

Salting carp

We salt large fish whole or in pieces, medium (1-3 kg in weight) and small fish - in their entirety. Usually the fish is rubbed with salt over the scales, the salt is poured under the gills and into the oral cavity. Smaller fish are simply sprinkled with salt.

Now let's move on to the technologies for salting carp fish.

How to salt carp

There are several ways to salt carp fish: let's look at them in more detail.

How to dry-salt carp: recipe with red pepper

Ingredients

• Carps (whole or pieces);
• Coarse salt – 200 g per 1 kg of fish;
• Red pepper.

Salting process

Before you start salting, gut the fish according to the above rules and dry it with paper towels, avoiding damage to the film on the belly.

If we cook fish to eat right away, be sure to cut it into pieces; in this case, before serving, you won’t have to bother with slicing.

• Rub the carcasses with salt on the outside and sprinkle on the inside.
• Place the fish in layers in an enamel pan, sprinkling with salt and pepper.
• Sprinkle the remaining salt on top and cover with a dish or non-resinous wooden mug. Place a weight on top: a washed stone or a two-liter jar of water will do.

• Place the pan in a cool place for 12 hours until the brine appears.
• We put the pan in the refrigerator for 3-4 days - for fish weighing 0.5-1 kg. If you salt small fish, it will be ready in a couple of days.

Remove the weight, rinse the fish with cold water and serve with onions and herbs or a side dish.

How to salt carp with dry salting: method 2

This salting method can be used if the catch is decent. A piece of canvas or a box will help you store up to 10 kg of fish.

Ingredients

• Carps;
• Salt – 150 g per 1 kg of fish;
• Spices (black and allspice, coriander);
• Bay leaf.

How to salt carp at home

We prepare a piece of canvas or burlap and a basket (wooden box). Then we begin the salting process:

• Spread the fabric at the bottom of the basket or box.
• We place the gutted carp in a “jack” pattern on the cloth, sprinkling each row with spices and salt (the last row too).
• We place a wooden circle or ceramic dish on the carp, and a weight on top of it.

The load is necessary so that no air space is formed between the fish, in which bacteria develop, leading to spoilage of the product. In addition, with a load, the carp meat becomes denser.

The last step: put the basket of fish in the cellar or refrigerator for 4-5 days so that it is well salted. You can store fish in this condition for up to a month.

How to salt carp in an unusual way: salted-dried fish

The fish is salted using the wet method so that it is salted quickly and is ready for use after a few hours, so only small carp are salted this way.

Ingredients

• Small carp;
• Salt;
• Seasonings: coriander, black pepper, bay leaf.

How to salt carp using the wet method

We salt them as follows:

• We clean the scales from the fish, gut them and wash them.
• Place the carps in layers in an enamel pan, sprinkling the layers with salt and seasonings.
• Cover the fish with a wooden circle (dish), set the weight and put it in the refrigerator (cellar). Lightly salted fish can be eaten within 24 hours.
• If you need well-salted fish, wait 6 days and rinse it directly in the pan with cold water to wash off excess salt. Rinse until the water is no longer cloudy.
• Fill the carps with water and leave for half a day to completely remove excess salt.

After draining the water, lay out paper towels in several layers and lay out the fish. We dry them for several hours in a dry and warm place: you get salted and dried fish, ideal for beer.

Now you know how to salt carp in different ways, which are also suitable for other types of fish. Try them to enjoy the delicate spicy taste and choose the most suitable technology for salting river and lake fish for the future.

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Freshwater fish such as carp can be prepared in different ways: baked simply or with vegetables, boiled fish soup, fried, cooked cutlets and many other options. Salted carp is also very tasty. But before you cook it, the question arises of how to salt carp at home so that it turns out aromatic and tasty. Let's find out how to salt fish correctly and how long to keep it under pressure.

To prepare carp dishes, you can initially salt it

Types of salting

There are several options for salting carp. It can be lightly salted, medium salted or highly salted. The method by which the ingredient is processed also differs; it can be a dry method or a wet one. The recipe for pickled carp differs in taste depending on the type of salting. Let's look at each of them.

• Warm method - this method is called warm because the carp is salted fresh, just caught. In this case, there is no need to remove the scales; it will be enough to just get rid of the giblets and gills. Then it is washed and rubbed with salt, preferably sea salt. The carcasses are placed in a pan; an enamel container is best suited for this task. Then the container is covered with a lid and pressed down with something heavy, after which it is placed in a cool place for 2-5 days. It depends on the size of the fish.
• The cold method differs from the hot method only in that in the second case the fish is salted while freshly frozen, while in the first it is cooked exclusively fresh.
• Dry method - suitable for light weight fish, approximately 100-200 grams. The fish is cleaned and the gills are removed. Then it is sprinkled with plenty of salt. It is salted in a container with several holes so that excess juice drains through them.
• Mixed method - with this salting method, in addition to regular dry salt, the fish is also filled with a strong saline solution. This way the meat becomes not only soft, but also juicy and well salted.

Both fresh and frozen fish carcasses can be used for salting.

In order for the fish to come out lightly salted, the volume of salt should not exceed 10% of the fish mass. To obtain strong salted fish, the volume of salt must be more than 14% by weight.

How to salt carp for the winter

To ensure that fish can be enjoyed even in winter, there is a separate way of salting it. We put the carcasses in a box in layers, but we do not clean or gut them. Salt each layer generously. Cover the top with oppression and leave for 2 days. At the end of the time, rinse with water and hang in a vertical position for 4-5 days. Salted carp is ready, this is an excellent preparation for the winter.

