Marinade for smoking fish: cooking features, the best recipes and reviews

Smoking is a special treatment of meat, fish, poultry, vegetables, fruits with smoke, which is formed by the slow combustion of sawdust.

The smoking process gives products a mouthwatering tastearoma, unique taste, beautiful color. Certainly, a smoked ham, sausage, a salmon steak or smoke-treated mackerel is unlikely to please anyone.

Smoked products preserve their freshness and taste for a long time. During the processing of smoke, bacteria are killed, the products partially lose moisture and can be preserved.

Our primitive ancestorsextraction on an open fire, that is, were engaged in smoking. Since then, people have come up with a variety of marinade devices and recipes for smoking fish, meat and other delicacies.

Methods of smoking

Special taste and aroma of products exposedsmoking, give phenols, acetic and formic acids, fractions of resinous substances and aldehydes. They are produced in the process of special heat treatment by smoke during smoking.

There are several methods of smoking, which depend on the temperature of the smoke and the duration of treatment:

cold,
hot,
semi-smoking,
wet.

Any method is based on the principle of constantcirculation of smoke through the product being prepared, open flame tongues are not allowed (the smoking product should not be baked or roasted).

The process of processing products with smoke is made in a special device - smokehouse.

What is the smoking method?

Cold smoking includes smoke treatmentwith a temperature of 12 to 24 degrees, humidity within 75-85 percent. The product under such conditions is prepared from three to five days, sometimes the process can take several weeks. With cold smoking, liquid from meat or fish leaves slowly, the products are slowly saturated with smoked aromas, dehydrated, but retain fat. The finished product is stored for a long time.

Semi-smoking is carried out on smoldering haze attemperature from 30 to 50 degrees and humidity is more than 80 percent. With this method the product is prepared no more than 24 hours, the shelf life of it is not more than two weeks.

Hot smoking is the quickest and easiest wayget a delicious fish or meat. The process takes only two or three hours. Smoking of products, which are then supposed to be cooked, occurs at a temperature of 40 to 60 degrees. To obtain a completely ready-to-eat smoked product, the cooking process should be performed at a temperature of 100 degrees. Ready-made smoked products are not stored for long.

Wet smoking is used to accelerate the "ripening" of raw sausages or ham. Smoking is done at a haze temperature of about 25 degrees and high humidity (up to 100 percent).

Smoking: fish preparation

At home, you can smoke anything you like: meat, fish, sausages, cheese, chicken, vegetables and fruits.

The most popular product for smoking, perhaps,is a fish. In order to prepare a quality delicacy, it is not enough to have a smokehouse, set the right temperature, provide the necessary humidity. Taste quality of smoked products depends on the preliminary preparation of the product. It is important to choose a suitable marinade for smoking fish.

For all methods of smoking you should follow the rules:

fish should be thoroughly washed;
a large fish to gut, remove the entrails and head;
fish should be salted (rubbed with salt or marinated in saline solution);
Before smoked in a smokehouse, the prepared fish must be waxed.

Below we offer a few simple marinade recipes for smoking fish at home.

Marinade for fish: a universal recipe

We offer a universal marinade for smokingfish at home. The recipe is simple, requires a small amount of ingredients. Cooked on it, the fish can be smoked in any way (hot or cold) at will.

Required products:

fish - two pieces of medium size;
soy sauce - one glass;
white wine (semisweet) - one glass;
citric acid - one tablespoon;
spicy herbs (rosemary, thyme), spices for fish - to taste;
laurel leaf - to taste;
sugar - 1/2 or 1 spoon (tea).

Fish thoroughly washed, cleaned, put for one hour in the refrigerator.

Dissolve citric acid in a glass of cold water (can be replaced with one glass of natural lemon juice).

Pour soy sauce, diluted citric acid, wine into the saucepan, add spicy herbs and spices to taste, sugar, mix everything.

Pour the marinade pan on the fire and preheat (do not bring to a boil!).

