Looping meat legs for smoking.
To make a secure loop on the loin and brisket, you need to do something different. For more reliable fastening, the twine is threaded through the loin and brisket, capturing the rib. For reliability, the lard is hung on two loops at once.
Preparing fish for hot smoking
Hot smoking of fish begins with some preliminary operations. Every fisherman would like to see his catch, often obtained with difficulty, in the best possible way. In this case, in the form of aromatic smoked fish. Of course, you can entrust the cooking to your wife’s hands, but, most likely, not every woman will be able to cook fish with soul. Not everyone will even undertake to clean fish. Therefore, we will take on this burden and prepare our catch ourselves. A fisherman's kitchen is most often simple and requires only taking into account all the little things that may be important in the process of preparing fish.
So, let's begin. If the fish was not salted while fishing, then this will need to be done before smoking. It is best to choose small fish for smoking in a stationary home smokehouse. Most often, roaches, small asps, roaches, and breams are used for this. In a word, all those not very large fish that we most often come across while fishing, despite the terrible stories about bream that escaped from the baking sheet... But, I think, medium-sized perches are best suited for hot smoking, and small things, of course. Then you simply break these fish in half and eat the aromatic meat, smelling of alder, straight from the hard perch skin, as if from a plate. And there are fewer bones in perch than in the above-mentioned fish. At least after smoking.
Home hot smoking is carried out in sealed smokehouses. It is better to salt the fish by dry salting, without forming a brine brine, since the fish, which is very saturated with moisture, will be cooked in the smokehouse. Or you will have to dry it out for a long time. For salting, you can use a wooden box, where you place the fish in layers, sprinkling each layer with coarse salt. When salting in an enamel container, you must sometimes drain the brine. Under no circumstances should galvanized buckets be used for salting.
The fish is not cleaned of scales. The heads are also not separated. Just gut and salt. If the carcasses are quite voluminous, then they must be tied with paper twine, otherwise they will fall apart in the smokehouse.
There is no need to salt for a very long time. Over-salted fish becomes tough and, of course, oversaturated with salt. Sometimes it is advised to properly salt and then soak the fish, but this rather refers to the drying process, where you must first kill all possible parasites with salt, and then return tenderness to the fish with water. This is not required here. Hot smoking will kill all helminths and any parasites in general. Therefore, you can allocate an hour or two for salting fish, depending on the size of the fish, but no more than four hours.
After salting, the fish should be dried in the fresh air and, one might say, the fish is ready for smoking.
Looping and hanging meat products for smoking, loin, brisket, bacon.
Some smokers prefer to tie large pieces of brisket and loin with twine in squares - lengthwise and crosswise. This is how packages and parcels are usually tied. This is a reliable method of fastening if you make a strong, reliable loop at the end of the braid. For this, the product is then hung up for drying, smoking, and drying.
About the freshness of fish for hot smoking
Hot smoking fish is not so much a complicated process as it requires certain preparation and freshness of the product. Despite the fact that the fisherman often gets quite tired on a “rest” called fishing, he still needs to process the caught fish immediately after arriving home.
Of course, it would be better to do this right on the shore, at the fishing spot, but this does not always work out. Since the main advantage of a fisherman over a simple urban buyer is that the fish is always fresh, this advantage should be preserved. It is better to immediately gut and salt the caught fish. Just don’t freeze it and then defrost it in preparation for smoking. Frozen and thawed fish lose a lot of quality and often look like a rag.
If you have been fishing for more than one day, then you can dig a hole in a shady, cool place, line its bottom with twigs so that there is an air flow, and place the gutted and salted fish on these twigs, covering the top with nettles or willow branches. It is important that the salting is dry.
Ideally, of course, to have a well-equipped fishing base with a refrigerator near the place of fishing, but not every angler likes organized fishing. Therefore, the fish must be taken home immediately and processed immediately. Especially if the catch contains catfish, which is delicate and quick to spoil.
Homemade hot smoking can never be replaced with a purchased smoked product, since the entire process of preparing fish at home is carried out by the fisherman himself, “from” to “to”. Therefore, I am guaranteed to be confident in the quality of the fish and the technology of its preparation.
Methods for hanging fish for cold smoking.
It is highly undesirable to use paper ropes, fabric braid and wire for looping and tying fish, meat, poultry and lard. When smoking, paper twine can catch fire from the slightest spark or become wet from high humidity in the air or the meat and fish itself. The braid easily catches fire, and the wire eventually cuts through the thickness of the meat, and as a result, it can fall into the coals on the hearth at the most inopportune moment.
Based on materials from the book Preparing poultry, meat, fish. Smoking, canning, drying, making sausages. Kobets A.V.
How to prepare fish before hot smoking
To prepare fish for smoking, you should follow a number of simple steps:
- gut;
- Rinse;
- pickle;
- wilt.
For hot smoking, care should be taken to ensure the integrity of the carcasses, so it is better to tie the workpiece with rope or twine.
Why do you need a harness?