Marinated carp

To ensure that the salting of the carp is natural and the fish is well salted, it is best to use sea salt. Besides this, it is much more useful. Let's look at how to marinate fish deliciously and quickly.

What is useful for marinating fish (carp):

• one piece of carp weighing 800-1000 grams;
• 9-10 tablespoons of salt, preferably sea salt;
• sugar in the amount of 4 tablespoons;
• one onion;
• ginger root;
• half a lemon;
• half an orange;
• soy sauce;
• peppers to taste:
• oil;
• greenery.

It is better to salt carp with sea salt

For salted carp, you need to take the central part of the fish. The main criterion is freshness; it must only be caught in the river or purchased while still alive. Only in this case the dish will be tasty and healthy.

So, to begin with, we rinse the piece that we previously cut from the carcass several times with cold water and let it dry a little. You can use paper towels for this. In order not to stain the table, it is better to put cling film on it. After mixing sugar and salt, pour them onto the film, place a piece of fish on top and add salt. You need to put a lemon slice inside. We wrap our fish tightly with the same cling film and send it to a cool place for salting for about 2 days.

After the allotted time, take out the well-salted fish and wash off the excess salt under cool water. Place a piece of fish in a pan filled with water for 3-4 hours. During this time, the water must be changed three times. Thanks to this procedure, the salt will come out and remain in the water.

Be sure to fillet the fish by dividing the piece in half and removing the bones from it. Then cut into pieces.

In a separate container, mix finely chopped onion, chopped ginger root, sauce, juice that is squeezed from citrus fruits, and oil - mix well. Place the chopped pieces of fish into the resulting mixture and mix thoroughly with your hands so that each piece is saturated with the marinade, and set aside for half an hour.

The marinated carp is ready. Serve the dish, sprinkled with fresh chopped herbs, as an appetizer. Boiled new potatoes or any boiled porridge can serve as a side dish.

When salting carp, you can add lemon, which will add flavor to it.

Salted carp with vinegar marinade

Any salted fish is very tasty, especially when it comes to salting it at home. In this recipe, preparation involves the use of mirror carp.

Ingredients:

• small carp;
• black peppercorns;
• two bay leaves;
• one clove;
• one onion;
• one carrot;
• vinegar;
• sunflower oil.

To make the marinated carp tasty, we will take a fresh carcass, gut it and divide it into fillets. To do this, we cut along the ridge, thereby dividing it into two equal halves. Place all the parts in a deep bowl, sprinkle generously with salt and refrigerate for 2-3 days.

You can marinate carp in vinegar

After the time has passed, rinse the carcass under running cold water and place in a pan with clean water for an hour. This must be done so that all excess salt leaves the fish, which will make it lightly salted.

At this time, prepare the vegetables: cut the onion into half rings and grate the carrots. Place a layer of vegetables on the bottom of a three-liter jar, add a bay leaf on top and sprinkle with pepper. We also put pre-cut carp into pieces into a jar, alternating with carrots and onions.

In a separate container, mix vinegar and oil in proportions of one to one. Pour the prepared marinade over the fish and vegetable mixture until it is completely covered. Let it sit in the kitchen for a couple of hours, after which we place it in the refrigerator or cellar.

After two days, the fish is ready to eat.

A simple recipe for salting carp

Carp is a river fish with a slightly distinct specific odor. But with proper preparation, this smell can be completely eliminated. This fish contains a large number of bones, but if the carcass weighs more than a kilogram, it will be easy to remove the bones, since they are quite large.

Before salting, the carcass should be prepared by cleaning and gutting

Ingredients for salting:

• two carp;
• 300 grams of sea salt;
• six bay leaves;
• peppercorns.

We wash the carcasses thoroughly, you don’t need to clean them, then we gut them and remove the heads. If the fish is quite large, cut it into two equal parts. After drying the fish, salt it. Pour a layer of sea salt, pepper, bay leaf and fish into a deep container, and also sprinkle salt on top. Having placed the container under pressure, put it in the refrigerator for four days.

After the time has passed, take out the salted fish, drain the juice and rinse it under running cold water to wash off excess salt. Serve ready-salted carp with fresh onions, boiled potatoes and a salad of fresh vegetables.

The rules for salting fish will be discussed in the video:

Caviar has always been considered a delicacy and appears on tables on holidays and special occasions. River fish caviar is less valuable, but when properly prepared, it is no less tasty and also healthy. Carp caviar exhibits excellent taste when salted and fried. Pamper your loved ones with a delicious delicacy and prepare carp caviar yourself at home.

How to pickle carp caviar at home - recipe

Salting carp caviar - step by step:

How to salt carp at home - salting recipes

In fact, carp is one of the varieties of carp. But this is an artificially bred breed. Although the taste, of course, does not suffer from this at all. In addition, like any fish, carp is very useful. After all, fish is a source of building materials for metabolism in the human body. If carp is treated with salt, it will acquire special taste properties. Therefore, we introduce you to how to salt carp.

Salting carp recipe

Salting any fish (including carp) at home can be dry or wet. Only coarse salt is always used for it. But it does not add flavor to the fish, it only removes moisture from it. The general rule before salting is to pre-prepare the fish. She needs to be gutted. And now we’ll talk about specific options for how to salt carp.

