Making balyk from carp at home

Nutritional value, calorie content of silver carp balyk

The average protein content in the meat of large fish, both freshwater and marine, ranges from 16 to 20%, and the mass portion of fat depends on the type of fish and the conditions under which it was caught. Thus, at the end of spawning, the average fat content in a silver carp carcass (pulp only) can drop to 2%, while the same fish at the very peak of feeding contains up to 6% fat.

In order to compare silver carp of varying degrees of fattening, data were taken on the caloric content of fish raised in artificially fattened ponds and caught in the wild at the very beginning of feeding:

Breeding method	Calorie content of pulp	Including fats, (%)	Protein complex, (%)
2-year-old silver carp on artificial feeding	137	until 6	18,8
The same, in artificial reservoirs without complementary foods	112	5,41	16,02
One-year-old fish in open water conditions	88	1,9	until 19

Such a wide spread of the given values makes it difficult to estimate the caloric content of silver carp balyk.

One of the most important stages of preparing fish using these methods is removing excess moisture from the pulp; it is as a result of this that balyk acquires its characteristic taste and density. As a result of the evaporation of moisture, the mass of silver carp decreases, while the fats mainly remain. As a result, wet balyk from a fatty carcass may turn out to have less calories than a more dried one.

Delicious homemade salted balyk

Ingredients:

silver carp - 3 kg;
granulated sugar - 90 g;
salt - 700 g;
bay leaf - 3 leaves;
allspice - 10 peas;
peppercorns - 15 peas;
turmeric - 3 tbsp. spoons;
coriander - 1 tbsp. spoon.

Preparation:

Completely prepare the fish by washing, cleaning and cutting the silver carp so that you have two pieces of fillet.
These two pieces can be divided in half, but this is just for convenience when salting.
Mix all other ingredients and sprinkle this mixture onto the bottom of the container in which the salting will take place.
Place the fillet on top and cover it again with salt and spices; you can do it in several layers, making sure to sprinkle each one.
Set the pressure and leave it in the coolest place for 5 days.
Afterwards, wash the fish and soak it in cold water for 6 hours, after which you can dry it and hang it out to dry.

Subtleties of cooking

Very large fish are filleted, which is cut into pieces from which the balyk is prepared separately from the meat;
To speed up the process of preparing balyk, the skin of the fish is removed;
If the fish is fished in pieces, their size should be large, but in moderation - small pieces dry out quickly, and too large pieces are poorly salted;
The taste of balyk depends not only on the salting method, but also on the degree of drying - the drier the fish meat, the saltier it is;
The salt that is used for salting fish should be coarse without foreign impurities;
After salting, the fish should be soaked for as many hours as the number of days it was in the brine;
To obtain the spicy taste of balyk, at the stage of salting the fish, up to ½ part of sugar (usually 20-30%) and spicy spices (allspice, nutmeg, bay leaf, black peppercorns, coriander, cloves, ginger and others) are added to the salt. .

How to choose ingredients for silver carp balyk

It is undesirable to use females with caviar for balyk; their flesh, as a rule, contains little fat. Males with a large amount of milk also come out a little dry, it is optimal if the fish is caught after spawning in the middle of the feeding period. The fish is chosen based on its appearance; fatty fish, as a rule, have a very wide area where the flesh meets the head.

The body of such silver carp is not elongated, but rather rounded, knocked down. If the fish is absolutely fresh, its gills have a very bright color.

Grayish and dull shades indicate that the fish, if not spoiled, was probably caught many hours ago and kept in water without sufficient oxygen. It is not recommended to use frozen carcasses for dried or smoked balyk, but you can use the oven heating method, although the result will still not be the best.

Secrets of making balyk from silver carp

Traditionally, it is believed that balyk should be light-colored, almost transparent, but silver carp is often prepared so that it resembles in color the more delicious fish of the salmon family. To do this, with liquid salting, add grated paprika and turmeric to the brine, and with dry salting, make do with only the second spice.

Balyk with garlic is unusual; usually the fish is rubbed with it after salting before drying. This method is not suitable if the fish is further smoked or heated in the oven. How to make balyk from silver carp if the fish catch is significant, the experience of fishing cooperatives will tell you.

Balyk carcasses can be salted in large quantities and dried or smoked, soaking as needed. Of course, the soaking will take a noticeable amount of time, as will the subsequent drying of the fish, but in this way it is good to prepare it for future use in large quantities.

Silver carp balyk recipes

The selected descriptions include the basic methods of salting and further processing of balyk, excluding the exotic in the form of partially fermented fish. Since dried fish is traditionally considered balyk, more of these recipes are given, taking into account the variety of preliminary preparation methods.

Cold smoked balyk

Slow preparation of silver carp carcasses is the key to tenderness and wonderful taste. The fish is salted, soaked in a spicy marinade, and only then sent to the smokehouse. In this way, you can prepare both the balyk itself - the backs, cut off along with the ridge, and carcasses cut to the peritoneum.

How to make balyk from silver carp?

