How to make dried fish. How to properly dry fish upside down or tail down? Dry salting of fish

The question of how to store fish for future use is relevant primarily for those families whose members are fond of fishing. The catch remains fresh for a very short time, and you need to be able to save it.

The drying process is the drying of pre-salted fish

Drying is considered one of the most effective ways to prepare fish for long-term storage. The method itself is quite simple: fresh product is salted and then dried in the open air. Nevertheless, the process can take place with so many variations that in order to understand all its subtleties, it is worth not only familiarizing yourself with the special literature, but also watching several relevant videos.

Today we decided to give readers a general idea of ​​how to properly dry fish at home.

Selection and preparation of raw materials

The drying process is the drying of pre-salted fish. At the same time, the pulp is dehydrated, saturated with natural fat and fermented (as fishermen say, "ripens"), acquiring spicy taste and a very attractive scent. You can dry fish both sea and river. It can be a smelt, a goby, a flounder, a sprat, a bison, etc. From the river inhabitants, representatives of small breeds are most often harvested in this way: roach, sabrefish, silver bream, brood, rudd, roach, ram, etc. According to experts, very catfish (it is better to make balyks from it), pike, carp, perch and bream, as well as chub, asp and ide are tasty in dried form.

How to dry fish: salt, soak and dry

Before you can dry the fish, you need to prepare it. The stage comes down to careful cleaning of the catch from dirt and mucus. You do not need to wash the fish and remove the scales from it. Small specimens (weighing up to 500 g) are usually not gutted. In large fish, the entrails are usually removed. In this case, the incision is made not from the side of the abdomen, but from the back, cutting through the meat to the ridge and separating the ribs on one side from the spine. This method was invented in order not to disturb the fat layer, which is located under the skin of the abdomen. It is not necessary to dry the fish, cleaned "from the belly": it will turn out to be dry and tough.

Now you can start the main process, which is divided into three stages: salting, soaking and actually drying.

Basic rules for drying

When salting fish, it is important to follow several rules:

• The utensils in which you place the raw materials must be steel, enamel, glass, ceramic, wood, or made of food grade plastic. The use of galvanized containers is unacceptable;
• for fish processing, choose a coarse salt that does not contain iodine. Iodized salt gives the product an unpleasant aftertaste, and fine salt penetrates the tissues too quickly, preventing them from dehydrating;
• the container in which the fish is salted must be kept in a cool place;
• in no case should the recommended salting time be reduced. It depends both on the method and on the size of the raw material, but it cannot be less than a day for small fish and 5 days for larger specimens. Violation of this condition is fraught with serious health problems (for example, infection with opisthorchiasis or poisoning).

This general principles... There are many methods of salting fish, and almost every experienced fisherman adds his own nuances to them.

There are many methods of salting fish, and almost every experienced fisherman adds his own nuances to them.

Drying stages

We start to dry the fish: salting recipes

Dry

Fish (usually large) are placed in a wooden or plastic box covered with cloth in layers, belly up. You can also use a basket or even a clean bag (jute or plastic). It is important that the container has holes through which the juice escaping from the fish will flow. The raw materials are sprinkled with salt from all sides (the heads must be treated especially carefully). For 10 kg of fish, take at least 1.5 kg of salt. The container is covered with a flat lid, oppression is placed (for example, a three- or five-liter jar of water) and put away in a cool place. Salting usually takes 5 to 10 days.

Tuzluchny

The fish, tightly packed in a bowl or pan, with their tummies up, are sprinkled with salt layer by layer (1 kg per 10 kg of raw material) and pressed with oppression. In this case, the brine (brine) that is released from the fish remains in the container. After 1-2 days, it rises above the raw material. After that, the container is left in a cool place until the fish is salted, that is, for at least another day for small specimens and for a week for large specimens.

Wet

Prepared and placed in a container, fish is poured with a cold solution prepared from coarse salt and water (about 350 g per 1 liter). The suitability of the brine can be checked: fresh egg immersed in liquid must remain on the surface. Small fish are kept in a salt solution for 2-3 days, and large fish for about a week. After the product is taken out of the brine, it should lie in the air for 1-2 hours so that the salt evenly "disperses" through the tissues.

"Hanging"

As a variant of wet salting, the so-called sagging is used. In this case, small fish are strung on rods, a cord or fishing line through the eye holes and lowered into the brine so that they do not press on each other. In medium (gutted) specimens, the abdominal cavity is pre-filled with a strong salt solution, pumping it through the mouth opening with a syringe so that the pulp is salted more reliably and evenly.

In addition, there are varieties of dry and brine saline, in which sugar, dill or spices (ground pepper, bay leaves, coriander and even cinnamon) are added to the salt, which is poured over the fish. If you dry fish processed in such a way, you get products that have a particularly refined, "spicy" or "balyk" taste.