How to salt carp at home - wet salting

1. In order to salt carp, we wash the gutted fish with water and place it in layers in a container that does not oxidize. For example, it could be an enamel pan. Sprinkle each layer with salt (1 kg of salt per 10 kg of fish).
2. If you want the carp to have a special delicate taste, you can add a tablespoon of sugar to the salt.
3. We place a wooden circle on the carp and place a three-liter jar of water on it (pressure). We put the fish at home in a cool place.
4. After about 10-12 hours, juice will appear in the pan. We leave it until the end of the carp salting process.
5. We remove the oppression after 4 days. We wash the carp in running cold water and pour out the juice. Next, we dry it and put it in a wooden box or basket for storage.
6. When salting carp, consider the size of the fish. If these are small carps weighing less than 100 grams, they will be ready at home in 2-3 days. If the carps are medium (100-250 grams), it will take 5-10 days. If these are large carp (500-800 grams), salting at home will take 7-10 days.
7. Wet salting of carp can be slightly varied. To do this, prepare a salt solution (for 1 kg of salt - 3 liters of water) and pour it into the fish in the container. This type of wet salting is mainly used for salting small carp at home.

How to salt carp at home - dry salting

1. To salt carp, place it in layers in a wooden box or basket. The bottom, if you salt the carp, should be covered with burlap or a clean canvas rag. The fish is laid tightly - head to tail.
2. Sprinkle each layer of carp with salt (1.5 kg of salt per 10 kg of fish).
3. We place a wooden lid on top of the fish and put pressure on it. This could be a large stone or a three-liter jar of water.
4. Thanks to this, the carp that you will salt will begin to release juice. It will drain through holes in the basket or between the boards of the box.
5. At home, carp should be kept in a cool place. In 5-10 days, the salted carp will be ready.

Useful notes about everything

You will need it

• – several large carp;
• - salt;
• – cool water;
• - scissors;
• - knife;
• – paper napkins;
• – enamel container.

To salt carp, first, gut the fish, remove the fins and gills using scissors. Thoroughly wash the carcasses in running cool water. If the fish are very large, cut them into approximately two pieces of similar size.

Dry the cooked fish with cardboard napkins, then rub well outside and inside with salt. Place in layers in a deep enamel container, also add salt to each layer. For one kilogram of clean and ready-to-harvest fish, take approximately 200 grams of salt.

On top of the last layer, moderately pour the rest of the calculated amount of salt, cover with a flat plate or a clean round wooden board. Place the weight. The easiest way to use a load is to use a clean glass jar with a capacity of 1.5-2 liters filled with water. But you can also take a large pebble stone, just wash it well and rinse with boiling water.

Place the container with salted fish under pressure in a cool place. After about 12 hours the juice will appear. Mixed with salt, it forms a concentrated brine, which will act as a preservative. Keep the fish in brine for about 4-5 days. Later, remove the pressure and wash the fish in running cool water. The deadline is indicated for large gutted carp (weighing from 500 to 800 grams). If you only had small fish (weighing no more than 100 grams), it will be completely salted in 2-3 days.

Carps salted this way are ready to eat. They can be eaten as an independent dish, or their salted meat can be mixed with diced boiled potatoes, thin onion rings, and seasoned with vegetable oil. Using exactly the same method, if desired, you can salt not only carp, but also any other river or lake fish.

Useful notes about everything

Carp is one of the most delicious fish. It is very good fried and especially baked, when, due to long exposure to high temperatures, almost all the small bones in its meat dissolve. Stuffed carp baked in foil with vegetables is a delicious dish that can decorate any festive table. But this fish can be successfully cooked using other methods, for example, salting. Naturally, this is a matter of taste: some say that salted carp is a very average dish, while others, on the contrary, like it.

For 10 kg of fish - 1.5-1.7 kg of salt (for light salting), 2 kg of salt (for moderate salting), 2-3 kg of salt (for strong salting) Roach, silver bream, ram, bream, carp are suitable for this salting , perch, pike perch, carp, asp, rudd, roach, bream, fisherman, sabrefish, anchovy, sprat, sardines, horse mackerel, etc. But it is especially good for salting medium-sized river fish weighing from 250 to 500 grams. Before salting, if necessary, wash the fish and dry it; if not, wipe it with a clean cloth. Salt anchovy, sprat and sardines without gutting them; remove the gills and entrails of horse mackerel without cutting the belly. For fish weighing more than 1-1.5 kg, in addition to removing the gills and entrails, cut the abdomen or make an incision along the back and remove the entrails, and then carefully wipe the abdominal cavity with a dry, clean cotton rag. Place a layer of salt on the bottom of the prepared salting container (strong barrel, enamel pan or bucket, stainless steel tank). Sprinkle the gutted fish generously with salt outside and inside and place it in a salting bowl, belly up. Roll the prepared, ungutted fish in salt and also place it in the bowl, belly up. Lay the fish in layers, and if in the first layer the fish is laid in one direction, then in the next layer put it in the opposite direction, that is, heads on tails, and tails on heads. Please note that larger fish should be placed down and smaller ones on top. Cover the fish placed in the dish with a layer of salt, place a holey wooden circle on the salt, and put pressure on it (a clean stone or a jar of water), and the more fish there are, the heavier the pressure should be. Cover the dish with salted fish and take it to a cold cellar. After 2 days, check to see if enough brine has formed to cover all the fish. If sufficient, monitor its condition while the fish matures. If this is not enough, add a little fresh brine prepared at the rate of 200 g of salt per 1 liter of water. Usually after 3-7 days, depending on the size, the fish is completely salted. Remove it from the brine, rinse it in running water, air dry it and put it in a wooden box or basket for storage. Please note! The remaining brine cannot be reused! Remains of blood and mucus in it make it unsuitable for another salting. I’ll tell you a secret, if you add about 1 tbsp to the salt. l. sugar, your fish will turn out even tastier.

