Drying roach at home. Where is the best place to dry fish? Salting fish in brine

Dried or dried fish is a special delicacy for any table. Not a single friendly get-together with beer and favorite snacks is complete without such a fish. Properly salted and dried fish has a rich taste and a subtle appetizing aroma. But what is the difference between dried fish and dried fish? Dried fish are pre-salted carcasses that are subsequently dried. They are ready to eat and can be eaten without any additional processing. But dried-fresh fish is simply dried meat that is prepared for the winter. It must be fried or boiled before use. Such meat is often dried in the northern regions to preserve the healthy product for the winter.

Often people mean drying fish by drying. Dried fish is usually prepared on an industrial scale. Dried fish is the same process, but at home. Today you will learn how to properly make dried fish so that it turns out tasty, safe and healthy.

Which fish to choose

It is best to dry fish in autumn and spring. At this time, the fish is the most fatty and tasty. At home, you can salt any fish, but perch, roach, rudd, bream, pike perch, and roach are best suited for this. As a rule, after good fishing, the largest fish go to fish soup and frying, and the smaller ones go to salting.

It is best to dry fresh fish caught no more than 10 hours ago. In this case, the salting will be of high quality and safe. If you salt yesterday’s fish, it may turn out “flavorful”. Large and small fish should be salted in different containers, since their salting time is not the same.

How to dry fish correctly

The technique of drying and drying fish differs only in the degree of drying of the meat. That is, in essence, dried fish is an incompletely dried carcass. To make the fish meat tasty, salted and aromatic, you need to go through all the stages of processing.

Preparation
Fresh fish should be placed in a bath with a small amount of water. Carefully wash off the river mud and silt from the scales. It is very important to wash the fish with your hands to remove mucus from its surface. The less mucus remains on the fish, the tastier and more appetizing it will be.

Then the fish should be gutted. Some fishermen and housewives salt the fish completely, but if the carcasses are medium in size, it is better to remove all unnecessary things. Dried fish with giblets acquires a slight bitterness, which is given to it by bile. Only small fish are dried with giblets.

You need to choose the dishes for pickling in advance. This could be a plastic bucket, enamel dishes, or a tin basin. Be prepared for the fact that after salting the container will smell like fish for a long time.

Pickling

The container with fish is covered with gauze and left in a cool place. You can put a bucket of salted fish on the balcony (during the cold season), in the cellar or basement. It is not recommended to put fish in the refrigerator, even with the lid tightly closed - all products will smell of fish. In this form, the fish should stand for several days. When the fish gives juice, which is called brine, it will need to be pressed under pressure so that all the fish are completely covered with brine. The pressure also prevents air from collecting in the belly of the fish. You can use a large stone, a weight, or a container of water as pressure. The fish should remain under pressure for another 2-3 days.

After the specified time, the fish must be checked. A well-salted carcass has a sunken back and rather hard sides. Grasp the fish's head and pull its tail. If the spine makes a characteristic sound, the fish is ready. If not, leave the carcasses to salt for another day.

Soaking
The next stage is soaking the fish. This is done in order to wash off excess salt from the fish. Empty the contents of the bucket into a bathtub filled with water. You need to sort the fish right away. Those that have settled at the bottom are well salted and are suitable for long-term storage. And those that float up are better to be consumed first - they will not last long.

The fish must be kept in water for 4-5 hours. After this, it is carefully washed by hand - both from the outside and from the inside. If the salt and mucus do not wash off, you can rub them with a soft sponge, but be careful not to damage the fish's scales. Without it, it will not be able to be stored for long.

Drying
When all the fish is washed, it needs to be dried. To dry, you need to prepare large rings of wire, onto which the fish is placed sideways, that is, through the eye holes. This way the fish will dry much better.

It is very important to protect fish from bees, flies, mosquitoes and other insects. Harmful insects can leave an infection on the carcass, which will lead to rotting of the product; it cannot be stored for a long time. In addition, it is much more pleasant to eat clean fish and be sure that a swarm of flies has not landed on it. You can cover fish hung to dry with gauze or make a gauze frame. It’s even better to hang the fish out to dry in the evening, when there are no more flies. By morning the fish will dry out, and flies will not be afraid of it.

It takes about 5-7 days to dry the fish. It is very important here not to overdry the carcasses, otherwise they will turn out not dried, but dried. You need to dry the fish in a well-ventilated place, away from sunlight. To check if the fish is ready, you just need to try it. If you smell raw fish, it requires additional drying. A good stockfish is not completely dry, but rather soft at the back.

