The best fish is sausage. This is probably the most unfair and far from the truth folk wisdom. Better than a fish - alive, silvering in the sunlight, plowing the expanses of a quiet river - there can only be a fish caught by a fisherman's bait. Her further fate is sad for herself. For the person who caught it, this is a creative task, because fish can be cooked in a variety of ways.
Some people love fish soup, others prefer deep-frying, and still others prefer the freshest rolls. The fish is boiled, baked in foil, salted and dried. Another popular cooking technology is smoking, which can be cold or hot. Further conversation will focus on one of the varieties of this technology, how to smoke fish in a hot smoked smokehouse.
Smoking methods and rules
Smoking refers to the effect on the surface of the product of various substances that make up smoke. There are more than a hundred of them, most of them have bactericidal and antioxidant effects. These substances systematically penetrate into the product, preventing spoilage. The effectiveness of this treatment depends entirely on the permeability of the products available. It can be increased by pre-salting the raw materials. Therefore, in practice, smoking is used exclusively for salted fish.
Thanks to smoking, the fish becomes more tender, it acquires an easily recognizable spicy aroma and excellent taste.
The surface of smoked fish is golden brown. In addition, treating fish with smoke increases its shelf life
The main smoking methods are hot and cold options. Significantly less use is made of semi-hot smoking and baking in smoke. The differences between all these technologies lie in the characteristics of temperature conditions and time duration. The simplest relationship is this: the lower the smoke temperature, the longer the smoking time. But the shelf life will be correspondingly longer.
Time for hot smoking fish
The time for hot smoking fish depends on several indicators and is determined individually for each type of product. The following factors influence the duration:
- Carcass fat content.
- Size.
- Type of raw materials.
- Smokehouse design.
Hot smoking of fish
The time for smoking fish in a hot smoked smokehouse of large dimensions and factory production is up to 12 hours. In compact homemade devices, it varies from half an hour to several hours. With increasing size of the individual and fat content, the time spent on preservation progresses.
It is worth considering that this is only a period of pure processing; before this, salting occurs. Salting small specimens will take up to a day; large specimens will take up to 3 days.
How long does it take to smoke fish in a hot smoker? For small fish, this time period is from 30 to 60 minutes. Larger carcasses can be preserved three times longer. Readiness is recognized by several signs:
- External assessment. As a result of processing, aromatic fish of golden brown color is obtained, the surface is smooth and shiny.
Ready smoked fish - Consistency. The meat separates freely from the bone, and the density corresponds to the indicators when frying.
Smoker's ABCs
To hot smoke fish, you will need a special device that will close hermetically. This can be either an industrially produced smokehouse for hot smoked fish, or a homemade container based on a large pan, barrel, bucket or metal box. For a “designer” smokehouse using improvised means, you will need a reliable grate for food. The smokehouse itself must have a protective internal coating that will not release anything harmful to the fish.
The second important part of preparing the entire process is the correctly selected fuel for smoking. And finally the recipe. The end result of the whole thing - delicious hot smoked fish - is impossible without the necessary smoke, which will make it aromatic and appetizing.
Cooking secrets
Not everyone is ready to share secrets. But we will share. Let's list the secrets of delicious smoked fish:
- the fresher the ingredient, the tastier the end result
- It is recommended to rinse under running water
- sturgeon is considered the most delicious, crucian carp is the simplest
- the longer you plan to store the dish, the more salt you add
- lemon and cognac sprinkled on food give a special taste
- You can add lemon, garlic, onions or green onions to the belly before cooking.
- dry meat from the inside is greased with mayonnaise
- soy sauce can be replaced with marinade; they also use wine or kefir
- do not overdo it with sawdust - bitterness will arise
- For high-quality baking, the product is laid in one layer
- spread the coals evenly under the box
- don't open the door
- It is dangerous to open the device if it is smoking or there is a fire under it
- It is better to smoke the carcasses whole
- you can do without equipment. The food is wrapped in foil, several holes are made in it and placed on a grill over coals.
- do not use industrial “Liquid smoke”
- eating hot smoked fish: fresh or baked vegetables would be an excellent side dish
- the taste of the product depends on the type of smoking
- smoked fish is a dietary food
- smoked fish cooked in clean equipment is more enjoyable and tastier
- It is advisable to store the finished product for no more than three days and at a temperature of no more than two degrees
- For convenience, it’s good to clean the stove and grates immediately after cooking.
About fuel
The ideal fuel for hot smoking is hardwood, including branches, shavings and, especially, sawdust. Deciduous trees (oak, beech, maple, alder, aspen, rowan, etc.) emit a small amount of resin, unlike their coniferous counterparts. Professional smokers also add dried branches of fruit trees and berry bushes (cherry, plum, pear). The smoke after they burn gives the fish interesting aromas.
