Cold smoking temperature for fish. Cold smoking of fish: technology, recipes. What kind of fish is best to smoke in a smokehouse? Cold smoked mackerel. Smokehouse on the go
During a pre-holiday shopping trip, one of the obligatory items is the purchase of smoked fish. It is always in demand, as it is loved for its taste, nutritional value, and most importantly, for its storehouse of useful elements. We must pay tribute that this product is a universal dish, because it can be used as a cold appetizer, as a side dish, and even as a main product.
Until recently, the wisdom of smoking fish yourself was known only to true amateurs, experienced cooks who have been smoking at home or in the country for a long time.
Today, information has become more accessible, as it is published on the Internet on various resources. Everyone will be able to discover all the nuances of cold smoking and assemble a suitable smokehouse for this with their own hands.
In this case, the procedure for preparing your favorite delicacy will become commonplace. It is possible to master this difficult craft if you understand what stages smoking consists of, what mistakes should not be made, and in what places in the execution of the algorithm you can improvise.
The principle of cold smoking of products
Wood smoke, which is formed during the smoldering of a material, contains substances that have preservative properties. Therefore, cold smoking, which involves long-term treatment of the product with smoke, is considered as a way to extend shelf life. If we add here that unforgettable taste and smell of smoke, which so increases appetite, then it will become clear why smoked fish has earned universal recognition and love.
An undeniable advantage of cold processing is that all the vitamins and microelements that fish is so rich in are preserved in their original form.
In this regard, we can talk about the benefits of the dish for the body; even doctors recognize this benefit. The disadvantage is the high labor intensity of the cooking process, because it is divided into several stages. Completing each one requires not only effort, but also time.
To prepare fish for smoking, it must be salted. Salt and smoke have an antiseptic effect. The fibers get rid of microorganisms, and the fish is not only stored for a long time, but also becomes suitable for consumption. All detailed smoking technology related to the establishment of process standards and conditions is regulated according to GOST. This means that in industrial production all rules are observed at the stages of cutting fish, salting it and directly smoking it.
Unfortunately, regulatory documents are not available to the common man, so he is interested in the opportunity to smoke fish himself at home. At the same time, you will have to consider such topics as suitable types of wood material and fish for smoking.
What kind of fish should you smoke?
Even those who have no desire to try smoking fish themselves have probably noticed that each type has a personal taste, and the meat differs in elasticity, fat content and consistency. The question quite logically arises: “Is any fish smoked?”
In principle, cold smoking of fish is available with any type, but there are some preferences. The most delicious will be representatives of the underwater kingdom with elastic, fatty meat, these are butterfish, mackerel, the family of red fish,. But if you come across, for example, pike, whose meat is quite dry and fibrous, you shouldn’t give up smoking either. It will still be a delicacy.
To summarize, we can say that absolutely any fish can be smoked. The most important thing is when choosing carcasses, try to ensure that they are the same size. Another condition that is desirable to fulfill reflects the degree of freshness. The less time has passed since the catch, the better.
The principle of the smokehouse
We do not set ourselves the goal of providing all the technology for building a smokehouse yourself, because the dominant theme is the smoking process itself. But we also cannot help but touch on some key points.
The smoke temperature in the smokehouse during cold smoking should not exceed 27°C degrees. There is only one way to cool the smoke - make it travel a significant (2-3 meters) distance.
Factory devices are special cabinets into which smoke is injected. A portable analogue of such a device is called a smoke generator. It uses an electric heater to increase the temperature of the wood chips until they begin to smolder. Using a compressor, the resulting smoke is forced into a special chamber.
It is very convenient to use such a device, but not everyone can afford to buy it. In addition, a homemade smokehouse allows you to feel unity with nature, so not everyone will rush to buy a smoke generator, even if possible.
Set up a smokehouse in the ground. To do this, select a hillock so that the smoke rises, and a hole is dug in the lower part, which will serve as a firebox. The smoke channel is laid in the ground in the form of a small trench. A smoking box is installed on its opposite edge. The top of the trench is covered with improvised means that do not allow smoke to pass through. Such a smokehouse is considered temporary, because to build a permanent device it is necessary to ensure its resistance to climate change.
Preparing wood chips
The whole theory of preparing material for smoking is the result of many practical studies. This includes not only the choice of wood species, but also the method of processing it.
It turned out that chips chopped from hardwood are best suited. Sawdust is quite small, and there is little oxygen in it, and a phenomenon such as pyrolysis of toxic gases requires the presence of air.
In simple words, the use of sawdust is fraught with the release of heavy substances and carcinogens. The chips are cut into small pieces with edges ranging from 1 to 3 centimeters. Such a structure will smolder well, maintaining the desired temperature, and pre-soaking the wood chips in water will prevent it from igniting.
As for the type of wood, much depends on your own preference. But you cannot use coniferous trees, as they contain a lot of resins. For the same reason, it is not recommended to use birch chips, and any other wood must be freed from bark before sawing. You also need to pay attention to wormholes, fungi and knots. It is better not to take material with such “surprises”.
Cold smoked fish will have dark colors if the wood chips are wet. Dry material will give a golden color. The taste of the product depends on the material. Some types of wood require the addition of a flavoring agent. Apple, pear and cherry give an excellent “bouquet” of their own. Beech chips will have to be diluted at the end of smoking with juniper branches. The most popular material is considered to be alder chips, which give excellent results and are inexpensive.
Methods for salting fish
Any fish must be cut before you start salting or marinating. Although there are advice not to cut small fish, most often recipes begin with this step. The entrails are removed from the abdominal cavity along with the black film covering the inner walls. The scales or skin of the fish are not removed.
- Firstly, it retains the juice inside during smoking.
- Secondly, it serves as an obstacle to the penetration of harmful toxins from smoke into the fibers.
The gills are cut out without fail.
Small carcasses can be smoked whole. It is advisable to divide large fish in half along the spine. Alternatively, incisions may be made in the back. Thanks to them, the area of interaction between the fibers and the marinade increases, and the fish can be cooked in a time-saving manner.
There are several step-by-step algorithms for salting fish. They may differ radically from each other, as well as in terms of some small details. We will present the three most popular ways to properly prepare fish before putting it in a smoking box.
- Simple salting involves rubbing the carcasses inside and out with a mixture of salt and pepper. You can include a little more onion in this composition. Then each carcass is placed in a common container, and pressed down with pressure on top. In this state, the fish is salted in the refrigerator for about 12 hours. After this procedure, it is necessary to remove excess salt from the carcasses. The easiest way to do this is by soaking it in water.
- Another recipe allows you to cook fish faster. You need to make a strong salt solution in which the fish is soaked for half an hour. The resulting brine can salt fish at any temperature. The situation is somewhat different with fatty species. After salting, they are wrapped in cling film and placed in the refrigerator for a day.
- Finally, marinating allows you not only to salt carcasses, but also to add the subtle taste of various spices. Fish smoked after marinating does not acquire extra calories, but is filled with a range of flavors. First, water, as the base of the marinade, is heated to boiling point. After this, salt, lemon juice and spices are added. One liter of water contains no more than 50 grams of salt. Lemon helps break down fibers, which allows the marinade to penetrate quickly. In addition, the specific sour taste suits fish smoked with cold smoke. Do not immediately pour hot marinade over the fish. In order not to disturb the structure of the fibers, it will first have to be cooled. Marinating will take no more than 9 hours, after which you can start drying without removing the salt.