Cooking in a smokehouse involves processing the product at high temperatures. As a result, protein fibers are destroyed. The fish becomes soft and tender. If it is placed directly on the hooks, it may break. The procedure is relevant for maintaining the shape of the product, and for convenient placement of carcasses in the smokehouse, since the workpiece can be hung on hooks using a rope.
Strapping material
The ideal material for tying fish is linen or cotton.
These materials have all the necessary qualities:
- strength;
- elasticity;
- ability to withstand high temperatures;
- security.
In the absence of the listed options, it is allowed to knit the product with regular twine. To give it greater strength, it is pre-soaked in water. Metal, rubber and plastic materials are not suitable, since they can release harmful substances when hot smoked.
Tying methods
There are three different methods of tying fish. It is necessary to select an option taking into account the size of the carcasses, the cutting method, as well as the type of fish used.
Trim with key
This option is suitable for large breeds such as bream or carp. The product is threaded along the body with a dowel - a wooden stick. The first loop is tied from the side of the head. The twine is pulled along the body to the tail, wrapped several times, then tied. At the end of the procedure, a loop is made on the tail, by which the fish is suspended in a hot smoked smokehouse.
Strapping without key
This method is considered one of the most reliable. It is used for catfish, perch, and cod. We start tying from the head. If it is missing, then from the head part. This is where the first loop is made. Then the thread is pulled along the ridge, and loops are made at a distance of 3-4 cm. At the end of the binding on one side, the carcass is turned over and similar manipulations are carried out on the other side, from tail to head.
How to properly cut a fish carcass for smoking?
First, sort the fish so that the carcasses for future marinating have an identical size. If you choose small fish, then wash it thoroughly and then salt it.
- Leave the heads on small and medium-sized fish, but it is advisable to remove the gills. Cut off the head of a large fish. By the way, large fish rarely remain in good condition.
- The chopped carcass will be salted and cooked faster. Cut the fish crosswise. You should have even steaks. If you prefer fillet, then cut the carcass along the spine.
We cut the carcass
As a general rule, scales should be left on the fish. As a result, carcinogens will not penetrate into the fish. If you look at this method from the other side, the juice does not flow out, remaining inside the meat.
How to cold smoke fish in a smokehouse?
People like cold smoked fish more than hot smoked fish. But for the first option you will have to spend time and put in more effort. You will never do cold smoking in natural conditions, since the process only requires a stationary device (a small shed).
Next, perform the following manipulations:
- Soak fish for smoking in saline solution. Make the marinade very rich. In this composition, soak fish carcasses from 3 days to 14 days. It all depends on what size fish you decide to cook. When the fish is completely salted, soak it for 24 hours in cool water and hang it to dry. Dry the fish for no more than 5 days. You can protect the fish from flies by using gauze, which completely covers the main component.
- Then place the fish in the smoker. There you smoke it using cold smoke. It should be uniform. Hang the fish on perches, placing them high enough. Smoke will be formed due to the combustion of fuel and penetrate into the smokehouse using a special pipe. Make sure that the smoke is no more than +25 degrees. The preparation time is a minimum of 2 days and a maximum of 6 days.
- When the cooking process is complete, place the dried juniper branches into the fire. Thanks to the generated smoke, all microbes are destroyed, and therefore mold will not appear on the fish for a long time. If you want the fish to have a great flavor, then put straw in the fire.
Cold method
Fish prepared in this way is stored in a cool place. It tastes best in the first few days after preparation. But every day it will lose its own taste properties.
Wood for smoking fish
The taste of the finished smoked product largely depends on the correct choice of wood. Different types of wood give fish their own taste, aroma, and color.
You can take any kind of firewood for starting a fire: poplar, alder, fruit trees. The main thing is that the fire gives good heat.
Alder, oak, fruit trees (cherry, cherry, apricot, peach, grapes) are suitable for wood chips. You can also use mixtures of sawdust, for example, alder with cherry or apricot. It is very good to add juniper branches along with berries.
To prepare wood chips, you need to take dry branches, chop them with a hatchet or cut them with a regular knife. You can chop wood chips. The size of such chips should be approximately the same (2 by 2 cm) so that the wood chips smolder evenly.
Wood of any coniferous species cannot be used. They release resin when burned, so the products will have a pungent odor and bitter taste. Also, you should not take birch, since its wood contains tar.
Sawdust or wood chips should be moderately dry and have a moisture content of 60-70%. Wood that is too dry will burn quickly without producing enough smoke. Wet sawdust will take a very long time to burn.
IS IT POSSIBLE TO EAT SMOKED FISH EVERY DAY?
The main disadvantage of smoked fish is due to its treatment with harmful organic substances that are formed during the smoldering of wood chips.
The crust contains phenol, which is a strong carcinogen, and can reach 2%. It is especially high if the chips are coniferous. The exception is juniper chips. By the way, the original fishermen from the shores of the White Sea smoke fish not on wood chips, but on pine needles, which contain much less phenol and formaldehyde. In a word, no matter how tasty and aromatic smoked fish is, it is not worth making it a daily dish. The treat is good little by little. Aquavit universal smokehouse
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