Dried Fish
Dried Fish.
Hello.
Dried roach with caviar occurs only during the spawning period and it will not be superfluous to “catch” it on a small river with bottom gear in hand.
During the spawning period in the market or even in the store, and quite inexpensively and cook it at home according to this recipe.
Go.
1. Salt the caviar roach.
Fish can not be washed and it is better not to gut.
I just take a fat caviar fish, put it in a container and sprinkle it with salt. You can salt fresh, chilled and frozen fish at the same time.
Larger specimens at the bottom, smaller ones at the top.
If the fish is larger than 1-2 kg, then it is desirable to “plast” it.
I put salt at least 250 grams per kilo of fish.
If specimens of cyprinids are large, then I put more salt and additionally put salt in my mouth and under the gill covers.
There is not much salt. Salt is ordinary table salt of the coarsest grinding.
Iodized salt should not be used because it "warms up" the body of the fish, which can lead to spoilage of the fish when salted. Extra salt is not good either.
The fish should not be covered with an airtight lid to avoid the possibility of botulism at this stage. Since this bacterium develops during an anaerobic process, we must leave oxygen access during the preparation and storage of dried roach at all stages of the process, without exception.
I sprinkle all the fish with salt in a box without holes, put oppression, which is approximately 50% of the mass of the fish, and send it to the cellar if it is not possible to put it in the refrigerator.
In the process of salting, moisture is released from the fish and fills the entire container.
Since the recipe for dried roach at home is close to the classic one, then we will salt the fish for 21 full Earth days, or more. So there are more guarantees that possible parasites contained in fish will be neutralized, at least GOST claims this.
In practice, the fish will be salted in a few days, kilogram specimens in a maximum of a week.
Salted fish becomes denser, visibly shriveled, with a visible decrease in volume, its backbone crunches when stretched, etc.
The salting container should not oxidize and release other muck into the future product.
It is best to use glass or ceramics. Good for stainless steel. Enamel-coated cookware works well.
Forget aluminum, copper, tin and black metal...
2. Soak the roach with caviar.
I soak this batch for about 28 hours!
Be sure to make sure that the fish is soaked in the cold, otherwise the roach can go bad even in the water.
If the water rarely changes, then to prevent damage to the fish, it is advisable to put the container in the refrigerator or cellar (for example, overnight).
And it will not be superfluous to add ice to a container with soaking fish if the ambient temperature is relatively high ...
It should also be borne in mind that the soaking time, other things being equal, will be significantly reduced if:
• Change water more often;
• Additionally rinse the salt from the surface of the fish when changing the water;
• Use running water for soaking, etc.
3. Dry the roach.
Drying fish at home is easiest by hanging it by the tail, head down. It is in this position that all the liquids released during drying from the fish will drain into the head, and not remain in the belly. And if the gallbladder is damaged in the fish, then this can generally ruin a whole month of cooking time for the dried product.
It would be useful to open the gill covers so that the moisture would calmly come out and an unpleasant odor would not appear.
But today we will use a regular fish net dryer from a fishing store.
You can dry it right outside.
Fermenting soaked fish, we gradually turn it into a real dried roach with caviar.
It takes time to complete the fermentation of products!
In my case, dried roach can be consumed after 3-5 days, but it is better to determine the drying time according to personal taste preferences.
4. Storage of roach with caviar.
I do not recommend storing dried roach at room temperature, since the fat contained in the fermented product goes rancid in just a couple of days and in a maximum of a week you will get absolutely “rusty” fish!
If you store fish in the refrigerator or cellar, you can stretch the process of eating "good" fish a little for a couple of weeks or so. Sometimes, it can help if the stock is fresh and not store-bought.
But it is best to store ready-made dried roach with caviar in the freezer! So you can store fish for months, they say that even for years ...
In case of urgent need, frozen fish, due to the low moisture content in the dried product, will thaw even at room temperature and will be ready for consumption in less than 1 hour.
You can also use the folk method and store fish not in finished form, but in salt, in a cellar or refrigerator.
Bon appetit and thank you for your attention!
#DriedRoach # DriedFish #Fish