No matter how much they say about the health hazards of smoked foods, they are tasty.
And, if you do not forget about the sense of proportion in their use, then smoking is no worse than other methods of harvesting.
Not only residents of Kamchatka or the Far East living in the natural habitat of salmon fish can smoke pink salmon, but everyone who wants it, as this product is available in abundance, in salt and frozen form.
Smoked Pink Salmon - General Technological Principles
True, this technology, due to the specific cooking conditions, unfortunately, is not available in an apartment in a high-rise building. Therefore, smokers of pink salmon will have to look for opportunities so as not to quarrel with their neighbors due to smoke, and not to create problems associated with the risk of fire.
Smoked pink salmon is preceded by a series of preparatory steps, which are briefly outlined in this article.
Sorting and cutting raw materials
Pink salmon has a relatively small size - on average from 1 kg to 1.5 kg. Female pink salmon weigh less; as a rule, their weight does not exceed one kilogram. Rarely, individuals reach a weight of 3 kg. The length of the fish is 45-50 cm.
Most valuable meat pink salmon caught before spawning, contains 18-21% protein and 9-11% fat. The meat of pink salmon caught in the sea is more tender and has a pink color. BUT fish caught en route to spawning grounds and spawning placesand - less oily and nutritious, meat has a low density, pale color, with a fat content of up to 2%.
Depending on the size and fat content, each type of fish has a different cooking time, both for salting and for smoking. For this reason, it is necessary to select the fish of the same type and size for processing.
When cutting pink salmon on filet cut off the head, tail and fin parts. Then, without separating from the skin, they cut off with a special knife, alternately the side parts, freeing the pink salmon from the ridge. After that, the rib bones are removed and the pink salmon fillet is ready for salting. Small pieces of fillet can be smoked on a wire rack without hanging them in a smokehouse on a twine or hook.
For whole pink salmon, gills are removed from the head, an incision is made along the entire length of the abdomen, and the insides are removed. Fish is cut into layers, with and without a head, into a balyk and carcasses. The size and method of cutting will depend on the duration of salting and smoking of pink salmon.
Salted fish is suitable for cold smoking, and frozen fish is more suitable for hot. Although, at home, frozen semi-finished products are often used as raw materials for smoking.
In this case, you must know the technology of salting pink salmon before smoking.
Salmon of pink salmon
To begin with, we will briefly consider all the methods and types of salting fish, since this issue is important for the further smoking of pink salmon and obtaining the best result. Turning to reliable sources that describe the technology of processing fish products, guided by the scientific basis and the requirements of GOST, we find the answer to the question of interest. And it turns out that fish should not be salted for 10-12 hours, as homegrown technologists often advise, but, in particular, for pink salmon salting time is 7-9 days (without cooling), and correspondingly, 10-12 days when using the cooling method.
The duration of storage of fish and its taste depends on the degree of salting. Therefore, you must adhere to the technology of salting before you start smoking pink salmon. So, the pink salmon ambassador.
Ambassador dry: pour the prepared fish with salt. Whole carcasses are placed in containers upside down, filling them with salt. For those who are lucky enough to get fresh fish, one must take into account that salt should also be added under the gill plates.
Ambassador bridged or wet: brine - a liquid that is released from fish tissue during salting, because salt draws water, according to its inherent biochemical properties. You can also prepare a saline solution, that is, use the wet salting method, with the addition of water.
Mixed Ambassador: in this case, the combined method of salting fish is used, the first and second type.
In addition to the methods of salting pink salmon, the temperature regime affects the qualitative characteristics of the product. Depending on the type of fish, the density of its tissue, fat content and carcass size, temperature conditions can be warm, chilled and cold.
~ At room temperature, salted fresh fish with a dense texture of meat, without damage;
~ The cooling method is used for salting herring and salmon, including pink salmon (!). To do this, fish before salting is cooled with a mixture of salt and ice to 0 ° C - 4 ° C.
~ For large and oily fish, cold salting is preferred, with temperatures below zero degrees. In such cases, the amount of salt is increased, and the duration of salting increases.
Ambassador using the cooling method for pink salmon, especially large sizes, is preferred. In this case, without increasing the volume of salt, you can get a high-quality salted product without the risk of spoilage. While the salt will slowly penetrate the inside of the carcass, the cold, meanwhile, will protect the fish product from spoiling from the inside.
Salt content
Here, you should immediately pay attention that only salted coarse salt is suitable for salting fish. Never use iodized salt. Coarse sea salt is acceptable. Not only the taste of the finished product, but also the shelf life depends on the percentage of salt.
The salt content is distinguished:
Lightly salted fish - 7-10% salt;
Salty - up to 14%;
Strongly salted - more than 14%.
With dry salting the percentage of salt should be calculated based on the weight of the fish. With the combined or wet method, the weight of water must be added to the weight of the fish.
