How to dry fish recipe. We salt river fish at home: vobla, perch, gobies, bleak, roach

Always this question, how to wither the fish yourself, used to seem simple, until he himself began to catch a variety of fish and in quantitative terms, it’s not enough, but each type of fish has its own technologies, so from my guides how to cook dried fish yourself ..., everything described tried below, everyone eats with pleasure ...

How to dry your own fish

DRYING AND DRYING FISH

Drying and drying fish is one of the ways to prepare it for future use.

In fact, drying and drying are different names for the same process. Its peculiarity lies in the fact that after a certain period of time, pre-salted fish is dried (dried) in a dry and well-ventilated place.

As a result, it becomes suitable for eating without prior heat treatment.

During storage, the moisture and fat content in the dried fish carcass gradually decreases, it becomes drier, which is why it is also called dried.

Not all types of fish are dried, but only those whose meat, as it were, ripens in the process of natural drying, acquiring a specific taste and aroma.

Drying is best for medium-fat fish. If they are not large, then whole or in the form of layers, cut from carcasses along the spine, or pieces (weighing about 100 g), cut across the layer.

Dried ram, roach, roach, silver bream, bream, bream, fish, sabrefish, glue, ide, shemaya, blue bream, perch, pike, carp, capelin and some other fish have the best taste when dried.

As a rule, medium-sized fish is salted and dried without gutting. At the same time, subcutaneous fat and fat from the insides of the fish soak the meat during drying, and the fish becomes much tastier.

It is not recommended to cook dried fish without guts in the summer, because most herbivorous fish feed on greens, which decompose during the drying process and give the fish an unpleasant odor and bitter taste.

The drying process of fish consists of three main stages:

salting;

soaking;

Drying.

SALTING

As a rule, when salting fish for drying, two main methods are used:

Wet, or brine;

Dry.

Not very large fish (250-500 g) are salted in a wet way: roach, silver bream, scavenger, rudd, fish, sabrefish, asp, perch and small pike.

The fish is not washed, but only wiped with a dry towel.

For salting, only coarse salt is used. The purpose of salt is to remove moisture from the fish, not to give it a special taste: it itself has a great fishy flavor. Coarse salt dissolves more slowly and absorbs more moisture from the fish.

A little salt is poured into the bottom of an enameled bucket, pan or basin. The fish is laid in dense rows: head - to the tail, back - to the stomach, and even better - back to the belly: this will work better oppression. Each row is richly salted. So much salt is poured onto the top row so that it covers all the fish. For a special taste - add a little sugar. A wooden circle or an enamelled lid from a smaller pot is placed on top, and oppression is placed on it. Heavy oppression prevents the formation of gas bubbles and cavities in the fish, in which putrefactive bacteria can develop.

4-5 hours after salting, the fish itself releases the brine. This is the so-called brine.

For the entire period of salting, the fish must be placed in as cold a place as possible.

Salt penetrates fish meat very slowly, and where the fish has not yet had time to salt, the cold protects it from spoilage. At home, you can salt fish in the refrigerator, in the cellar, on ice. In field conditions, it must be placed in a hole dug in a cool, shady place, and covered with branches or a tarpaulin to protect it from sunlight.

After 2-3 days (depending on the size of the fish), the back of a normally salted fish becomes hard, the meat is dark gray, and the caviar is yellowish-red, if you pull it by the head and tail, it creaks.

With the brine method, such an amount of salt is dissolved in a bucket of water so that a raw egg placed in brine floats on the surface.

Fresh fish is immediately strung on twine or twine, 5-10 pieces each, and lowered into the prepared brine so that the brine covers it completely. Small fish are salted in 2-3 days. After this period, the fish is taken out of the bucket, washed in water for 20-30 minutes and hung out to dry.

If the fish is large and there is a desire to wither it whole, that is, not gutted, then before dipping into the brine, a salt solution is pumped into the belly of the fish through the mouth with a rubber syringe or syringe.

For field conditions, there is a kind of wet method of salting fish: it is sprinkled with salt on some plank, salt is stuffed into the mouth, under the gills and placed in a plastic bag. Then the plastic bag, together with the fish, is buried in a hole on the bank of the river or near the spring, while ramming the tubercle properly: it will be a natural oppression.

In a dry way, salted larger fish - weighing more than a kilogram.

Each fish is cut along the back and unhooked. Remove the insides, then wipe with a dry cloth. From the inside, the fish is generously sprinkled with salt, but, of course, not so that later it would be impossible to take it into your mouth: everything should be in moderation. The fish carcasses are placed in rows in a wooden box so that the bellies are directed upwards, and salt is also poured on top - on the scales. The box is placed in a hole dug in a cool place, covered with plastic wrap on top.