What to cook from:

silver carp, weighing up to 1500 g – 2–3 carcasses;
coarse pickling salt;
laurel, Provençal herbs and peppercorns;
pure vegetable oil.

How to cook:

Remove the scales from the selected fish and carefully remove the gills. Wipe the carcasses with a damp and then dry cloth. With extreme care, cut the head from the nostrils to the beginning of the back, along the top, with powerful culinary scissors.
Using a sharp and powerful knife, cut the back along the ridge, on one side. With special care, the peritoneal bones are cut off from the ridge, passing from the head to the tail itself.
The carcasses are unwrapped and the entrails are removed completely, very carefully so as not to damage the gallbladder. First, wipe the inside with napkins, then with a damp cloth. Very fresh fish can be washed quickly.
Slightly dried carcasses are sprinkled with a thin layer of salt; be sure to place it in the cavities inside the head and under the gill covers. The fish is folded in layers, adding a little salt under the first carcass, pressed under pressure and put into a room with a temperature of about +5°C for 48 hours.
A spicy marinade is prepared for soaking. Boil water, about 2 liters per carcass, for up to 10 minutes. boil the spices. The liquid should be aromatic, but not bitter when tasted with the tip of your tongue.
The salted carcasses are cleaned with a knife to remove the layer of salt, and the remaining crystals are washed off. Pour in the spicy mixture for 4 hours. Its volume can be larger if the fish is heavily salted, but only cold boiled water is added.
The fish is hung on a string threaded through the eye sockets. It is necessary to provide a draft, even if you need to turn on the fan, place a bowl underneath under drops of moisture, and protect the carcasses themselves with gauze from insects. Drying time – up to 12 hours.
Silver carp balyk of this mass is smoked for up to 4 days at low temperatures (up to +28°C), using smoke from fruit chips. Before placing the carcasses in the smokehouse, rub them with oil, and take a short break every 5–7 hours.

The practice of home smoking suggests how to make balyk from silver carp that does not smell so much of smoke. The finished silver carp balyk needs to be ventilated from too strong smoke for about 8 hours. It is convenient to do this in the same way as the fish was dried before smoking.

Classic dried balyk from the backs of silver carp

For the balyk, only the back part with the ridge will be used, so the fish must be well-fed and quite large. For silver carp, these are carcasses weighing from 3 kg, which must be fresh.

Ingredients:

live silver carp – 1 pc.;
coarse salt – 450 g;
sugar – 80 g.

How to cook:

The gutted and scaled carcass is beheaded. The tail is cut in the middle, first to the ridge using scissors, then a powerful and sharp knife is used.
The peritoneum is cut off from the spine, leaving no remnants of costal bones on it. The part selected for the balyk is rinsed and dried, changing the napkins several times.
Salt is mixed evenly with sugar and poured onto a clean, thick cotton rag. It should be slightly longer than the balyk and 5–6 times wider than its lower part; it is convenient to use an old dish towel.
The back of the silver carp is placed on the salt with the bottom cut, the edges of the fabric along with the salt are placed on top of it and swaddled tightly. The package must “breathe”, so it cannot be wrapped in film.
The fish is put away in the cold; if it was not possible to wrap it tightly with cloth, be sure to press it with a board with a weight. After salting the balyk for 2 days, unroll the fabric, and lower the fish into a bowl of cold water and soak for up to 2 hours.
It is necessary to take a sample, keeping in mind that after drying, some of the moisture will leave and the fish will seem somewhat saltier. If necessary, soaking is extended.
Hang the balyk in a draft, tail part up. It is important to ensure air flow, so it is permissible to use forced airflow with a fan and arrange a simple gauze protection against flies.
Dried balyk is ready in 3 days; if desired, the fish can be left to dry longer. The finished balyk is wrapped in parchment and put in the refrigerator. The paper can be additionally oiled.

The silver carp is quite bony in the dorsal part, but in large fish the bones are quite convenient to remove from the pulp. When serving, the balyk is cut into slices so that there are 2-3 spinal bones in a piece. Balyk can be stored frozen for a long time; before doing this, it is rubbed with oil and packed together with parchment in plastic bags.

Simple spicy balyk

The fish will differ from the previous version in a noticeable taste and aroma of spices. For balyk from freshwater fish, this is a wonderful way to muffle the specific smell.

What to cook from:

2-kilogram fatty silver carp;
table salt – 450 g;
a dozen peppercorns, equal parts black and allspice;
15 g turmeric;
100 g sugar;
a large bunch of juicy parsley;
10 g ground coriander.

