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Fragrant smoked perch is one of the most delicious and affordable delicacies for connoisseurs of “smoke” dishes. There are several recipes for cooking fish: hot and cold type of smoking, as well as cooking in a mobile smokehouse in the apartment and in a stationary apparatus on the street.
Hot smoked
Delicious hot smoked perch is obtained only if a strict algorithm of actions is followed. Wash the carcasses of perch, cut off their heads and remove the insides. Small fish can be left whole. Sprinkle prepared fish with coarse sea salt. Do not worry, as the perch will take just as much salt as necessary. To taste, add a little black pepper or coriander to the salt.
Tighten salted fish with cling film and refrigerate for a day. After that, rinse the carcasses from the remaining salt and dry in a draft for 3-4 days. Only after these manipulations can the fish be smoked. If the smokehouse was previously in use, it is necessary to remove carbon deposits from its walls, grates and lids. At the bottom lay moistened sawdust from fruit trees: apricots, apple trees or cherries.
A fire is made as a source of fire, a gas burner is used, or a simple barbecue is adapted for frying kebabs. Calorie content is 116 kcal / 100 g of product. When the fire has flared up enough, you can start laying fish carcasses. Put the perch on the grill so that they do not touch each other on their sides.
Place the grate on the smokehouse and cover it with a lid. The appearance of whitening is evidenced by the appearance of whitish smoke, and at the end of the process, already clear vapor will fall. The cooking time will take from 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the carcasses. After the end, do not remove the cover, as a rush of oxygen will provoke ignition of the chips and will damage the person.
It is necessary to remove the smokehouse from the fire and leave it to “walk” for another 20 minutes. A rich fish cooked at home will be a great snack for a glass of foamy live beer.
To prevent the appearance of tan marks from the grate, the carcasses can be suspended during hot smoking.
Cold smoked method
Cold-smoked perch is distinguished by cooking fish at a low temperature for a long time. Small carcasses will last 24 hours, and large ones need up to 2 days at a temperature in the smoking chamber of 25-30 degrees. Smoking perch start with the preparation of carcasses. Wash the perch. With large specimens, cut off the heads and clean out the intestines by removing the black films inside.
Dry the fish with a napkin and cover it with coarse sea salt, as long as it enters, to cover the fish carcasses. Put the pickle for salting in the cold for a day, tightening with cling film.
Rinse the preparations thoroughly with running water from the remnants of salt grains, wipe, hang and dry in a place with a draft. Wrap each carcass with gauze and grab with large stitches of thread, so that in the process of cold smoking, soot and ash do not settle on the fish. Hang the carcasses in the smoking chamber, light a fire of firewood made from fruit trees, and make sure that the temperature in the chamber does not exceed 30 degrees. If smoking of river perch is planned on the day of salting, do not refrigerate the workpiece, but leave it at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
For convenience and speeding up the process, you can divide the carcass into 2 halves of the fillet.
Cold-smoked fish need from 24 to 48 hours, depending on the size of the carcasses. The perch smoked at low temperatures is elastic with a light aroma of haze and a pleasant fish taste. The energy value of the cooked dish is only 199 calories per 100 g.
In the smokehouse it is better to use the branches of fruit trees, raspberry bushes and bird cherry. Experienced chefs combine several types of wood to get the perfect flavor. A pair of juniper twigs or 2–3 pieces of sugar thrown to the bottom of the smokehouse will help to golden the fish. With smoked perch, serve fresh salad, boiled potatoes and juicy greens.
Smoked Meat Storage Tips
Cold smoked perch can be kept in the cold for about a week, and hot cooked fish can only be consumed for 3 days. There are several recipes to extend the shelf life of smoked meats:
- Prepare a cool salt solution, soak a cotton towel in it and tightly wrap the carcasses with this cloth. Wrap the resulting workpiece again with paper. Such fish can be stored for up to 3 months.
- Put the perch in food plastic containers or vacuum bags. After that, place the workpiece in the freezer. Shelf life is also 3 months.
- Fish wrapped in burlap is put in a box and sprinkled with sawdust not from needles. Perch is stored at a temperature of +50 degrees in the cellar.
The soft whitish meat of perch during hot smoking literally melts in the mouth and moves away from the bones, and the smell of smoke in this case is much stronger and richer. Cold cooking gives an appetizing elastic meat with a pleasant texture and a light aroma of haze. Perch "with a sweetheart" categorically can not be used.
Ingredients
- Sea bass 7 pcs.
- Salt to taste
Cooking an amazing delicacy of red perch meat will not take much time. If your perch is frozen, let it thaw in a natural way. In order to maintain its quality, defrost only in the refrigerator, laying the carcasses in a single layer in any deep bowl with a tightly fitted cling film. This will protect the fish from chapping.
Let's proceed to the very first and simplest step in preparing this dish: wash the carcass of fish in running water and dry it with paper towels before salting.
Pour a handful of regular salt onto a plate, and then roll a carcass of fish over it. A little salt needs to be put inside each red perch. Let the fish lie in the salt for several hours at room temperature. Protect it from dust, insects and direct sunlight.
Once the salt has dissolved well on the surface of the fish, rinse the carcasses in running water and dry them with paper towels. Smoked fish should look like in the photo.
Gently place the fish on the grate of the smokehouse, as shown in the photo. Carcases should not touch each other.