Strong salted mackerel for storage.

For 1 kg of fish - 200 g of salt

For brine: for 1 liter of water - 200 g of salt

Wash fresh mackerel, chirus, mullet in cold water, then remove the gills and entrails, making a cut along the back and without cutting the belly. Rinse the fish prepared in this way thoroughly in lightly salted water (2 tablespoons of salt per 1 liter of water) until the blood is completely removed and let the water drain. After this, pour salt inside the abdominal cavity of each fish, place them belly up in an enamel bowl, sprinkle with salt, cover with a clean plate or mug, set the pressure and take them to a cold cellar.

On the 2nd day, drain the resulting reddish juice and replace it with freshly prepared chilled brine.

Repeat changing the brine 2 more times - on the 4th and 6th days. The ripening process of fish salted in this way lasts 10 days in a cold room, and 6-7 days in an unchilled room.

After ripening, place the salted fish in three-liter jars (pack as tightly as possible), fill it with new brine, cover with lids and store in a cold, dark room. Please note! Please note that when replacing old brine with a new one, the amount of brine added must be equal to the amount drained. Please note!

Before eating, salted fish is soaked in cold water. After this, you can immediately eat it, fry it, boil it, or stew it. So, first rinse the fish with cold running water. If the fish meat is very dense, then it must be soaked for 5-10 hours, changing the water 2-3 times. Experienced salters believe that fish should be soaked for as many hours as the number of days it was salted. They also determined that the signal for the end of soaking is the moment when the salted fish begins to float. The amount of salt remaining in fish meat after soaking should be within 5-7%.

Some types of fish (herring, mackerel, horse mackerel) can be soaked not only in water, but also in cold milk slightly diluted with water or in cold, strongly brewed black tea. For this, 3-4 hours are enough. Lightly salted fish for everyday use Salt the fish in the manner described in the recipe above. On the 2nd day, drain the resulting reddish juice, replace it with freshly prepared chilled brine and keep the fish for 2-3 days.

After this, remove the fish, rinse it in lightly salted water (2 tablespoons of salt per 1 liter of water) and let the water drain.

Wrap the dried fish in a clean rag and place in a cool place. After 3 days, lightly salted fish will be ready. The shelf life of lightly salted fish in the cold is 5-7 days.

How to dry mackerel (Chiroz).

For brine: 25 g of salt per 1 liter of water. This method of drying mackerel is popular in Bulgaria. In the spring, once the mackerel has spawned, is free of eggs and has become leaner, it is mainly used to prepare chirosi (dried mackerel). Gut fish intended for drying by removing the entrails through the gill covers rather than cutting through the belly. Wash the gutted mackerel carcasses and tie 2 pieces together with thread or thin twine, passing it through the tail. Then place the fish in the cooled brine. After 8 hours, remove the mackerel from the brine, rinse it in cold water and hang it on poles raised on stands or hang it in another way. Dry the mackerel for 5-6 days to 2 weeks (depending on the outside temperature). Tie dried mackerel into bunches, put them in bags and store in a dry and ventilated area. By the way, mackerel is dried in the same way.

Dried mackerel recipe.

Wash fresh mackerel in cold water, remove the entrails and gills through the gill openings without cutting the belly. Then, using a sharp knife, cut the carcasses from the back along the spine, rinse thoroughly and let the water drain. After this, spread the mackerel and salt its inside with dry salt at the rate of 1 tsp. salt and 2 g sugar per 1 fish. Place the flattened, salted mackerel carcasses in one row with their backs on clean paper folded in four, then transfer to a sheet of plywood, plate or dish and place in the refrigerator for salting and ripening. After 2 days, rinse the mackerel with cold water and let it drain. Then place the carcasses again in one row with their backs on clean paper folded in four and keep for another 1-2 days in the refrigerator to dry and ripen. The shelf life of dried mackerel in the refrigerator is 5 days. By the way, to extend the shelf life, peel the dried mackerel, cut off the heads, remove the spines, if you want, cut into pieces. After this, tightly fill the prepared dry jars with half carcasses or pieces 1.5 cm below the top of the neck. Then fill the jars with dried mackerel with olive or refined sunflower oil 0.5 cm below the top of the jar neck and leave for 1 hour. Then, if necessary, add oil. Cover the jars with dried mackerel with the prepared lids, roll them up, check the quality of the closure and store in a cool place.

Fish salted with spices

This is how they salt fish in Lithuanian villages. Do not remove scales from the fish, just gut it and rinse well. Then place the fish in an enamel bowl, sprinkle generously with salt mixed with pepper, bay leaf, juniper berries and cardamom grains. The next day, drain the brine and place a circle on the fish under heavy pressure. Place the dishes with fish in a cold place. Before use, soak the fish in cold water and use it to prepare fish dishes.

Dry salting of fresh fish

Fish weighing from 1 to 3 kg can be salted whole. In this case, in order to speed up the salting process and at the same time stop the development of the spoilage process in its abdominal cavity, a saturated salt solution is introduced into it. This can be done through the anus using a medical syringe without a needle or a small enema with a thin tip. Then the fish is rubbed with salt, and salt is also poured into the mouth and under the gill covers. After this, the fish is placed in the prepared container. A signal that the fish is ready can be the cessation of juice secretion, and this can be confirmed by two main signs: the “tanning” of the back of the fish (it becomes hard and does not bend well) and the pale red color of the eyes. Before consumption, salted fish is soaked for 2-3 hours in clean cold water, after which it is dried in a suspended state for 24 hours or served as is. Please note! If you are going to store salted fish for longer storage, remove it from the salting container, remove wet salt from the surface and from the belly, rinsing the fish in fresh brine. Then place the fish in a strong (no cracks) clean barrel. Lay the fish slightly overlapping one another, placing the layers crosswise and lightly tamping them with your hands or some heavy object. For tamping, use a flat plate or wooden circle to avoid damaging the delicate fish carcasses. Cover the salted fish tightly packed in the barrel with a lid and place it in a cool or very cold place for storage. This way, salted fish can be stored for several months. I’ll tell you a secret, there is one ancient way to get rid of the specific fishy smell emitted by a barrel of salted fish. Simply, when placing fish in a barrel, layer it with fresh, well-washed nettles.