Depending on the size of the fish, salting lasts from 3 to 7 days. In the process of salting, the fish also releases its juice, but it immediately flows out of the box through the cracks. This is the meaning of dry salting fish.

In a dry way, you can also salt small, gutted fish. Any clean rag is spread on a wide board or on plywood, the fish are laid in rows head to tail and always so that the back of one lies on the abdomen of the other. The fish are laid in rows on top of each other, sprinkled with salt and wrapped in the same rag. From above, the “package” is covered with another board or plywood, and oppression is put on it. The brine excreted from the fish will seep through the fabric and flow onto the ground.

SOAKING

Salted fish is washed with cold running water. If the consistency of its meat is very dense, then the fish is soaked in cold water for 5-10 hours, changing the water 2-3 times. It is believed that fish should be soaked for as many hours as it has been salted for days.

The amount of salt remaining in the fish after soaking should be between 5 and 7%.

The golden mean of soaking comes at the moment when the salted fish begins to float. This is exactly what is required: the ambassador will become tender, the back of the fish will be amber-transparent in the light, and after drying the meat will become reddish.

DRYING

Before drying the fish, lay it out in rows on paper so that it dries slightly, and then string it on twine or a strong cord. If you dry fish in winter, it is best to hang it in the kitchen near a gas or electric stove.

If the fish is dried in the summer, when there is a possibility that it may be spoiled by fly larvae, it is recommended to dip the slightly dried fish in a solution of 3% vinegar. You can also grease the fish with sunflower oil or a solution of potassium permanganate. Fish are hung in specially made boxes made of boards and gauze or mesh.

Set the boxes together with the fish in a well-ventilated, non-solar place and make sure that they do not get rain.

How to hang fish for drying: if by the tail, then the fat will flow out of the peritoneum through the mouth or gills; if by the head, then the ram, for example, will remain all with fat in the peritoneum.

Usually such fish as vimba, blue bream, shemaya are hung upside down, and such as sabrefish, bream, ram, pike perch - upside down.

With the help of a shoe needle, a twine is pulled through the eyes, and so that the fish on the bottom does not slide towards each other, the overlap on the head is done twice.

It is better to hang the fish at night, while there are no flies. When the fish dries out and the gills are covered with a crust, the flies are no longer dangerous for the fish.

The best temperature for drying fish is 18-20 degrees. C. Depending on the size of the fish, drying lasts from 1 to 4 weeks.

A well-dried fish does not have salt that has come out on the surface, its structure is clearly visible through the light. After removing the skin from the scales, a layer of fragrant shiny fat is indicated, the meat is not dry and resiliently hard. Dried fish after drying in the air should ripen for some time (from three weeks to a month). It is better to store it in a cloth bag in a cool, ventilated place, wrapped in parchment or in tin boxes.

RECIPES FOR DRYING FISH

Rybets

Previously, the fish is salted in brine - brine. Salt is added to the water (brine) until it ceases to dissolve.

The fish is laid back up, poured with brine, pressed with a slight oppression. Salting continues for five days, and in cool weather - up to ten.

After pulling the fish out of the brine, you should dry it in the shade for two days and only then soak it. After that, you need to hang the fish in the breeze, but in the shade - head down.

In the heat of each fish, it is necessary to release internal air before this with your hands.

Ram and vobla

Cool, dry, windless days of early spring are most favorable for drying rams and roaches.

During this period, the fish has not yet spawned, due to which it contains the largest amount of fat and has the highest weight.

Atmospheric and temperature conditions at this time of the year are also the most suitable for successful drying.

Depending on the size of the fish, ram and roach are dried for 13 to 30 days.

Carp

The fish is scaled, the entrails are removed, the heads and tails are cut off. The prepared fish is salted with dry or wet salting and kept for ten days, then washed, drained and lightly salted with a mixture of salt and two percent saltpeter. Hang in a ventilated place and dry for 2-3 weeks.

The finished fish is packed in boxes with ventilation holes on both sides. For the same purpose, sticks (slivers) are placed between individual fish. In a dry, ventilated place, such fish can last up to one year.

Bream and bream

The fish is placed in a wooden barrel or an enameled bucket in a salt solution at the rate of 1 glass of salt per 1 liter of water. A circle is placed on top of the fish, and a heavy object (oppression) is placed on it and kept in this position for 2-3 days. Then the fish is washed in cold water and hung in the shade in the breeze.

The fish is dried for 10-15 days.

Chekhon

The fish is gutted, the blood near the spine is carefully removed, the gills are taken out, and an incision is made from the inside along the spine without damaging the skin. Scales are not removed. The cut fish is placed in a salt solution (125 g of salt per 1 kg of fish) and pressed down on top with a plate with a small load.

