Salty coho salmon at home, delicious recipes

Red fish has always been considered a delicacy, and it remains so today. No festive table is complete without salted red fish, which has unsurpassed taste characteristics. Properly cooked, it literally melts in your mouth, leaving a pleasant aftertaste after that.

This article is designed for those who wish to salt coho fish on their own.

Necessary ingredients

To do this, stock up on the following products:

1. Fresh red fish – 1 kg.
2. Coarse salt.
3. Sugar.
4. Black and red pepper.
5. Parsley or dill.
6. Lemon juice.
7. Bay leaf.

How to properly prepare fish

Before proceeding with salting fish, it needs preparatory operations. The process of cutting fish consists of several stages.

Here are the steps:

1. The fish is washed under running water, after which the tail and head are removed.
2. On this, the cutting of the fish does not end, since the fins must be cut off from the carcass with the help of kitchen scissors, and then the fish is cleaned of scales and gets rid of the insides.
3. It is desirable that the final dish does not have bones. Therefore, a sharply sharpened knife is taken and an incision is made along the ridge. After that, the fish ridge is pulled out along with all the bones. Then the carcass, or rather the fish fillet, is removed from the skin. This should be done carefully, otherwise the fillet will fall apart into separate fragments.
4. If there are no such skills in cutting fish and there is some uncertainty in the final result, then the carcass can be cut into acceptable pieces and the fish can be cooked in this form. Despite the fact that the pieces will be with bones, they will turn out to be no less tasty than in the form of fillets and without bones.

Universal recipe for salting coho fish

There are a huge number of recipes, but there are simple and affordable ones that are considered universal, since they are suitable for salting any fish, including red.

It’s done like this:

• Take 4 tablespoons of salt and 2 tablespoons of sugar. They are mixed together, with the addition of a pinch of red pepper and a teaspoon of black pepper.
• A container for salting is being prepared. It can be a plastic container in which food can be stored. Each piece of fish (fillet) is rubbed with the prepared dry mixture. At the same time, it should be controlled that there are no unrubbed parts of coho salmon left.
• In conclusion, the fish is poured with lemon juice, and a few leaves of parsley are laid on top. This will give the salted fish extra flavor.

Interesting! Fish absorbs flavors very well, so it’s important not to overdo the seasonings. They are able not only to spice up the dish, but also to spoil it, completely drowning out the natural aroma of red fish.

• After all the operations associated with salting coho fish, the plastic container is closed with a lid and the fish, in this form, stands at room temperature for about half an hour. After this time, the container with the fish is sent to the refrigerator.

How long can the curing process take?

Almost all recipes are designed for the fact that in a couple of days the fish manages to pickle so much that it is ready for eating. As a rule, most recipes do not involve salting a large amount of fish: at most 1 or 2 kg. If the fish is salted more, then it should be kept longer. In any case, you need to give enough time for the fish to salt it. If the fish is overcooked, then this is not a problem and it can be soaked in warm water to get rid of excess salt.

Delicious recipes for homemade salmon pickling

In addition to classic recipes, there are other recipes that make coho fish especially tasty.

Salted salmon in olive oil

To implement such a recipe, you need to perform the following steps:

• The coho salmon fillet already cut is laid out in the prepared container.
• Each layer of fish is sprinkled with a mixture of salt and sugar in equal proportions. For 1 kg of fillet, mix 1 cup of sugar and salt.
• The container is closed with a lid and sent for a day along with the fish, to a cold place.
• While the fish is salting, you need to prepare the following: take a pound of onion and cut it into rings, adding it after that to the fish. In conclusion, all this is poured with olive oil.
• The container is closed again, and the fish is again placed in the refrigerator for a day. After this period, the fish can be served at the table.

Salted coho salmon in brine

To implement this recipe you need to have:

• 1 kg of fresh red fish.
• Three tablespoons of salt (preferably sea).
• Two tablespoons of sugar.

Technological stages of preparation:

1. If the fish is freshly frozen, then it must be thawed before the cutting process. Moreover, this must be done correctly, without violating the defrosting technology: it must be defrosted naturally. If the fish is fresh, then you can immediately start cutting it. About how to properly cut the fish was said above. Naturally, it is better not to throw away the tail and head, since you can cook a rich and very tasty fish soup from them. The coho salmon carcass is cut into pieces, up to 3 cm thick.
2. Separately, a dry mixture is prepared from two tablespoons of sugar and three tablespoons of salt.
3. After that, pieces of coho salmon are placed in the same container with their bellies down, rubbing them on all sides with a dry mixture. The depth of the container must be sufficient so that the brine cannot spill out of it.
4. The next step is to fill the fish with warm water, and completely. Water should not be hot or cold: 30-40 degrees is enough.
5. After filling the fish with water, the container is tightly closed with a lid. As soon as the container and the fish reach room temperature, they are placed in the refrigerator for one day. A day later, the fish is taken out and turned over to the other side, after which it is returned to the refrigerator for another day.
6. After this time, the fish is taken out of the refrigerator and removed from the brine. Dry the fish with a paper towel. To keep the fish longer, it should be wrapped in foil or parchment. But the most important thing is that it can already be eaten.

Salting of Kamchatka coho salmon

In Kamchatka, coho salmon is especially valued and has been valued for centuries. It was salted here according to a special recipe, which is known to this day. To pickle coho salmon in Kamchatka you will need:

• Half a kilo of fresh coho salmon.
• Three tablespoons of salt.
• One tablespoon of sugar.
• A little bit of black pepper.
• Lemon juice.
• 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil.
• Dill.

How to prepare:

1. First, coho salmon is cut and all bones are removed from its meat.
2. The carcass or fillet is cut into suitable pieces.
3. Salt, sugar and pepper are mixed in a separate container. Pieces of fish are rubbed with the mixture on one side and laid out with the rubbed side down in the container prepared for this.
4. Laid fish is poured with sunflower oil and lemon juice.
5. Top with dried dill and close with a lid.
6. In this state, coho salmon is left for an hour at room temperature, after which it is placed in the refrigerator for a day.
7. The finished dish is served in various options: as an appetizer, as a cut or in the form of prepared delicious sandwiches.

Self-cooking coho salmon at home has many advantages. Firstly, you can cook fish according to any recipe you like. Secondly, the dish does not have any preservatives or flavor enhancers, which cannot be said about store-bought products. Thirdly, the dish is prepared only from fresh fish, which is important. And this means that cooked fish will be beneficial to human health. In addition to the fact that all useful substances are preserved in it, there is no risk of being poisoned by a spoiled product. But a purchased product is a risk of poisoning by buying a spoiled, stale product. This is not fiction, but a reality that constantly haunts a person.