How to pickle herring

This is how fresh Black Sea herring is most often salted. To prepare herring for pickling, cut open the belly of the fish and remove all the entrails. Using a knife with a sharp end, cut the blood vessels that are located deep in the chest cavity, removing blood from them. Rinse the cut herring 2-3 times with cold water to remove the blood as best as possible. After this, dry the fish, sprinkle salt on all sides (take the amount of salt as usual - 200 g per 1 kg of fish), fill the abdomen and gill cavities with it. Then place the fish in an enamel or wooden bowl, sprinkle with salt and store in a cool and dark place. Before eating, soak the salted herring in water. Tips for salting herring! Salted herring does not store well at home: a yellow coating (rust) appears on the surface of the fish, resulting from fat oxidation. To prevent rusting, you can store herring in a sealed container in a salt solution prepared at the rate of 200 g of salt per 1 liter of water. The container with salted herring should be kept in a dark, cold room or in the refrigerator. The shelf life of salted herring in brine in the refrigerator is 20-30 days, in the cellar - 10 days.

How to salt fish

Unlike meat, which is mostly salted only to be smoked later, fish is usually salted just like that, as they say, for the sake of art. And it is not just words. After all, properly salting fish is truly an art. Of course, whoever wants it smokes the salted fish, and whoever doesn’t want it, dries it, cures it, or stores it for the time being. And some people eat it just like that, and with great pleasure. After all, under the influence of salt, proteins coagulate, the specific taste and smell of raw fish are lost, and its meat thickens and becomes suitable for consumption without cooking. I’ll tell you a secret, it’s best to salt and dry fish from winter and spring catches. Before spawning begins, fish meat contains more fat, so when dried, such fish will be the most delicious. Plus, the drying process itself occurs at a time when there are still few flies and it is easier to protect fish hung for drying from their larvae. How to salt fish correctly? Now let's figure out what kind of fish we will salt. Of course, not every fish is suitable for salting. If the fish is good in the ear, fried or stewed, this does not mean that it will be just as tasty after salting. For this, the fish needs a special talent - the ability to mature. Such talents are possessed by salmon (pink salmon, salmon, chum salmon, chinook salmon, vendace, whitefish, trout), herring and anchovies (herring, herring, sprat, anchovy, sprat), mackerel, as well as roach, ram, roach, bream, sabrefish, asp etc. If you think that only freshly caught fish can be salted, you are mistaken. You can also salt good-quality ice cream - naturally, after defrosting it first. The main thing is that this fish is frozen fresh and stored in proper conditions - without thawing and re-freezing. However, salting frozen fish is more difficult than fresh fish: it is difficult to catch the “moment of truth.” This is when the fish has already been salted, but is not yet over-salted. This happens because when thawing, the structure of the tissues of fish meat is disrupted, as a result of which it takes up too much salt during the salting process. True, fatty fish does not suffer from such excess; it will not take excess salt. So, when choosing frozen fish for salting, give preference to the one that is fattier. There is less hassle with it, and it can also be stored in brine for some time. Depending on the type and fat content of the fish, different salting methods are used. These are dry, mixed and wet salting, as well as their specific varieties - spring, brine, spicy and accelerated. The use of any spices when salting fish is based on the traditions of the national cuisines of the places where the fish was caught, and the personal preferences of the salters, the latter , as a rule, prefer to keep it a closely guarded secret. This can be either a single herb, for example thyme (it is usually added to anchovies), or some complex mixture such as Indian curry (it goes well with fatty fish). However, adding spices is often a matter of habit. And if you have such a habit, keep in mind that spices must be added to the curing mixture or brine or placed directly in the dishes. Please note! I would like to remind you that coarse salt should be used for salting, since its main purpose is to remove moisture from the fish, and not just to give it a salty taste or have a preservative effect. Coarse salt dissolves slowly at low temperatures and requires moisture, which it draws from the fish. With fine salt, this effect does not work; it quickly turns into a dense crust, which instantly salts the top layer of fish meat, but does not dehydrate it, which leads to rapid spoilage of the product. And let me remind you: large fish must be gutted before salting; medium-sized fish weighing from 1 to 1.5 kg are gutted or not, as desired; small fish are not gutted at all.

How to pickle carp

This method is used to salt large carp and other types of river fish - barbel, catfish, pike perch and the like. Wash carp intended for salting in large quantities water, remove the entrails and gills. Cut very large carcasses into 2 parts. Rub each carp carcass or part with salt on all sides (175-200 g of salt per 1 kg of fish), place in a pickling bowl and cover with a thick layer of salt on top. Place a flat plate with pressure on top of the salt. Carp salted in this way releases some of its juice, resulting in the formation of a brine in which it can be stored for a long time. Before use, soak the carp in water at room temperature for 2-3 days, changing it several times. After this, the carp can be cooked like fresh fish.