Remove the pan from the heat, the marinade to cool slightly.

Remove the fish from the refrigerator, make transverse incisions, and insert laurel leaves into them. Then put the fish in the marinade.

The fish must be completely covered with marinade. If there is not enough liquid, you should additionally prepare another portion.

Filled marinade fish put in the refrigerator for eight or ten hours (the longer, the better).

Take the pickled fish out of the pan, rub it with spices.

The product is ready for smoking.

The proposed marinade recipe for smoking fish in a smokehouse allows you to get a fragrant delicacy with a delicate taste.

Spicy marinade

To prepare a spicy marinade for hot smoked fish it is required:

water - two liters;
salt food - four tablespoons (table);
lemon - one piece;
orange - one piece;
onions - two pieces;
bay leaf - six pieces;
sugar - two spoons (tea);
ground cinnamon - to taste;
pepper ground (red, black) - to taste;
rosemary, sage, thyme - to taste.

Fish thoroughly clean, clean, gut, remove the head, put in the refrigerator for one hour.

Lemon, orange, chop the onions large.

Pour the water into a saucepan, put on a fire, bring to a boil.

In boiling water, pour out the salt, sugar, put chopped onions, orange, lemon, bay leaf, pepper, cinnamon and herbs. Marinade boil for about 10 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat, cool the marinade.

Remove the fish from the refrigerator, cover with cold brine, leave for 10 or 12 hours to marinate.

Remove the pickled carcass from the brine, leave for two hours in the air.

To smoke hot way.

Spicy marinade for hot smoked fish allows you to get a delicacy with a delicate taste and spicy-citrus aroma.

Marinating for cold smoking (long)

Any fish is suitable for smoking fish coldly, but it is better to give carp, mackerel, salmon and carp.

Before cold smoking, fish should be salted. This procedure disinfects and disinfects fish carcasses from germs and parasites.

There are two types of salting (marinating) of fish before smoking in a cold way.

The first method involves soaking the purified and gutted fish in a strong saline solution. To prepare it, you should dissolve 100 grams of salt in one liter of water.

Prepared carcases folded in a container, poursolution and leave in a cool place for 12 or 14 hours. One part of the fish is supposed to have a half part of the solution, that is, one liter of fish should take 1.5 liters of liquid.

Fast marinating for cold smoking

The second method assumes the following recipe for marinade for cold-smoked fish.

Required products:

salt food - from the calculation of 200 grams per liter of water;
pepper ground (black, white) and fragrant - to taste;
bay leaves - several pieces;
nutmeg - to taste;
oregano - to taste;
thyme - to taste;
dill - to taste.

Marinade is prepared from the calculation: one kilogram of fish requires 1.5 liters of solution.

In water, dissolve the required amount of salt, add spices. Cleaned and gutted fish pour the prepared marinade for two hours.

Then remove the carcass from the liquid, tie it with a string and leave it in the open air for about an hour. The fish must dry out. Then you can start the smoking process.

Tips experienced

Recipes for marinade preparation forpretreatment of fish before smoking a lot. Above are some of the simplest, but they will also give you a tasty and fragrant copeck. Prepare a delicacy at home is not difficult. For this, it is not necessary to go fishing or to buy fresh catch, even frozen fish from a supermarket is quite suitable for smoking. A smokehouse can be built from a bucket or other improvised containers. As they say: "There would be a desire ..."

In their reviews, fish lovers recommend:

for smoking it is better to choose fresh fat fish;
very tasty smoked products are obtained from mackerel, carp, mackerel;
Many believe that the ideal products are obtained from cod, bream, perch;
pink salmon and salmon when smoked are dry, but tasty, you do not eat much;
it is preferable to smoke on alder sawdust;
Fish hot smoked delicious on the second day after cooking;
even the simplest pickle or pickle make smoked fish a delicacy.

Bon appetit and delicious catch!