Self-cold smoking
The long shelf life of cold smoked fish under the right conditions (stored in the refrigerator, wrapped in parchment) is explained by the high content of antiseptic substances in the smoke.
When smoking yourself, special attention should be paid to constant temperature and continuity of the process. The first requirement is due to the fact that at low temperatures the humidity will be high and the fish will taste bitter. Regarding the second question, the error here is more fatal. If the process is interrupted in the first 8 hours, there is a possibility that a bacterial outbreak will develop, which will lead to rotting of the fish. The rest of the algorithm is quite simple.
It is necessary to build a fire in the firebox. You should not chase the strength of the flame, you just need to achieve a constant temperature. The fish in the smoking box will be ready when it takes on a golden color. Having assessed the degree of readiness, you should remove the fish from the smokehouse and let it air for 12 hours. After this, the dish is served on the table in any desired form.
Smokehouse
Cold smoking - how it works
Cold smoking of fish is based on the preservative effect of smoke components (phenolone, creosote, formaldehyde, acetic acid, etc.), so the shelf life of the product increases to three to four months.
During cold smoking, only moisture evaporates and evaporates from the fish, because it is processed in cold smoke.
Thus, it is immediately dried and smoked, but is not brought to the hardness of dried roach: the smoking process stops somewhere in the middle - when only half of the moisture has evaporated from the fish. Therefore, in a smokehouse it is very important to maintain the consistency and strength of the smoke: it should not be higher than 25-30 degrees. This will protect the smoked fish from losing fat and from drying out.
In cold smoking, cut fish is salted for 12-16 hours, dried, slightly dried, the head is cut off, hung by the tail and smoked in smoke in a barrel for 1-3 days at a temperature of 30-40 °C.
Salting fish for cold smoking is done in the same way as if you wanted to dry the fish. For cold smoking, fish is salted more than for hot smoking.
It is able to retain its qualities for a long time - 2-3 months. If the innards are not removed during smoking, the shelf life of the fish drops sharply.
A day or two after salting, depending on the size of the fish, it is taken out and washed in cold water, then tied into small bundles with string or twine by the tails and hung upside down in the smokehouse.
The most crucial moment is the beginning of smoking. It is highly recommended that before hanging the fish, you “turn on” the smoker and have raw materials to maintain smoke continuously for the first 6-8 hours. In the future, breaks in smoking are no longer so dangerous. However, in order to ensure the progress of smoking, it is, of course, advisable to maintain smoke.
Smoking with cold smoke (25-30 degrees C) lasts 3-4 days, depending on air humidity and the size of the fish.
Small fish weighing 300-500 grams are ready by the end of the second day, the largest ones have to be smoked for up to 6 days.
After smoking is complete, when the fish acquires a golden hue and its meat becomes elastic, it is useful to leave it to hang for another 2-3 days without smoke - it will dry out a little and will be much tastier. Don't overdry! If the finished fish has a dull, smoky appearance or has flying ash stuck to it, wipe it with a cloth slightly moistened with fish oil or sunflower oil, and the smoked fish will shine like bronze.
FEATURES OF HANGING FISH DURING COLD SMOKING
Fish can easily break during the smoking process, so you should hang it very carefully. The easiest way is to string whole fish onto rods. The fish are strung on these rods in the area under the head in the direction from the abdomen to the back (if you string the fish through the eye holes, they quickly fall).
It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the fish are at a certain distance from each other, then the smoke can spread evenly. White spots form where the fish touch each other.
Another method involves the use of hooks placed on transverse rods or stainless steel poles of various configurations.
The hook is inserted into the fish carcass above the head towards the back so that the fish's head is on the hook.
SECRETS OF SMOKING FISH
When smoking, large fish must be flattened and spread with chopsticks. If the fish has tender meat, then it needs to be wrapped in linen or paper.
Smoking should be done depending on the type of fish available.
For trout, pike, carp, and eel, four days are enough, and for salmon, three weeks are needed. Herring is smoked in one day.
COOLING
Once smoking is complete, the fish should be cooled immediately.
The fish is left for a short time hanging on hooks in the smoking oven, with smoke formation completely stopped.
STORAGE
If smoked fish is not intended for immediate sale, it must be stored in a cool place. When storing for many days in a special, clean room, the temperature should, if possible, be 3 degrees. C and remain constant.
In the first three days after smoking, the fish tastes the most pleasant.
You can apply this information in practice using the Smoke Generator "Dymka-HK" 
Equipment for hot smoking workshops
The main equipment of hot-smoked fish shops are smoking ovens of various batch and continuous systems. Ovens for hot smoking fish are built of brick. Batch furnaces are used in two types - chamber and span; continuously operating-tower type. In addition, according to the method of burning fuel, they are in turn divided into hearth furnaces, in which the fuel is burned inside the chamber, and furnaces with an external firebox.
Chamber furnaces there are small and large. Small cabinet-type ovens measuring 1.8×1.3 m, height 2.2 m. Fish are loaded into these ovens on frames. For frames inside the chamber, along the side walls there are strips arranged in several tiers. Roan ovens are common in canneries for producing sprat.
Large ovens with dimensions of 2.5×4 m and a height of 2.3 m are widely used in fish processing enterprises for smoking various types of fish.
Chamber ovens have one door for loading and unloading fish. The doors in the ovens are iron, double-leaf, each door consists of an upper and lower doormat. This makes it possible to open either the entire door or just its lower part. The lower door leaves have openings with valves that serve to regulate the supply of fresh air to the firebox.
The disadvantage of these ovens is the excessive heat loss during cooling of the chamber before unloading the fish, and also the fact that the process of loading and unloading fish from the chambers is not mechanized.
In the new design chambers, the process of loading and unloading fish is mechanized. The fish are first hung in several tiers on metal cages. The cages move along a rail track. The process of loading and unloading fish is accelerated. In addition, fuel combustion in the chambers occurs on movable carts with a grate. The trolleys move on rollers along rails along the entire length of the chamber. This makes it possible to install each cart with fuel anywhere in the chamber and heat the fish evenly.
Each chamber has an exhaust pipe with a damper to regulate smoke draft. The damper is controlled externally and is performed by turning a lever installed at the entrance door of the smoking chamber.
The stoves of a new and more advanced design include Giproryba smoking chambers.
The cells occupy 1.5 or 2 floors. Fireboxes are located in the basement floor, and smoking chambers are located on the ground floor. Three cages are installed in the chamber, each size b/h = 1.7x1x1.6 m.
These chambers (Fig. 26) are additionally heated by steam, which is supplied to heaters located along the partition walls of the chambers. The exhaust smoke is sucked out by a fan in the upper zone of the chamber. The use of steam and artificial ventilation increases the productivity of smoking chambers compared to conventional ones of the same size.
Fly-by cameras They are short tunnels, at the end of which there are doors, the first are used for loading, the second - for unloading stands with wood. This type of smokehouse includes chambers in the Baltics for the mass production of herring tips, sprat production and for direct sale.
Smoking ovens with remote firebox They are tunnels measuring lbh=3x1x2 m, where smoke and heat are supplied by burning fuel in a furnace located next to the chamber. Combustion products enter the lower part of the chamber through holes arranged in two rows in a checkerboard pattern. An exhaust pipe with an exhauster is installed in the upper zone of the chamber. Smoke and heat are regulated by dampers using levers.