Small fish are salted for 5-10 hours, large - from 12 to 20 hours.

Keep the fish in brine in a cool place.

Mackerel

Dried mackerel is prepared from fish caught in the spring, after spawning. The fish is gutted, pulling out the insides through the gill covers, without cutting the abdomen. Then it is washed, hung in pairs, passing a thin twine or thick thread through the tail, and immersed in brine for 8 hours (25 g of salt per 1 liter of water). After that, they are washed with cold water and hung to dry on rods. Drying takes about two weeks.

Dried smelt and other small fish

The fish is gutted and wiped with a linen cloth. Then, in an enamel bowl, they salt it together with spices (they put a lot of salt). Withstand 1-2 days, then the brine is drained, the fish is dried, strung on a rope or wire threaded through the eye sockets, and dried under a roof on the sunny side in a well-ventilated place or in a non-hot oven on straw.

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In everyday speech, roach is usually called any dried fish. First of all, fish of the carp family, the genus roach, are usually used for drying. The most common species are vobla, ram, roach, and rudd. Outwardly and in taste, these types of fish are very similar and only a specialist or a fisherman can distinguish them.

Vobla refers to the so-called semi-anadromous fish, is found in the Caspian Sea and comes to spawn in the upper reaches of the rivers of the Caspian basin, where a large part of the vobla is caught. The ram is common in the coastal zones of the Black and Azov Seas. Roach and rudd are purely river fish, their distribution area is very wide - they can be found both in the north and in central Russia.

During the drying process, the flesh of the fish is impregnated with subcutaneous fat, which gives the final product a characteristic taste and aroma. The taste of dried fish also depends on the quality of the raw materials, the salting recipe and the observance of the technology. Ram and roach are slightly fatter fish than roach, so they require more thorough drying.

Slightly apart in the row of "beer" fish is bream. Dried bream, as a rule, is much larger than roach, and has its own characteristic taste. Bream is also very popular in smoked form.

Less common are dried dace, silver bream, blue bream, crucian carp, sabrefish, pike perch, pike, carp, and asp.

For drying, they use not only river, but also sea fish - for example, smelt, smelt.

We recommend looking at the full catalog of commercial fish with images at www.fish.com.ua.

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Eh, who does not like dried fish, and even with beer! A feast for the eyes! But not everyone succeeds in wilting this fish well and correctly. But this can be easily learned, because there is nothing difficult in it.

What is the process of curing fish? In short, we can say this: pre-salted fish is dried in a dry and well-ventilated place. After that, it can be eaten without any additional processing.

It is best to dry fish of medium fat content with a whole carcass, if the fish is medium-sized, or cut into pieces. Ram, roach, roach, bream, bream, perch and some other species have excellent palatability in dried form.

The drying process of fish consists of salting, soaking and drying.

Let's look at each stage separately.

Salting. Salting is of two types: wet and dry.

When wet salting, the fish is not washed, but only wiped with a towel. Then a layer of salt is poured onto the bottom of the pot or bucket. Fish are laid on it in rows, back to belly, head to tail. Sprinkle each layer generously with salt. By the way, take only coarse salt. Pour enough salt on the topmost layer of the fish to cover the entire fish. Put a wooden circle on top, and oppression on it. After a few hours, the brine will start up, which is why such salting is called wet. Place the dishes in a cold place for two to three days.

With dry salting, the preparation method is the same. Only the fish is not placed in a pot or bucket, but in boxes. The brine drains through the cracks and the fish becomes dry. The fish is salted in a dry way for five to seven days.

Soaking. Salted water is washed under running cold water. Then they lower it into cold water for as many hours as it has been salted for days. It is recommended to change the water after an hour or two.

Drying. After soaking, the fish must be dried by laying it out on paper. After that, string on twine or cord. Stringing occurs with the help of a shoe needle. The twine tucked into the needle is passed through the eyes of the fish and hung out to dry. When drying, be careful not to let flies land on it. The larvae laid by them can spoil the fish. Therefore, it is recommended to hang the fish at night. As soon as the fish dries and a crust appears on it, the flies will no longer be dangerous. The optimum temperature for drying is 18 - 20 degrees. Depending on the size of the fish, drying lasts from a week to a month.

It is best to store dried fish in a cloth bag in a well-ventilated area.

But if the fish is withered according to all the rules, then, I think, it will not have to be stored for a long time. After all, dried fish is a delicacy that disappears very quickly.

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Drying - drying the product at a low (natural) temperature, for a rather long time. Drying is done in a natural way. When stored under appropriate conditions, dried fish has a long shelf life. The fish is dried without losing its taste properties. Dried fish is the perfect snack for beer.