Alder and juniper wood is considered the best. It has the most pronounced bactericidal properties. Hot smoked fish cooked in the smoke of this wood has the longest shelf life. Coniferous wood is rarely used for hot smoking of fish. Fish cooked with such smoke does not look very appetizing due to excess soot. Its smell also leaves much to be desired.
What can you smoke in a smokehouse?
Birch wood, the symbol of Russia, contains a lot of tar, so it is not used for smoking.
The following are good natural flavorings and taste enhancers: grapevine, juniper berries, and in microscopic quantities - pine cones, herbs, and spices.
In this case, it is better to use small dry twigs, cleared of bark. Large branches and logs should be cut into small chips (5 cm) in length.
For effective smoke production, it is necessary to use sawdust and shavings. They need to be stocked up thoroughly.
What is absolutely not suitable for hot smoking fish is plywood, fiberboard or chipboard sheets, painted or glued boards, laminate and other wood products treated with polymer resins and other “chemicals”.
Cold smoking
Cold smoking can be used to smoke any product. The taste of the resulting dish will be different from hot smoked fish. The procedure for working with cold smoke requires greater responsibility, so you need to carry out all the steps step by step, since a mistake will lead to damage to the product. But the advantage of this method is the preservation of vitamins and nutrients. When storing fish, carcasses can also be tied up, but there is no such strict requirement as for hot smoking.
It is important to prepare a sufficient amount of firewood and wood chips before starting work. When using a smoke generator, you need to know its consumption, because the process cannot be interrupted, at least for the first 8 hours. The total duration of smoking at home can reach up to several days. The key to a good result will be the selection of fish of the same size. Otherwise, the small fish will be saturated with smoke and will taste bitter, but large fish will not be smoked.
The efforts made to prepare smoked meats using this method are justified by all parameters. The fish meat is more natural, juicy, and elastic. This appetizer goes well with any dish. Unlike hot smoked fish, this delicacy has a longer shelf life. If properly packaged in parchment paper, the fish can last for several weeks in the refrigerator.
Let's return to the final stage of smoking. To judge the readiness of a dish, you need to evaluate the appearance of the carcasses. They should have a bright golden color. Deviations are allowed here, since after salting the fish is already ready for consumption, and there is no risk of signs of raw meat.
About smokehouses
The main requirement for any smokehouse is tightness. Air should not get inside, as this can lead to firewood, which means it will reduce the quality of the future fish delicacy. The smokehouse should also have significant depth. Otherwise, the fish hung in it will touch the firewood and the bottom. This will either cause them to burn or cook them instead of smoking them.
As for the smokehouses themselves, it is difficult to find a cooking device that is more democratic and diverse in the number of items used
You can smoke fish in a smokehouse at home, in the country, or on the river bank. A barrel or bucket, or, for example, an old beehive, can be used as a container. More “advanced” options include smoking in a metal box on a grill or using charcoal or gas grills. Owners of private houses can install a smokehouse in a chimney in the attic or adapt a stove.
The most correct option is to purchase a reliable portable smokehouse of industrial production, which will already have all the necessary equipment for effective, high-quality smoking.
How to smoke hot?
Now let's look step by step at how to smoke hot smoked fish.
What kind of fish is best to smoke?
A novice smoker is primarily interested in what kind of fish is suitable. It can be anything, sea or river. The main thing is that it is fresh. Of course, defrosted fish are also smoked if they are frozen fresh. Most often in practice, fish of carp species (asp, bream, sabrefish), sturgeon (sterlet, sturgeon), as well as catfish, eels, smelt and cod are smoked.
The size of the carcass is not particularly important. Preference can be given to fatter individuals. It is better if in one batch there are fish of the same species, approximately the same size. Then all this fish will be salted and then smoked evenly.
Small fish weighing up to 400 g, as a rule, are not gutted: they are salted and smoked whole carcasses. Medium-sized fish up to 3 kg are most often gutted, leaving the scales and head.
Large specimens are gutted and then stripped, always cutting off the head. They can be halved along the back or smoked in pieces cut crosswise.
Pickling
This is an extremely important stage, because the final taste of the fish depends on the degree of salting.
Fish or fillet pieces prepared for smoking are salted in brine (high concentration brine) or dry.
Small individuals are “put on” twine through the eye sockets. Large ones are tied in pairs by their tails. Large pieces of fillet are simply tied with twine.
When dry salting, the fish is placed in layers in some container, sprinkling salt on each layer. Particularly large fish are simply rubbed with salt, then wrapped in parchment.
When wet salting, the fish are immersed in brine. With this method, the salting time is greatly reduced (up to two hours).
The salting stage for hot smoked fish lasts from three hours for small fish, up to 12 hours for large ones.