Tower smoking ovens have a continuously operating chain conveyor. The conveyor chains are driven by an electric motor and run in a vertical direction, alternating from top to bottom. Fish are hung on the rods of these chains. The chamber is divided by special partitions into three compartments, in which the fish is dried, baked and smoked sequentially.
The air is heated in the heat generator and supplied by a fan to the drying compartment of the chamber. The presence of recirculation and special dampers allows you to maintain optimal temperature, relative humidity and air speed in the drying compartment. Smoke and heat are supplied to the smoking compartment of the chamber through chimneys by burning fuel in a generator located next to the chamber.
The dimensions of the furnace and the speed of the chain are calculated depending on the required productivity.
Loading and unloading of fish occurs continuously in different places of the chamber.
To avoid dousing the fish with fat, prefabricated baking trays are placed under each rack with fish.
Mechanized continuous furnace(Fig. 27) is equipped with an external heat generator and a smoke generator, allowing hot air from the day of drying and baking, as well as hot smoke for smoking fish, to be supplied into the chamber.
Flue gases at a temperature of 65° are supplied to the first compartment of the oven for drying fish.
The flue gases enter the second compartment of the furnace, where the fish was cooked, at a temperature of 150°.
In the third compartment, where the actual smoking is carried out, the temperature of the flue gases and smoke is maintained at about 130°.
When smoking fish, recirculation of flue gases and smoke is provided.
The conveyor speed is controlled by a variator from 0.75 to 2.25 m/min with an average speed of 1.5 m/min.
The chamber is equipped with remote thermometers and thermocouples connected to the control panel.
The smoking chamber has the following indicators:
The semi-production smoking and drying installation, installed according to the scheme of engineer, received a slightly different design. Griliches and Pinaev. The installation speeds up the smoking process, reduces the need for fuel, improves the quality of the finished product and is universal. It can be used to produce hot smoked, baked and hot dried fish.
The installation consists of two units - a smoking-drying oven and a heat generator, connected by a piping system. The movement of flue gases is carried out by a fan using the suction method (Fig. 28). The stove is made of brick. At the bottom of the oven there is a firebox, which is separated from the drying and smoking chamber by a cast iron plate.
Along the ceiling, as well as along the side walls of the chamber on the inside there is an air jacket made of iron to heat the chamber with hot air.
Distribution grids are installed in the upper and lower parts of the chamber, which evenly distribute hot air as it moves in the chamber when drying fish.
The heat generator is made of refractory brick and consists of a firebox, three vertical channels and a cyclops.
The combustion of flue gases occurs in the channels. The cyclone is used to purify gases from suspended solids. During the process of drying and boiling fish, a fan sucks flue gases both from the chamber and from the air jacket.
During the smoking process, the supply of hot gas to the chamber stops. On a stove heated to a temperature of 500-600°. a portion of sawdust is poured in and the chamber is hermetically sealed.
Sawdust falling on a hot stove ignites without air access.
The process of dry distillation of wood occurs, associated with intense smoke release. The combustion of fuel in the conditions of this chamber differs significantly from the combustion conditions in conventional deck smoking ovens. This speeds up the process of smoking fish.
Employees of the online store Koptim.by have prepared recommendations on how to properly marinate mackerel for hot smoking. From the material you will learn how not to make a mistake when choosing a product, as well as two basic recipes for the marinade used to prepare for smoking.
The taste of the smoked delicacy depends on the marinade no less than on the quality of the fish used. For smoking, it is recommended to buy fresh mackerel. Pay attention to the density of the tissues: fresh fish should be elastic, but not slippery. In addition, the fresh product should not have an unpleasant odor.
If fresh fish is not available, you can use a fresh frozen product. If possible, avoid buying fish with a thick layer of ice, because the quality of such a product is difficult to determine.
Preparing the fish
If you are going to marinate fresh frozen mackerel, the product must be slowly defrosted. To do this, place the fish in a deep container and put it in the refrigerator for 1-3 hours (defrosting time depends on the size of the carcasses and the amount of product). Accelerated defrosting in a microwave oven or hot water is not allowed, as this will partially cook the fish. Because of this, when smoked, the product will become soft and lose its presentation.
Mackerel is smoked either whole or after gutting (it is believed that when smoked whole the fish retains its flavor better).
- When smoking whole The carcasses are carefully cleaned of scales, taking care not to damage the skin (otherwise, when smoking, the fish may soften in the smokehouse).
- When smoking after gutting The entrails are first removed from the carcasses and the heads are cut off (optional).
How to marinate mackerel
The marinade is used at the final stage of preparation for heat treatment in a smokehouse. The taste of the finished delicacy depends on the marinade no less than on the quality of the fish. The effect of marinade processing is based on the effect of the sour-salty environment on the product. Let's look at two common mackerel marinade recipes.
Ingredients:
- mackerel carcasses - 1 kg;
- water - 2 l;
- lemon - 1 pc.;
- bay leaf (to taste);
- salt - 220-250 g (glass);
- sugar - 1 glass;
- garlic - 3 cloves;
- black pepper;
- onion peel.
Water is heated in a regular saucepan. After boiling, add sugar, salt, add bay leaves and onion peels. Then add 4-5 teaspoons of lemon juice and chopped garlic. Boil the marinade for 10 minutes, then turn off the stove and let the pan cool.
The fish carcasses are immersed in the cooled liquid so that all the product is hidden in it, and left for about 2 hours.
Then the carcasses are removed and dried until the marinade stops dripping from them. Cooking time: 3-4 hours.
A simple recipe for quickly preparing brine, which makes the product soft, juicy and aromatic.
Ingredients:
- mackerel - 2-3 fish;
- water - 1 l;
- salt and sugar - 50 grams each (about 2 tablespoons);
- pepper (add to taste);
- coriander - 1 tablespoon;
- bay leaf - 5 pcs.;
- carnation.
Place a saucepan with 1 liter of water on the fire and bring to a boil (if necessary, you can heat more or less). When boiling, add sugar and salt. The first ingredient makes the fish tissue softer and helps them absorb spices more deeply; salt forms the salty taste necessary for the smoked delicacy.
Then add the remaining spices. If desired, add any other seasoning.
The product is soaked in the marinade for about 12 hours. If necessary, this time can be increased to a day (when processing a large number of large carcasses).
Immediately before placing a portion of mackerel into the smoking chamber, it must be carefully wiped with a napkin and hung for 2 hours.
Fish marinated according to this recipe turns out juicy, refined, aromatic and acquires a beautiful brown-golden color.
More information about smoking mackerel can be found in the corresponding article.
At home, to prepare hot smoked mackerel, compact smokehouses made of ordinary or stainless steel are used, the lids of which are equipped with a water seal system. They use any gas or electric stove as a heat source...
Types of smoking and homemade smokehouses
Nowadays it is very easy to buy a smoker from a relevant store or even from an online store.
It is not difficult to use purchased smokehouses - firewood is placed in a special compartment, food is placed inside, the door is tightly closed and the fuel is ignited. Some industrial models provide adjustment of cooking time and temperature.
But if you are going to smoke food infrequently, then do you need such a waste of money? Especially if you do not live outside the city all the time, but visit from time to time. And all sorts of bad characters wander around our dachas and try to steal something... In this case, it is more advantageous to make a smokehouse from scrap materials, saving money, showing natural ingenuity and protecting yourself from the possible loss of valuable equipment. In addition, a homemade smokehouse, unlike a purchased one, makes it possible to make improvements to it, change something, experiment with smoking methods - and this is much more exciting. Such a fireplace can be built under a canopy, in a utility room, or in any other place.