'Taranka' - or just dried fish

Let's just say that even a 'young pioneer' can cook dried fish. What could be easier - sprinkled the fish with salt, suffered for a while, then washed and hung out to dry. But as you know, some rams turn out delicious, others are very tasty, and others just have a salty piece of plywood ...

Proportion it and in Africa - proportion! Each fish takes salt in its own way, and each fish needs a certain amount of time to 'ripe'.

Let's take chehon for example. For 30 non-gutted specimens, 1 kg of salt is needed for salting. We put a row of fish in a container, sprinkle with salt. (An important point in the austerity of salt is to salt the head of the fish well.) We lay down the next layer of fish, sprinkle with salt ... So until the container is filled. We cover it from above and press it with oppression (granite cobblestone, a second barrel with fish :).

In hot weather, containers with salted fish should be kept in a cool place (cellar, basement, refrigerator, coastal sand). it can 'swell up' without having time to salt. Large fish are salted for 2-3 days, small fish for 1-2 days, periodically draining the resulting liquid.

After salting, the fish is washed well in water until the mucus is removed. Allow to drain and hang in a draft, away from direct sunlight. It is better to hang the fish in the evening, then the top layer will dry out overnight and there will be less problems with Flies. I hang the fish behind the eyes (in general, it’s better to immediately pierce the eyes then the fish doesn’t “swell up” so much), the internal fat from such a fish is absorbed into the meat and a slight bile bitterness gives the finished product a peculiar taste that is especially appealing to beer. A fish hung by the tail loses fat (it flows out through the mouth). Thus, it is better to dry autumn fish, which has already gained fat and does not dry well.

Dried fish can be stored for a long time on a shelf in the refrigerator in a McDonald's paper bag (up to 6 months or more).

Small roach is very convenient to store according to the recipe of divers. Dried fish is placed in a 3 liter jar, a tablespoon of alcohol is poured into it (2 vodka is possible) and closed with a nylon lid. Such a ram has a peculiar smell and a normal taste.

Salting and drying fish

Salting fish

You can salt both sea and river fish. Small fish (weighing up to 1.5 kg) are not gutted before salting, but large ones are cut along the abdomen and along the dorsal fin, the intestines are removed (caviar and milk can be left), salt is poured into the cuts, the fish itself is also rubbed with salt, poured into gills, head. Previously, fish was salted in barrels. Now a saucepan will do. Salt is poured at the bottom, fish are laid in rows with the belly up, each row is sprinkled with salt. (For 10 kg of fish: 1.5-2 kg of salt). If one fish carcass is salted, you can rub it with salt, and then wrap it in several layers of a clean canvas rag soaked in saline and slightly wrung out. Wrapping the fish in a rag, you can lightly sprinkle the latter with spices to taste. Fish in a barrel, placed in a cool place (cellar) will be ready in 1.5-2 weeks. A lone carcass can be put in the bottom of the refrigerator or in another cool place.

Drying fish

The fish is dried in bundles, pulling a twine through the eyes with a large needle or wire. Fresh, just caught fish should be put aside for a while in a pile and so stand for several hours. Salt in the same way as described above, only in bundles. Pour in brine (4 parts of water - 1 part of salt), salt for about 2-5 days. They take out the fish from the brine and let it lie down in a pile. Then they hang it so that the fish hang without touching each other, and with their belly out. Dried terms: a month or a little more - for large fish, for small fish - a couple of weeks.

How to dry fish?

Roach, sabrefish, rudd, bream, silver bream, roach, etc. are suitable for this. Two drying methods are most common: dry and brine.

Dry.

Well-washed fish, unpeeled and not gutted, are placed in rows in a container with a layer of salt. Salt is sprinkled on each laid row. The fish is covered with a flat lid (wooden, metal, flat stone), a weight (weight) is placed on it so that the fish is pressed down. After four hours, a brine will appear, in which the fish is salted for one and a half to three days (depending on its size). It is better to keep it at this time in a cool, dark place. You can find out if the fish is salted or not by touch. If she has already 'reached' - the back becomes hard and rough.

Next, the fish should be washed well. And even leave it for several hours in cold water so that it gives up excess salt. To protect it from flies, you need to dip it in a two percent solution of vinegar before hanging it, or even better - in a mixture of vinegar and sunflower oil.

Now the fish can be strung through the eye sockets on a string and hang it in a draft. But not in the sun, as some amateurs do, but in the shade, so that the fish © protect all their juices. It remains to wait for her to 'be in time'.

Tuzluchny.

The fish is immersed in a saturated salt solution (brine). Also pressed down with oppression. And the rest is the same. It is claimed that with this method the fish somewhat loses its taste. But this is for gourmets. For an ordinary eater, the loss is not noticeable.