The readiness of the fish for the next stage is determined as follows: the carcass is taken by the head and tail and stretched in the longitudinal direction. In a well-salted fish, the spine "crunches" at the same time, emitting a specific sound. You can press your finger on the back of the fish: with proper salting, a hole will remain on it.

Soaking fish

Before you dry the fish, you need to soak it. This is done in order to remove salt from the subcutaneous layer of the pulp. If you skip this step, the skin will not dry properly. In this case, the surface of the finished product will become damp, and the fish simply cannot be stored.

The easiest way is to soak the raw material under the tap, while simultaneously washing it of the remaining mucus. The washed fish are placed in a basin with cold water... If they do not sink, then the pulp already contains the amount of salt that is optimal for drying. The total period of washing and soaking should not exceed 1 hour for each day of preliminary salting. Large, oily fish should not be kept in water continuously for 7-10 hours in order not to reduce taste qualities the final product. Every 2-3 hours it is taken out and kept in air for some time, and then soaking is continued.

We bring to your attention a video in which a fisherman tells how he soaks a fish.

Drying (at what temperature to dry the fish)

The fermentation that fish tissues undergo during drying takes place in the absence of heat treatment. That is why the final stage (drying of salted raw materials) should take place at a temperature not exceeding 18-20 ℃ and constant ventilation. It is best to do this in spring or autumn. In this case, the fish does not overheat in the sun.

To protect against flies that can spoil the product, they use a variety of means: cover the fish with gauze, spray it with vinegar, sometimes even coat it with a mixture of vinegar and vegetable oil. Experienced fishermen hang out the catch to dry in the evening. At this time, there are almost no flies, and overnight the surface layer of the raw material hardens, and insects can no longer damage it.

The final stage of drying (drying salted fish) should take place at a temperature no higher than 18-20 ℃ and constant ventilation

You can dry the fish in winter. Connoisseurs appreciate the product obtained by freezing moisture. At temperatures close to 0 ℃, the fish dries for a long time, and its taste differs from that which is typical for spring, summer and autumn catches.

Where to dry the fish?

The product with the best taste is obtained when fish, strung on short lines or wires in several pieces, are dried in the open air. An open veranda, a well-ventilated barn or an attic, a balcony or a loggia of a city apartment are suitable for placing low ones. Dried fish can be hung in the room, but then the residents will be bothered by its smell.

An open veranda, a well-ventilated barn or an attic, a balcony or a loggia of a city apartment are suitable for placing fish for drying.

Some fishermen design dryers in the form of boxes, the sides of which are made of thick window mesh to keep out flies. Low with fish string inside the drawer. The device is convenient in that it is easy to carry it from the yard to the house and back when the weather changes. The owners of summer cottages and country houses often dry fish in cool cellars. At the same time, the raw material dries out very slowly (from 2-3 weeks to a month), and the gradual fermentation has a beneficial effect on the taste of the finished product. In the open air, small fish completely wilt in 1-2 days, and large fish reach readiness in an average of 1.5-2 weeks.

Some craft fishermen design dryers in the form of boxes, the sides of which are made of thick window mesh to keep out flies.

Drying with household appliances

Separately, it is worth talking about the methods of drying fish using household appliances. You can dry pre-salted raw materials as follows:

• in the oven. The fish is laid out in one layer on a wire rack. They dry it at a temperature of 80 ℃ and the door ajar or the convection mode turned on. Two hours after the start of processing, the heads are wrapped in foil and the product is heated for another 5-6 hours. The fish turns out to be soft, and you have to bring it to readiness, hanging it in the room for a few more days;
• in an electric dryer. Only a device in which you can set the temperature to 30 ℃ and powerful airflow will do. The process takes at least two days;
• over the stove. A small amount of fish can be hung from the kitchen ceiling. If there is a household hood, it will be constantly blown with air and will dry out in 4-5 days.

It should be noted that drying fish with household appliances is not the best way. In this case, it reaches readiness too quickly, which negatively affects the taste and smell.

There is an opinion that fish can be not only dried, but also dried-smoked. This is not true. Drying and smoking are fundamentally different processes, both in the sense of changes to which the fabrics of raw materials are subjected, and in terms of the consumer qualities of the finished product. Perhaps the reason for the misconception was the similarity of the stages of pretreatment of fish (salting and steeping), which are necessary to prepare for both drying and cold smoking. There is no separate product called "dried-smoked fish".