It is impossible to underestimate the degree of salt content and the exposure time in the salt medium. As for any products, it is typical for fish, in case of violation of the necessary conditions, to be affected by a pathogenic environment, leading to severe food poisoning or spoilage of the product.
When salt processing fish semi-finished products the structure of tissue fibers changes. By displacing fluid from tissues, salt destroys harmful microorganisms. The higher its content in fish, the more its shelf life increases, but at the same time its taste is lost. Strongly salted fish is soaked before cooking, from which its nutritional value is lost.
Salted fish readiness can not be determined using only one of the recommendations found on the Internet, which indicates the exact time of exposure of the fish in salt. For this, it is nevertheless necessary to focus on one's own organoleptic sensations; evaluate the weight of the raw material, the temperature at which the process of salting occurred and the quantitative content of salt. These indicators, in each case, are an individual factor.
You can take as a basis only a hint of the following content: correctly salted raw materials have no smell of raw fish, the structure of the fabric is dense, resilient, without bloody patches, a pleasant pinkish color.
In fact, salted fish is a finished product that does not require further processing. Such fish are smoked in a cold way to give it a new taste. Lightly salted or under-salted pink salmon can be used for hot and semi-hot smoking.
The use of spicy additives
According to general industrial technology, this indicator is classified according to four points:
1. A simple ambassador, using one salt.
2. Spicy ambassador - with the addition of various spices and sugar.
3. Special - a sweet ambassador, using sugar, used mainly for the preparation of preserves.
4. Pickled ambassador - using acetic acid as an additive.
Spices improve the taste and create an additional variety of smoked fish assortment. Here you can vary at your own discretion, adding your favorite ingredients or excluding what seems superfluous, unacceptable.
Drying
After making sure that the pink salmon is salted qualitatively, we begin the process of preparing for smoking. Remove excess salt from the surface of carcasses or fillets. To do this, the surface of the fish is washed with weak saline or running water (not higher than 20 ° C). At this stage, salting defects can be corrected: if the fish was salted during salting, it can be soaked.
Pink salmon pierced at the tail and strung on hooks or suspended in an oven using twine (rope) stretched through the tail.
Before sending pink salmon to the smokehouse surface lubricated with vegetable oil. It is better to use refined oil, odorless. For long-term storage of pink salmon, the surface is also treated with antiseptics.
Hot and semi-hot smoked fish cannot be stored for long periods. The duration and temperature of drying (drying) also depends on the type of smoking.
For cold smoked pink salmon is dried from two to five days, depending on the size of the raw material. The abdomen of a whole fish is placed on struts. For hot and semi-hot smoked pink salmon, the raw materials are dried for 2-3 hours.
Now about the drying cabinet, which is a conventional structure, consisting of a frame of arbitrary shape, covered with a mosquito net.
We take out fish previously suspended on twine or hooks, in the open air or in the basement (in winter).
The main condition for drying - continuous air flow, low humidity and the absence of traces of insects on the surface of semi-finished products.
It is more difficult to provide at home the necessary temperature of the forced air for drying. Ideally, to prepare for cold smoked pink salmon, the drying temperature should be between 5-10 ° C.
For drying before hot and semi-hot smoked pink salmon, the temperature conditions are less stringent, since the whole process takes a short time.
Tip: the ideal form of a drying cabinet is one whose frame is placed in a smoking chamber in size, as is done in production. Accordingly, the frame should be made of durable metal, and mosquito nets should be removable.
Equipment and materials for smoking pink salmon.
As with any preservation method, smoking requires some equipment, consumables, and compliance with technical specifications.
To purchase a finished smokehouse or build it on a summer cottage by yourself is a matter to be decided individually. Here you can only say that, saving on the purchase of a mini smokehouse, you have to spend money on sawdust for smoking. And, again, saving time is also far from the last factor. In addition, these same home smoking units manufactured by the industry are equipped, in addition to the compressor and smoke generator, with thermometers, which is important for the quality of the finished product.
Concerning sawdust or shavings - consumables, on which not only smoking, but also the smell of smoked fish depends - here most experts recommend choosing alder or juniper.
If it is not possible to find such a consumable material near the summer cottage, then choose chips or sawdust fruit trees. Apple tree, pear, cherry, sweet cherry, branches of berry bushes are a win-win option. It is possible to mix oak leaves, blackcurrant leaves (preferably fresh ones), juniper berries, and dried to such sawdust.
The amount of consumables needed will depend on the smoking device - from two buckets to two or three bags of sawdust per smoking cycle. In addition, the duration and temperature of cold and hot smoked pink salmon do not coincide, which also affects the difference in the consumption of wood raw materials.
