Benefit
Dried crucian carp is rich in useful substances: vitamins A, B, C, E, PP. It also contains iron, molybdenum, nickel, fluorine, and chromium. This composition has a beneficial effect on the human body. Thanks to Omega-3 polyunsaturated acids, a person is protected from cancer. The product is necessary for the treatment of nervous disorders and depression during pregnancy and after childbirth.
It is useful to consume fish as a prophylactic agent in the fight against cardiovascular diseases, strokes, and heart attacks. Small crucian carp can be eaten with bones to replenish calcium deficiency. Is dried crucian carp tasty? The product has a pleasant taste, which is why almost everyone loves it. You just need to use it in moderation so as not to harm your health.
The disadvantage of crucian carp is that it has many bones, including small ones. Because of this, there are difficulties with its use. Caution should be exercised especially when providing the product to children. Eating such fish is, in addition, contraindicated in case of individual intolerance.
The benefits of dried fish
Dried crucian carp meat is rich in proteins, vitamins and a number of minerals. Fish contains a sufficient amount of essential Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which help the body bind and remove cholesterol, heavy metals, and toxins. This reduces the risk of malignant tumors, strengthens the cardiovascular system, increases immunity, strengthens the nervous system, and minimizes depressive conditions.
If you eat properly dried crucian carp, you can replenish calcium reserves by carefully eating small, fragile bones.
We would like to immediately reassure everyone who is watching their weight, because crucian carp is a low-fat fish. Therefore, such a low-calorie snack will not affect your figure in any way.
Cooking rules
To speed up the process you need to use small crucian carp. The fish are not gutted, fins or heads are not cut off. Then the product will be natural and tasty. But at the same time it will have a bitter taste, which not everyone likes. If the fish is large, then before salting it is gutted and a longitudinal cut is made on the back. The scales should not be removed, as they serve as protection against over-salting and drying out.
The following components are required:
- fresh crucian carp – 3 kg;
- coarse salt – 300 g;
- sugar, dill, garlic - to taste.
To make dried crucian carp, you need to prepare a large container that will not oxidize. Suitable utensils made of wood, plastic, glass, enamel. You also need wire, fishing line, and thread.
Homemade dried crucian carp recipe
So you caught or bought carcasses of fresh crucian carp, which you are going to salt and dry. To do this, you will use the following ingredients:
- fresh crucian carcasses - 1 kg
- salt - 20 g
- Number of servings: 1-2;
- Preparation time: 9 days.
In order not to buy fish in a store, but to dry it according to a Russian home recipe, the following cooking process is presented for crucian carp. To begin with, all the insides are taken out of each crucian carp, and then each carcass is washed under running water. If your crucian carp is not a large fish, then you don’t have to gut it. And there it is up to your discretion.
Afterwards, the crucian carp are placed in any empty container (container) and covered with copious amounts of salt. To ensure that the fish is quickly salted and absorbs the required amount of salt, it is covered with any lid or plate on top and a small weight is placed on top of it. After which all this “beauty” is sent to the refrigerator for literally two days.
On the third day, you should soak the fish in running water for about two hours, periodically changing the water.
Then you need to hang the crucian carp on a wire and let all the water drain from the fish. Only in the case when the excess moisture has drained from the crucian carp, do we move them to a room with good ventilation and poor transmission of sunlight.
It is better to dry crucian carp at home, depending on your taste preferences. For example, if you like fish meat to be dry, then you should dry it longer than the standard. In this case, it is advisable to insert small spacers made of twigs or toothpicks into the abdomen of crucian carp for better ventilation.
It is best to dry crucian carp at home within a week. However, if you do not like completely dry fish meat, you can remove it much earlier. But this is at your personal discretion. As soon as the fish has dried to the desired condition, remove it and use it with any alcoholic drink, preferably beer.
Dry method
If you choose the dry method, then add salt to the bottom of the dish. Each fish is rubbed with salt, which must be poured into the belly, gills, mouth, and incision on the back. The crucian carp must be placed in a container: first the large ones, and then the small ones. All layers are covered with salt. Small crucian carp are covered with a lid and placed in the refrigerator for 1-3 days. Large fish should be placed under pressure in a cool place. To avoid bacteria, the liquid that appears under pressure is drained daily.