For seven carcasses you need to set both levels of the smokehouse. Do not worry - there will not be a lot of fish, do not make the unit idle.
Here is a mini-smokehouse, assembled in two levels. After making sure that the fish feels comfortable, set the bars aside for a while.
Light a fire, let charcoal burn in a special fixture, and then gently place it in a pan. After that, place a sawdust pan on top of the fire, into which pour a generous handful of alder wood chips. Pour boiling water into the bowl of the hydraulic lock, and then put the gratings with the carcasses of perch back in place. The mobile smokehouse is ready to work - cover it with a lid. Now follow the thermometer reading: as soon as the arrow reaches 90 degrees Celsius - start the countdown.
After forty minutes, open the smokehouse, then add a little shavings and admire the appearance of the perch. If you wish, you can turn the carcass on the other side. Close the smokehouse and wait.
After the next half hour, the smoked hot smoked sea bass will be completely ready.
In order to take a sample from a fragrant fish delicacy, it must be cooled to a cold state. It takes three to four hours. During this time, the fish is saturated with smoke and will take on the form, as in the photo. Separate the fillet from the bones and skin with a sharp knife, and then cut it into portions. And if you were preparing fish for beer, then just cut the carcasses across into thin pieces, leaving both the skin and the ridge - it will be much tastier. Hot smoked sea bass is ready.
Clean fish
The first thing to fish is to be washed. Then, with the help of a knife, the entrails of the perch are removed. Of course, you can leave them for hot smoked perch, but this can give the dish a bitter taste, therefore it is better to get rid of the entrails.
Scales and head should be left, and fins should be removed. They are said to be the dirtiest part of the fish. Believe it or not is everyone's business, but it is recommended to remove them so that it is more convenient to eat.
The recipe for hot smoked perch, which will be considered, is the simplest, since it only requires salt and perch. You can also use marinade, but it will take more time and ingredients. But you can experiment with it in different ways, add some new spices, etc. Salting is the standard that everyone is used to, however, this does not mean that this method is somehow inferior to the marinade.
So, you can start pickling:
- You should take coarse salt and carefully, from all sides, grate the fish. Do not worry that salt the fish, as the perch does not have time to absorb a lot of salt.
- You can use pepper or some seasonings for fish. This will give a special taste to our hot smoked perch.
- Next, all the fish should be laid out in a container, you can even sprinkle some salt on top and leave for 3-4 hours.
In the meantime, the fish will be salted, you can prepare for smoking!
What method of smoking to choose
There are two ways of smoking: cold and hot. Next, it will be considered the hot method, because it takes less time, and the product is more pleasant in appearance. Although it is believed that a hot method of smoking is unhealthy, most people still use it.
In small quantities, there will certainly not be any harm from this. In addition, for hot smoking, a cheap smokehouse for 200 rubles is also suitable. For the cold, special equipment is required, which, when bought in a store, is not so cheap. Another plus of hot smoking is that you can even smoke fish while fishing, because the smokehouse takes up little space.
Wood chips
A lot depends on the choice of wood chips. To make hot smoked sea bass pleasant in appearance and with an amazing aroma, you should not go wrong with it. If possible, then fresh cherry chips are ideal. But if you do not have cherries in the garden, then you can buy ready-made options in stores.
In general, if there is an opportunity, then it is better to make wood chips yourself than to buy ready-made chips in a store. The alder is universal, but you can mix it with other tree species. For example, use alder and cherry. It will be amazing! The main thing is not to choose tarry tree species.
A lot of controversy arises about soaking chips. Someone says that it must be soaked, while others argue that this is a waste of time. Soak or not - it's up to you. You can experiment with this. Try first with ordinary, and then with soaked.
Cooking
Bonfire also plays a big role. To get perch in a hot smoked smokehouse, a small uniform fire is required. And most importantly, it needs to be supported.
- To do this, light a small fire and put bricks on the sides if your smokehouse does not have legs.
- Next, take the fish, wipe thoroughly so that there is no water left and let it dry for 30 minutes.
- In the meantime, the fish is dried, you can take the time to smokehouse. It can be washed, but the fire itself will destroy all microbes.
- At the bottom of the smokehouse in an even layer you need to lay chips. A fat pan should be placed on it. If this is not done, it will drain onto the wood chips and the fish will have a bitter taste. But if there is no pallet, you can use food foil, it must be put on wood chips.
- On the grid of the smokehouse you need to lay out the perch, which during this time will have time to dry out. It is necessary to leave a little space so that the smoke can penetrate well from all sides.
The last step left is to get hot smoked perch - the smoked meat itself! The smokehouse should be covered and set on fire.
Smoked perch for 20-30 minutes. Time must begin to detect after the appearance of the first smoke. During smoking, smoke must be emitted several times. The first time you need to do this after 5 minutes, and then every 10 minutes.
For piquancy, you can sprinkle perch with lemon juice and put a sprig of thyme. Putting it is on the fish, otherwise everything just burns on the grid. The indicator of readiness will be the color of the perch.
Remember that any hot smoked product is recommended to be used after cooling.
The recipe for perch in a smoke-cured smokehouse was considered. Such a fish is perfect as a snack. However, if you prepare a side dish and serve with it, you get a full dinner.
With hot smoked fish you can delight your loved ones, friends and guests! This dish will be a great addition to your table, and given the simplicity of the recipe, you can even smoke perch even while fishing. Enjoy your meal!