Liquid smoke
Liquid smoke fish processing has nothing to do with the smoking process. Liquid smoke is a wood tar formed during the burning of wood containing toxic phenol.
Of course, there is liquid smoke produced under industrial conditions, and it is commercially available. The liquid is subjected to special cleaning in order to eliminate harmful side effects. But the liquid obtained with the smell and taste of smoke is not a good preservative for products processed by the smoking method. Rather, this substance matters as a flavoring ingredient.
The essence of pseudo-smoking consists in soaking (irrigation) meat, fish products, as well as cheeses, vegetables and fruits. It is no secret that due to savings, and hence additional profit, such a method is quite widespread in the industrial manufacture of smoked products. And most manufacturers prefer to keep silent about this technology, due to the reasons listed above.
At home, for example, for smoking pink salmon, you can use this rather quick way to create a taste, but at the same time, given that it is absolutely not suitable for long-term storage.
"Smoke" pink salmon with liquid smoke gives the finished product increased moisture and a watery, sour taste. Even the appearance of the finished, smoked fish has a different shade with the "liquid" and natural smoked pink salmon: in the first case, after smoking, the product acquires a matte and red tint, and in the second - the color is more saturated and bright, glossy. Nevertheless, such a method exists, and choice is a personal matter for everyone.
And now - a close-up of the natural methods of cold, semi-hot and hot smoked pink salmon.
Considering that all preliminary stages - selection, cutting, salting and drying (drying) of pink salmon are described above - we will consider the general principles of each method of smoking.
Recipe 1. Smoking pink salmon cold, dry salted
Frozen fish sprinkle with salt and stack tightlyin a resealable container. Whole carcasses are placed on their backs, with the abdomen up, the sirloin parts are laid up with flesh up, preferably in one row. From above the fish is covered with a layer of salt, crushed by oppression. The capacity is stored in the refrigerator for at least 10 days.
Then check the readiness of the ambassador. Salted pink salmon is removed from the container, the brine and excess salt are washed off, or soaked in cold water, and then washed.
Whole carcasses hang on hooks by tailand the pieces are on the wire rack; and placed for drying in an oven.
After aging in the oven, the fish covered with a layer of oil on the outside and smokedat a temperature not exceeding 25 ° C. The total smoke treatment time depends on the size of the semi-finished product: fillet pieces, weighing up to 300 g, are smoked for 2-3 days; whole, large fish - 3-6 days.
It is better to get fish out of the smoking chamber after complete cooling.
Readiness is checked by organoleptic method. The surface of the carcass must be dry and dense. The pulp should not be separated from the bone.
In the process of cold smoking, pink salmon lose 15% of its original weight - You can focus on this indicator to make sure that the fish is ready.
Recipe 2. Hot salmon smoking
Make marinade (pickle) for fresh or frozen pink salmon.
For marinade, you can use not only salt, but add sugar and any spices suitable for fish to it.
For hot smoking, salt is used in moderation (not more than 10%), because such pink salmon is not stored for a long time. Sugar is added no more than half the norm of salt.
Frozen fish without preliminary defrosting tie with twine, pour cold marinade. Try to keep raw materials in the refrigerator during pickling so that pink salmon thawed gradually and do not become watery.
The exposure time depends on the size of the fish or sirloin, but it is sharply reduced, against the cold smoked salting - 2-3 hours after a complete defrost semi-finished product.
In the finished product, salt should not contain more than 1-2%. Pink salmon is also dried for hot smoking, but the exposure time in the oven is reduced to 1-2 hours, depending on the size of the fish.
Determine the readiness of fish for smoking possible in appearance: properly dried pink salmon has a dry and windy surface, without draining liquid.
For hot smoking, pink salmon need hanging by strapping or laying on a wire rack. Hot smoked fish has a softer and loose structure; therefore, when hanging by the tail or on hooks, it can fall off the mount and fall to the bottom of the furnace.
For hot smoking, the smoke temperature in the smoking chamber is required from 60 ° C at the beginning of smoking to 110 ° C to bring to full readiness.
It is not worth sharply raising the temperature for hot smoking, as this can cause the appearance of a large amount of steam in the smokehouse. The temperature in the smokehouse is maintained until the inside of the carcass warms up to 60 ° C.
Hot smoked pink salmon readiness It is checked with a wooden stick, which pierces the back or the thickest part of the fillet, watching for the release of juice. The maximum temperature in the smokehouse is kept for no more than 15 minutes, and then it is gradually reduced. Fish from the smokehouse is removed only after complete cooling.
For pieces of fillet, weighing 300 g, 25-30 minutes are enough for the entire smoking cycle, respectively, the smoking time increases in proportion to the weight of the semi-finished product.
To maintain the required temperature during hot smoking use, in addition to sawdust and shavings, dry logs of small size.