After 1-3 days, the fish are washed. After washing, it is soaked in water and vinegar for 30 minutes. Then it should be placed in a colander to drain and dry. If you use smoke smoke (100-150 g), the fish will have a smoked taste and aroma. There is no need to use gauze. A photo of dried crucian carp shows the appetizing appearance of the product.
Crucian carp dried by two methods of salting
Do you doubt that crucian carp can be dried? Believe me, the taste of this fish goes amazingly well with beer. However, before you dry the fish, you need to salt it. There are two methods of salting crucian carp: dry and wet.
Recipe for dried crucian carp using the dry salting method
To prepare this dish we will need:
- salt – 1.5 kg
- fresh crucian carp – 10 kg
- Number of servings: unlimited;
- Preparation time: 9 days.
Take a small box made of wood. Its bottom is covered with canvas, and fish is placed on top of it. You can apply several layers of grouse in this box. The fish is then sprinkled with copious amounts of salt. A wooden board is placed on top of the crucian carcasses, and any heavy load is placed on it. What is it for? The need for this is due to the fact that air does not get on the fish, and, as a result, the development of a bacterial zone does not occur.
Within a day or two, crucian carp juice will begin to come out of the cracks of the box, and in a week the recipe for dried crucian carp using the dry method will be completed 100%. In other words, after two days we wash the fish and after 7 days the crucian carp, suspended on a rope in a dark, ventilated place, will be ready. All that remains is to invite guests to taste dried crucian carp with beer.
Recipe for dried crucian carp using the wet salting method
This recipe is not particularly difficult compared to the previous one. Many people use the wet method of salting crucian carp, as after it the fish turns out to be quite tender and tasty. So let's get down to the ingredients:
- fresh crucian carp – 10 kg
- salt – 1 kg
- granulated sugar – 1 tablespoon
- Number of servings: unlimited;
- Preparation time: 9 days.
The fish is gutted and washed thoroughly. You need to dry crucian carp at home in an enamel pan. The belly of the crucian carp should be at the top and sprinkled with sugar and salt. Afterwards, the saucepan is covered with a lid, but of a smaller diameter, and be sure to press down on top with some kind of weight. Then the container with fish is placed in a cool room for a couple of days. As soon as the fish begins to release juice, it should be washed with plenty of water and then dried for a week.
Wet Ambassador
It is necessary to choose fish of the same size. It must be filled with saline solution. For 3 kg of crucian carp you need 2 liters of water, 300 g of salt, 1 tbsp. l. Sahara. If desired, add 3 tsp. dill and 2 tsp. chopped garlic.
Then the above measures are carried out - refrigerator, washing, drying. High-quality fish have a dense back and dark gray meat. After drying, there will be a white coating on the surface.
Cutting crucian carp for drying
Crucian carp weighing more than 300 grams undergoes preliminary preparation: it is partially flattened or simply gutted.
Partial layering is performed as follows:
1. The crucian carp is cut from the back along the ridge, the head and tail are not removed, the belly is not cut; 2. The gills and entrails are removed.
Crucian carp weighing more than 800 grams can be cut into two halves (sides) with the head removed, but the belly does not need to be cut, performing partial flattening as described above.
Small crucian carp can be left uncut and salted whole, or gutted, but this is optional.
Ram drying
To dry fish on a ram, you will need a thread or fishing line, which is used for stringing. You can hang it on hooks. The bellies of the fish must be pushed apart with toothpicks so that everything inside dries out properly. A special solution will protect against flies: 9% vinegar (1 tbsp) mixed with sunflower oil (2 tbsp). The liquid is used to rub the fish, after which it can be dried.
It is better to dry the crucian carp outside at night for several days. During the day it is better for him to be indoors. After 3 days, you can hang it outside, covering it with gauze.
Preparing fish for salting
Before salting crucian carp, you need to prepare it properly. We thoroughly wash the fish under running water to remove as much mucus as possible. For large specimens, we rip open the belly, remove all the entrails, and thoroughly wash the inside. We leave small carcasses whole.