When the fish is ready, it should be removed from the wire, transferred to canvas or paper bags and stored in a cool place. Fish dried in this way will be suitable for consumption within six months.

Here are some more useful tips to help you when drying and salting fish:

1. When you soak fish after salting, you need to change the water several times to fresh water.
2. Some fishermen dry fish by hanging it by the tail rather than by the head. This should not be done, otherwise the fat will leak out and the fish will turn out dry and tasteless.
3. If you don't have time to dry fish for a long time, you can use an electric dryer. Conditions with a certain temperature and a special degree of ventilation allow you to bring the fish to readiness in 6-8 hours!
4. In cold regions, fish is preserved as follows. After salting, it is not dried, but frozen. After lying in the cold for about a month, the fish becomes very tasty and can be stored for quite a long time.
5. If you are afraid that flies will land on the fish, you can lubricate the carcasses with a vinegar solution.
6. In order for the fish to dry well from the inside, you need to insert toothpicks into the walls of its abdomen.
7. In summer, fish are not dried - high temperatures can cause the fish to become rotten rather than dry. In addition, fish dried in hot weather turns out to be bitter.
8. In ancient times, fish was salted in wooden barrels. From this she received a special woody aroma, which is still considered a special delicacy. Some dried fish manufacturers still maintain a similar production procedure.
9. Fish should not be dried in the sun. Otherwise, all the fat will melt away, and the fish will turn out dry and lean.
10. Oven dried fish is popular in some areas. After washing, it is left to dry not in the air, but in the oven. In this case, the heated oven must be turned off; the fish will seem to languish. The fish is first placed in clay pots. The fish prepared in this way is soft and well salted.
11. If stored improperly, bags of dried fish may develop a sour or musty odor, mold, or mucus. You can't eat this kind of fish.
12. Drying small fish, such as smelt or small perch, is as easy as shelling pears. You need to soak the washed fish in salt water for 20 minutes and then hang them to dry.

These subtleties and nuances will help you dry the fish so that it can be stored for a long time, and also preserve its taste and benefits.

It is difficult to find a more suitable snack for beer than dried or dried fish. If you often go fishing, do not give your excess catch to your neighbors. Fish can be easily preserved if you dry it properly. And then you can enjoy the aromatic taste of salted fish all year round.

Video: how to properly dry and salt fish

Dried fish is loved by many people for its dense consistency and relative ease of preparation. Experienced housewives prefer to process carcasses in this way to increase storage time. It is known that store-bought products are full of 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 matter has its own peculiarities regarding the selection of raw materials and its preparation for further manipulation.

Choosing the right 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.

1. Fans of the dried product claim that you can use both fresh and frozen raw materials. However, the latter option is suitable only after complete thawing at room temperature.
2. Experienced housewives have developed their own varieties of fish that are most suitable for drying at home. These include Argentina, capelin, crucian carp (sea), perch, halibut, flounder, herring, herring, sprat, sardine, mackerel, croaker, sprat, horse mackerel, and croaker.
3. Other varieties are also suitable, such as hake, roach, ram, carp, bream, roach, saberfish, shemai, ide, chub, sop, etc. However, the listed types of fish will not be able to fully convey the taste of the dried product.
4. 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 prepared in large quantities, since the consistency itself quickly disappears. After processing, the listed varieties are stored for about 3 weeks in the refrigerator and no longer than 4 days at room temperature. However, other breeds are stored for up to six months in the refrigerator and about 3 months at room temperature.
5. 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 the fish; the product should not smell of antibiotics, oil or other harmful substances. Evaluate the walls of the belly; they should not press inward (after pressing, the body of the fresh carcass returns to its original position).

Preparing fish for drying

1. A distinctive feature of preparing 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-sized catch, then salt and dry it properly.
2. During the drying process, the pulp absorbs the fatty tissue located under the scales. This move gives the finished product tenderness and a pleasant aftertaste. Many people are interested in the question of whether there are differences between drying technology in summer and winter. There are no serious aspects, but there are basic features.
3. 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 is clearly visible. Also in summer, the fish feed on algae, which gives the final product a bitter taste.
4. 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 the tap (cold water), and leave to soak for a quarter of an hour. After the expiration date, allow the liquid to drain. In winter, it is not necessary to cut the raw materials; it is enough to wash the fish and dry it with paper towels.
5. To ensure uniform salting of the flesh of a large carcass, cut it along the ridge and straighten it into one plane. Some housewives prefer to cut fish into steaks, it all depends on personal preferences.

