White meat of mackerel is useful and tasty, no matter how it is cooked. There are many ways of cooking: fish can be baked in the oven, stew, pickle. You can also smoke a fish. Smoked fish has a bright aroma and taste, and is perfect for a festive table.
Smoking mackerel - preparing food and dishes
There are several ways to smoke the fish at home, however, no matter how you decide to do this, you must first prepare the mackerel.
Fish is worth buying in the “proven” stores, where you just do not meet expired goods. A good frozen fish should have a uniform carcass without friability and odors. In no case do not buy the fish, if you don’t have a thick layer of ice, because the sellers often conceal its poor quality.
Smoke fish in two ways. The first (and only true) is to cook fish in a real smokehouse. The fish will be soaked with smoke from sawdust and will acquire an incomparable aroma. However, it is unlikely that such a device is at home for every hostess. In this case, use the second method, using liquid smoke. This pseudo-smoking will allow you to get tasty fish without great effort. It is liquid smoke that will be the second main ingredient after fish. Supplements of 200 ml and this will be enough for eight to ten times the preparation of the dish.
Speed up the process of “smoking” mackerel convection oven, in which the desired temperature is injected with moving blades.
Smoking Recipes for Mackerel:
Recipe 1: Smoked mackerel
Ingredients Required:
- Mineral water for brine - 1.2 liters
- Mackerel - 3-4 carcasses
- Sugar - 1 1/2 tablespoons
- 1 tablespoonful of liquid smoke
- Husk from 2 bulbs
Preparation Method:
- Prepare the fish. To do this, first clean it, cut off the head and tail, gut it well. Do not forget to remove the black film.
- Pour water into a saucepan, heat, add salt, sugar, onion peel, bring to a boil, then remove from heat. Strain the marinade, cool. Add liquid smoke.
- Fill the fish with the resulting marinade, and hold it under the weight at room temperature for 26-30 hours. After that, turn the fish and put it in the fridge for two days, also under load. Turn the fish every day.
Recipe 2: Smoked mackerel (cook 2 days)
This recipe is similar to the previous one, but by changing the brine recipe, you bury the fish faster in about two days.
Ingredients Required:
- 1 liter of purified brine water
- Mackerel - 3-4 carcasses
- Husk from two bulbs
- Sugar - 2-3 tbsp.
- Salt
- Liquid smoke 1 tablespoon
Preparation Method:
- Pour mineral water into the pan, put the onion peel there and bring to a boil, cook for 25 minutes.
- Then remove the broth from the heat and leave for 10-12 hours, then add salt, sugar and liquid smoke to the marinade.
- Clean the fish, cut off the head and tail, remove the giblets and pour the resulting brine. Press down with a load and put “smoked” for 2 days in the fridge. Do not forget to turn the fish.
Recipe 3: Smoked mackerel on convection oven
If you have a convection oven, then you will not need to wait for a long time until the fish is “smoked”. In addition to liquid smoke and salt, prepare in advance a cellophane bag for marinating mackerel.
Ingredients Required:
- Liquid smoke - 2 tablespoons
- Mackerel - 4-5 carcasses
- Salt
Preparation Method:
- Prepare the fish. Gut it, cut off the head and tail. Inside, brush with salt (about one tablespoon per carcass), the very carcass promagte liquid smoke.
- Put the fish in a bag, add liquid smoke and tie it tightly. Leave the mackerel to marinate for forty minutes. Then remove it and wipe it thoroughly to keep the fish dry.
- Turn on the convection oven, set the temperature to 200 degrees. Place the fish on the middle rack and cook for 25 minutes.
Recipe 4: Smoked mackerel (using an electro-smoke-house)
Do you have a homely small smokehouse? In this case, you can completely do without liquid smoke. The recipe is uncomplicated, and the fish turns out to be as close as possible to smoked flavor. Do not forget to prepare fruit or alder sawdust, a spoonful of tea and sugar for the smokehouse.
Ingredients Required:
- Mackerel
- Lemon - 1/2 pieces
- Salt
Preparation Method:
- Cut off the fish's head, take off the giblets, wash, grease the inside with salt.
- Cut the lemon into slices, place it inside the fish and place it in the refrigerator for 12 hours.
- Take the fruit shavings and place them on a pallet. Pour one tablespoon of sugar and black small leaf tea on sawdust.
- Wipe the fish dry and put it in the smokehouse. The first 10 minutes of mackerel should be cooked without smoke, then insert the pan and cook with smoke for 25 minutes. Then turn off the electro-smokehouse, but do not remove the cover; let the mackerel lie there for another 20 minutes.
Recipe 5: Smoked mackerel (with the help of the country smokehouse)
Smoke fish will give you less trouble if you have a country smokehouse. The recipe is simple, but in any case, the fish will need to be marinated for a day in the fridge.
Ingredients Required:
- Mackerel
- Salt
Preparation Method:
- Prepare the mackerel before smoking: cut off the head and tail, gut it. Inside, rub the fish with salt, then place it in the refrigerator for 20 hours.
- Sawdust (fruit or alder) lay on the bottom of the smokehouse with a layer of 1 centimeter.
- Spread apple twigs on the net and fish carcasses on them. Cook mackerel for 20 minutes.
Smoking mackerel - secrets and useful tips from the best chefs
- Is liquid smoke harmful? This question is often asked by those who want to cook a fish at home, without having a real smokehouse. However, which is quite curious, almost the entire store smoked fish has long been prepared with the help of liquid smoke. After all, “smoke” products in such a way quickly and cheaply. Of course, liquid smoke is not useful, but it is not at all useful to soak the product with real smoke. So, if you decide to eat smoked mackerel, just enjoy a delicious dish, the main thing - not very often.
- Before you smoke fish in a smokehouse or convection oven, you need to thoroughly blot it with napkins so that it becomes completely dry.
- It is very important in the preparation of fish to remove the black skin of the film inside. It is very thin, but if it is not removed, then the finished fish will be bitter.
- Some cooks advise not only to salt the mackerel carcass with salt, but also with a small amount of sugar. So fish get more tender to taste. Take for this purpose brown sugar.
- When making a pickle for fish, add a little soy sauce. Aromatic liquid will give the fish a light, pleasant smell. In addition, some spices will not interfere with the brine. It is appropriate to hops suneli, sweet peas, dried basil, parsley roots.
- Cooks do not recommend cutting the carcass apart before you smoke the fish. If you cook mackerel in the whole form, then the fish will be more juicy.