You need to salt crucian carp for drying carefully, paying special attention to the gills and mouth, because there are the most microorganisms that can cause spoilage of the finished product.
If there is a lot of fish, then the carcasses can be placed in layers in a suitable container or box, generously sprinkling the fish with salt.
If you come across caviar while cutting fish, there is no need to throw it away. You can salt crucian carp caviar using 0.5 tbsp per 100 g of product. l. salt and 0.75 tsp. table vinegar. First, we wash the caviar, mix it with salt and vinegar, and leave it in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Then take it out, beat with a mixer with odorless vegetable oil (40 ml) until a light emulsion is obtained.
Using the dryer
To protect the fish from flies and other insects, you can buy a dryer. The duration of drying is determined by the temperature and humidity of the air. This may take from 3 days to a week.
Dried crucian carp is usually ready in 5-7 days, and dried crucian carp in a week. Using a dryer, the fish is dried for several hours. The product tastes great.
Preparing fish for drying
Before drying crucian carp, it must be prepared for this process. To do this, we take out the salted raw materials and thoroughly wash each carcass to remove mucus and excess salt.
After this, we place the fish in clean water for several hours, so that we can then begin the drying process.
Usually they soak for as many hours as the fish has been salted for days. If the ambassador lasted a week, then soak for exactly 7 hours
Drain off the excess water and place the fish in a colander, straining out the excess liquid. Then dry each carcass thoroughly with a towel or napkin.
To protect against annoying insects, we treat each carcass with a weak vinegar solution or vegetable oil.
Storage
How to store dried crucian carp? It should be placed in a wooden box, wicker basket or fabric bag. Then the fish will keep for up to 2 weeks. If long-term storage is needed, then it should be wrapped in parchment and placed in a cool room. In such conditions, the product will last up to 2 months. It is also stored in the refrigerator.
Firm, thoroughly dried and gutted fish can be stored for 1 year. It needs to be lubricated regularly with sunflower oil to prevent drying out. But you can also store it in a glass jar.
Fish is usually consumed as a snack with beer. It serves as an excellent addition to the drink. And if suddenly, which happens quite rarely, there are dried fish left, they are added to various dishes. For example, you can grind them into flour, which is suitable for fish cutlets, sauce, and soup.
It is important to follow all the rules for preparing delicious fish, because only then will it be of high quality and flavorful. For this you need to use fresh crucian carp, without damage. If the product is prepared correctly, you will always have this delicious delicacy at home.
Drying fish
To dry fish, we put the carcasses on a fishing line or twine, making holes in the lip, eye or tail. You can also put each carcass on a separate hook, then it is convenient to remove and fold it.
To speed up the drying process, toothpicks are inserted into the bellies.
It is very important to choose the right place for drying. It should be windy and well warmed by the sun. If it is not possible to dry fish outside, then you need to choose a spacious room with drafts.
Drying fish outdoors
A separate problem is flies and other insects. Sitting on carcasses, they lay eggs, from which worms hatch over time. Unfortunately, such a product will be hopelessly damaged.
To avoid contact with insects, the dried product is wrapped in gauze, placed in special multi-tiered dryers, or wiped with vegetable oil and vinegar.
Craftsmen themselves make drying boxes, covering them with mosquito nets or gauze.
Under favorable weather conditions, we dry the fish for 3 days to 2 weeks.
- Dried fish is dried for 5-7 days;
- It will take 1-2 weeks to make a battering ram.
We check the readiness of the fish by pressing on the back: it should be elastic and dense.
Proper preparation of crucian carp
Before the process of salting crucian carp, it must be properly prepared for this procedure. Small or medium ones are best as they won't take much time to clean. It is necessary to get rid of mucus from the fish, thoroughly rub each side with salt.
For convenience, you can put the fish in a small basin and cover it with salt. Attention. Salt must be placed in the mouth and gills of the fish.
If you take large fish over 1 kg , then the preparation process will be more difficult. First, you need to get rid of the offal . The belly of the fish is cut and the entrails are removed. Next, we make a cut from the tail to the head. This way the fish will dry out faster. There is no need to clean fish from scales . The scales help protect the meat from exposure to sunlight and preserve fish juice.