By the way, you can smoke food in a Russian stove, if you happen to have one in the house.
The smoking process, strictly speaking, involves keeping the smoked product in smoke, the source of which is smoldering pieces of wood of various species. There are hot, semi-hot and cold smoking.
With hot smoking, the process occurs quite quickly. With this method, the product is cooked in hot smoke. There are smoldering wood chips below, fish or meat (or cheese, or vegetables) are suspended above them - and the product is brought to readiness quite quickly. For meat, the smoke should be at a temperature of +80–100 °C, for fish - +100–140 °C.
Low-fat products are better suited for hot smoking (the fat will melt at this temperature anyway, so why waste it?). For example, fish from the sturgeon family (preferably stellate sturgeon), salmon, bream, asp, whitefish, sea bass, herring, and cod are taken. Small fish are also tasty: herring, sprat, vendace, which are cooked at a temperature of +50–60 °C.
It should be remembered that both meat and hot smoked fish are not stored for a long time; the fish must be eaten within 1–2 days.
Cold smoking can last several days and is a much more labor-intensive process. In fact, this is an accelerated process of drying the product. To cool the smoke, they usually make a ditch or stretch a pipe a meter or two long from the place where the wood is smoldering to the product being cooked. And to find out the temperature of the smoke, a thermometer is attached to the smoking chamber. The temperature for cold smoking of meat should be +15–25 °C, for fish - from +20 to 40 °C.
For cold smoking, roach, ram, bream, mullet, omul, as well as a variety of balyks, mainly from white fish, nelma, muksun, sturgeon and Far Eastern salmon, are suitable. Oily fish (eel, for example) are excellent. Cold smoked fish, due to dehydration and increased salinity, can be stored for a long time, but still not for very long - it will dry out and become tasteless.
Semi-hot smoking is intermediate between these two options.
You can smoke not only meat or fish, but also barley malt (for whiskey and beer), certain types of tea (lapsang souchong), hot chili peppers and cheeses. Once upon a time, peasants simply hung heads of Italian provola cheese over the fireplace, and it acquired its famous smoky taste. And Mexican cuisine is simply unthinkable without dried and smoked chipotle peppers - light brown, with a characteristic smoky aroma, in which shades of chocolate and tobacco are noticeable.
In principle, to create a smokehouse you can use almost any bucket, large pan, small metal barrel, refrigerator body, etc. The main conditions: it must close tightly and not release any harmful substances into the container itself when heated.
In homemade small smokehouses, you usually heat the bottom of the smokehouse over a fire, on a stove, gas stove, or something similar. If the container is large enough (for example, the body of a refrigerator), then the heater is installed directly in it. In this case, it is convenient to use electric heaters (electric stoves with a closed spiral) with frying pans with wood chips installed on them. They do not require access to oxygen to heat them and they do not take up much space in the smokehouse, unlike potbelly stoves. The smokehouse must provide a stable operating temperature and smooth cooling.
Hot smoking
The simplest portable smokehouse.
The most primitive smoking oven is a chimney pipe of a square or round shape and sufficient width to accommodate the product being prepared. Such a pipe can be made from available materials; wooden or iron barrels and buckets without a bottom, boxes, old water heaters, and cans are suitable here.
Rice. 1. The simplest smokehouse from an iron box:
1 - bricks; 2 - metal box; 3 - corners; 4 - lattice or rod with hooks; 5 - semi-finished meat products; 6 - burlap blanket; 7 - pallet; 8 - grate; 9 - firewood in the firebox.
As in a conventional oven, a “grid” is arranged to delay the flame: a number of small stones are placed on a grate of metal rods. The stove-pipe itself is installed above the grate. In the oven, fish or meat is hung on wires, hooks or laid out on a wire rack. At the same time, make sure that the products do not touch the walls or each other.
At the bottom of the smokehouse, under the grates or hooks, place a baking sheet on which the dripping fat will accumulate.
Home smokehouse. This is actually a version of the stove. The main thing in it is a sealed smoke-generating chamber, which can be made of brick or welded from sheets of metal. For greater density, it is better to coat it with a special clay solution. Wood (fuel) is placed in the smoke generator chamber, filling it entirely. Then the oven chamber is closed and the process of smoldering logs or shavings continues for 4–5 hours. After this, the desired dish is ready.
Rice. 2. Stationary home smokehouse:
1 - firebox; 2 - stones; 3 - brick; 4 - gratings; 5 - cover.
Smokehouse in the attic. The easiest way is to smoke food in a chimney, in which special hooks are installed (to strengthen small hams, brisket, sausages, etc.) and dampers to regulate the intensity of the smoke.
At the same time, they maintain the weakest fire in the stove and burn it with hardwood wood.
A more complex method is to install a small smokehouse in the form of a cabinet with a door in the attic made of bricks and boards, lined with iron on the inside. The smokehouse must be adjacent directly to the chimney pipe and be connected to it at the bottom (for smoke entry) and at the top (for smoke exit) with two openings with dampers. In such a smokehouse, products are placed on crossbars.
Smokehouse from a barrel. The barrel can be either wooden or metal, depending on the type of intended smoking. The bottom of the barrel is removed and placed on bricks. Chips will smolder between the bricks, and on both sides it is necessary to provide the ability to remove the bricks in order to regulate the air flow. From the inside, nails or hooks are driven higher into the wooden barrel, on which the product for smoking will be hung. The top of the barrel must be covered with damp, thick matting.
Rice. 3. Smokehouse from a barrel: a - general view; b - horizontal section.
Instead of nails or hooks, you can use a grate (like a barbecue) with hooks that cling to the top of the barrel. For a metal barrel this will be the only solution. The top of the metal barrel is closed with a tight lid.
Smokehouse made of two barrels. They take two barrels and place one on top of the other. In the upper barrel, at a distance of about 10 cm from the edge, transverse crossbars are attached, on which sticks with products suspended on them or a grate can be placed. An entrance is made in the lower barrel to add fuel. A sawdust fire is lit on the ground under a barrel. The top barrel is covered with a lid with a hole (to allow smoke to pass through) or burlap (to trap smoke).
Smokehouse from a tank. You need a stainless steel tank, purchased or even homemade. On the street, a gas or electric stove is placed under it, and a tank is placed on it. Chips, coals, and logs of trees are placed inside the tank, and meat or fish is hung in the upper part. You can put thick foil or a sheet of metal on the firewood to prevent grease from the food from dripping onto the smoldering firewood and creating soot. You can also cut out the bottom of the tank and place it on a container with coals that will smolder.
Rice. 4. Smokehouse from tank:
1 - container with coals, closed with a grate; 2 - cover; 3 - grid for products with hooks.
The simplest travel device. You need a sheet of roofing iron and an old enamel tank, in which you need to make several holes. You also need to make a grid around the diameter of the tank (like a mesh on a tennis racket) from wire and metal posts, or install a metal sieve on a metal stand. If there are bricks, then a fire is made between them, and a sheet of iron is placed on the bricks; if there are no bricks, then a fire is made in a pit, and the sheet is placed on the ground. The wood chips or coals that will smolder are placed on the iron sheet. A sieve with fish or pieces of meat is placed on top, and the entire structure is covered with a leaky tank. If there are gaps between the sheet of iron and the tank, they are sprinkled with sand or other material.