Fish drying technology

The cooking process is not particularly difficult and includes basic 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 look at each step in more detail, highlighting the main thing.

Stage No. 1. Salting fish

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

Following 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 the juice appears.

Many people believe that excessive amounts of salt will have a detrimental effect on the results, 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 released its juice. It is this sign that characterizes the beginning of salting. After this, move the container into 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, and rub each fish with plenty of table salt.

Place the raw materials in a deep container, fill with a solution at room temperature, and place under a press. To prepare the brine, mix 120 g. salt and 480 ml. filtered water until the crystals dissolve.

Determining the sufficient amount of salt is simple: remove one carcass and place it in a container with fresh water. If the fish surfaces, 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 No. 2. Drying process

1. To begin, prepare the necessary equipment. You will need a strong thread (twine), the fish will be strung on it. You will need a wooden box and gauze to prevent insects from entering and provide air flow.
2. After salting, place the carcasses on parchment paper or album sheets to partially dry. Next, start 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.
3. 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). Regarding larger specimens, their number is usually 5-6 pieces.
4. Proper drying of fish is carried out in the fresh air (in summer) and in the kitchen (in winter). The box will be needed for drying carcasses in the warm season; you can put it on a loggia or balcony, covering the fish with gauze. If it's cold outside, hang the bundles near a gas or electric stove.
5. 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.
6. The appearance will tell you when the product is ready. There should be no salt residue on the surface of the carcass, with fat protruding out. Also, the “extant” carcass does not have dry areas of meat; its skeleton is visible under a daylight lamp.
7. If the fish meets the above requirements, remove it from the string and wrap it in parchment paper. Place on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator for final ripening. The duration of exposure in this case is 20 days.

1. The tastiest fish are those that have a wide layer of fat. For this reason, it is recommended to carry out careful selection before drying.
2. To eliminate the unpleasant smell of sludge immediately after catching, place all the carcasses in a deep bucket or container. Place fresh nettle branches inside and leave for 30-45 minutes in a cool place.
3. When gutting large specimens, remove only the gills and intestines, leaving everything else unchanged. As mentioned earlier, activities take place in the summer or optionally in the winter.
4. If drying is carried out in the warm season, vegetable oil will help repel insects. Lubricate the surface of the carcass with it and leave until completely absorbed. A vinegar solution works in a similar way (100 ml of composition per 1.3 liters of drinking water).
5. The optimal humidity level is considered to be between 70-80%. At the same time, choose a dark room with sufficient air circulation for drying fish.
6. Wasps and flies only fly to fresh fish that have recently been hung out to dry. To avoid such consequences, send the strings with carcasses to the balcony late in the evening; by morning the composition will set into a crust.
7. To carry out accelerated drying, open the belly of the carcass and gut the fish. Secure it open with matches (remove the heads first) or toothpicks.

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

Video: how to dry fish correctly

In order to get tasty dried fish, you need to know how to salt it correctly. An important role in this process is played by brine (salt solution). If fish for raw-salted consumption is prepared in artificial brine, dissolving a certain amount of salt in water, then natural brine is used for salting fish and subsequent drying, when the fish layered with salt releases moisture from itself under the influence of pressing and is salted directly “in its own juice”.

Soaking the fish

1. Before you begin this activity, sort your fish by size. This will make it easier for you to soak it.
   
2. Soak large fish (bream, pike, ide) for 1.5 days, changing the water three times, the calculation of which is 5 liters per 2 kg of fish. The water should be cold and soaking should take place in a cool, dark place. The pan or bucket should not be kept tightly closed. Soak small fish (crucian carp, dace, chebak, perch) for 1 day, changing the water 2 times.
   
3. At the end of soaking, drain the water and let the fish drain well. Now you can start drying.
   

1. Pull the rope tight. Prepare hooks for hanging. You can also make them yourself from stiff wire.
   
2. Hang the fish on the line, passing the tips of the hooks through the eye or upper lip.
   
3. If drying takes place outdoors, cover the fish in gauze frames.
   
4. In case of rain, take timely measures by covering the frames with polyethylene cloth and removing it immediately after the rain stops so that the fish do not get trapped.
   