Rinse the fish with water, thoroughly rub in the salt and place in a deep container. Let it marinate for five days.
Attention. When gutting fish, caviar may get caught. It can also be salted.
Cooking features
Drying crucian carp is not a complicated process, but it is lengthy. By making mistakes or skipping any of the stages of preparing fish for drying, you can get a completely different result than the cook expects. Before you start cooking dried crucian carp, you should carefully study the rules for this process.
- Before drying, the fish is not cleaned of scales, but gutted. Only very small crucian carp can be salted and dried along with their entrails, but you need to be prepared for the fact that they will have a bitter aftertaste. Medium and large crucian carp are gutted in the traditional way or stripped, cutting from the back, but leaving the halves connected in the belly area. The heads are cut off only from the largest specimens; most often crucian carp are dried whole, that is, with fins, tail and head.
- After gutting, the carcasses are washed well to completely remove mucus and dried. You can use paper towels to speed up this process.
- The next stage in preparing crucian carp for drying is salting them. Salting can be done dry or wet. For dry salting, 150 g of salt per 1 kg of fish is usually used, for wet salting - 100 g of salt per 1 kg of fish. For wet salting, fish of the same size is selected, otherwise it will be salted unevenly. Spicy salting involves adding sugar, herbs and spices; it can also be wet or dry.
- The duration of salting crucian carp depends on their size. On average it lasts a week. All this time the fish should be in a cool place, preferably under pressure.
- After salting, the crucian carp must be soaked with clean, cool water. The duration of soaking depends on the duration of salting. How many days the crucian carp were in brine, so many hours they need to be soaked.
- After soaking, they begin to directly dry the fish. To ensure that it is dried not only from the outside, but also from the inside, place spacers made of matches or toothpicks. The fish is then attached to the line. It can be strung with a gypsy needle, threaded through the eyes, or attached using paper clips, clothespins, or other devices, both behind the eyes and behind the lip or tail.
- In the first days, the fish is dried only at night, when there are fewer insects that can be attracted by its smell. From the third day, fish are dried around the clock. To protect against insects, you can also rub it with a mixture of vinegar and vegetable oil. An even more reliable way to protect crucian carp from insects is to cover it with gauze and fasten its edges with thread or other means. If you have to dry fish often, it is advisable to purchase or make your own a special dryer, reminiscent of a shelf with gauze shelves, covered on all sides with a mosquito net.
- You need to dry and cure fish in a well-ventilated place, preferably on the street or on the balcony. If you have to pour fish indoors, try to keep it drafty.
- The duration of drying of crucian carp depends on the size of the carcasses and weather conditions. Usually it ranges from 3 to 7 days (on average 5-6 days). If you leave the fish to dry longer, you will no longer get dried crucian carp, but dried crucian carp. They store better, but are tougher.
- Dried crucian carp are placed in a wooden box or basket. In such conditions they can be stored for up to 2 weeks. If you wrap the fish in parchment or foil, then put it in the refrigerator or cellar, it will not spoil within 1.5-2 months. Dried crucian carp are not intended for longer storage; for this purpose it is better to dry the fish. It is important to know that crucian carp dried with giblets cannot be stored for more than a month, even if they are in a cool place.
There are several ways of drying crucian carp, each of which has its admirers.
Salting crucian carp at home
Crucian carp can be salted by dry salting or in brine. In most cases, brine salting is used (in brine) - this gives a more stable required result.
For 1 kg of fish, take 100–150 grams of coarse salt. If you want to make a spicy salting, add sugar to the salt in a ratio of one to one or less and spices: nutmeg, allspice, coarse black pepper, bay leaf, coriander, cloves, mustard seeds.
The brine is not prepared separately; the fish will have enough of its own juice, which will be released during the salting process.
Drying
The fish are hung on hooks in the shade, in a cool, ventilated place protected from flies. It is best to hang fish at night when insects are absent.
The fish is suspended by the head or tail, the flattened or ripped fish is opened and fixed in this form with the help of toothpicks.
2 - 3 days after hanging, the fish should be checked for the degree of dryness and removed without waiting for it to dry out.
Cooking dried crucian carp at home is very simple, but in the end we get a wonderful salty snack for beer. So, I’m telling you how to dry crucian carp!