Rice. 5. The simplest traveling device:
1 - fire; 2 - smoking container; 3 - cover with weight; 4 - sawdust; 5 - mesh, lattice.
Bucket smokehouse. It is quite suitable if there are few products. Wood chips are poured into the bottom of a bucket or similar container, which will be a source of smoking smoke, and several holes are made in the upper part of the bucket for rods with hooks (food will be hung on them). Or you can not make holes, but hang a grate on the bucket, on which you can place the food. A small hole should be made in the top of the smokehouse to allow smoke to escape. A tight lid is a must.
Rice. 6. Bucket smoker:
1 - sawdust; 2 - grate; 3 - tight lid.
Smokehouse in the ground. A hole is being dug. Several layers should fit in it: a layer of coals, a layer of fresh branches on top of it, a mesh or skewers with food will be placed 10–15 cm above, and there should be another 10 centimeters to the surface of the ground. All this will be covered with a tarpaulin or other dense fabric. The size of the chamber in the ground depends on your desire. As a result, a fire is lit below, then coals or branches are poured there, which are supposed to smolder (you need to make sure that there is no open fire), a grate is placed higher or skewers are stuck into the walls of the pit. The top of the smokehouse is covered with a tarpaulin or other dense fabric. The purpose of shelter is to prevent the fire from burning. To prevent the fire from going out completely, you can occasionally raise the canopy.
Cold smoking
With it, the main task is to get cold smoke from burning wood (alder, juniper, oak, maple, apple tree, pear, etc.), that is, you will need some distance from the smoke to the food so that it has time to cool. And it is necessary to ensure draft from the firebox to the smokehouse. That is why they make a long enough chimney and make sure that it has good draft.
The simplest stationary outdoor smokehouse. A channel 2.5–3 meters long is dug for it, and its walls are lined with bricks so that the earth does not crumble. By the way, you cannot use sand-lime brick; when heated, it emits harmful gases. The canal is covered from above with a metal sheet and covered with a 15 cm layer of earth.
Rice. 7. The simplest stationary outdoor smokehouse:
1 - fire; 2 - slate; 3 - bricks; 4 - smoking container; 5 - grid for fastening rods
Two holes are made in the furnace channel: one in the front, the other in the back. The front hole is intended for placing firewood during smoking, and the smoking chamber is installed in the rear hole. For the smokehouse itself, you can take any old barrel (wooden or iron), a small hollow tank, or anything else suitable. You can even build a stationary smoking chamber out of brick. When smoking food, the top of the oven is covered with a thick cloth.
You can install an inclined metal umbrella over the smoking chamber, which will prevent the formation of condensation.
Camping smokehouse in the ground. It is done on the slopes of steep hills, cliffs and similar places on the windward side. They dig a trench 2–3 m long along the hillside, cover it on top with sticks, branches and cover it with removed turf. A smoking chamber is installed at the other end of the chimney. It can be made from thick plastic film, since the smoke temperature will be low. At the bottom, the film is pressed to the ground with stones or sprinkled with earth/sand so that there are no gaps left. In the upper part of the resulting booth you need to make an exhaust slot. On one side of the trench they make a fire and burn a lot of coals. Many branches are placed on top of the coals. Cover everything tightly with a piece of tarpaulin or something similar, leaving a gap at the bottom to create a draft. The draft should be such that the coals do not go out, but not so strong that a flame is formed.
Rice. 8. Stationary smokehouse in the ground:
1 - fire; 2 - smoking chamber
Rice. 9. Camping smokehouse in the ground:
1 - fire; 2 - smoke; 3 - smoking chamber
Smokehouse from an old refrigerator. The refrigerator body will act as a smoking chamber. You can put a very low-power electric stove in it (or a soldering iron, or a device for children's burning). Smoke chips or coals will be poured onto it. To check the temperature of the smoke (not higher than 35 degrees), install a temperature sensor. The iron grates-shelves of the refrigerator will serve as a place for prepared foods.
Rice. 10. Smokehouse from an old refrigerator:
1 - stove; 2 - pipe with cooler; 3 - smoking chamber; 4 - smoke exhaust fan
If you want to make a smoking chamber separately from the heating one, then you can take 2-3-4 m (optional) of galvanized pipe and connect it to the refrigerator. The pipe can be buried in the ground, if you want to make a permanent installation, it is through the pipe that the gradually cooling smoke from the smoldering fire will flow.
Smoking in a polyethylene bag. You need to take 2 m of two-layer polyethylene film, used by gardeners and gardeners. Sew up one of the end sides to make a bag. On the street (while fishing, on vacation or just in the garden), choose a flat area and drive stakes 2 m high into the ground 30 centimeters in the corners of a 1 by 1 meter square. The stakes are fastened on top with sticks crosswise - this will be the frame of the smokehouse. The prepared product is hung from the sticks from above.
Coals for smoking are lit in advance, to the side, so that there is no fire under the polyethylene (you can buy them now). The film is stretched halfway over the frame, coals are poured from below and covered with fresh grass. The film is lowered to the bottom and pressed with stones or sand to the ground so that there are no gaps. Smoke fills the bag completely. From time to time, check whether flames have broken out from under the grass, and add more if necessary.
For fish, two passes of 1.5–2 hours are enough. Large fish can be smoked again the next day.
Semi-hot smoking
It, as the name implies, is intermediate between hot and cold smoking. The structure of the smokehouse with it is almost the same as with the cold one, but the smoke temperature is higher, somewhere around +50–60 °C. Consequently, the length of the smoke pipe should be shorter, and the draft in it should be higher. The smoking process itself takes about a day.
The smoking chamber can be equipped at the end of the pipe of a conventional potbelly stove in the form of a wide box (bell) without a lid. When smoking, the products are placed in the area where the smoke exits the chimney, but so that the smoke already begins to mix with the air in this place.
The shelf life of products using this method is several weeks.
Variations on a theme
Smoking on the stove. You will need a rectangular metal box. Sawdust is poured onto its bottom, and a tray with legs is placed on top (to collect fat). A tin trough is attached to the outside around the perimeter, into which water is poured before smoking. The lid should be slightly larger than the box (it should lie in the middle of the gutter). You need to attach hooks to it, from which the product is suspended. In the middle of the lid you can attach a tube onto which a rubber hose is placed to vent smoke out the window. This smokehouse should be kept on the lowest heat. In 1–1.5 hours the product will be ready.
Rice. eleven. Smoking on a stove in an apartment:
1 - smokehouse body; 2 - cover; 3 - smoke outlet tube; 4 - grate; 5 - tray for collecting fat; 6 - sawdust; 7 - sides for the grate and a tray for collecting fat; 8 - products for smoking; 9 - flexible hose for removing smoke into the window; 10 - source of fire.
With a smoked taste. You need a frying pan with high sides, food foil, and spices. Oak sawdust is poured onto the bottom of the frying pan (you can experiment with different types of wood) and covered with foil with holes made in it. The frying pan is placed on the fire. When a light smoke begins to curl, fish, pieces of meat or chicken are placed on the foil.
Everything is covered with a heavy lid on top and the cracks are also covered with a wet napkin. Gas is set to minimum. Smoking takes 10 minutes. You just need to know that it’s better to open the window and that you won’t be able to smoke the food until it’s ready; then you need to finish frying it in another frying pan. But they will have a smoked taste.