Assessment of the quality of the finished product; storage

Correctly dried fish has smooth and strong scales without traces of salt. Her skin adheres well and is easily removable. The pulp is firm, flexible and elastic, slightly shiny, translucent, amber or pinkish in color. The taste is lightly salted, the aroma is spicy and piquant. Such a product can be wrapped in thick paper or cloth and stored in a cool place with moderate humidity for up to six months.

(15 Votes)

Found a mistake in the text? Select it and press Ctrl + Enter.

Alexander Gushchin

I can't vouch for the taste, but it will be hot :)

Content

Dried fish is easy to cook at home, there are many excellent ways to salting this product. As a result, complex physical and biochemical processes take place in meat. After such processing, the fish (you can take sea or river) acquires peculiar taste... Pay attention to the original, proven recipes, according to which the product is salted, dried at home.

How to cook dried fish

Approach the drying process with all responsibility. If you ignore some advice, you can get a low-quality product, the use of which will lead to poisoning or other negative consequences. For drying, use only fresh catch, fatty fish. Carcasses should not smell of sea or river water, mud. Fresh meat tends to be firm to the touch. There are no brown spots on its surface, which indicate the beginning of the decomposition process.

It is advisable to use glassware with enamel. Pottery, ceramic, porcelain, glass, wooden, titanium containers are suitable. Choose the right salt. Try not to buy an iodized product. As a rule, it spoils the appearance and taste of the delicacy. Use coarse salt. Determine the required amount of product by placing it in a liquid raw egg- it must float on the surface of the water. If it doesn't, then it may be worth adding more salt or stirring the liquid thoroughly.

How to salt fish for drying

Processing is carried out dry or wet. In the first case, the carcasses are rubbed with finely ground salt. It is worth considering in detail how to salt fish for drying in a wet way. The carcasses are strung on a string, placed in brine. Salt, lavrushka, spices are distributed between the layers of fish. The delicacy is cooked for about 2-6 days. The time indicated depends on the size of the fish. If you use too deep dishes, then stir the composition periodically. At the same time, try to lower the upper layers, and raise the lower ones.

How to dry properly

It takes about 1-2 hours to soak the fish after salting for drying. Further, the carcasses are hung out on the street. Remember to hang the fish upside down. Thanks to this position, excess moisture is released through the mouth - the carcasses will dry much faster and more evenly. To hang the fish, you must first pierce it near the tails. To do this, use special stainless steel hooks. After hanging, you need to wait 4-10 days.

How to dry fish in winter

Some people may not know how to dry fish at home during the winter. Keep in mind that jerky fish works well when there is a constant supply of fresh air. Try to place the carcasses on a closed heated balcony, loggia, in the kitchen near the stove, heating radiator. Place a fan near the meat to help the meat weathered faster. It is worth noting that winter has one major advantage for drying - the absence of flies.

How to dry fish in the oven

If you are interested in how to dry carcasses or how to cook fillets in the oven, then you should know that for effective processing, toothpicks and matches should be inserted into the meat. Set the temperature in the oven to 40 degrees, turn on the convection fan. Spread the salted carcasses on a baking sheet, on a sheet of parchment or foil, and put in the oven. Leave the cabinet door ajar. Turn on the oven, dry the meat for 5-7 hours.

Dried fish recipes

Many housewives are interested in how to prepare a delicacy quickly and as simply as possible. Often dried fish is made from roach, sprat, sardine, pike perch, bream, anchovy, rudd, perch, ide, pink salmon, trout, roach, carp (pay attention to the beautiful photos of ready-made delicacies). If the carcasses are small, then they do not need to be gutted. In large fish, the entrails are removed, and the milk, caviar are left, the backs are cut.

Carp

• Time: 3 weeks.
• Calorie content (100 g): 184 kcal.
• Purpose: appetizer.
• Cuisine: Russian.
• Difficulty: easy.

Carp is known for its excellent taste. It is fried, boiled, baked in the oven, stuffed. Before preparing dried carp, keep in mind that it is advisable to use fatty carcasses for salting. Some housewives prefer not to clean the insides, but it is better to get rid of them. Also, be sure to remove the gills. Large specimens should be cut along the ridge, thanks to which the meat will be salted faster.

Ingredients:

• carp (take small fish) - 1 kg;
• vegetable oil- 50 g;
• salt - 200 g.

Cooking method:

1. Remove scales, heads, tails, entrails.
2. Fill the carcasses with a solution of salt with the addition of oil, leave for 10 days.
3. Hang the meat in a ventilated place, let it dry for 2 weeks.

Vobla

• Time: 3 weeks.
• Servings Per Container: 8 Persons.
• Calorie content (100 g): 235 kcal.
• Purpose: appetizer.
• Cuisine: Russian.
• Difficulty: easy.

