Sprat, despite its modest dimensions, has been very popular among consumers for more than a dozen years. Indirectly, this was facilitated by the widespread use of such canned fish in tomato sauce, which were considered almost a must-have in the home of every inhabitant of the Soviet Union.
They were used for hiking trips, consumed by ever-hungry students and diluted with a meager diet by inveterate bachelors. The eternally busy Soviet women also liked the product so fast in processing, who in half an hour on its basis could cook a full dinner for the whole family. But the most important advantage that such canned food received was considered to be relatively budgetary cost.
Today, the presented fish is no less in demand. In addition to the canned version in a tomato, people do not bypass the various options for salting this raw material. There are even such skilled chefs who have got the hang of creating such goodies at home without special industrial equipment for this.
Unclear origin
One of the strangest mysteries of the sprat is its belonging to a biological species. Specialists are accustomed to using this name in relation to all schooling pelagic fish that are relatively small in size. According to the biological classification, they are classified as a herring family, and they are all connected by an identical silver color.
Another distinguishing feature is the presence of prickly scales on the abdomen. This allows the inhabitants of the marine environment to better camouflage and at the same time get a streamlined shape for good maneuverability.
Because of all the same peculiar scales that seemed to the discoverers to look like a ship’s keel, the fish itself received the same name. If we talk about what specific species end up in a can of canned food, or on the shelves of specialized stores in a salty form, then the variety here goes off scale. Depending on the region of catch, this can be both European sprats and the Azov-Black Sea “colleagues”, which are generally called kilka. The Baltic, Caspian, Arabic, Black Sea and even big-eyed variations also got there.
Due to the impressive list that fits the general description, most countries can afford to add such a useful, albeit small, fish to the weekly diet. So, kilka and meal like to surf the expanses of not only the depths of the sea, but also reservoirs with desalinated water. Such versatility allowed them to spread across the waters of the Baltic, Mediterranean, Norwegian, Black and North Seas.
Based on this, it becomes clear that on an industrial scale, the catch is mostly concentrated on the territory of a number of the Baltic countries, as well as Denmark, the Russian Federation, Norway, Bulgaria and even Ukraine.
When taking into account the average size of specimens – no more than 15 centimeters in length, the total mass of production of 600 tons annually is simply a colossal figure!
Moreover, every year savvy hostesses add new recipes to the thematic section of the cookbook. And these are far from always easy tips on how to prepare a five-minute snack, but complex instructions for homemade pickling. A step-by-step diagram will come in handy for all those who like to make grand stocks for the winter.
If we talk about the most popular options for industrial processing of prey, then spicy salting and smoked sprats are in the lead. The latter are generally almost a real gastronomic symbol of the capital of Estonia.
To reinforce this, smart producers even began to put the outlines of Tallinn on the label of canned products. For three decades now, this technique has been bearing fruit, because the fame of the delicious sprat comes from Estonian factories has spread far beyond the borders of their native country.
The first mention of the legendary Tallinn sprat on an official basis was recorded by the Swedish diplomat Mr. Airman. During his travels in Muscovy back in the 17th century, he left a note about the Livonian song, where it was just about this type of fish. Despite the fact that most immigrants from the USSR believe that Soviet factories are to thank for the popularity of the canned version of their favorite fish, in reality, this is not entirely true.
Historians have come to the conclusion that initially such stocks began to be made by enterprising people during the period of the Great Geographical Discoveries.
Then the sailors needed a nutritious diet, overcoming great distances without a chance for many months to replenish the ship’s “refrigerators”.
Even then, European technologists knew how to salt meat or leave the nutrients of vegetables at a good level. But on the territory of Russia, fish conservation flourished, affecting first sterlet, burbot and stellate sturgeon. Later, during the reign of Nikita Khrushchev, the practice of making sprats in tomato began to advance. The pioneers at the state level in this area were experts from the Kerch plant.
Today, the assortment of supermarkets is literally bursting with an abundance of similar offers from different manufacturers. The fish departments do not lag behind them, where the salty inhabitant of the seas is also widely represented. Moreover, its main advantage is the fact that the primary ambassador is made directly on the ships that caught it. This allows you to keep the product longer and gives distinctive taste characteristics.
Benefits and contraindications
The trump card of any representative of schooling fish of this family is a huge amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids. They are able to resist the development of atherosclerosis, which is especially appreciated by the elderly.
The mechanism of action on the body is based on the reduction of lipoproteins and low-density triglycerides that are dangerous for cells. It will work if you know how to cook it correctly. And regularly consumed homemade cooking with the inclusion of sprat with minimal heat treatment serves as a shield for the development of cardiovascular diseases.