To prepare smoked fish in the same way, but with an “oriental” flavor, you need to mix rice, dry black tea and sugar (for 2 tablespoons of tea - 1 tablespoon of white rice and 1 teaspoon of sugar). This mixture is used instead of smoking sawdust in a frying pan. It is covered with holey foil, pieces of fish are placed on the foil, everything is covered with a heavy lid and a wet napkin, smoked for 10 minutes and finished frying in another frying pan.
Chinese version. A piece of hot iron or hot charcoal is placed in a metal dish, covered with a layer of sawdust, a thin layer of granulated sugar is poured on top, a metal sieve is placed (it should not come into contact with sawdust), food is placed on it and the dish is covered with a heavy metal lid. Peanut shells, dry tea leaves (after brewing), bamboo leaves, coniferous tree branches, fennel, and cinnamon are often added to sawdust.
Special smoking packages that have appeared on sale are also designed according to the “Chinese” principle. Alder sawdust is placed in the double bottom of such a “bag” made of foil with holes. Place meat or fish into the bag, seal it tightly and place it in an oven preheated to +275–350 °C. In about an hour the product is ready.
Recently, home smoking has become more and more popular. You can smoke meat, poultry, lard, cheeses, but fish is especially popular. It is the one most often chosen by both novice cooks and experienced smokers. Home cold smoking of fish preserves all its beneficial properties and increases the shelf life of the product. With this cooking method, the smoke temperature does not rise above 30 ºС. This means that vitamins and other beneficial substances will be saved from thermal destruction.
Home cold smoked fish
Cold smoked fish prepared at home retains both taste and benefits. It does not contain artificial colors, preservatives or other “chemicals”. But to get a real delicacy, you need to know how to properly prepare fish for smoking:
- Rinse
- disembowel
- butcher
- pickle
- dry.
The preparation process may vary slightly depending on the type of fish. Thus, salmon scales do not need to be completely removed. And the carcasses of small fish are not gutted or cut up.
What you need to know about pickling
Prepared fish must be salted. To do this, use one of two methods:
Wet salting requires the preparation of a salt solution. The following rule applies here: 
The higher the brine concentration, the shorter the time required for salting the food. If you don’t have time to wait, you can soak the fish for 1.5-2 hours in a 30% solution. To prepare it, you will need 300 grams of salt per liter of water.
Another option is to leave the fish in a 5% salt solution for 12 hours. During this time, the product will salt well and evenly. To prepare such a brine, you will need 50 grams of salt (about 2 tablespoons) per liter of water.
Depending on the breed of fish, the salting technology differs. It is better to soak large carcasses and pieces in brine, and small fish can simply be sprinkled with salt (dry method). Often, spices suitable for a specific type of fish, soy sauce or wine are added to the brine.
How to properly organize smoking
To make the fish really tasty, you need to remember some tricks.
1. After the salting stage, drying is mandatory.
The fish must enter the smoking chamber completely dry.
To do this, the prepared carcasses and pieces are hung indoors away from sunlight for about a day to dry out a little. Wet fish will "soak up" the ash, making it taste bitter.
2. Correct placement of products in the smoking chamber is half the success.
Salted and dried fish is ready for smoking. You need to hang it on hooks in the smoking chamber or using twine. For small fish, place the tail down by the gills, and for large fish, a hole is made at the base of the tail. It is important to hang the food so that the smoke entering the smoking chamber can smoothly and evenly “smoke” each carcass.
3. Remember the smoke temperature! 
Cold smoking is not called cold smoking for nothing. Products with this cooking method are smoked in smoke at temperatures up to 30 ºС. And this needs to be especially monitored. If the smoke temperature rises higher than necessary, the fish will turn out too dry and tasteless.
4. Smoking duration.
It is impossible to say with certainty how long the smoking will last. It all depends on the technology for preparing the fish, the size of the carcasses (and/or individual pieces). It takes 2-3 days to cook small fish weighing no more than 0.5 kg. Medium carcasses are smoked for at least 4 days, and large ones - up to a week.
You can tell that the delicacy is ready by the uniform golden color of the fish. But you shouldn’t rely on the smell: after the smoking is finished, the fish needs to be “ventilated”. Only after hanging for a day in a dry room will it acquire that same indescribable, mouth-watering smoky smell that everyone loves smoked fish so much for.
Even those who are new to this method of cooking meat can smoke cold smoked fish without any problems. The main thing is to follow all the advice, from purchasing products to treating them with smoke.
What fish is suitable for cold smoking? Can be used both fresh and chilled and frozen, freshwater and sea.
The freshness levels of different types of fish may vary slightly. But in general, the following signs indicate high-quality fresh fish: the color of the gills is bright red, the smell is without “odor,” the eyes are bulging, glossy, the flesh is not flabby, elastic, and adheres tightly to the bones.
Important! If you want to make cold-smoked fish correctly, tasty and safe for health, refuse to purchase if you notice a faded color, cloudy eyes, smell an unpleasant odor, or if you are alarmed by the flabby consistency.
Preparing fish for cold smoking at home includes the following operations:
- defrosting (for frozen raw materials);
- cleaning scales (if semi-finished products for smoking are used without them);
- gutting;
- cutting;
- washing;
- drying.
If frozen raw materials are used, they are defrosted in water or in air at a temperature not exceeding 20 °C. Otherwise, the flesh will become flabby, and the quality of the smoked meat will suffer as a result. You can combine thawing with salting if the raw materials do not require processing.
To smoke fish in a cold smokehouse, specimens with large scales are first cleaned against the growth of the scales with a fish scaler scraper or a knife. If the scales are small, then you can leave them (for example, in salmon).
Some fish species are skinned (u, sometimes u or u).
If there are spiny fins, it is advisable to remove them so as not to injure yourself during further processing.
Semi-finished products for cold smoked fish can be prepared in the following types:
- ungutted;
- whole carcasses with heads;
- gilled (with gills removed);
- chilled;
- whole carcasses without heads;
- in the form of a beam back;
- in layers;
- half layers;
- in pieces;
- in the form of fillet.
Small specimens of fish are used ungutted.
For the rest, for gutting, a cut is made along the abdomen between the pectoral fins, starting from the head to the anal fin. Through the resulting incision, the insides are carefully removed so as not to crush the gallbladder. They clean the abdominal cavity, removing blood clots and dark film.
For fish used with the head, the gills (gills) can be cut out, since microbes multiply quickly in them, causing the fish to spoil.
In some species, the pectoral fins are cut out, capturing part of the abdomen. The insides are pulled out through the resulting hole. This type of cutting is called chilled.
For large fish, the head is cut off at an angle of 90°.
To obtain a layer with the head, cut through the flesh from the back, cut the rib bones, cut the head lengthwise into 2 parts, and unfold the carcass like a book. Remove the entrails. The head can be removed.
To get a fillet, cut off the head and use a sharp knife to cut off the top layer along the spine. The lower layer remains with the spine. They cut it from the vertebrae, you get 2 fillets with skin and rib bones. Additionally, you can remove the rib bones and also remove the skin.
It is allowed to prepare semi-finished balyk for smoking. The jaw of the fish is cut off with the lower part of the abdomen in such a way that most of the mass of these semi-finished products is the flesh of the back.