Drying
After salting, the fish must be dried to ensure even saltiness. The fish need to be tied with twine and hung so that the brine drains. To protect against insects, you can make a gauze canopy by folding the fabric several times, then moisten it with vinegar.
You need to dry the fish for about an hour, then wipe the fish with a rag
Before smoking begins, all prepared carcasses must be carefully tied with twine for easy hanging in the smokehouse. This will also prevent the fish from falling apart during cooking.
Cooking in a barrel smoker
At the bottom of the barrel you need to place pre-prepared wood chips with sawdust of suitable wood species. Layer thickness is 2 cm. Be sure to prepare several juniper branches for flavoring.
One or two grates and a lid must be adjusted to the size of the barrel in advance. Install the gratings at a suitable height, one above the other. It is better to lay the fish in one layer; the carcasses should not touch each other. It is better to place large fish on the lower grid, closer to the bottom, and small ones - at the top. There is no need to remove the twine straps from the fish: the smoked fish will simply fall apart.
Then it’s time to make a fire. Let it be small, but give a uniform, long-lasting heat. After this, the smokehouse must be closed with a lid. The first stage of cooking fish in a smokehouse is about a quarter of the time, this is the drying stage. The smoke temperature is approximately 80 degrees Celsius. Smoking itself will begin when the smoke temperature in the barrel reaches 100 degrees.
By splashing water on the lid of the barrel, you can determine in general terms the “conditions” inside the smokehouse. Evaporating rather than boiling water is a sure sign that smoking is going well.
It is better not to open the lid itself during the process so that the penetrated air does not ignite the chips.
What fish is suitable for smoking?
How complex the smoking process is can be found out during the smoking process. Although many argue that this is not a simple process, you should not expect much complexity. First of all, you need to decide what kind of fish is best to smoke. As a rule, there are no special requirements for fish. In other words, you can smoke almost any fish.
Most people involved in this business claim that even pike, catfish, and burbot are suitable for smoking. Those who have not tried smoked fish can practice, for example, on pike perch, herring, sterlet, cod or flounder. According to some professionals, you can smoke crucian carp or perch.
In general, fatty fish species can be smoked, as this helps to obtain a more tasty final product. The only thing is that you cannot smoke eel if you have never done this before, since the wrong approach can make this product dangerous for humans.
How long to smoke fish in a smokehouse
The desired dry smoke with a recognizable classic aroma will appear within half an hour to an hour, depending on the size, quantity of fish, and volume of the smokehouse. In fact, this is a sign of the successful completion of the process.
How long does it take to smoke fish? For a small one, 20-30 minutes is enough, for a large one it may take from one to three hours.
Properly cooked fish will have golden scales, a dry surface and a great, instantly recognizable smell.
Well-smoked fish is baked through. Its meat extends freely from the ridge. The density is the same as that of fried fish. Immediately after smoking it can be safely served.
What kind of fish can you smoke?
For each individual type of fish you need to select different smoking methods
Almost all types of fish are suitable for smoking. You just need to take a few points into account:
- size of the carcass (pieces);
- the density of the meat, its structure (thick ones are best smoked in cold and smokeless ways; loose fish is cooked on hot smoke and served immediately);
- What matters is whether the fish is smoked for future use or for immediate consumption.
Some types of fish are most successfully smoked by any method, others - only by one of the existing ones. To date, certain recommendations have emerged from experienced chefs:
- All three methods are appropriate if you smoke herring, cod, herring, beluga, sea bass, mackerel, stellate sturgeon, mackerel, cod, beluga, sturgeon, pink salmon.
- For the cold method, chum salmon, salmon, omul, sockeye salmon, mullet, shemaya, notenia, and vimba are preferred.
- With hot smoking, pike perch, flounder, pollock, bream, stellate sturgeon, pollock, whitefish, hake, pike perch, red mullet, sterlet, sturgeon, char, pink salmon, and asp are excellent.
The same fish has different densities depending on the age of the individual, its habitat conditions and prey. There are no strict regulations. The cook decides how to smoke it. Consider the wishes of your household and guests.
About the benefits and harm
The benefits and harms of hot-smoked fish are a debatable issue. Due to the high smoke temperature, it cooks quickly. The price for speed and excellent taste is the amount of carcinogens noticeable by our body. It is even more dangerous if the fish was bought secondhand - it could well be smoked using “liquid smoke”, and this is a complete “chemistry”. Moreover, the bulk of substances hazardous to health are contained in its skin.
As for the benefits, it should be recognized that hot smoking of fish leads to the destruction of most of its beneficial properties
Alas, such fish is an undeniable delicacy, having an amazing taste, but containing almost nothing useful for human health.
However, when it comes to hot smoked fish, little things like healthfulness or vitamin content definitely fade into the background. True fish gourmets are not deterred even by poisonous fugu, not to mention benzopyrene and other carcinogens.