5. The duration of drying depends on the owner’s preferences. On average, 1-2 sunny days are enough for small fish; while for larger specimens it may take 3-4 days.
   

Dried fish can be easily obtained in many stores, but real lovers prefer to prepare such a delicacy on their own. After all, only by preparing a dish with your own hands can you be completely confident in its safety. But to make the fish tasty, you should know some rules and secrets of its preparation.

What kind of fish can be dried?

Typically, fishermen who bring home their catch set aside small or medium-sized fish for drying or drying. Large representatives are rarely used for these purposes, as they were originally intended for frying or baking. But this does not mean that large fish cannot be dried.

It just takes a little longer to prepare. In fishing parlance, drying fish is called “making a ram.” But this does not mean at all that only ram is suitable for preparing delicacies.

What types of fish can be dried:

• roach, crucian carp and ram;
  

  Did you know? Sometimes a tornado, flying past rivers or the ocean, picks up schools of fish and carries them far overland, where it rains fish. These “fish rains” have occurred more than once over thousands of years. The Roman writer Pliny the Younger describes this phenomenon back in the 1st century AD.

• roach and silver bream;
  
• white bream and saberfish;
  
• bleak and ide;
  
• perch and pike;
  
• carp and capelin;
  

  Did you know? Like humans, fish need oxygen to breathe. Therefore, if there is not enough oxygen in the water, the inhabitants of the reservoir can suffocate and drown.

• mackerel and rudd;
  
• pike perch and bream.
  
Some craftsmen even dry fish that is fatty and difficult to dry, such as catfish and burbot. Gourmets claim that the fattier the finished product, the tastier it is.

You can dry any fish, but it is important to consider that each variety has its own differences in taste:




It is necessary to remember that fatty fish is dried for a long time, and in the future it is poorly stored and does not last long. During storage, it may acquire an unpleasant taste and smell of rancid fat. Fatty varieties can be dried, but in small quantities, and for long-term storage it is preferable to choose a leaner breed for drying.

Preparation

Experts advise that you cover freshly caught fish (intended for drying) with the leaves and stems of old nettles and place them in a cool place for a couple of hours, and only after that start salting them. Nettle will protect fish from spoilage on a hot day.

in winter

A small fish carcass (up to 500 g) can be salted without gutting.
This is done so that the fish meat is saturated with subcutaneous and internal fat and is juicier. For fish carcasses weighing over 500 grams, the abdominal cavity is cleared of entrails; if the fish came with caviar, then the caviar is put back into the abdomen.

In summer

In the summer, all fish (large and small) are gutted, since in the hot season the entire fish population feeds on algae. Aquatic greens are even included in the diet of predatory fish species.

If the abdominal cavity of freshly caught prey is not cleared of algae, it will begin to actively decompose within a few hours, which will make the meat rancid and unfit for consumption.



• warm salting at a temperature of +15°C...+16°C - from 9 days;
• cold salting at a temperature of +5°C...+6°C - from 13 days;
• dry salting (not gutted) - from 13 days;
• dry salting (gutted) - from 12 days.

How to dry in stages

Briefly the drying process can be described as follows:

• salting;
• soaking;
• drying.

Pickling

Finely ground salt, such as “Extra”, is not entirely suitable for these purposes; it is better to take very coarse salt.
The consequences of salting with fine salt are the possible formation of a thin crust on the fish carcass, preventing the salt brine from penetrating inside. There are two ways to salt fish: dry salting and using brine.

Salting in brine:

1. You can take any container of suitable size (food grade plastic, metal), the main thing is that its wall does not oxidize. Galvanized containers and technical plastics are not at all suitable for these purposes.
2. The prepared carcasses are placed tightly in a container, if necessary, in several rows.
3. A cover is placed on top of the last row, on which oppression is installed.
4. After this, brine is carefully poured over the oppression, which flows into the container. The brine is poured until it covers the lid lying on top of the fish by several centimeters.

When salting, oppression is almost always placed on top; it is needed to compact the fish in the brine and prevent the formation of air chambers in which putrefactive bacteria can develop.

Video: salting fish in brine It can be selected from improvised means, or it can be made from wood. Wooden oppression will serve the fisherman for many years. It is recommended to choose a tree for these purposes that does not emit tannins or resin (aspen, linden).