In order for the dried fish to have a slight characteristic bitterness, it is recommended not to completely remove the insides of the roach. Sometimes the roach is dried unplugged. In small carcasses, cut the abdomen, in large carcasses - the back. For salting, the vobla is placed with its backs up, then filled with brine. Oppression is installed from above. The processing time is similar to that indicated in the rest of the recipes (10 days). Vobla is consumed with light or dark beer.

Ingredients:

• vobla - 1 kg;
• salt - 100-200 g.

Cooking method:

1. Peel the carcasses, pickle. If you are going to rub the vobla with salt, then after 10 days it must be rinsed in running water. After using brine, the carcasses are placed in water for 2 hours. The soaking time depends on the salting period.
2. Hang the vobla to wither. Remember that the natural drying time depends on the size of the roach. The finished delicacy should have a tight back.

Pink salmon

• Time: 2 days.
• Servings: 8-10 people.
• Calorie content (100 g): 182 kcal.
• Purpose: appetizer.
• Cuisine: Russian.
• Difficulty: easy.

If you often have guests, long gatherings with friends are organized, then be sure to pay attention to this simple recipe. The delicacy is perfect for use either alone or with a hoppy drink. Pink salmon is not too oily, therefore it is suitable for those who follow the figure. Tasty balyk to use with bread, vegetables: canapes, sandwiches can be formed.

Ingredients:

• pink salmon - 1.5 kg;
• salt - 3 tbsp. l;
• sugar - 1 tbsp. l .;
• spices - optional.

Cooking method:

1. Defrost, rinse, cut the carcasses into plates.
2. Combine salt, sugar, spices. Sprinkle the mixture over the meat, stir. Leave everything for a day.
3. Spread the pink salmon on a baking sheet, put in the oven, in which the temperature is set to 40 degrees, for 4-6 hours. The oven door must be open.
4. The finished delicacy is cooled in the refrigerator, then served on the table.

Zander

• Time: 12 days.
• Calorie content of the dish (100 g): 84 kcal.
• Purpose: appetizer.
• Cuisine: Russian.
• Difficulty: easy.

This predator belongs to the sturgeon family and does not have too fatty meat, but it makes an excellent delicacy. Pike perch is dried and salted quickly, and there is no need to create any special conditions. Do everything as in the rest of the preparation of the delicacy. The only difference in this recipe is the presence of the original salting mixture. Tasty with parsley, dill, black pepper. Milk or kvass will make the meat more tender.

Ingredients:

• pike perch - 1.5 kg;
• horseradish (leaves) - 400 g;
• salt - 200 g;
• milk or kvass - 200 ml;
• vinegar (9%) - 200 ml;

Cooking method:

1. Peel, rinse, cut the pike perch into layers. Rub it with vinegar, salt. In addition, fish carcasses can be poured with a solution of vinegar and water, wait 2 hours.
2. Chop horseradish, mix it with chopped parsley, dill, spices.
3. At the bottom of the container, spread the salt in a layer of 1 cm. Lay out the carcasses. Sprinkle each layer of fish with salt, a mixture of spices and herbs. Wait 2 days. The salting period depends on the size of the carcasses.
4. Soak the meat in water with milk or kvass for 2 hours.
5. Dry the pike perch, hang to dry, wait 10 days. The drying time depends on the size of the pike perch.

Ide

• Time: 15 days.
• Servings Per Container: 10 Persons.
• Calorie content of the dish (100 g): 117 kcal.
• Purpose: appetizer.
• Cuisine: Russian.
• Difficulty: easy.

Yaz is best cooked in the fall. At this time, he "fattens up" the first fat, so it turns out to be more tasty. This recipe is very simple and straightforward. To create a delicacy, you do not need to use any special tools (for example, as is required when smoking). All you need is to have freshly caught fish available.

Ingredients:

• medium-sized ides - 20 pcs.;
• laurel leaves - 6 pcs.;
• salt - 2 kg;
• dill, parsley, spices - optional.

Cooking method:

1. Peel, rinse the ide.
2. Use a dry salting method: salt, 2 laurel leaves, spices, chopped herbs are distributed on each layer of fish.
3. Everything is covered with a polyethylene sheet. Oppression is being laid.
4. After 5 days, ides are soaked for about 1 hour.
5. Yazi are suspended from a rope. Drying takes about 10 days. If this period is increased, then you will receive dried fish.

Bream

• Time: 2 weeks.
• Servings Per Container: 15-20 Persons.
• Calorie content of the dish (100 g): 221 kcal.
• Purpose: lunch, afternoon tea, dinner.
• Cuisine: Russian.
• Difficulty: easy.

If the catch consists of bream, then from them you can cook great snack. An excellent solution fish will be dried. It is most convenient to prepare a delicacy (you can see its originality from the photo) using dry salting. If you decide to use a wet ambassador, then the main thing is to make the brine correctly, because the taste of the delicacy depends on it.