The composition is able to boast of vitamins of group B and PP, as well as:
- nickel;
- fluorine;
- molybdenum;
- zinc;
- magnesium.
Not all lovers of these “sea crumbs” know that in fact they are useful not only for their fillets. They are valued for their tail, scales, bones. It was there that nature hid shock doses of phosphorus, which has a beneficial effect on the functioning of all internal organs and tissues. And due to the presence of vitamin D, you can not worry about the fact that the eater will face osteoporosis. Many doctors recommend adding deliciousness to the diet of patients recovering from an illness.
An unusual addition to the menu is suitable even for those who have recently experienced a strong emotional shock, and now their nervous system is seriously depleted.
Only now, to replenish the spent reserves of microelements, it is worth eating not only soup, but also fish that has undergone more gentle heat treatment regimes. These include baking and steaming. In the latter case, it will even be possible to prepare a simple salad, which, with the right choice of ingredients, will be an excellent help for adherents of a healthy lifestyle. This is supported by the fact that there are only 135 calories per hundred grams of the product, providing for easily digestible protein.
Despite the great benefits of sprat, it can also significantly harm the digestive tract. Leaving aside cases of possible allergic reactions of the body, individual intolerance and spoiled goods, there is another significant risk. It applies to canned offerings, which, due to additives and a huge proportion of vinegar, can irritate the mucous membranes of the digestive tract. And this is not to mention the fact that fish sandwiches are a bad version of a snack for those who are going to stay on a diet. It is unlikely that bread will be able to please with a low calorie content.
Culinary use
If everything is clear with pickled solutions – they are simply opened and eaten as a ready-made supplement, then some people have difficulties with fresh-frozen offers. Especially in cases when people far from cooking are trying to make a full-fledged fish soup out of it.
Instead of using a thawed blank for the first course, it is better to send it to the pan, after splashing a little vegetable oil there. If you want to get the most satisfying result, then the carcasses are breaded ahead of time. Ordinary wheat flour is best suited for this role. The resulting mountain of golden color is combined with products at their own discretion. At the same time, gourmets recommend not to forget about vegetables in order to slightly cover the oily fat content formed during frying.
Some housewives do not really like the frozen analogue due to the fact that the raw material has a specific smell. But it is easy to get rid of it if you hold the workpiece in a hydrochloric-acetic solution for a while before starting cooking.
Soup in a hurry
If it may be difficult to create an fish soup with a fresh or frozen sprat, then this should not happen with a canned counterpart in a tomato sauce. To quickly and satisfyingly feed the family in the evening after work, it is enough to get simple ingredients.
The soup recipe includes:
- 2 liters of water;
- 3 potatoes;
- 1 can of canned food;
- half a glass of rice;
- 1 piece of carrots and onions;
- salt;
- bay leaf, herbs, other spices at your own discretion.
Start cooking by preparing potatoes. There is nothing complicated here, since it is worth acting according to the standard scheme: first rinse the tubers, peel them, cut them into cubes of the same size.
Pre-peeled carrots are rubbed on a coarse grater, and then the onions are peeled and cut into small cubes. The prepared vegetable mixture is laid out in a saucepan, where rice is immediately poured. The cereal should be washed first.
At the same stage, the entire set of spices is sent to the pan along with the bay leaf, and only now everything is poured with water.
Then it remains only to wait until everything boils and boil over low heat for about half an hour. Readiness is determined by how much the rice and vegetables are boiled.
Five minutes before turning off, put the sprat into the pan along with all the liquid contents of the jar and mix. After waiting five minutes, the fire is turned off, dinner is poured into plates and chopped greens are sprinkled on top.
piquant spice
Another recipe that is easy to implement involves an independent spicy salting. To do this, you need to prepare a kilo of sprat, two tablespoons of salt and a teaspoon of sugar. You can experiment with seasonings, but the classic set includes a couple of large bay leaves, five cloves, about ten peppercorns and a pinch of ginger.
First, the fish is washed. Then the cloves, along with bay leaves and pepper, are ground in a coffee grinder or by hand in a mortar. The resulting mixture is mixed with sugar and salt.
Taking a deep container, sprat is laid out in layers, which is sprinkled with sugar, salt and spicy mixture. A plate is placed on the resulting mass and pressed with a load.
A weight or a special metal press is usually used as a load. If there was no such convenience at home, then even a three-liter bottle with compote will fit, which is removed from the basement and placed on a container with a semi-finished product.
After 12 hours, a fragrant snack is ready. It is better to store it after the salting period has elapsed already in the refrigerator so that the stock does not deteriorate prematurely.