Preparation of brine:

1. For 3 liters of water add one and a half glasses (250 ml) of coarse salt.
2. If you need more brine, the proportions are increased.
3. The salt is completely dissolved in water and only after that the prepared brine is poured over the fish laid under pressure.
4. Some fans add sugar to brine, claiming that this makes the taste of the meat more tender. In this case, for every kilogram of salt, one tablespoon of sugar is added.

If you need to salt fish directly while fishing, you can use polyethylene bags. To do this, dig a hole in the bushes (not in a sunny place) and place a tight bag there in which the catch will be salted.
The neck of the bag is wrapped with a roller and left open. A pressure is placed on top of the salted fish and filled with brine.

Dry salt:

1. In this case, you can salt the fish in baskets, wooden boxes or any container that has holes at the bottom to drain excess liquid.
2. The bottom of the vessel (basket, box) is covered with fabric. Clean burlap or cotton is suitable for this.
3. During the salting process, the fish will release liquid, which will flow into the cracks and openings of the salting container.

Did you know?Experienced fishermen salted fish directly in bags when traveling. Afterwards they were buried in the ground to a meter depth. The fish was salted safely, and the cold of the earth prevented it from spoiling.

Soaking

According to recipes, soaking should last about 12 hours. Experts are sure that you need to soak the salted catch for the same amount of time as it was in the brine. For example, if a carcass has been salted for three days, then it should also be in clean, cold water for at least three days. It is advisable to change the water every 5-6 hours of soaking.

Drying

The technology of the drying process requires hanging the carcass to dry after soaking. Disputes are still raging in which experts in the process defend their opinion on how to properly hang a fish.

There are two hanging methods:

What to hang it on and where to dry it

For hanging, use a thin rope made of natural materials (two or three weaves) or stainless steel wire. The future jerky is hung through the eye holes so that it does not come into contact with each other when drying. In this way, you can dry up to five carcasses on one piece of cord.

Such garlands made from battering rams are hung in a drafty place in a slightly shaded place. Some fishermen prefer to hang the future jerky out in the full sun for 3-5 hours to dry, after which they move it to a shady and windy place. It is the wind that helps dry the carcasses faster. Provided the weather is good, three to five days are enough for complete drying.

If the weather is not suitable (cold and humid), then the belly of large fish is cut open and several transverse sticks are inserted into it. An attic (with open through windows) is a great place to dry fish. The most suitable temperature for drying fish is +18C...+20C.
You can hang fish to dry at different times, it’s a matter of taste:

1. Some people prefer to hang it up at night, citing the fact that the top layer of fish skin that has dried out at night will attract flies less with its smell.
2. Others dry only during the day, in good weather, hiding the “drying” indoors at night. They explain it there that when the day and night temperatures change, the ram becomes damp and subsequently loses its taste.
3. Still others, on the contrary, try to time the start of drying specifically for damp and rainy weather, arguing that although this fish takes longer to dry, it is juicier and tastier.

Fighting flies

There are several ways to control insects during drying:

Did you know? The largest fish in the world is the giant whale shark, which can grow to be almost the length of two school buses. It has more than four thousand tiny (3 mm) teeth, weighs about 25 tons and feeds mainly on plankton.

How to dry in winter

It is necessary to harvest fish in winter using the same technology as in summer. The only difficulty lies in the drying process. In winter, the fish also dries out, but it will take a little longer for it to be fully cooked than in summer.

For listening, the carcasses are hung on a warm loggia or glassed-in balcony. To create a slight draft, open balcony windows and vents slightly. You can also dry it in the room if the owners are willing to tolerate a rather specific smell.

Important!Under no circumstances should you dry fish in winter using heaters installed nearby or near a radiator.. What will happen in the end like this« drying» practically inedible.

How to dry fish in the oven

According to this recipe, you can prepare a dried delicacy from any (not too large) carcass. Capelin, perch, crucian carp, small carp or small silver carp are suitable for this. For cooking, an oven and food foil are used.

Ingredients:

• fish;

Preparation:

1. The catch is gutted and washed, and then dried with a kitchen paper towel.
2. The carcass, inside and out, is well rubbed with salt, black pepper and chopped bay leaf.
3. The fish is placed under pressure and left for 48 hours for salting.
4. After two days, the salted carcasses are washed, soaked for two to three hours in clean water and wiped dry with napkins or a paper towel.