Brine is a solution of such a concentration that a raw egg does not sink in it.

Fish do not have to be hung individually. You can hang a stretched net in the form of an oblong bag and put the fish in it. There is a more simple way: lay the fish on a double layer of paper on the floor. When it dries up, turn it over. And so several times - until ready.

Cooking hanging, or dried, fish

The fish assigned for hanging should be salted. After holding it in salt for four days, scald it in beer, grate it with more salt and, after letting it lie down for three days, hang it out.

Hanging is carried out on thin strings tied to the ends of the rods, in a place open to the midday sun, but, however, closed from above from the rain. In rainy times, fish must be brought under the roof, because the rain spoils it; upon the onset of clear weather, hang it in its original place.

Whitefish and carp are dried, spread out so that both layers are kept on the belly; the heads are cut off, and the layers are unrolled with dry pine sticks.

Good hanging fish, which is completely dried out, becomes transparent and juicy. These circumstances depend on the duration of drying in the sun, which, due to the changeability of the weather, cannot be determined, but can be recognized by incision. As soon as the juice from the rods begins to drip onto the ground, it is necessary to turn them over and hang them upside down so that the juice from the fish, which is its main advantage, does not disappear. Such a turning over must be repeated until the fish is all withered and gets a crust on the outside, somewhat holding back the outflow of juice. But this is not enough for the further preservation of fish. When it has matured and is taken down to the dryers, the turning of the ends continues in the same way.

It is even better to remove the dried fish, wrap it tightly in paper smeared with wooden oil, put it in a box and cover it with ashes. Thus, it can lie for a long time without damage.

Dried fish fell in love with many people for its dense texture and relative ease of preparation. Experienced housewives prefer to process carcasses in this way in order to increase the shelf life. It is known that store products are crammed with stabilizers and preservatives, so it can hardly be called completely natural. It makes sense to consider the procedure for drying fish at home, which we will talk about today. This case has its own peculiarities regarding the choice of raw materials and its preparation for further manipulations.

The right choice of fish for drying

Many housewives are faced with the question: “Which fish to choose?”, And this is not surprising. The variety of varieties is impressive, but not all of them are suitable for processing in this way.

Dried product lovers claim that both fresh and frozen raw materials can be used. In this case, the latter option is suitable only after complete thawing at room temperature.
Experienced housewives have bred their own varieties of fish, the most suitable for drying at home. These include argentina, capelin, crucian carp (marine), perch, halibut, flounder, herring, herring, sprat, sardine, mackerel, croaker, sprat, horse mackerel, croaker.
Other varieties are also suitable, such as hake, roach, ram, carp, bream, roach, sabrefish, shemai, ide, chub, sop, etc. However, the listed types of fish will not be able to fully convey the taste of the dried product.
It is important to remember forever that of all the names mentioned, special attention is paid to sardine, herring, flounder, horse mackerel, sprat, halibut and herring. They cannot be harvested in large quantities, since the consistency itself quickly disappears. The listed varieties after processing are stored for about 3 weeks in the refrigerator and no longer than 4 days at room temperature. At the same time, other breeds are stored for up to six months in the refrigerator and about 3 months at room temperature.
If we talk about the weight category, the weight of the carcass should not exceed 1 kg. At the same time, it is important to evaluate the smell of fish, the product should not smell of antibiotics, oil or other harmful substances. Evaluate the walls of the belly, they should not be pressed inward (after pressing, the body of a fresh carcass returns to its original position).

Preparing fish for drying

A distinctive feature of cooking fish using this technology is that the carcass does not need to be cleaned or gutted. The main thing is to choose a fresh, suitable catch, then salt and dry it properly.
In the process of drying, the pulp absorbs the fatty tissue located under the scales. Such a move gives the finished product tenderness and a pleasant aftertaste. Many are interested in the question of whether there are differences between the drying technology in summer and winter. There are no serious aspects, but there are basic features.
In summer, it is recommended to monitor sanitation and prevent insects from entering the cavity of the carcass. In the warm season, experienced housewives prefer to gut the fish so that the open belly can be seen at a glance. Also in summer, the fish feeds on algae, which gives the final product bitterness.
To prepare fish for drying in the summer, make a solution of table vinegar and water (proportions 1:5). Gut the carcass, rinse it under a tap (cold water), leave to soak for a quarter of an hour. After the expiration date, let the liquid drain. In winter, it is not necessary to butcher the raw materials, it is enough to wash the fish and dry it with paper towels.
To ensure uniform salting of the pulp of a large carcass, cut it along the ridge and straighten it into one plane. Some housewives prefer to chop fish with steaks, it all depends on personal preferences.