Ingredients:

• medium-sized bream - 20 pcs.;
• coarse salt - 200 g;
• dill, parsley, spices - optional.

Cooking method:

1. Gut, rinse with bream. Rub them inside with salt.
2. Pour about 5 tbsp into the bottom of the dish. l. salt. Lay the bream on top, sprinkle with salt, chopped herbs, spices. Press down with something heavy and put in a dark, cool place for a week.
3. Soak the salted carcasses in water for about 1 hour.
4. Use cold dry for bream. Place the fillets, for example, on the balcony, dry for 7 days.
5. Dried fish is packed in wooden boxes, stored for 10 months in a cool place.

Blue whiting

• Time: 4 days.
• Servings Per Container: 8 Persons.
• Calorie content of the dish (100 g): 255 kcal.
• Purpose: appetizer.
• Cuisine: Russian.
• Difficulty: easy.

If your family members love to eat fish in different forms, then try this uncomplicated recipe... You will need blue whiting for him. It is worth using the wet salting method. Drying is done in the oven or outside. In the second case, relatively more time is spent on cooking. Keep in mind that blue whiting lasts 5 hours in the oven, and about a week outside.

Ingredients:

• medium-sized blue whiting - 1 kg;
• water - 1 l;
• coarse salt - 4 tbsp. l .;
• sugar - 2 tbsp. l .;
• black peppercorns, laurel leaves - optional.

Cooking method:

1. Peel the blue whiting.
2. Bring water to a boil. Add salt, sugar, pepper, lavrushka. Based on the brine made, determine the taste of the delicacy. Cool the mixture, pour the blue whiting into it. Wait 3 days.
3. Rinse the blue whiting, place on a baking sheet, put in the oven (set 40 degrees) for 5 hours. Leave the oven door open.

Trout

• Time: 3 days.
• Servings Per Container: 10 Persons.
• Calorie content of the dish (100 g): 186 kcal.
• Purpose: appetizer.
• Cuisine: Russian.
• Difficulty: easy.

This red fish, which belongs to the salmon family, can be used to make an original delicacy. Often he is prepared for some important event: at New Year, wedding. All kinds of salads and savory snacks are made with the addition of trout. In addition, it is delicious to use it simply with bread: make beautiful sandwiches, canapes. The most important thing to create a delicacy is to purchase a quality fillet. It is desirable that it be chilled.

Ingredients:

• medium-sized trout - 1 kg;
• salt - 4 tbsp. l .;
• sugar - 2 tbsp. l .;
• lemon juice - 2 tbsp. l .;
• black pepper - optional.

Cooking method:

1. Cut the fillets. The size of the pieces should be about 10 cm. Rub them lemon juice, pepper, sugar. The pieces are placed in a container between the layers of salt, pressed from above with something heavy. Refrigerate the trout for 2 days.
2. Dry salted trout in the oven with the door open for 4-5 hours. Determine its readiness by the backs. They must be dry.
3. The salted fish is cut into thin slices before serving. When doing this, aim the knife at an acute angle.

Roach

• Time: 15 days.
• Servings Per Container: 8-10 Persons.
• Calorie content of the dish (100 g): 148 kcal.
• Purpose: appetizer.
• Cuisine: Russian.
• Difficulty: easy.

The appetizer tastes like dried ram or roach. It is well served with light or dark beer. The best time to cook roach is in the spring. At this time, she still does not have time to be saturated with the smell of mud. In the spring, the roach goes for spawning, therefore it has a good fat content. The delicacy turns out to be tender and nutritious (make sure of its uniqueness from the photo).

We dry fish simply and tasty Watch the video Found a mistake in the text? Select it, press Ctrl + Enter and we'll fix it!

Discuss

Dried fish: recipes

If the family has a keen fisherman, sometimes the question arises - how to keep a good catch? The best way out is to learn how to dry the fish. This creates a nutritious and healthy product that can be stored for a long time without any fear.

This does not require special devices, you can cope at home. In addition, fish of any type and size will do. So the method is definitely convenient and necessary.

What should be done before properly drying the fish?

Placed in the sun, this box allows you to cook fish in just a couple of days. Equip it if you plan to dry it quite often.

How to dry fish at home?

This can be done right in an apartment or house. The main thing is the right place. It is especially good if the house has a stove over which you can hang fish, but a stove will also work. Stretch the rope or fishing line and hang the carcasses, try not to place them too low, otherwise they will fry. If you have a large specimen, then before drying the fish, it is better to cut it into portions. Everything will be ready within a week.

How to dry fish as quickly as possible?