Wet salting of fresh fish

This method has a significant advantage over other salting methods: salt penetrates better from the brine into the fish carcass, and it is salted more evenly. But in order to get the desired result, it is necessary to calculate the concentration of the salt solution. However, as practice shows, a 5-8% solution of table salt is optimal, that is, when preparing it, you need to take 50-80 g of salt per 1 liter of water. In addition, in order to avoid crowding of fish in the brine, the ratio of fish and brine must be observed. It should be equal to 1:1.5. Only in this case will it be possible to achieve uniform penetration of salt into fish carcasses. The fish is left in this brine at room temperature for 12 hours. You can reduce the salting time by preparing a more concentrated brine (usually 27-33% depending on temperature). In this case, the salting time is reduced to 2 hours. In both cases, it is better to use a shallow dish with a wide bottom as a vessel for salting - this way the lower layers of the fish will be less compressed by the upper ones. Please note! The brine can only be used once: the remaining blood and mucus in it make it unsuitable for another salting.

Special Fresh Fish Ambassador

For 10 kg of fish - 2 kg of salt. A large amount of fish can be salted in a loosely knit wooden box, that is, a box with slits. So, place the fish sprinkled with salt in the box, using the principles of laying described in the recipe - dry salting of fresh fish. Then sprinkle the fish with salt, place a holey circle with a weight on top of it, place the box in a hole dug in a cool place, cover it with polyethylene on top. The juice that will be released from the fish will gradually flow out of the box and go into the ground, and the fish will become denser under the influence of salt and oppression. The oppression must be selected in such a way that it is able to push through the entire thickness of the fish with its weight and displace the air from it as much as possible. A small amount of small fish can be salted using the same principle, but a little differently. To do this you will need two boards (plywood will also work) and a large piece of fabric. However, instead of one board, you can use a table, preferably a wooden one, loosely knocked together and standing in the open air. I would not advise you to salt fish this way on the kitchen table. So, lay the fabric on the board so that its edges hang down, place ungutted fish sprinkled with salt on the fabric. Lay them in layers so that the back of one rests on the belly of the other. After placing the fish, sprinkle it with salt, lift the edges of the fabric and wrap the fish. Place a board on this bundle and a weight on it. The juice released from the fish will seep through the fabric and flow out, and it is best if your salting structure lies on the ground, into which this juice will go. Typically, fish salted in this way is salted in the following terms: small fish (weighing up to 300 g ) - in 3 days, medium (up to 1 kg) - in 5 days, and large - in 10 days or longer.

Wet hanging salting of fresh fish

This very gentle salting method is good for fatty sea fish: mackerel, mullet, sardines, bonito and others, as well as for fish with very tender meat, such as salmon and grayling. For hanging salting, choose medium-sized fish, since it will be salted without gutting. Prepare the brine in such a concentration that an egg or raw potato dropped into it floats in it. Hang the prepared carcasses from rods placed on top of a container with brine, and the carcasses should be completely immersed in the brine and positioned so as not to put pressure on those nearby. After 5-7 days (depending on size) the fish will be ready. Remove the fish from the brine, dry or hang to dry. Pour out the remaining brine.

Wet salting of fresh fish in brine

Brine is a saturated aqueous solution of salt, or, more simply, a strong brine. This method is good for salting small fish, and most often the fish is salted in brine before drying. The approximate salt consumption for this salting method is 120 - 130 g of salt per 1 kg of fish. So, prepare a strong brine (brine) at the rate of 350-400 g of salt per 1 liter of boiled water. You can add a little sugar to the brine - 1 tsp. 1 liter of brine will be enough. Do not wash freshly caught fish, just wipe with a clean cloth. If the fish was bought at the market, it would be better to wash it. Using a thick needle, thread the prepared fish through the eye sockets onto twine, 5-10 pieces (depending on size). Place the bunches of fish in a salting container with brine so that it completely covers the fish. Place the carcasses not very tightly, placing them belly up. Place a holey circle with pressure on top of the fish. After this, take the dishes with fish to a cold place for maturation. Since juice is released from the fish in the brine during the salting process, the volume of brine will increase and, accordingly, its concentration will decrease. Therefore, the condition of the brine must be carefully monitored and, as soon as it becomes cloudy, replaced with fresh one. When replacing brine, remember that the volume of the new brine must be equal to the volume of the drained brine. As practice shows, the brine should be replaced on the 3rd and 6th days after the start of salting. Small fish salted in brine is usually salted in 2-3 days, medium-sized fish (weighing up to 1 kg) - in 5-8 days. Remove the salted fish from the salting container, rinse in plenty of cold water without removing it from the twine. Do this carefully and for at least 20-30 minutes. After this, let the water drain, and then hang the fish bundles to dry and wilt.

How to salt red fish (salmon, trout, salmon)

For 1 kg of fresh frozen or fresh red fish (salmon, trout, salmon) - 3 tbsp. l. medium salt, 2 tbsp. l. sugar This is the recipe that used to be used to salt red fish (salmon, trout, salmon) in Odessa, and now, thanks to the generous residents of Odessa, everywhere. For this salting, both fresh and defrosted salmon fish are suitable - pink salmon, salmon, trout, salmon, as well as herring and mackerel. Any of them turns out remarkably tasty. Thaw frozen red fish at room temperature without water or heating.

