How to Dry Fish at Home

It's easy to cook delicious dried fish yourself. For this you need to know how to dry fish at home. A bit of trouble, a few days of waiting - and you can enjoy delicacy yourself, as well as boldly treat guests. Pieces of fragrant dried fish for sure like everyone.

Dried or dried - what is the difference

Dried fish is obtained as a result of drying pre-salted raw materials. This is the usual, ready-to-eat products. Many people just dried fish called dried. Therefore, asking the question: how to dry the fish?- People usually mean - how it should be dried.

Dried is obtained both from unsalted raw material( fresh-dried) and from salted fish. Dried fish is considered a semi-finished product, which requires further culinary processing. Dry it usually in the northern areas, harvested in reserve, to use in winter. Dried carcasses can be stored for a long time without losing their nutritional qualities.

Selection and preparation of fish

In principle, at home, you can dry any fish, but it is better for this purpose is not too fat, a small size. You can successfully use for this purpose the following types: voblo, bream, chekhon, podasta, rudd, dace, bream, perch, ram, pike perch, roach and other.

Preliminary raw materials must be prepared:

• Fish should be washed, gutted( not scouring scales) and thoroughly rinsed again.
• If its a large number, it is better to sort by size, because different in size fish requires different processing times.
• Pick up the prepared raw materials.

You can not eviscerate the fish, but in this case the finished product will turn out to be bitter, which will give it bile.

Prepared fish can be salted in two ways: dry - by covering the carcass with dry salt, or wet - in brine( brine).

Dry ambassador

This method of ambassador is most often used, as it is very simple. The dishes should be chosen so that the carcass easily fit in it( a wide pan or a cup).At the bottom should pour a thin layer of coarse salt, lay a row of fish, fill it with salt so that it is completely closed. From above in the same way it is necessary to lay the next row. And so it is necessary to lay out carcasses in rows, each of them copiously sprinkling with resin.

After the last row has been laid, the top should be put on a plate or lid that loosely enters the pan, and press down with an oppression( for example: a can of water or a weigher).

Place the dishes in the refrigerator for 4-7 days( depending on the size of the carcasses).After the specified time, the fish must be taken out, it is good to wash off the salt, and then soak it in water( 4-7 hours), changing it several times. The number of hours is equal to the number of days of the ambassador.

After this, you can dry the fish. It must be weighed in a well-ventilated place. In summer, you can dry on the street, and in winter for this balcony or kitchen. You can sleep on the veranda or in the summer kitchen. The main thing is that it does not get direct sunlight. Carcasses can be hung, piercing through the wire through the eyes, and you can make hooks from clerical clips that hook them on the upper lip, and hang the other side on a tight lace or line. You can hang the fish by the tails, but in this case the fat and juice from will flow, and it will turn out to be drier and fresh.

Solim in brass brine

This method is also well suited for home use. It allows you to get evenly salted fish for a shorter period. For this you need:

• Prepare a supersaturated brine( brine).To do this, dissolve the salt in water, gradually increasing the concentration. The solution is considered ready if it does not sink a piece of potatoes or a raw egg. It will take approximately 1 liter of brine per 2 kg of raw material.
• A thin layer of salt should be poured onto the bottom of a wide container.
• Place carcasses in a container.
• Pour brine so that it covers the fish completely.
• Cover with a plate or lid, put oppression on top.
• Place the container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days( depending on the size of the fish).
• After the desired time, remove the carcass from the brine and soak in clean water for about 30 minutes, changing the water every 10 minutes.

After this, let the water drain and dry, hanging the same way as with a dry method of pickling.

How long to dry the fish

The drying time until ready depends on the size of the fish and the conditions. On average, this is 4-6 days. In the street, blown by the breeze, it dries faster, at home - longer. In winter, in a cool room, this time is even longer. Therefore, after 4-5 days, the fish should be tested for readiness. If it is damp at the back, leave it to dry for another 1-2 days.

Very fast and easy to dry the fish at home in the electric dryer. Forced ventilation and high temperature accelerate the process of dehydration of the semi-finished product. In a standard electric dryer at a temperature of about + 55 ° C, it slackens until ready for only 5-7 hours!

In northern regions, the fish is frozen out on the street for a month and a half.

Some tips of

1. In order to prevent the insects from drying up during the drying season, it can be sprinkled with vinegar or oiled with sunflower oil, and a mixture of 1: 3 can be made from them and greased with fish.
2. With the same purpose it can be covered with gauze or fine tulle.
3. Hang out the raw materials for drying on the balcony or on the street better in the late evening, then until the morning it will have time to get worn and dry. Flies and wasps to touch it almost will not.
4. To accelerate the drying and protection against insects, the abdomen must be opened by inserting in them matches with cut heads or short sticks.
5. During dry salting, some carcasses are poorly salted. They can be easily identified - during soaking they float up. This fish should be dried separately and let in food first.
6. Keep the dried fish in a cool dry place wrapped in parchment paper and hb cloth, or can be in a glass jar closed with a lid. In this case, it will not lose its properties for 4-5 months.

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