If you don't want to wait a few days, you can use an oven, special dryer, or oven.

An important condition is that the processing temperature should not exceed forty degrees, otherwise everything will simply be fried. You need to prepare the fish in the same way as before normal drying. Put the finished carcasses on a baking sheet and hold in the oven with the door ajar for seven hours. After the heat, the fish does not dry out immediately, so you need to store it warm and with good ventilation. If you plan to use an electric dryer, marinate it in salt for about six hours before drying it.

How to store fish?

After the fish has been dried, it is stored in the refrigerator, wrapped in foil or cellophane. When stored for a long time, the carcass should be greased olive oil... Can simply be stored in a cool dry place by placing in an airtight container. Keeps carefully for about ten months. But it is not worth delaying its use, since the shelf life still affects the taste of the fish, and the recently dried fish will be much tastier than the one that has been on the shelf for six months.

They call the one that was previously salted and then dried at a temperature not exceeding twenty-five degrees in natural conditions. Under this combined effect, the fabrics of the product are greatly altered. Most often, roach, ram, fish, bream are used for processing.

How to dry fish?

This product is considered one of the most popular snacks for beer and other spirits. In addition to knowing how to dry fish, a person should know which one to choose for cooking. Fresh, just caught catch is gutted if it is more than thirty centimeters in size and kept for two hours in a cool place mixed with nettles. The cleaned fish is strung on a thin rope or twine through the eye opening with its backs to one side. Depending on their size, the twine can fit from two to ten pieces. The ends of the rope are tied in a knot. Bundles of fish are thoroughly washed in running water from various impurities and dirt, then each carcass is rubbed with coarse salt, part of the salt must be shoved into the gills and inside the belly if the catch is gutted.

It is categorically impossible to store in damp rooms, in which it deteriorates easily, and if it is still dried out, then the meat will become coarse and tasteless. It is best to keep the finished product in a dry place in special fabric bags, perhaps in gauze. Before storing, make sure that the fish is really dry, if you do not dry it, then the delicacy will quickly deteriorate. Check each batch of the product for the presence of a musty odor or mold, noticing and eliminating the cause in time, you can avoid damage to the entire workpiece. If you know how to properly dry fish, then you will not have to worry about its safety later, because properly prepared and dried, it will be stored for a long time.

How to dry fish under pressure?

Gut the just caught catch and salt a little. Then rinse and make small incisions along the entire back. Sprinkle abundantly with coarse salt, lay out in layers and press down with any suitable weight, put in the cold, for example, in the refrigerator. How many days have you kept the fish in salt at a low temperature, so many hours it must be soaked in water, changing it every two hours. It is also best to keep the product in the refrigerator during this procedure. We hang the gutted fish by the tail, and the gutted fish can be fixed by hooking it with a paper clip through the eyes. We dry in the heat, without access to direct sunlight, it is possible on a covered balcony, but under the very ceiling.

Today, few people, except for avid fishermen, know how to dry fish. In fact, this simple matter can be turned into a chic. Since this product is consumed mainly with alcoholic beverages, the demand for it will be constant.

Eating fish has a positive effect on the human body, therefore it is worth eating it often enough. Since it is far from always possible to purchase a fresh carcass or eat it immediately after purchase, dried, smoked and canned products have become very popular. You can buy such an option in a store, it is quick and easy, but in this case there is no exact confidence in the quality of the product and how long it has been there. To protect yourself and eat fresh food for sure, you should cook the fish yourself. To do this, you need to know how to dry fish on your own.

Selection and salting

In order to get tasty products after drying, it is important to be able to choose the right type of fish, which in the process will acquire the necessary qualities. It is important to take the carcass, the meat of which can acquire the desired consistency, aroma and taste. Best of all, small fish are dried, which are usually not in demand on an industrial scale - these are roach, ram, silver bream and the like. If you want to dry out larger fish, you can use bream, pike perch and catfish.

For successful drying and good taste of the product, it is important to start the process immediately after catching the fish, without leaving it for storage, because it can acquire a specific smell. If the catch turned out to be too large and it was not possible to capitalize it at a time, you can put the fish in the freezer and leave it until the previous stocks are eaten. In order for the product to be tasty during drying, there must be enough fat in it, therefore fish of medium and high fat content in this case is best suited.

Before drying the catch, it must be properly prepared. In this case, there are two differing points of view - some believe that the fish should be washed well, removed the mucus and only then cut, while others say that these measures negatively affect the taste, and simply wipe the fish with a rag. It is important not to touch the scales; they must remain in place throughout the drying process. Individuals that are too small do not even need to be cleaned of the insides, because they, together with the fat of the peritoneum, help to achieve a more intense taste.

