White mackerel meat 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.
Mackerel Smoking - Preparing Food and Cookware
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 "trusted" stores where you really 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 is 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.
Recipes smoking mackerel:
Recipe 1: Smoked mackerel
Ingredients Required:
- Mineral water for brine - 1.2 liters
- Mackerel - 3-4 carcasses
- Sugar - 1 1/2 tablespoons
- 1 tablespoon of liquid smoke
- Husk from 2 bulbs
Cooking 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 it, 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 for 26-30 hours, keep it under load at room temperature. 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 preparation 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
Cooking method:
- Pour mineral water into a saucepan, 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 in convection oven
If you have a convection oven, then you will not need to wait long while the fish are 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
Cooking method:
- Prepare the fish. Gut it, cut off the head and tail. Inside, grease with salt (about one tablespoon per carcass), the very same 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 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 electric smokehouse)
Do you have a homely small smokehouse? In this case, you can completely do without liquid smoke. The recipe is uncomplicated, and the fish is obtained as close as possible to the taste of smoked. Do not forget to prepare fruit or alder sawdust, a spoonful of tea and sugar for the smokehouse.
Ingredients Required:
- Mackerel
- Lemon - ½ pieces
- Salt
Cooking method:
- Cut off the head of the fish, remove the giblets, wash, grease the inside with salt.
- Cut the lemon into slices, put 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 electric-smokehouse, but do not remove the cover; let the mackerel lie there for another 20 minutes.
Recipe 5: Smoking mackerel (with the help of the country smokehouse)
Smoking will bring you less trouble if you have a country smokehouse. The recipe is simple, but in any case, the fish will need to marinate for a day in the refrigerator.
Ingredients Required:
- Mackerel
- Salt
Cooking method:
- Prepare the mackerel before smoking: cut off the head and tail, gut. 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 layer of 1 centimeter.
- Put sprigs of apple on the net and fish carcasses on them. Cook mackerel for 20 minutes.
Smoking mackerel - secrets and 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 very useful to soak the product with real smoke. So, if you decide to enjoy smoked mackerel, just enjoy a delicious dish, the main thing - not very often.
- Before you smoke fish in a smokehouse or aerogrill, 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 inside the film. It is very thin, but if it is not removed, then the finished fish will be bitter.
- Some cooks advise that a mackerel carcass should be lubricated not only 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 into pieces before you smoke the fish. If you cook the mackerel in general, the fish will be more juicy.