Gut thawed or fresh fish (salmon, trout, salmon), rinse, cut into separate pieces and dry each piece with a paper towel. After this, carefully remove the fins and large bones. If you want, cut the fillets from the bones, you can leave the skin. Prepare the curing mixture by mixing salt and sugar. Then rub pieces of red fish (salmon, trout, salmon) on all sides with this mixture, place them in an enamel or earthenware bowl, place a flat plate on top and press it down with a small weight. Place the dishes with red fish in a cool place (maybe on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator). After 1-1.5 days, remove the finished fish (salmon, trout, salmon) from the brine, place on paper towels and let dry for several hours. After this, the salted red fish can be eaten. You can store this fish in the refrigerator for a short time, placing it in a pan or container with a lid. By the way, you can add crushed spices to the curing mixture to your taste or use a ready-made mixture for fish dishes. But even without spices, this fish (salmon, trout, salmon) has a divine taste. I’ll tell you a secret, some housewives prefer, before placing pieces of red fish rubbed with salt in a curing bowl, to wrap them in gauze - each piece separately. In this case, the fish is salted in 1.5-2 days (depending on the size of the pieces).

How to salt red fish (trout, salmon, salmon) with dill

For 1 kg of fresh frozen or fresh fish (salmon, trout, salmon) - 5-6 tbsp. spoons of medium-ground salt, 5-6 tbsp. spoons of sugar, 200 g of fresh dill Prepare the red fish as described in the previous recipe. Mix salt and sugar and rub the fish pieces thoroughly with this mixture. Dry the washed dill on a towel. Place a third of the dill sprigs on the bottom of the salting dish, and place half of the pieces of fish (salmon, trout, salmon) on them, skin side down. Cover the fish with the second third of the dill, and place the fish on it again (now skin side up) and cover it with the remaining dill. Place a flat plate with pressure on the dill, cover the dish with a lid and leave at room temperature. After 8 hours, put the dishes with red fish in the refrigerator. After 2 days, the fish (salmon, trout, salmon) will be ready.

Balyk from carp or other large fish

This way you can prepare balyk from carp and other large fish: sturgeon, beluga, catfish and similar fish. To prepare balyk, take fresh carp weighing over 5 kg. Clean the fish from scales, cut its belly, remove the entrails, thoroughly wipe the abdominal cavity, cut off the head and tail. How to prepare balyk from carp Flatten the carp carcass prepared in this way, separating the spine and large bones. Cut the resulting half carcass into pieces 3-4 cm thick, rinse with water, rub with salt, place the carp in an enamel bowl, skin side down, and dry-salt. Place a weight on top of the carp, cover with a lid and place in a cool place. Keep the salted fish for 3 to 5 days. After salting, soak the carp in water to reduce the salt content. When the fish is wet, let the water drain, tie the pieces with twine and hang in a cool, well-ventilated place. To make the pieces smooth and shiny, they must be pressed. To do this, a few days after the start of wilting, place them under pressure, and then hang them up again. In 1-2 weeks the carp balyk will be ready. By the way, to improve the taste of balyk, before rubbing the pieces with salt, sprinkle them with sugar or mix a little sugar with the salt. Sprinkle layers of fish placed in dishes with salt without sugar.

How to dry smelt

This is how fish is dried in Lithuania. Gut the smelt and wipe with a linen rag. Prepare a curing mixture from a large amount of salt and pre-crushed spices: black and allspice, bay leaves, juniper berries, cardamom grains. Then thoroughly rub the smelt prepared for drying with the salting mixture and place it in an enamel bowl, sprinkling it with salt and spices. Cover the smelt in a circle with pressure and leave for 1-2 days, then drain the resulting brine, dry the fish, string it on string or wire threaded through the eye sockets and hang the smelt to dry under a roof on the sunny side in a well-ventilated place or place it in a non-hot oven on straw. By the way, not only smelt, but also other small fish are dried in the same way.

How to dry fish correctly

Fish for drying can be salted in different ways

When dry salting, dried fish is prepared by rubbing salt against the scales, then the carcasses are placed tightly in a wooden box or some other container, each row is sprinkled with a layer of salt, pressed down with pressure and placed in a cold place, for example in a basement or cellar. In 5-7 days the fish is well salted. With the wet method, first, using a needle, several fish are strung on twine, after which the bundles are placed in a container (barrel or enamel bowl), filled with brine (2.5 kg of salt per 10 liters of boiled and cooled water), covered with a circle with oppression, and taken out into a cold cellar and kept for 2-3 days, depending on the size of the fish and the weather. But most often, before drying, the fish is salted in brine - a saturated aqueous solution of salt (the salting method is described in the recipe “Wet salting of fresh fish in brine”). After soaking in brine, the fish is removed from the container and thoroughly washed with clean cold water. Sometimes you have to soak it to remove excess salt. If the meat is very dense, then you have to soak the fish in cold water for 5 to 10 hours, changing the water 2-3 times.

The moment of normalization of the salt content in fish meat is easy to determine: when the fish is sufficiently wet, it begins to float. This happens because the specific gravity of a salted carcass is greater than that of fresh water, causing it to sink. Floating up indicates that the salt content in it is already normal. The salt rate is 5-7% of the weight of the fish. Soaked carcasses, layers or pieces are laid out on paper and allowed to dry. Then the fish is strung on twine, leaving a distance between the carcasses of at least 1 cm. The fish is dried in the open air on moderately warm days, but not in the sun, but in the shade, preferably under a canopy, in a well-ventilated place. But it is best to dry fish in the spring in cool, dry weather. At this time, the fish will not only dry out more evenly, but will also not be attacked by aggressor insects.