Fish drying technology

The cooking process is not particularly difficult and includes the main steps. The first step is salting and soaking the fish, then the carcass is dried in a place with good circulation and relative humidity. Let's consider each step in more detail, highlight the main thing.

Stage number 1. Salting fish

Recipe 1. Rinse the carcass thoroughly with water, transfer to a dish and refrigerate for 2 hours. After the expiration of the term, prepare a deep container, lay the carcasses in one row, evenly distributing the fish along the bottom of the container. Sprinkle raw materials with plenty of table salt. To make the final product tasty and rich, you can not save on salt.

After the first row of fish comes the second, the manipulations are repeated until the entire container is filled with salted carcasses. Leave the container at room temperature until juice appears.

Many believe that an excessive amount of salt will adversely affect the result, but this statement is extremely erroneous. The main failure of novice housewives lies in the fact that they add little salt. In this case, the dish turns out tasteless.

After a certain period of time, you will notice that the fish has given up juice. It is this feature that characterizes the beginning of salting. After that, move the container to the refrigerator for 5-6 days.

Recipe 2. There is another recipe for pre-salting in liquid. To do this, wash the carcasses, dry them with paper napkins / towels, rub each fish with plenty of table salt.

Put the raw material in a deep container, fill it with a room temperature solution, put it under a press. To prepare the brine, mix 120 gr. salt and 480 ml. filtered water, bring to the dissolution of the crystals.

Determining a sufficient amount of salt is simple: remove one carcass, send it to a container of fresh water. If the fish surfaced, proceed to the following manipulations
(drying). In cases where the product sinks, it contains too much salt. Soak the raw materials in ordinary water until the excess ingredient is “washed out”.

Stage number 2. drying process

First, prepare the necessary equipment. You will need a strong thread (twine), fish will be strung on it. You will need a wooden box and gauze, which will prevent insects from entering and provide air flow.
After salting, spread the carcasses on parchment paper or landscape sheets for partial drying. Next, proceed to stringing, armed with a needle and thread. Pass the gypsy needle through the eye holes of the fish, pointing the backs of the carcasses in one direction.
It is important to string the "raw materials" in such a way that the bodies do not touch each other. If we talk about the number of carcasses per bunch, it should not exceed 15 heads (small samples). With regards to larger specimens, their number is usually 5-6 pieces.
Proper drying of fish is carried out in the fresh air (in summer) and in the kitchen (in winter). The box will be required for drying carcasses in the warm season, you can put it on the loggia or balcony, covering the fish with gauze. If it's cold outside, hang bundles near a gas or electric stove.
The duration of the procedure varies depending on the size of the carcasses. It will take you about 3-4 weeks to cook a large fish. In the case of small specimens, the drying process takes 15-20 days.
The appearance will tell you about the readiness of the product. There should be no salt residue on the surface of the carcass, while the fat comes out. Also, the "surviving" carcass does not have dry areas of meat, its skeleton is visible under a fluorescent lamp.
If the fish meets the above requirements, remove it from the string and wrap it with parchment paper. Send to the bottom shelf of the refrigerator for final ripening. The exposure time in this case is 20 days.

The most delicious are those types of fish that have a wide layer of fat. For this reason, careful selection is recommended before drying.
To eliminate the unpleasant smell of sludge immediately after fishing, put all the carcasses in a deep bucket or container. Place fresh nettle branches inside, leave for 30-45 minutes in a cool place.
In the process of gutting large individuals, remove only the gills and intestines, leave everything else unchanged. As mentioned earlier, activities are held in the summer or optionally in the winter.
If drying is carried out in the warm season, vegetable oil will help scare away insects. Lubricate the surface of the carcass with it and leave until completely absorbed. An acetic solution acts in a similar way (100 ml of the composition per 1.3 liters of drinking water).
The optimal humidity level is considered to be in the range of 70-80%. At the same time, choose a dark room for drying fish with sufficient air circulation.
Wasps and flies fly only to fresh, recently hung out for drying fish. To avoid such consequences, send strings with carcasses to the balcony in the late evening, by morning the composition will seize with a crust.
To carry out accelerated drying, open the belly of the carcass, gut the fish. Fix it in the open state with matches (pre-remove the heads) or toothpicks.

The process of drying fish at home has a number of features that are important to consider. Choose carcasses with a large fat layer under the scales. In the summer, dry the product under gauze, lubricating the surface with vegetable oil or vinegar solution. Consider dry and wet pre-salting methods, choose the one that suits you best.

Video: how to dry fish

Before proceeding directly to drying, the fish must be properly prepared. It is on this preparation that the result of your labors depends.