How to cook:

The fish is cleaned and gutted, the belly is ripped open. After separating the head, leave the tail and wash the carcass.
It is necessary to cut out the ridge without breaking the skin on the back. To do this, first cut off the dorsal fin with scissors, then cut off the ridge from the costal bones, from the side of the abdomen.
The spinal bone is removed, trimming the flesh on both sides if necessary. The fillet is cut near the tail, but the fillet itself is not separated from the skin.
The carcass is quickly rinsed and dried, rubbed on all sides with a mixture of salt, crushed spices and sugar.
The silver carp is placed in any clean container into which the whole carcass fits. Sprinkle with the remaining flavored salt and place a load weighing up to 2 kg on top.
Fish for balyk is salted for 5 days in a room with a temperature of up to +8°C. Next, the silver carp is cleaned of salt crystals and soaked for 4 hours in clean water.
Having turned the fish along the back, sprigs of parsley, washed and well dried, are placed inside. They are placed in the cold under pressure, this time for only 6 hours.
Dry the balyk, removing the greens, completely unrolled. Take measures against flies and other possible pests. The fish is completely ready in 2 days.

How to make balyk from silver carp and protect it from pests is known from the practice of harvesting small fish. In hot weather, additionally moisten the gauze mesh with a vinegar solution; it repels flies quite well.

Quick balyk in the oven from silver carp

It is better to try this method first on fish weighing no more than a kilogram; the drying process in the oven for large specimens can take a long time.

Ingredients:

Delicious salted fish with your own hands

Cleaning.

We deal with fish in the standard way - we clean it of scales and entrails. You need to clean thoroughly so that no trace of blood or films remains.

Cutting.

Now we need to separate the fillet from the bones. Cut off the fish's head, tail and fins. Using a sharp knife, make an incision along the back along the dorsal fin. Pressing the knife against the bones, carefully cut the meat from the bones (you can cook fish soup from the head and spine).

Next, remove the skin from the fillet; to do this, we undermine the edge from the side of the head and pull the skin towards the tail with our right hand, holding the fillet with our left hand. With a little practice, this can be done in one motion. We cut off the thin meat on the tummy; it can be used for other purposes, but we need the meatiest part. Salt. For salting we use a mixture of salt (plain rock salt, not iodized) and sugar; for 1 kg of fish we need a mixture of 10 tbsp. salt and 2 tbsp. Sahara.

At the bottom of the container (not aluminum, I salt in plastic tightly closed containers that do not allow the fishy smell to linger in the refrigerator) in which we will salt, pour salt to cover the bottom, put the fish and sprinkle salt on top. If you salt a lot of fish, you can layer the fish and salt.

The fish is salted for 5-6 days in the refrigerator. During this time, brine is formed - a strong salt solution formed due to the hygroscopicity of salt and moisture released from the fish. We don’t drain it; our balyk will be salted in it.

Soaking

After this time, we take out our balyk and rinse it with water. Then we put it in clean and cold water for as many hours as the number of days it was salted. But here it is also important how much salted fish you like, I soaked it less than normal.

Drying. After soaking, squeeze the balyk from the water, dry it with a napkin and hang it in a well-ventilated place for 3-4 days.

The time depends on the temperature and humidity of the room, as well as on the thickness of the meat and the desired dryness of the balyk. So here you need to observe for yourself... I dried it in the kitchen opposite the window, it is always slightly open, due to which there are constant flows of air, warm from the kitchen, and cold from the balcony.

How to store silver carp balyk

Balyk differs from dried fish in its high moisture content. As a result, its shelf life is shorter and the conditions are more stringent. Optimal storage at temperatures below +10°C and moderate humidity. A refrigerator is good for this, but the period still does not exceed a week at temperatures up to +5°C. Fish is stored in parchment or cloth bags.

Balyk is often rubbed with oil or a mixture of it and fish oil and frozen. In this form, at temperatures below –16°C, dried silver carp can be stored for a month or longer. In the freezer, it is important to provide conditions that are exactly the opposite of those recommended for normal storage: silver carp is first packaged in oiled paper, wrapped in cloth, and then placed in a sealed bag.

Balyk with the first signs of mold cannot be immediately considered unsuitable. The first thing they do is make sure there is no smell and other characteristic manifestations of rotting. The parts of the silver carp affected by the fungus are cut off, capturing up to 2 cm of the pulp around them. Balyk is wiped with vinegar or lemon juice, but it is recommended to use this product very quickly.

Features of the hot process

Smoking silver carp at home is a simple process. The sequence of actions should be followed. Build a fire, wait until the wood burns and turns into coals to create heat. Prepare wood chips from fruit trees in advance: apple trees, pears, apricots. Spread the wood chips on the bottom of the smokehouse in an even, thin layer.

Place a tray above the layer of wood chips in the smokehouse so that during the process the juices released from the heat fall into it and not onto the wood chips. Next, place the fish racks, and distribute the carcasses on them, keeping the distance between them and at least 15–20 cm from the coals.

Grease the grates with any fat or oil so that the meat does not fry on them. Place the smokehouse on the grill and cover it with a lid. From the time smoke appears above the device, count 40 minutes and remove the carcasses from the grill.

Hot smoked silver carp is distinguished by its brightness of taste, which depends on the bouquet of spices used during marinating and the type of firewood. The meat also has a rich aroma and a bronze “tan” of the skin. The caloric content of the product is up to 100 kcal/100 g.

You cannot use any chemicals to ignite the smokehouse, as the silver carp pulp will be bitter.