How to deliciously salt red fish at home, dry and wet salting

Salted red fish is a product that can decorate any everyday and festive table. You can use this delicious dish in various ways: as an independent snack or as an addition to boiled or stewed potatoes.

Nowadays, most housewives are increasingly choosing the option of self-salting red fish. To buy a finished product, you will have to pay a lot of money, and the quality of the product wants to be better. Moreover, it is possible to purchase a damaged product, which is not uncommon in our time. As for home cooking, there are a huge number of recipes and there is an opportunity to cook exactly the dish that you like. Plus, homemade salted fish is always a fresh dish if chosen correctly.

What red fish is suitable for salting

Any fish of this family is suitable for home cooking, for example:

• chum;
• trout;
• whitefish;
• salmon;
• red salmon;
• pink salmon;
• nelma.

The list includes the most famous types of red fish, which are great for cooking unique dishes, including haute cuisine. Dishes from red fish are fashionable for any restaurant. Therefore, there is a choice of fish, depending on the preferences of a single family. Any of them will delight family members with tasty, tender, meat without any impurities, if you cook it yourself.

How to choose fresh, quality fish

First, you should responsibly approach the process of choosing fish carcasses. A lot about a fish can be told by its eyes: if they are red and clean, then the fish is fresh. The presence of cloudy eyes in the carcass indicates the staleness of the product. Appearance is also important. If the fish has been frozen several times, then a yellowish tint, similar to rust, may appear in bright places. As a rule, stale fish, if you look at it more closely, does not have a very attractive appearance, which immediately catches your eye.

If fish carcasses are packed in polyethylene, then they should also not be purchased, since it is very difficult to determine the freshness of the product, especially if there are several layers.

Those who cook fish at home are advised to buy whole carcasses of red fish. Inside it you can find caviar, which costs a lot of money. By the way, you can also cook caviar yourself, and this exotic product will cost much less than buying it at a retail outlet.

Proper cutting of fish

Cutting fish is not such a simple operation as it seems at first glance. To cut the fish qualitatively, you need to have a sharp knife, the same sharp scissors and special rubber gloves so that the carcasses of the fish do not slip out of your hands.

• To begin with, the fish is cleaned of scales and washed well in running water.
• After that, the fish is decapitated with the tail and fins trimmed and the entrails removed.
• An incision is made along the entire back for a more uniform impregnation of the fish with salt.

This is the case when the whole red fish is planned for salting. If you want to salt the fish fillet, then the actions will be somewhat different.

• The fish is cut from the back.
• A deep incision is made across the back.
• After that, the meat of the fish is separated from the ridge.
• The ventral and dorsal fins are then removed.
• Finally, with the help of hands, the bones and skin are separated from the meat. As a result, two pieces of red fish fillet are obtained.

Advice! It is recommended to cut the fish in conditions when it has not yet completely thawed. Then all the cuts will be even and neat. Parts such as the head, tail and fins will fit to prepare a very tasty and healthy fish soup.

How to salt red fish

First of all, you should prepare the right dishes. For this, either glass or enameled containers are suitable. Do not salt fish in metal bowls. Alternatively, plastic food containers are suitable.

As a rule, coarse salt is used for salting, then red fish meat will turn out juicy, tasty and not oversalted. Excess salt remains on the surface. Thanks to large fragments of salt, the meat is held in space and does not slip. Coarse salt burns the meat more, making it more dense than fine salt. The result is a quality finished product.

Dry Ambassador

This is the easiest, most affordable and fastest way. The meaning of this technology lies in the fact that red fish meat is rubbed on all sides with a mixture of salt and sugar, taken in equal proportions. If there is a desire, then various spices can be added to this composition, such as mustard, peppercorns, coriander, bay leaf and others. Although these will already be more complex cooking methods, the simplest is a mixture of salt and sugar.

Interesting to know! For every kilogram of fish meat, one tablespoon of salt and one tablespoon of sugar should be taken.

After enveloping the fish in a dry salt solution with sugar, it is wrapped in a dry dense cloth and placed in the refrigerator for 1 to 3 days. The more it stays in the refrigerator, the saltier it will be. It all depends on how salty the fish you want to get.

Another option involves laying grated fish in a dish, after which a lid with a load is placed on it. Fish, under the influence of salt and sugar, will release juice and will cook in its own juice. If there is a desire to add various seasonings, then they are sprinkled with fish after rubbing with salt and sugar.

After the fish has passed through this stage of salting, it is cut into pieces of the optimal size and placed, for example, in a jar. Pieces of fish are laid in layers, and each of the layers is shifted with onion rings. In conclusion, fish meat is poured with vegetable oil.

Wet salted red fish

Wet salting is the preparation of red fish meat in brine. The simplest and fastest recipe is as follows: 1,5 liters of water are taken, as well as 0,5 kg of salt and 0,4 kg of sugar with seasonings, the amount of which is selected to taste. Small pieces of red fish are poured with this brine and placed in the refrigerator for 12 hours. After this time, the fish can be taken and eaten. Some lovers of homemade fish products add honey instead of sugar. For this, 0,5 kg of red fish is taken and poured with brine, consisting of 1 liter of water, 5 tbsp. spoons of salt and 1 tbsp. spoons of honey. After 4 hours, the fish can be served at the table, pre-filled with vegetable oil.

Red fish in marinade

A real marinade consists of sugar, spices and vinegar (or citric acid). Very often, vegetable oil, mustard powder or ready-made purchased are added to the marinade. The principle of preparing the marinade is classic, as in the case of pouring brine. Although there is some difference in the use of seasonings, which makes the finished product more varied in taste.

Very good results can be obtained if you use two cooking methods at once: first marinate in brine, and then pour the marinade. For example, if you take meat prepared in brine, then it is cut into pieces and placed in layers in a bowl. Each layer is shifted with onion half rings, sprinkled with pepper and irrigated with lemon juice. In conclusion, the dish is poured with sunflower oil. The finished dish is placed in the refrigerator overnight.

How useful is red fish

Since ancient times, red fish was considered a favorite dish of kings and pharaohs. Moreover, it was valued not only for its tender and tasty meat, but also for the mass of useful elements that were in its meat. The most valuable and significant is the fish that inhabits the cold seas, rivers and oceans.

To preserve all the nutritional components of this fish, it is best to steam it. Meat will be no less useful if it is baked in the oven or cooked on the grill.

Red fish is useful because:

• Her meat contains a large amount of omega-3 (and 6) fatty acids. This acid optimizes the work of the human body, lowering cholesterol and strengthening blood vessels.
• By eating the meat of red fish, you can prevent the appearance of malignant neoplasms, prevent depression.
• If you eat red fish, you can help improve metabolism, promote normal blood circulation, strengthen the nervous system, and ensure the normal functioning of the liver.
• By regularly eating meat, you can get rid of shortness of breath, arrhythmias and chronic fatigue syndrome.
• Due to the calcium content, there is a high probability of strengthening bone tissue.

It is quite natural that there are much more options for cooking red fish, so you can choose any of them as the most acceptable. Home salting has a number of advantages and cannot be compared with factory-prepared fish, due to the fact that there are not so many options for factory salting and there is nothing to choose from. At home, the hostess will be able to put exactly those ingredients that make red fish the most delicious.