1. Preheat the oven to +40C.
2. Dry (pre-salted and soaked) fish are placed in one row on a baking sheet lined with food foil. The heads of carcasses placed on a baking sheet should be directed in one direction.
3. The baking tray is placed in the oven. The oven door remains ajar 5-10 cm.
4. Thus, the fish is dried for 2 hours. The oven temperature is maintained at +40C. After the required time has passed, remove the pan from the oven and cover the fish heads with foil.
5. Place the baking sheet back in the oven for another 3-4 hours.
6. After which the already well-dried carcasses are taken out and strung on a rope or wire.
7. The resulting kukan is hung out to dry in fresh air. Choose a place that is cool and windy.
8. After two or three days, the dried fish is ready from the oven.

1. For drying in the oven, it is better to take non-fatty fish (ram, roach or crucian carp).
2. If you need to dry large carcasses, then make a cut along the back to the ridge (this will make the process easier and faster).
3. To avoid the hassle of threading ropes through the eye holes, use a paper clip (making a hook out of it).
4. For long-term storage, dried fish is greased with olive oil before packing in foil or polyethylene.

Did you know? In Japan, fugu fish is a popular but deadly dish. Its insides contain a deadly poison - tetrodotoxin. To be eligible to cook fugu, a chef must obtain a certificate from a special school that teaches the preparation of this poisonous fish.

How to determine readiness

Before use, the product must be checked for readiness and quality:

1. If the drying process is completed, the structure of the meat becomes translucent, and no salt is visible on the surface of the carcass.
2. If the ram is clearly dry, the situation can be corrected by placing the fish in a wet canvas, wrapping it and placing it in the cellar or refrigerator overnight. In the morning, the dried meat will be softer and more elastic.
3. The finished fish is folded in half (head to tail). If the ram returns to its original state and springs back, it means it is ready for use.

Important!In order for dried fish to get the best taste, it needsbrew. Therefore, the product removed from drying is placed for ripening (2-3 weeks). To do this, choose a cool place with drafts (for better ventilation).

Homemade dried fish recipe

Dried carp (dry salted)

It is almost impossible to oversalt carp in this way, since it picks up exactly as much salt as it needs. During the soaking process, the water will draw out any excess salt. If for some reason the fish is not removed from the brine within 3 days, it’s okay, but it will have to be soaked in clean water a little longer (about a day).

We dry the ram (salt in brine) We take a medium-sized ram, but weighing no less than half a kilogram. For smaller fish, dry salting is suitable.

Making a strong brine:

1. Add 150-180 g of salt to a three-liter jar of cold water. The solution is stirred until the salt is completely dissolved in the water.
2. The strength of the brine is checked using a raw egg; in a suitable brine, the egg does not sink, but floats on the surface.

Pickling:

Soaking and drying ram:

When the ram is ready, the meat acquires an amber color and becomes slightly transparent.

Dried pike (dry salting):

1. The pike is washed (without gutting in winter), 2-3 transverse cuts are made on both sides of the carcass.
2. Take a container with a suitable bottom (the pike should lie completely on the bottom).
3. Salt is poured onto the bottom of the pickling container (the layer should be at least 0.5 cm thick).
4. The pike is placed on the salt layer and generously sprinkled with salt on top.
5. If there are several fish, then they are laid on top of each other, each time sprinkled with salt.
6. The last layer of salt is poured over the top pike and a lid with pressure is placed.
7. If a large pike is salted, then the container is placed in a cool place for 48 hours. If the fish is small, 24 hours is enough.
8. The salted pike is washed and hung in a draft to dry until ready.

Important!When drying pike, the most important thing is not to miss the moment when it is ready. If you miss a little, then instead of juicy dried meat you will get a dried product. Dried pike is an excellent beer snack.

Storage

Experienced fishermen claim that as it is stored, dried fish matures and only gets better.

Where to store:

1. Suspended in a cold and drafty place, in a bag made of natural fabric.
2. Placed in a basket of willow branches with a lid. Such a basket should be placed in a drafty place in a shaded and cool place (not in the sun).
3. In the kitchen cabinet - securely and tightly wrapped in polyethylene, parchment, cling foil or film.

There is nothing complicated in preparing dried fish; both experienced fishermen and beginners can easily cope with it. It’s safe to say that even beginners will succeed in making dried fish the first time. You can always treat your family and friends to this delicacy, because when prepared with your own hands, it will be much tastier than store-bought.

Dried fish is an excellent treat for people of all ages. It’s not difficult to prepare it yourself if you know how to dry fish at home.