If you are going to dry-dry fish longer than 20 cm, be sure to gut it first. Small fish can be dried whole without gutting. Then proceed according to the following scheme:

Thread the fish onto the string through the eyes. Position it with the backs in the same direction. You can string more small fish, and large ones - 3-4 per bunch.
Sprinkle the fish generously with salt. Don't forget to rub the salt inside the gutted bellies and gills. For the largest carcasses, weighing more than 2 kg, make shallow cuts on the back and rub salt there.
Prepare a container for salting. It can be an enameled basin or a stainless steel basin, as well as a wooden trough. At the bottom of the container, pour a layer of salt about 2 cm. Then start laying out layers of fish, each layer of which is generously sprinkled with salt. With each layer of fish, increase the layer of salt so that the carcasses are properly salted.
Let the workpiece stand open for 8 hours, and then cover it with a lid and press down with a load. Under pressure, the fish is salted for 2 to 6 days. It depends on its size and air temperature. The warmer, the less time it takes to pickle.

This is where the preparation ends. You just have to rinse the carcasses from excess salt.

How to dry fish at home

Hang bundles with fish on the street where they will not be exposed to direct sunlight. The main scourge is flies. To scare them away, apply a little vinegar to each fish. Also cover the ligaments with gauze.

The fish is dried for 2 to 4 weeks. It is impossible to say the exact time. Understanding that the fish is ready is very simple. Bend the carcass. If she, like a spring, returns to her original position, then she is ready. Before use, let the fish lie down for 2 weeks in a cool place.

Now you know how to properly dry fish at home. Be sure to try this recipe if you are a true fan of fishing and friendly gatherings over a glass of beer. Despite the fact that the drying process takes a lot of time, it is not at all difficult, you can handle it without any problems.

It happens that in the hot season it is urgent to save the fish. The best way to save for the future on a fishing trip or at home is salting. How to salt river fish? Let's look at several recipes for cooking vobla, perch, gobies, bleak and roach in large, medium and small sizes.

Types and methods of salting river fish

Real Russian cuisine is hard to imagine without river fish. A river dweller is good in fish soup and other fish soups, it is boiled in water, steamed, dried, dried and salted. If large freshwater inhabitants can be cleaned, cut and salted into pieces, then smaller bony specimens are best cooked with salt as a whole.

Attention! For salting any fish, only coarse salt is suitable. Only she, slowly dissolving, gradually draws liquid from the fish. Finely ground salt will only salt out, but not dry river fish.

The principle of the ambassador is simple: salt does not preserve, it simply removes moisture from the fish. Salting of a river dweller is wet, dry, mixed and sagging.

What is brine?

One interesting concept, brine, is inextricably linked with the wet method of salting freshwater inhabitants. Other preparation methods do not use this definition.

Brine is the moisture released by the fish during the salt treatment. A special liquid is saturated with proteins, minerals and even the most valuable fish oil, which is why it differs from ordinary brine and has its own name.

In fact, wet-salted or dry-salted fish is prepared in exactly the same way. The fundamental difference is that brine remains in the container or drains (removes) from there.

Wet version of salting vobla, perch, gobies, bleak and roach with sugar

This method is suitable for both camping and home conditions. Freshwater, cooked with sugar, have a refined, more delicate taste. To prepare fish in this way, it is better to follow a step-by-step recipe:

Prepare a non-oxidizing container, such as a bucket or pot.
Peel the fish carcasses, leaving the head. Remove scales.
Directly on the bottom of the container should be laid the first layer of the catch. Carcasses are best placed belly up.
Fill each copy with salt in a proportion of 10 kg. fish and 1 kg. coarse salt plus 1 tbsp. l. Sahara.
Layers of fish alternating with salt should not reach the top of the container. A press should be placed on top of the fish mass.
After 2 days, the brine will cover the entire mass.
After 3 days, small fish will be ready, and after 7-8 days - large. The finished batch is pulled out of the brine, washed under running water and left to dry in the open air. Then roach, perch, gobies, bleak or roach can be put into any containers for long-term storage.

Small fish are salted for three days, large - 5-7 days

Advice. The role of the press can be performed by an ordinary large plate covered with something heavy. However, experienced fishermen advise to put together a special wooden circle. The best material for its manufacture is linden or aspen. Only this wood does not emit harmful substances into the brine and does not deform under its influence. In no case should you make a press out of plywood! It can exfoliate and release glue residue into the fish.

Fast dry salting of a large river catch

If you decide to salt large individuals (from 0.5 to 1.5 -2 kg.), Then you can not only clean them, but also dissolve them along the back, remove the spine, head and tail. Scales - do not touch!