Note! Flies, wasps

Note! The worst enemies of dried fish are flies and wasps, which constantly attack carcasses suspended for drying. Wasps eat up the pulp, and flies nest eggs under the gills and in other secluded corners, from which many maggot larvae soon emerge. Slightly spoiled dried fish can still be saved by immersing it again in a saline solution for several hours. But it is no longer possible to cope with a colony of already hatched voracious maggots.

However, such troubles only occur with freshly hung fish, and flies and their offspring are not dangerous for carcasses that have been dried for 2-3 days. In order to somehow protect freshly hung fish from flies, after soaking it is moistened with vinegar: its smell repels them for some time. But the best remedy flies and wasps are traditionally repelled by a gauze canopy, which is used to cover the frames on both sides, without leaving the slightest gap. However, this remedy, frankly speaking, is not very reliable, but with strict control and direct participation on your part, it guarantees the relative safety of dried fish. There is, however, another way to dry fish without risk: do it in early spring and late autumn, when the season of these annoying insects is not yet open or has already closed.

note! Some experts in the field of fish drying prefer to hang the carcasses by threading the twine through the hole near the tail, while others, on the contrary, pull it through the eye sockets. As a result, the fish ends up suspended either by the tail or by the head. Both have compelling arguments to act this way and not otherwise. If you are interested in which of them is right, I will say right away: I don’t know. Therefore, I suggest doing this. For the first 2-3 days, we will hang the fish to dry by the tail, that is, head down, so that the moisture and contents of the stomach flow out through the mouth. And in the remaining days we will hang it to dry by the eye sockets, that is, we will turn it upside down with its tail - this way all the fat from the fish will be absorbed into its own meat, and not drain to the ground. In my opinion, it’s quite reasonable: isn’t it for this fat that we value dried fish so much?! To hang fish, it is convenient to use large frames made from slats and beams, onto which strong twine or wire is pulled and the carcasses are hung in rows. The drying time for small fish is 2 weeks, for large fish - 5 weeks.

Note! Dried fish after air drying is still unsuitable for food: it must ripen. This usually takes from 3 weeks to 1 month. It is easy to determine the readiness of dried fish - it becomes almost transparent. And keep in mind that salt should not shine on the surface of properly dried fish, and its meat should not be dry, but rather hard and elastic.

Marinated carp is a culinary masterpiece that everyone should try. Using this recipe, you can marinate any fish: silver carp, crucian carp or pike, but carp marinated in vinegar according to this recipe is an excellent dish, for which it is worth sacrificing a few millimeters of additional fat on the waist and hips.

The delicious carp fish holds the record among all products for the presence of iodine, which is so necessary for the normal functioning of the thyroid gland. The meat of this fish contains a lot of useful substances. Vitamins C, E, PP, B6, B12 and others, which are contained in large quantities in this product, promote DNA synthesis, participate in fat metabolism and have a beneficial effect on the nervous and digestive systems. Nutritious and tender carp meat contains proteins and fats that are necessary for normal human life. And everything would be fine, but carp is so high in calories that it is not recommended for systemic consumption by people on a diet due to the presence of a huge amount of calories. However, pickled carp is a culinary masterpiece that everyone should try. Using this recipe, you can marinate any fish: silver carp, crucian carp or pike, but carp marinated in vinegar according to this recipe is an excellent dish, for which it is worth sacrificing a few millimeters of additional fat on the waist and hips.

What to marinate carp in?

Each housewife makes the marinade for this amazingly tasty, nutritious and healthy delicacy in her own way. However, the taste constantly changes depending on the composition and spices added to the marinade. So what should you marinate carp in to achieve the most delicious taste? The simplest and easiest ingredient added to the marinade, which will emphasize the tenderness of the meat and add a piquant twist to its taste, is ordinary vinegar.

Marinate carp - ingredients:

• Carp fish – 1.5-2kg;
• Vegetable oil or olive oil – 10 tbsp. spoon;
• Salt, ground black pepper, bay leaf, spices and herbs to everyone’s taste;
• Onions – 5-6 pcs.;
• Vinegar – 10 tbsp. spoons

How to marinate carp?

Let each housewife choose her own marinade according to taste, color and smell, and we marinate the carp as follows.

First, let's prepare the fish that we are going to marinate. Let's clean it, gut it, pull out the insides. Let's cut off the head and give it to the cat - let him have a holiday too! Rinse the fillet under running water and lightly dry with a kitchen towel. Afterwards, we take the fish and cut it into small portions - 3-5cm, or even thinner. Everyone cuts according to their own aesthetic tastes and views. However, remember - the thinner the meat, the better it will be marinated. Yes, and faster too.

Carp marinated in a jar or pan is not particularly significant, but professional chefs recommend carrying out this process in a glass container to preserve a certain taste. In an aluminum pan, fish can acquire a specific taste that not every connoisseur of beauty will like!

Now I’ll tell you in detail how to marinate carp so that it is a masterpiece and a highlight of the festive table, and the applause for your person from the guests sounds loud and long.

Marinated carp - recipe

Take the cooked carp pieces and place them in a glass jar. Salt and pepper it generously, sparing no spices. We leave everything for several hours so that the meat absorbs the seasonings. After 2-3 hours, remove the portioned pieces from the container and rinse under running water. After drying the fish a little, we begin the marinating process itself. To do this, add the following ingredients into a jar in layers:

• a layer of carp cut into pieces;
• a layer of onions cut into rings or half rings.

Sprinkle each layer generously with salt, ground black pepper and spices: cloves, coriander, allspice, bay leaf. If anyone likes spices that I didn't mention, just add to the list. Some people say that you must add cumin for a full and piquant taste, but I am not a fan of this seasoning, so I excluded it from my personal recipe.