Preparation

To dry, it is better to take a medium one (not ˃ 1 kg), and cut a large one into pieces, rinse with running water. Do not peel off the scales, just remove the giblets. There are people who like to dry small items with them. This fish acquires a spicy bitterness. It’s better to carefully gut it, trying not to damage the gallbladder. All fish are cut in the peritoneal area, large fish are cut from the back, and washed thoroughly again.

Pickling

Before drying fish , it is salted. Take freshly caught or freshly frozen, thawed at room temperature. If you have any doubts about how to salt correctly, choose the optimal method:

Tip: no matter how you salt it, you’ll get the same taste, although it’s better to over-salt it slightly. How long it will take depends on the total quantity, size of carcasses, temperature. On average - 4–7 days. Checking readiness: pull the tail, head, hear a creak. The back should be elastic, sunken, the sides should be firm, and the flesh should be dark gray. With the brine method, the solution is saturated if raw materials do not sink in it: an egg or a piece of potato.

Soaking

After salting, the product is soaked. The salted fish is transferred to a bath and filled with liquid. They keep it for as many hours as the carcasses were salted for days, changing the water often. (You can take kvass, beer, even hot milk). With the brine method, the fish is immersed in liquid for half an hour (it is changed every 10 minutes). When it starts to float, the salting is complete. Those that float well are better to eat quickly, and those remaining at the bottom can be stored.

Drying or drying

At first glance, the difference between dried or dried fish comes down only to the duration of exposure. This is not entirely true. When drying, use fatty or semi-fat fish, but it is better to dry skinny fish. When cooked at home, carcasses become dried after being exposed to indirect sunlight for a week. The sun, acting on raw materials, leads to a change in the composition of the pulp, introducing a special taste. When preparing dried fish in an apartment in winter, you need to take into account the heating temperature and dry air. It is recommended to spray the room with cold water to increase humidity, otherwise the fish will simply be dry.

It is better to dry in a ventilated place, where it is dry and dark. Can be strung on wire, twine, hooks made from paper clips. If you need to dry fish in winter or in a city apartment, you can hang it at a height of 80 cm above the stove. To circulate air and distribute heat evenly, dry by pointing the fan at the suspended fish.

Advice: if you want fish that are fattier, it is recommended to dry it by hanging it by the eye or lower lip; if you want fish that are less fatty, hang it upside down. To dry in the open air, to avoid damage by insects, you need to protect it: sprinkle with a solution of unrefined oil and vinegar (3:1). You can cover it with gauze, mosquito net or tulle curtain. It is better to hang it in the evening; at night the top will dry out and will not attract insects. Residents of the north have a method of one and a half months of “frost” street drying of fish by freezing. In other latitudes, this method should be carried out in the freezer.

Dry in the oven

If you don’t have an electric dryer, you can dry the product at home using an oven:

• • Line baking sheets with foil.
  • Place the carcasses in one direction.

• Preheat the oven, place the product, open the door 5 cm and keep it there all the time.

• After 2 hours, cover the fish heads with foil, continuing the process for another 4 hours.

The fish dried in this way is fixed and finally dried in the cool (on the balcony) for another 2 days.

What gadgets will help

To reduce time, it is convenient to dry the semi-finished product with an electric dryer or convection oven. Ventilation and heating do this effectively. At t +55⁰, the fish must be dried for 7 hours. Small-sized fish or fillet pieces are laid out in one layer on the air fryer racks. A heat-resistant skewer is inserted between the flask and the lid to release moisture. At a low blowing speed and high t (+80⁰), after 4 hours of drying, a dried product is obtained, and then a dried product.

Is it possible to dry store-bought fish? It turns out that you can take any, for example, hake. Fresh or defrosted, it is cut along the ridge into 5 cm pieces. They are sprinkled with a mixture (1:2 sugar and salt) and kept at room temperature for about 3 hours. In hot weather, you should put them in the refrigerator. Then the raw materials are washed, peeled and pitted. The fish pulp is divided into strips (1 cm) with a knife. The dryer baskets are covered with parchment (to remove grease, odor and facilitate washing), and the pieces are laid out. Merluza (hake), prepared in this way, does not differ in taste from store-bought dried tuna.

Storage

To prevent the dried product from losing its softness, wrap it in newspaper, place it in a bag and put it in the freezer.

After learning how to properly dry fish, you can always try this popular snack.