Smoked fish in Astrakhan - how do sturgeon be cooked for hot and cold smoked? Black caviar online store blog a-ikra.ru

1. How to smoke fish in Astrakhan?
2. Preparatory work
3. Fish bookmark
4. How long to smoke fish?
5. How to smoke without a smokehouse?

At 1430 kilometers from Moscow, on the banks of the Volga, lies the ancient city of Astrakhan, with beautiful architecture and rich history. And also this city is known for a tasty small fish with which Volga and black caviar abounds.

Locals know a lot about smoking, salting, frying fish. And, unlike the famous Astrakhan watermelons, fish can be taken home as a gift. Smoked fish or balyk from sturgeon from Astrakhan will cause a special delight among your relatives. On the centuries-old secrets of cooking these delicacies, which Astrakhans have preserved since ancient times, we will tell in our blog.

How to smoke fish in Astrakhan?

There are two main ways of cooking this delicacy: 1) cold and 2) hot smoking.

Cold is carried out on the smoke coming through the chimney in a large metal box or barrel, and takes about a day.

The second method takes no more than 50 minutes and is made on an open fire. The end product is different in each case. Let us consider in detail both of these methods.

Preparatory work

You can smoke any fish: pike, perch, mackerel, perch. But the best fish for this dish is sturgeon, the sturgeon balyk is especially tasty. In the Volga, it is found in large numbers and is caught quite easily. This predatory fish has an ideal thickness and is not fat.

Before you smoke fish, you must first prepare it. It is not necessary to clean and gut, just salt. Although you can smoke and gutted sturgeon, but then the taste is not very good.

Preparation consists of the following steps:

• Thawed or freshly washed fish washed.
• In a standard liter bottle filled with water 5 tbsp. l salt.
• Then, using a medical syringe with a thick needle, take water and pierce the fish. 20 mg of salt water per 1 kilogram of fish. It should be pierced tail and ridge.

Smoke better on alder chips and shavings, adding to them raw leaves and branches.

Fish bookmark

Put on the bottom of the smokehouse chips, on top of the grate, and on it - the fish prepared for the preparation. Lay it in a single layer so that the smoke contacts with them from all sides. Close the lid tightly and put the smokehouse on fire. Distribute the coal evenly under the smokehouse. The fire should not be strong. If you want to cook a balyk of sturgeon, use not the whole fish, but its dorsal “meaty” part. Meat should be salted for 2-3 days and then smoked in a cold way.

How long to smoke fish?

After the smokehouse warms up, remove the burning logs. Make fish on the coals.
Smoking begins with the smoking of wood chips. It is extremely important to prevent overheating of the smokehouse. Inside the temperature level should be very high. The process itself takes 40 minutes.

During drying, the temperature inside the smokehouse should not exceed 120 °. In order to determine the level of temperature inside, drip water on the cover surface. If it boils, the temperature is as it should be, and if it evaporates silently, add fire. The temperature level is regulated by increasing or decreasing the fire under the smokehouse.

Wait for the smokehouse to cool, open it. Hot smoked sturgeon has a reddish or dark golden hue. Raw sturgeon is usually light.

How to smoke without a smokehouse?

In the absence of a smokehouse, you will need a foil. Wrap the fish in several layers. Make some holes in the foil. Bake on coals on the grill. Cold smoked sturgeon is cooked for 40 min.

Cooking rules:

• do not lay in the smokehouse fish of various sizes;
• open the smokehouse, standing on the fire can not;
• smoking smokehouse can not be opened;

Having prepared hot smoked sturgeon , be prepared to eat it as quickly as possible, because this dish spoils very quickly. On average, after a couple of days, hot smoked sturgeon will start smelling unpleasant. Cold smoked sturgeon can be stored in the refrigerator for a maximum of a couple of weeks.
Smoked fish is an amazingly tasty delicacy, and now, thanks to our advice, you can now cook it yourself. Sturgeon balyk is a real delicacy that can be tasted only in our area.

In addition, you can order sturgeon balyk directly on our website in the "Smoked fish" section. There besides balyk there is a sturgeon of hot and cold smoking, and all products are always of excellent quality and always fresh.

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