If the fish is herbivorous and the drying procedure is carried out in the summer, then the insides should be removed, otherwise the pulp will acquire a bitter taste. If a larger fish is to be dried, then the procedure for its preparation is different: it is necessary to remove the insides, but not unpunching the stomach, so as not to touch the fat. To gut such a carcass, you need to cut it in the region of the dorsal fin and carefully remove all the contents. At the end of the process, there is no need to rinse the fish and its parts with water.

Once the fish is prepared, you can proceed directly to the drying process. There is a certain algorithm of actions, which includes several stages.

1. Salting, which is produced in a container of suitable size. The fish should be covered with salt and the saline solution is poured on top. You need to keep it in salt in a cool place until it is salted.
2. Followed by rinse the carcass well and soak it. It is important to use cold fresh water for this. The time frame will depend on how long the fish has been salted.
3. The next step will be the process itself drying. It can be carried out in a natural environment or using additional devices.

If you do everything right, then you can expect that the dried fish will turn out to be tasty and aromatic.

Drying methods

In order to dry the fish, there are two main options for this process.

• Natural drying. It requires clean air in an open space or in a room with good ventilation.
• Artificial drying. It implies the use of one or another inventory that helps maintain the temperature necessary for the process.

Usually, the natural option is most often used at home. To achieve the best result, it is important to observe all the subtleties of this process.

1. The fish that has been washed and soaked must be strung on a fishing line, for which the head is usually pierced at the location of the eyes. You can use paper clips and hook the fish to the lip. For large fish, place a toothpick spacer in the middle of the carcass so that it dries evenly. Very small fish can be dried on a net, which is stretched over a rigid frame.
2. In summer, the bundles should be placed in a place or room where there is constant access to fresh air and the fish will be ventilated. You cannot leave it in the sun, because it can deteriorate and fat will drain from it.
3. In spring and autumn, the best place for drying will be a canopy, where the sun does not get, but the fish is constantly in the wind. In winter, it is convenient to carry out the procedure on the glazed balcony, in the attic, or even just in the kitchen.
4. For natural drying, the air temperature should be between 18 and 20 degrees Celsius.
5. When hanging carcasses, it is worth hanging them so that they are at a short distance from each other, without touching.
6. When choosing a place to store the catch, you should take care that there are no objects with a strong smell nearby, otherwise the fish will absorb their aroma.
7. If it is a hot day, you should not plan to dry the fish, because such carcasses can taste bitter.

The time to readiness will depend on the size of the fish and the time of year when the procedure is performed.

• In spring and summer in optimal weather conditions, you can get the finished result in just a week, and in the case of very small fish - in two days.
• In winter, when it is frosty outside the window, for complete drying it is necessary to wait from one to one and a half months, during which time the moisture inside will freeze out. In the case of drying in an apartment, the time is reduced to 1-2 weeks.

To make dried fish tasty, it is important to know what exactly to do with different drying options.

In an electric dryer

To dry fish in a vegetable dryer, it is important to choose a device in which you can turn off the heating in order to cook the carcass at a temperature not exceeding 30 degrees. Due to the presence of a fan in the device, a constant air flow will be provided, which will make it possible to quickly dry the catch. In this case, the finished product will be received after a few days. But there is only one minus here - the room where the process will take place will be saturated with the smell of fish.

When using an electric dryer, it is also important to monitor the condition of the carcasses by constantly checking them. To understand whether a product is ready, you need:

• evaluate the appearance and structure of the fish - it should have a sheen from fat, be dense, but elastic;
• inspect the skin, which must remain tight so that it can be easily removed;
• check scales on which salt crystals should not be visible.

You can eat dried fish from the electric dryer immediately after cooking, but in order to achieve more pleasant taste for it, it is better to put the carcasses in parchment paper and leave in the cold for a couple of weeks.

In the oven

Another option for drying fish at home involves the use of an oven, with which you can also quickly get the desired product. For cooking, it is necessary to evenly place the carcasses on the oven rack, and put a sheet of foil under them. The required temperature for cooking is 80 degrees, otherwise the fish will be baked. As with other drying methods, there must also be access to oxygen, for which the door needs to be opened a little.

After two hours of cooking, the heads of the fish are covered with foil, and everything is again sent to the oven for 4-5 hours. When everything is ready, it is necessary to hang and dry each carcass for a few more days, after which they can be eaten.

On the balcony

Another option for drying fish in an apartment in winter involves placing it on a balcony or loggia. It must be suspended at a distance, under it place any container where the liquid will drain. The best option would be a balcony with ventilation, where you can update the fresh air flow using a special device. If there is none, then you need to keep the window sash ajar. It is best if there is a small draft in this small room, which will allow the fish to dry faster.