Dry the processed carcass. Each copy will look like an open book, lying open belly up.
Salt the fish from the side of the scales and lay them in even layers in a wooden box, sprinkling salt on each layer. The largest carcasses should be at the bottom.
If you decide to leave the heads, then you need to lay out the fish in a checkerboard pattern. For example, the first layer heads to the left, the second - heads to the right. Thus, oppression will put pressure on the entire mass evenly.
For the whole batch, put a wooden oppression and put the box on a pallet in a cool room. If possible, the container can be placed directly on the ground or in a small hole. The brine will flow down through the slots in the container.

With this cooking option, fish weighing about 500 gr. You can try in 3 days. And for a solid salt of a large catch weighing about 1.5-2 kg., It will take 10 days.

Vobla Ambassador without sugar. Wet and dry way

Vobla is a fairly common inhabitant of Russian rivers. Often fishermen, having caught this fish, ask the housewives the difficult task of processing it. In fact, the recipe for competent preparation of roach, like any other freshwater fish, is quite simple:

medium or large fish need to be gutted and the scales removed. Then rinse and dry the carcasses;
the next stage is rubbing the vobla with salt. Salt is laid not only outside, but also inside the abdomen of each specimen;
grated fish should be laid in rows in any dish convenient for you and wait only 5 days.

If you have planned a wet salting, then the fish must be pressed down with oppression and left in the container. Gradually, the carcasses will release liquid, this is the brine.

For dry salting, you need to lay the catch as stated in the recipe, but the container for salting should be with holes. The brine will seep through them, and the vobla will remain dry.

Sagging method of salting roach, bleak and other river fish

This recipe is best used for oily, tender fish. The advantage of this method is that freshwater meat is more tender and differs in taste from traditional salted fish. The downside is the need to build a special structure for salting.

Cooking steps:

Set the containers for harvesting fish so that it can be hung and strengthened by a number of transverse rods of the same length.
Hang whole (if small) or gutted individuals on rods so that there is a small distance between the carcasses. The fish must be completely lowered into the container.
It is necessary to pour the prepared brine into a plastic basin or other container. To do this, dissolve salt in water.
If the water with salt completely covers the catch, then everything was done correctly.

Advice. How to determine the right amount of salt in brine? Very simple! If you lower a raw potato or an egg there, they should not sink, but float on the surface.

After 5-7 days, the salty batch can be eaten. But before that, it should be removed from the liquid and dried a little.

The above brine methods are good to use to save a large catch for the future. Regardless of the recipe, roach, perch, gobies, bleak or roach can be stored for a long time, or eaten immediately after the end of the salting. And you can soak 3-4 hours in water or milk and use for frying or cooking a variety of fish dishes.

Salting river fish - video

River fish ambassador - photo

Dried (dried) fish is the perfect snack for. It is better to dry not too oily fish (crucian carp, dace, bream, perch, pike perch, vobla). First of all, the fish must be washed well, then cleaned of the insides, scales - do not clean off. If the fish chosen for drying at home is large, then an incision should be made on the back - from head to tail, so that it dries faster later. Then the prepared fish must be salted in an enamel bowl using coarse salt. The amount of salt is taken at the rate of 20% of the weight of the fish. It is believed that coarse salt is absorbed more slowly, but at the same time it “pulls out” more moisture (if desired, you can add spices - black pepper). Put the fish in layers in a container, sprinkling each layer with salt. In addition, each fish must be rubbed with salt from the inside, in the abdomen. On top of the laid fish, put a flat plate and oppression (load), leaving the fish in a cool place (in the refrigerator) for several days. A small catch will be salted in 5 days, larger fish should be kept in brine (it will appear a few hours after salting) for 7 days.

After the fish has been salted, it must be washed with cold water, wiped well and hung out to dry. In order to protect the fish during the drying process from uninvited pests, it can be wiped with a 3% solution of vinegar or unrefined sunflower oil. They dry the fish by hanging it on a copper wire or a thick fishing line, passing it through the eyes with a needle. Some cling to the fish by the lower lip with a paper clip, and then “hang” it on a rope. Strut sticks are inserted into the belly of large fish, the gill covers are also slightly opened, slightly wringing them so that the heads dry faster and better.

From above, the fish should be covered with clean gauze or a tulle curtain in a fine mesh so that flies and wasps do not sit on it. Fish should be dried in a dry, ventilated area, where direct sunlight does not fall. Citizens can dry fish on the balcony or on the loggia, and those who live in the countryside dry the fish in the barn or in the attic of the house, hanging it so that the cats do not get it.

On average, in the open air, the fish dries for about a week, if you need to speed up this process, you can hang the fish over a gas stove (of course, not very low). It will be ready in three days. A well-dried fish will not have any salt coming out on the surface. After removing the skin from the scales, a layer of fragrant shiny fat should “appear”; the meat is not dry, but elastic, it will acquire a dark gray color. Properly dried fish will creak when pulled by the tail and head.