How and how much to cook sterlet?

Sterlet is cooked quickly, and after this method of preparation it remains juicy and aromatic. Cooking this type of fish is not difficult.

In addition, boiled sterlet can be used not only as an independent dish, but also as an addition to salads and even baked goods. Sterlet broth is an ideal base for soup or fish soup.

The process of preparing sterlet for cooking:

• before cooking, as before any other cooking method, the sterlet must be gutted, scales removed, and fins must be cut off;
• if you need to remove the skin of the fish, then it is better to do this after cutting with the fin from the side of the tail (if the fins are not cut off, then it will be extremely difficult to pull off the skin);
• if the sterlet is frozen, then it must be thawed (this should be done by placing the fish in a refrigerator or in cold water, but the first option is more effective);
• it is necessary to wash the sterlet as much as possible (before cutting, after this procedure, and also after cutting the fish into pieces);
• the sterlet belongs to the sturgeon family, therefore its spine is cartilage, which is called viziga (it is necessary to remove the cartilage);
• it is easy to pull the vizig out of the sterlet body through two incisions at the head and tail of the fish (visually, the vizig resembles a white tube);
• it is necessary to wash the fish with cold water (it is impossible to wash or defrost the sterlet with hot water).

Nuances of cooking sterlet:

• before cooking, the sterlet must be poured with hot and boiled water, and then put on fire (as soon as the liquid boils, the fire level must be reduced, otherwise the water will boil away and the sterlet will boil down);
• you can steam the sterlet (using a double boiler or a pan with a sieve), in a regular saucepan, pressure cooker or multicooker;
• during cooking, you can add bay leaf, salt, a little lemon juice and a small amount of vegetable oil to the water (such ingredients will enhance the aroma of the fish and make it more juicy);
• it is necessary to cook the sterlet under a closed lid (after the end of the cooking process, the fish must be immediately removed from the broth, otherwise the pieces may lose their shape and fall apart);
• you can cook the sterlet in portions or as a whole (if the sterlet is small);
• the water during the cooking process must completely cover the sterlet (if you cook a whole fish, and some of its parts are not covered with liquid, then it will cook unevenly;
• it is necessary to salt the sterlet at the last stage of cooking (if you salt the fish at the beginning of cooking, the salt can evaporate with liquid, and the sterlet will not be salted);
• the ingredient most often used by cooks for preparing sterlet is white wine (this component radically changes the taste of sterlet and makes it spicy and rich, but you should not add too much white wine, two tablespoons are enough);
• In no case should sterlet be cooked with a viziga (during the cooking process, the cartilage dissolves, and the mucus it turns into can spoil the impression of even the freshest and highest quality fish).

How much to cook sterlet

You need to cook the sterlet for an average of 15-20 minutes. The readiness of the fish is checked using the traditional method of assessing the tenderness of the meat and the degree of its separation from the bones or skin. If the sterlet is cooked for soup or fish soup, then it should be cooked a little longer (25-0 minutes in this case will be enough).

In a double boiler sterlet is cooked for 20-25 minutes. It is recommended to pre-marinate the fish in a brine based on water and salt.

In the multivariate the sterlet cooking time will be on average 30-40 minutes.

Pressure cooker this process will speed up to 20 minutes. The cooking time of sterlet can be changed due to the size of the portions (whole fish takes a little longer to cook, and small pieces of it will reach readiness in at least 15 minutes).