Pieces of large fish are cut from unskinned fish and from fillets with skin, at least 15 cm long.
After cutting, the carcasses are washed under cold water, placed on napkins and blotted off the moisture.
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For salting, use medium-ground salt. Too coarse salt will not stick well to the carcass. Too fine will quickly form a crust and will not penetrate into the inner layers of the fish, which is why it can quickly deteriorate. You should not take iodized one: it causes rapid spoilage of the fish.
Most often they only salt with salt. For fish with a specific smell (algae, mud), prepare a curing mixture with the addition of ground black pepper, ground white pepper, powdered garlic, cloves, bay leaf, and powdered onion.
Important! Fish of different types and sizes are salted separately, as they require different times.
During the salting process, the pulp ripens and new taste and aroma appear.
Utensils made of stainless steel, enamel, wood, plastic, and ceramic are suitable for salting. Its dimensions depend on the size of the fish. It must be taken into account that the carcasses must be salted in a straightened form.
Wet Ambassador
It is called brine. Carcasses weighing 300-500 g (white bream, perch, etc.) are best suited for this salting.
To prepare the brine, place salt in a bowl and add hot water, stirring until completely dissolved. The concentration depends on the type of fish and its size (from 10% and above). Salts are taken from 100 g or more per 1 liter of water.
The fish is placed in a container and brine is poured so that the carcass is completely immersed in it. You can press it down with a wooden circle and place pressure on it. Place in the cold at a temperature of 2-4 °C. Salting time can vary from several hours to several days.
You can salt only with the addition of salt or add various components, depending on the type of fish and individual taste.
For example, salmon is salted using the brine method. Ingredients such as lemon balm, white pepper, a portion of rum, brown sugar, and cloves are additionally added to the fish brine.
Fatty sea fish (, oil fish) are salted with slack salting. This is a type of wet salting. The carcasses are hung in a container and in this state are filled with brine, covered with a lid and left to salt.
In hot weather, fish can be squirted with a salty solution to prevent it from spoiling, then salted with wet salting.
If the brine in the pickling container has become cloudy and shows signs of fermentation, then the fish cannot be used; it is thrown away.
The salting solution cannot be used twice. Fresh brine is prepared for the next batch of fish.
Before smoking, the fish is left to dry and dry under natural conditions - outside, in a well-ventilated place, but without sharp drafts - for a period of 4-8 hours to 3-4 days, depending on weight and fat content. As a result, the surface should dry out, the meat will become denser, and the fins will become tougher. Fish exposed to a draft may become tough.
If this operation is not carried out, then during cold smoking, smoke substances will settle on the wet surface of the products and the finished product will turn out bitter.
Important! The exception is eel. They are not dried before smoking.
Carcasses and semi-finished products are dressed in different ways. You can pierce a small fish in the eye area, thread it with string or wire and hang it in rows. Larger carcasses are hung by the gills or by the caudal fin. Particularly large ones are tied with twine, crossing it in several places. Metal hooks are used for convenience.
Important! Do not use paper twine; it may not withstand the temperature during smoking.
You can use salted fish bought in a store for cold smoking. For example, it will do. Its entrails are first removed and washed well. If the herring is heavily salted, then you can soak it for 2-3 hours in cold water or milk and dry it.
Dry salting
This salting involves treating the fish with salt or a mixture of salt and pepper, under the influence of which the juice is pressed out and the product is dehydrated.
Place the small fish on the table, sprinkle salt on top and mix with your hands. Place in a bowl, sprinkle with salting mixture, and add a 1-2 cm layer of salt on top, press down with pressure.
Large fish are processed by rubbing the salting mixture on the outside against the growth of scales, and on the inside, not forgetting to salt the spine. Carcasses with the head are salted especially carefully - the gill covers are lifted and salt is poured under them. Then they put it in a container or use polyethylene bags and cling film.
If a large amount of medium or large fish is salted, then lay it belly up, alternating the carcasses head to tail and sprinkling the rows with salt.
The container with salted fish is placed in the cold at a temperature of 2-4 °C.
The duration of salting ranges from several hours to 2-7 days. The timing depends on the type of fish and semi-finished products - whole carcasses, layers, fillets, the degree of fat content and the size. For example, fillets can be salted in 5-8 hours.
Combined Ambassador
This salting is used to prepare medium-sized, cold-smoked fish, not gutted. A small amount of brine is poured into the container and the fish is placed in it, sprinkled with salt. Place the oppression and leave it in a cold place.
Well-salted fish should become firm.
If necessary, the salted product is washed with cold water and soaked at a water temperature of 12-15 °C. You can get by by wiping the surface with paper or linen napkins.
A large amount of salt on the surface of the semi-finished product can lead to defects such as brine. These are the protruding crystals on the finished product.
Spacers made of branches or wooden sticks are inserted into the abdominal cavity of the carcasses so that the products are better dried and smoked.
Selection of wood materials
Experts do not recommend using coniferous wood for smoking. The best are considered to be tyrsa, twigs, chips or sawdust from alder, oak, aspen, ash, chestnut, hornbeam, grapes, apricot, cherry, pear, juniper, heather. Avid smokers claim that old alder and aspen stumps are good wood. Some gourmets add herbs (wormwood, Bogorodskaya grass, sage), fresh meadow grass hay, and citrus zest. Dill is placed in the belly of the fish to enhance the aroma.
Important! When choosing wood, pay attention to whether it has mold, bugs, or midges. Such wood chips should not be used for smoking.
Choosing a smokehouse
Smokehouses are used both industrially and homemade. They can be stationary and mobile.
Smoking with a smoke generator
You can smoke cold smoked fish using a smoke generator. You can buy it in a store or. The advantages of a smoke generator are undeniable:
- you can refuse bulky smokehouses;
- it is used for both hot and cold smoking;
- you don’t need to be nearby all the time, it automatically regulates the flow of smoke into the processing chamber;
- mobile, lightweight, you can take it with you wherever you want and cold smoke fish wherever you want;
- saves the amount of wood materials - wood chips, sawdust.
These devices are simple and convenient to use. Wood with a moisture content of no more than 14% is placed in the smoke generator housing. A tube connects it to the processing chamber. . Smoke is pumped into the chamber of the smokehouse for cold smoked fish and the products, under the influence of heat and smoke components, acquire new smoking tastes.
The latest generation of smoke generators is equipped with a multi-stage smoke purification system, which allows you to obtain environmentally friendly, harmless smoked fish.
Homemade smokehouse
Using the advice of smoking professionals, you can make a smokehouse for cold smoked fish with your own hands.
Usually, for the processing chamber, they take old refrigerators, cabinets, metal barrels, washing machines, or build a structure made of brick or wood. The chamber is connected by a chimney pipe, the length of which is from 4 to 8 m, with a firebox in which a fire is lit. Passing from the firebox to the chamber, the smoke is cooled to the desired temperature, enters the lower part, enveloping the products, saturating them with smoking substances and heating them.
Such a DIY smokehouse will allow you to prepare smoked products that are not inferior in quality to store-bought ones, as well as to those prepared in industrial smokehouses.
Smokehouse for one-time smoking of fish
Disposable smokers are very easy to use. Most often, cold smoked river fish is prepared with them while fishing.
The kit may include alder chips, salt, pepper, and most importantly - trays. Wood chips are placed in an even layer in a large tray, a second tray is placed on top - perforated (with holes), fish is placed in it, covered with a lid and placed over the coals. To prevent the fish from being cooked, increase the distance to the coals. You can use a stand for the Taganka.
