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

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

The smoking process gives the products an appetizing aroma, a unique taste, a 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 ancestors also processed their prey on open fire, that is, they 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

Phenols, acetic and formic acids, fractions of resinous substances and aldehydes impart special taste and aroma to the products subjected to smoking. 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 a constant circulation of the smoke stream through the product being prepared, the open flame tongue should not be treated (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 treatment with 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, the liquid from meat or fish leaves slowly, the products are slowly soaked with the smells of smoking, dehydrate, but retain fat. The finished product is stored for a long time.

Semi-smoking is carried out on a smoldering haze at a temperature of 30 to 50 degrees and humidity 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 fastest and easiest way to get a tasty 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 hams. Smoking is done at a haze temperature of approximately 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 the fish. In order to prepare a quality delicacy, it is not enough to have a smokehouse, set the right temperature, provide the necessary humidity. The taste qualities of smoked products depend on the preliminary preparation of the product. It is important to choose a suitable marinade for smoking fish.

For all smoking methods, you must follow the rules:

• Fish should be thoroughly rinsed;
• A large fish to gut, remove the insides and head;
• The fish should be salted (rubbed with salt or pickled in saline solution);
• Before smoking in the 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 smoking fish at home. The recipe is simple, a small amount of ingredients is required. The fish prepared on it 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;
• Bay leaf - to taste;
• Granulated 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 the liquid is not enough, then 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

For the preparation of 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, fill with cold brine, leave for 10 or 12 hours to marinate.

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

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 carcasses put together in a container, fill with a solution and leave in a cool place for 12 or 14 hours. One part of the fish is supposed to use a half part of the solution, that is, 1.5 liters of liquid per kilogram of fish.

Fast marinating for cold smoking

The second method involves the following marinade recipe 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 - a few 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 in the open air for about an hour. The fish should dry out. Then you can start the process of smoking.

Tips experienced

Recipes for marinade preparation for pretreatment of fish before smoking are numerous. The 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 smoked salmon 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!