Smoked fish is a delicious delicacy - you can enjoy it at your family dinner, enjoy a treat at a beer party with friends or cook a little in advance for serving on the festive table.
Particular attention should be paid not only to the preparation of equipment for smoking, but also to the fish itself - one of the most delicious is hot smoked mackerel. This product is inexpensive, and even a family with a small budget can afford it to get a tasty and fragrant dish. Do you know how much smoked mackerel is smoked?
How to properly smoke mackerel at home?
It is not always possible to determine the freshness of smoked fish in a store, let alone determine its taste. Suddenly, the taste of fish suffered from improper smoking? In addition, this product is not subject to long-term storage, and in order to protect yourself and your family from possible poisoning by a low-quality product, it is best to cook it yourself. Especially if you have the necessary equipment, namely a smokehouse, this can be done even in an apartment, and not in a country house or in a personal plot, or if you are out in the countryside. Let us consider in more detail how much smoked mackerel is smoked or hot.
How to choose a fish for smoking?
Before you figure out how much smoked mackerel, you need to consider important details. It is advisable for smoking to purchase fresh chilled mackerel in large supermarkets or from trusted sellers in the local market. So there is less likelihood of acquiring a low-quality product.
A great purchase would be a small fish. It is worth noting that you can also purchase freshly frozen mackerel if it does not have a thick layer of ice glaze.
Pre-smoking and marinating process
You can cook hot smoked mackerel after pickling the fish in various brines. But far from everyone knows how much smoked mackerel. And even when using the simplest spices and seasonings, with strict adherence to the cooking technology, the dish will turn out to be incredibly juicy and aromatic, with an amazing rich taste.
How to prepare a small fish for hot smoking?
First you need to defrost the fish, if the product requires it. It is advisable to do this in the refrigerator chamber, transferring the fish to a flat plate, and put it on thaw on the lower shelf. You should not use a basin with water, a microwave oven or other heating kitchen appliances for defrosting. From this product after cooking will become tasteless and dry.
Next, rinse the fish in running water and thoroughly dry it with kitchen paper towels. At the same time, the head should be cut off. How many smoked mackerel with the head? This is generally not recommended, the head of any smoked fish must be removed.
Gently gut the mackerel, then remove the black film in the abdomen and rinse and dry again. But the fins and the tail can not be removed - they will not hinder smoking in any way.
Simple smoked mackerel marinade
Fish in brine will be pickled and salted better than rubbed with spices and seasonings. In addition, the salt itself will need much less, which means that there will be more benefits in the product, and the taste will not change.
To prepare you will need:
- 1 liter of purified water.
- 55 g of large table salt, which is used for preservation.
- Favorite spices and seasonings - to taste.
Cooking:
- Add spices and seasonings to the boiling water on the stove, add salt and bring to a boil again. Drain the brine for 5-7 minutes, so that the salt dissolves, and the taste of the seasonings passes into the brine.
- After cooling in the brine, lower the previously cut fish and let the product stand in the refrigerator for at least 4-5 hours, and it is better to leave it overnight. If you want a salted fish with a less pronounced flavor of seasonings, before smoking it can be washed in running water.
How to smoke hot smoked mackerel at home?
If you know all the nuances, then cooking hot smoked mackerel will turn out simple and affordable even for a novice cook. You just need to choose the right product itself and prepare the equipment for the cooking process. After all, not everyone knows how much smoked mackerel is cold or hot.
The main issue in this matter is the purchase of a quality product, the preliminary pickling of fish in brine and, of course, the choice of sawdust on which the mackerel will be smoked. You also need to use the correct temperature and cooking time, which depends on the size of the fish.
The final aroma and taste will depend on the choice of sawdust, so you should choose actively smoking sawdust - then you get a fragrant, golden and very tasty snack.
How much do you need to smoke?
Regardless of the size of the carcass, the fish is cooked for at least an hour with hot smoking, while the cold cooking process takes much longer. At the same time, the temperature inside the smokehouse should not increase more than 100 ° C.
How to understand that the fish is ready and how long does the mackerel smoke? According to the golden color of the skin. The most important criterion is how easily the meat is separated from the bone. In this case, the surface of the carcass should be dry and shiny, when you try to pierce the pulp with a toothpick, there are no traces on it.
What raw materials are smoked mackerel prepared for?
One of the important cooking parameters is the selection of sawdust to create smoke. Alder and willow wood is ideal for this, but ash, birch or oak can be used.
In no case can resinous woods be used, but a few branches or fruits of juniper will give the fish a special taste and aroma.
How to lay the raw materials in the smoking apparatus?
- At the bottom of the smokehouse, wood chips are laid out with thin twigs and branches of fruit trees.
- A small (not more than 1-1.5 cm) layer of bark removed from a tree suitable for smoking fish is reported on top.
- On top you can lay fresh young foliage.
- How much to smoke mackerel? At least an hour at a low temperature, approximately 100-110 ° C.
- If the cooking process takes place at home, sawdust and wood chips can be replaced with liquid smoke concentrate.
What is usually smoked mackerel in a hot way?
The best option for hot smoked mackerel will be a barbecue made of stainless steel, always with a tight-fitting lid so that fragrant smoke does not escape. The height of the smoking apparatus should not be less than 60 cm, and it is not worth using much more - it will not bring any benefit. How much is smoked mackerel in the smokehouse? Not less than an hour.
Every 3-4 smoking cycles, the device must be thoroughly cleaned of carbon deposits and washed using special products, followed by heating, in order to remove what has not been washed off in running water.
If a suspension system is provided, then it is recommended to use it, if not, then you can lay the fish just on the grill. There must be at least a small free distance when laying out, then the smoke will spread evenly throughout the entire area of the product.
And finally - the smoke that appears during smoking must be carefully monitored - if a bluish or bluish tint appears, smoking must be stopped and the wood chips together with sawdust replaced with a new one after the device has completely cooled down.