It is best to place carcasses along a wall or across a balcony or loggia. Usually, in such conditions, the fish is cooked for several weeks, but the final time will depend on the temperature indicators of the room and the environment, which means that it can both increase and decrease.

How to clean?

In order to peel dried fish, you can use a knife or simply do it with your hands. To make it clean better, it is better to knead it in different directions, paying special attention to the belly and tail areas. Doing so will help to separate the skins from the meat more easily. When the preparation is over, you need to rip off her head, she is not eaten.

The next movement will need to pull out the dorsal fin, which will divide the fish into two parts in the back. Using your fingers, you can enlarge the opening that has formed in the place where the fin is missing, doing this towards the head. After that, you can peel off the skin from the back to the abdomen using your thumb. It is convenient to hold the fish with the tail towards you and the head to the other side.

In the case of peeling the skin from the back to the abdomen, it is necessary to work on both sides of the fish at once. If it is more convenient to clean in turn on each side, then it is better to do it from head to tail. Once the back and ribs are cleaned, you need to firmly grasp the abdomen and pull off the rest of the skin from the fish. Thus, you can get a high-quality peeled fish, which will be located in one hand, and the skin with entrails in the other. The advantage of this cleaning option is that in the presence of caviar, it remains inside the fish, without causing problems with its extraction from the inedible part.

At first, the cleaning procedure will seem quite complicated and time-consuming, but after 3-4 cleaned carcasses, the process will be fine-tuned and problems will no longer arise.

To properly dry fish at home, you need to know important rules and certain nuances, without which it will be difficult to achieve the desired result.

1. When carrying out the salting procedure, it is worth placing large fish at the bottom of the container, and smaller fish on top, so that all carcasses are evenly salted.
2. When preparing fish for drying, you should also pay attention to its size, choosing the same size.
3. For full and faster drying of large individuals, it is necessary to open their abdomen, which is convenient to do with toothpicks.
4. If there is no result during the drying process, you can try again by rinsing the fish in brine.
5. To protect carcasses from insects during the summer, you can use vinegar or sunflower oil... Wrapping the fish with gauze is a good option to prevent flies from landing on them.
6. It is better to hang the fish in the evening on the day of the catch, because by the morning it will not be so fresh, it will acquire a strong aroma, which will increase the attraction of flies and wasps to it.
7. In order to preserve dried fish for a long time, it can be wrapped in parchment or put in an airtight jar. The properties and taste will remain the same.

You can dry fish at any time of the year. For a warm pore, you can use an open space for this, in the cold season - an apartment. In summer, there is a certain danger in the form of insects that can lay eggs on the product. The simplest defense in this case is the mesh. In the case of using vinegar, it should be diluted in a low concentration so that it does not affect the taste of the product. You can dry the fish indoors, and then hang it outside, which will reduce the interest of insects in it.

Since the drying process can vary by season, type of fish and its size, there are many nuances of the process.

• When soaking carcasses that have gone through the salting process, it is important to change the water several times to keep it clean.
• The position of the fish during drying determines its taste and softness. To make the carcass softer, you need to hang it not with its tail, but with its head up. So fat does not leak out of it.
• Drying fish is a long process, but for those who do not want to wait, you can use devices like electric dryers, which bring the catch to readiness in just eight hours.
• In those regions where frosts are severe for most of the year, it is difficult to dry the fish in the traditional way, because here it is frozen for about a month. After that, the catch can be stored for quite a long time, and the carcasses are very tasty.
• Midsummer is considered the least successful time to dry fish, as the air temperature is too high, the catch simply turns rotten or becomes bitter.
• One of the options for salting, which has come down to us since ancient times, requires placing fish in wooden barrels. From them, the carcasses received an incomparable aroma, which is now considered a sign of a high-class cooking.
• It is very important not to expose your fish to the sun. On open rays, fat is quickly melted, from which the meat loses its softness and tenderness, and the dried product turns out to be dry and lean.
• There is a recipe for cooking fish in the oven, in which the carcasses are folded into clay pots and placed in a preheated, but already switched off oven. Thus, the catch languishes and turns out to be very tasty, juicy and well salted.
• In addition to the cooking process itself, it is important to be able to properly store the resulting product. If this is not done, the product will develop an unpleasant odor, and mucus or mold may appear on its surface. This will indicate that this fish cannot be eaten.
• Traditionally, it is believed that small fish are easier to salt and dry, but with a large one you can get much more. delicious meat... The choice is up to the person preparing the product.

The process of drying fish is not as complicated as it might seem at first glance, the main thing is to know the main points accurately and take into account those subtleties that have a significant impact on the final result. Fishing enthusiasts will be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor for a long time if they follow all the above recommendations.

For information on how to properly dry fish at home, see the video below.