I probably knew how to cook dried crucian carp since childhood. My uncle went fishing every weekend and always returned with an excellent catch, which is why I still remember those rows of fish that hung on our balcony. Now, unfortunately, he does not prepare fish so often, but sometimes I treat myself, especially in the summer. And now I want to tell you the simplest recipe for dried crucian carp at home.
Number of servings: 1-2
A very simple recipe for dried crucian carp, a recipe for Russian cuisine with photos and a step-by-step description of the cooking process. This recipe is easy to prepare at home in 0 minutes. Contains only 275 kilocalories.
- Difficulty: Very simple recipe
- National cuisine: Russian cuisine
- Type of dish: Main courses
- Preparation time: 11 minutes
- Cooking time: 0 min
- Calorie count: 275 kilocalories
- Number of servings: 12 servings
- Occasion: For lunch
Step-by-step preparation
- In the ingredients I indicated the amount of salt per 1 kilogram of fish. Accordingly, if the fish is more than 1 kilogram, then you also need to take more salt.
- First, we need to gut the fish; we remove all the insides, except for the caviar, if any.
- When we got rid of the insides, we thoroughly rinse the crucian carp under cold water.
- Then we place the fish in rows in an enamel bowl and sprinkle each row with salt and leave for three days. After the time has passed, take out the fish, rinse it under cold water and leave it to drain in a colander for 2 hours. When the water has drained, hang it in a dry place and dry it in natural conditions.
Crucian carp is a carp fish, widespread in the waters of central Russia. The most common are the golden (ordinary) and silver subspecies, as well as their hybrid.
Crucians have long been in good standing in Russian cuisine. They were prepared in a variety of ways: fried, boiled, stewed and baked. They can also be added to fish soup, dried, salted and dried. Crucian carp, marinated in sour cream or fried in a frying pan after dredging in flour, has long become a culinary classic. Properly cooked crucian carp has a characteristic aroma and good taste. Its main disadvantage is the many small bones throughout the body, which forces some caution when eating it.
Dried crucian carp is of particular gastronomic value. With this method of preparation it turns out to be the most delicious. The main thing is to know how to properly pre-salt. There are some tricks here that would be very useful to understand.
Dry method of drying crucian carp
- Lay a canvas cloth on the bottom of a wooden box and sprinkle it generously with salt.
- Gut, rinse and dry the crucian carp with a kitchen towel.
- Place the first layer of crucian carp tightly. For it, choose the largest fish. You need to lay crucian carp in “soldiers” (that is, heads to tails), then they will lie more densely.
- Sprinkle the crucian carp with salt and place a second layer of fish. Sprinkle with salt. So gradually fill the box with fish so that the smallest carp are on top. Sprinkle with remaining salt. It is important to make sure that it is also at the sides of the box, and not just on top of the fish.
- Cover the fish with a board slightly smaller than the size of the box. Place a weight on top.
- Leave the box in a cool place for a week.
- Fill a basin or bucket with cool water. Shake off the remaining salt from the crucian carp and immerse them in water. Leave for 7 hours.
- Dry the soaked crucian carp with a towel. Place spacers in the bellies so that the fish is dried not only from the inside, but also from the outside. Thread the crucian carp onto a fishing line, cover with gauze, and sew its edges.
- Hang the line with the fish in a well-ventilated place and leave for 5-7 days.
All that remains is to remove the fish from the line and put it in a dry storage box. You can eat it immediately, or you can wait for a suitable occasion for two weeks.
Pickling
For spicy salting, first prepare the salting mixture: mix salt and sugar, add your spices. We salt the fish with this mixture, everything else is done exactly the same.
1. A small amount of salt is poured onto the bottom of the fish dish; 2. The fish is laid sideways in layers, each layer is sprinkled with salt; 3. The outer layer of the fish is sprinkled a little more generously than the inner ones, the fish is covered with a lid, which should be slightly smaller in diameter than the dish; 4. A small weight weighing up to 1 kg is placed on the lid and everything is put into the refrigerator.
The fish is salted for 3–7 days, after which it is washed to remove any remaining salt and brine and sent for soaking.