Firewood is used first, to heat the chamber, then, at the last stage, when the temperature decreases, sawdust is added to give the product a beautiful color.
Recipe 3. Smoked pink salmon in a half-hot way
This method of smoking pink salmon is relatively new. For semi-hot smoking use raw materials, the duration of salting and soaking which is not more than 24 hours, and smoking - not more than 12 hours. The maximum temperature during smoking reaches 60 ° C. Ready-made semi-hot pink salmon has a peculiar taste, but is more reminiscent of hot-smoked fish.
Smoked pink salmon is tasty, as an independent dish, but also it is a wonderful ingredient for preparing a huge assortment of dishes.
Recipe 4. Country "Salad" with smoked pink salmon
Composition:
• Fillet of pink salmon, smoked 300 g
• Mayonnaise 100-120 g
• Cucumber, fresh 200 g
• Lemon or apple cider vinegar (for marinade)
• Egg, boiled 3 pcs.
• Boiled potato 100 g
• Onions, pickled 150 g
• Greens: cilantro, celery, dill.
Cooking:
Onions, sliced in thin half rings, pickled with lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. Vegetables, eggs and fish fillet are cut into medium cubes. The ingredients are combined and mixed in a salad bowl. Chop greens and season it with salad, adding mayonnaise. Salt and pepper can be added as desired.
Recipe 5. Smoked Salmon Salad with Fresh Vegetables and Feta
Product Composition:
• Fresh cucumbers 350 g
• Fillet of smoked pink salmon 300 g
• Cherry 7-8 pcs.
• Feta 150 g
• Pickled onions 100 g
• Greens and pitted black olives (for decoration).
Cooking:
The highlight of the salad will be cutting all the ingredients into large pieces. To get started, take the fillet of smoked pink salmon and chop it. Then go to the vegetables. Cucumbers, tomatoes and onions need to be washed, cut into half rings. Pre-soak the onion in a marinade from water and lemon juice or vinegar. Finely chop the greens. You can use dill, parsley, celery, basil. We mix the ingredients, season with mayonnaise and knead thoroughly. Spread feta pieces and olives on top. If desired, mayonnaise can be replaced with sour cream, so the salad will turn out tastier and healthier. Before you salt the salad, you should try it, because pink salmon, which is included in it, is already salty and salt may not be needed.
Recipe 6. Jellied "Ocean" with smoked pink salmon
Product Composition:
• Smoked pink salmon 600 g
• Boiled shrimp, peeled 500 g
• Mayonnaise 150 g
• Lemon juice 3 tsp.
• Onions (small size) 2 pcs.
• Gelatin, instant 50 g
• Vegetable broth.
Cooking method:
Soak gelatin and wait until it swells, then filter. Cut pink salmon fillet into small pieces, mix with finely chopped onions and add mayonnaise. Shrimp should be boiled in a vegetable broth and cool. We filter the broth and combine it with dissolved gelatin. In the baking tins, lay the fillet of pink salmon with onions, shrimps on top and pour the broth. We hold the filler in the refrigerator until solidified. Before serving, the molds are dipped in hot water for several seconds, and, turning over, the filler is transferred to a plate or a common dish. Garnish with greens and a slice of lemon.
Recipe 7. Smoked Salmon and Avocado Salad
Product Composition:
• Smoked pink salmon (fillet) 200 g
• Avocado 2 pcs.
• Cherry Tomato 5 pcs.
• Green olives (pitted) 150 g
• Oil, olive 50-70 ml
• Lemon juice (for oil dressing)
• Vermicelli, boiled 250 g
• Lettuce, greens (for decoration)
Cooking method:
Add a little olive oil to the boiled vermicelli. Cut pink salmon fillet and peeled avocado into small pieces. Tomatoes should be cut into slices. Shift all ingredients, add olives, season with oil and lemon juice, salt and pepper. Put lettuce on top of the dish and place the lettuce on top of it.
Smoked Pink Salmon - Tips and Tricks
• From the head, tail, and spinal portion of pink salmon remaining during processing for smoking, prepare the fish soup by adding small river fish or fat mackerel to improve the taste of the broth.
• In order for smoke to penetrate evenly into the inside of the carcass during smoking, several spacers are inserted from the toothpicks between the two walls of the abdomen, from head to tail.
• In order to salting and smoking each piece or individual fish at the same time, choose raw materials of the same size, or cut the same pieces of fillet.
• Frozen pink salmon before salting should not be fully defrosted. It is better to salt it in half-frozen form and, tightly closing the container with fish, store in the refrigerator until completely salted.
Never forget that the worst food poisoning causes low-quality fish products. Moreover, it is not necessary to suspect the fish seller’s dishonesty - it can be spoiled during cooking or storage at home.
Be careful! Follow proper fish cooking techniques and try to use the advice of trusted sources.