One set includes smokers - 3 pieces, each for 1 serving of fish.
If, while fishing, you didn’t have anything to create a smokehouse in your trunk or backpack, you can build a smokehouse from whatever is at hand. Since the temperature in the cold smoking chamber is not high, you can use various available materials to arrange it - for example, a two-layer polyethylene film is stretched over racks of poles (170 cm high), and the ceiling is covered with burlap. They dig a hole in which to build a fire, and dig a shallow trench from it instead of a chimney. Metal sheets and turf are placed on the trench to prevent smoke loss during smoking.
Cold smoking method
During the smoking process, moisture is removed first from the surface of the semi-finished product, and then from the internal layers. The fish becomes dehydrated and becomes denser. The fact that the products are cooked at low temperatures leaves the fish proteins not curdled, so the flesh does not soften, as with the hot method, and does not crumble when slicing. During this type of smoking, fat does not melt, but is distributed inside the pulp and on the surface of the product. This makes them juicy.
The types of smoking apparatus and features of the technology for cold smoking fish are discussed above.
For smoking, fish of the same size and type are loaded into the chamber so that it is evenly smoked and at the same time reaches culinary readiness. Place them on grates (preferably with their backs down or skin-side down if they are layers) or hung on hooks. Leave gaps between products of at least 1 cm. Before loading, the grate can be greased with edible fat so that the products do not stick.
If 2 or more gratings are installed, the distance between them should be at least 10 cm.
Add smoke and close the lid.
Smoking is carried out at a temperature of 20-25 °C. At the end of smoking, you can raise it to 30-35 °C. The temperature is checked using a thermometer. The processing mode depends on the type of raw material.
The time for smoking fish in a cold smokehouse can last from 18-20 hours to 4-5 days. Larger and fattier specimens take longer to smoke.
The readiness of products is determined organoleptically by consistency, color, taste and smell. Towards the end of the process, the color becomes golden yellow, the consistency becomes dense, the taste and smell become with pronounced notes of smoke.
It is allowed to leave the finished products in the smokehouse for a while to cool by opening the lid or door and stopping heating. After cooling, the fish is hung under natural conditions to ventilate from excessive smoke aromas and to ripen the flesh from several hours to 2-3 days. Choose a place with good ventilation and no direct sunlight. If smoked meats are exposed to air, they will become tough.
You need to make sure that flies do not land on the fish. The larvae they may deposit on the product can be harmful to those who try the smoked meat.
The smoky matte surface of the finished products can be wiped with a cloth dipped in sunflower oil.
The shelf life of cold smoked fish at a temperature of 2-4 °C is 2 weeks. For longer storage, products are placed in vacuum packaging or frozen. The peculiarity of smoked fish is that during storage they lose their pronounced taste. It's better to eat them quickly.
During storage, the head and flesh near the spine begin to deteriorate first. If foreign odors appear in these places, do not risk eating the product.
Summarize. To get the most out of cooking cold smoked fish:
- Use only fresh, high-quality raw materials, do not buy “smelly” fish, the freshness of which you doubt.
- Most often, mackerel is chosen for cold smoking, but you can experiment with any freshwater or sea fish.
- Do not cold smoke fish that has been frozen twice.
- Do not salt or smoke fish of different sizes and families together, as they require different cooking times.
- Leave gaps between the products placed in the smokehouse, otherwise the side surface of the products will be poorly smoked.
- During the smoking process, open the smoker as little as possible, as this increases the cooking time.
- Observe the temperature regime for cold smoking: when the temperature increases, the fish becomes boiled very quickly.
- Do not stack products on top of each other for storage, otherwise stains may appear at the points of contact, worsening the appearance.
- When storing in the refrigerator, remember: smoked meats easily give off their aromas to other products - for example, butter, cheese, cottage cheese, and ready-made dishes. Therefore, it is better to store smoked meats in packaging.
- Serve as a cold appetizer, add to assorted fish, use for stuffing eggs, making sandwiches, complement the serving with boiled potatoes, lemon, and olives. Before serving, smoked fish can be slightly heated, then the flesh will be easier to separate from the bones, the fat will become liquid, and the surface will be glossy.
Get delicious smoked fish products without preservatives or chemical additives, enjoy the aroma of smoke and good company ready to appreciate your efforts.
Smoked fish prepared using the cold smoking method will be a tasty treat for any table. This method involves processing with smoke at a temperature not exceeding 30°C, as a result of which the fish retains all valuable substances, including fish oil, remains soft and exceptionally tasty.
Some people think this process is too long and troublesome, however, this is a misconception. Just a few hours and you will get high-quality cooked fish that can be stored for a long time. We will tell you how to smoke fish at home in a cold smokehouse and what you will need for this.
Fish selection
Not all types of fish are suitable for cold smoking; preference is given to fatty ones - beluga, sturgeon, mackerel, salmon, cod, pike perch, silver carp and carp. You can smoke balyk pieces of salmon and sturgeon.
The maximum cold smoking temperature is 30°C. If you do less, the fish will remain raw, which can result in poisoning. If you do more, you will dry it out, and it will receive a large dose of the carcinogen. Cold smoking is an opportunity to preserve all the nutrients in fish, making it possible to give it even to children.
Processing stages
Conventionally, processing is divided into several stages:
- ambassador;
- soaking;
- drying;
- smoking.
How to salt and cook cold smoked fish yourself:
There are 2 main methods of salting before smoking - dry and wet. Moreover, regardless of which one is chosen, the fish can be smoked in a homemade smokehouse or factory equipment, which is purchased in a professional store.
Preparatory procedure
Preparation begins with cutting and cleaning the fish carcass. First, the fish is gutted very carefully. Those who have already gotten their hands full can pull out all the insides in one motion. You can learn to do this too.
Make a cut with a very sharp knife in the throat area exactly between the fins and pull it down 3 cm. It should end literally a centimeter before the gills. Using the blunt side of the blade, pry up the innards in the cut and pull them out carefully and slowly so as not to tear the intestines. Ideally, all the insides are removed at once.
Removing fish entrails
If the shoulder girdle is not removed, blood will be released during smoking and leave dark marks on the carcass. This doesn’t affect the taste, but you definitely can’t call it beautiful.
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Before smoking, you should salt the fish. There are two types of salting - wet, dry. Small fish are sprinkled with salt and spices (dry salting), and large fish are subject to wet salting. It is believed that this method allows the fish to be salted completely and evenly.
In essence, wet salting is marinating in brine (saline solution). Depending on its concentration, the soaking time is selected.
Per liter of water, 50-80 grams of salt, this results in a 5-8% brine solution, in which the fish is marinated for 12 hours.
Per liter of water 270-330 grams of salt - 27-33% brine solution, where the fish is kept for no more than 2 hours.
Spices for cooking
Experienced fishermen advise using a variety of spices to add piquancy to the taste, as well as neutralize the specific aroma of some fish. This could be pepper, coriander, thyme, fennel. You can buy ready-made preparations for fish, and also use herbs.
After the fish has been soaked in the solution, it is washed, cut into pieces, bandaged and completely dried. Before smoking, medium carcasses are cut into pieces or fragmented.
In a cold smoked smokehouse, any fish is smoked only dry! Wet fish does not absorb smoke!
Smoking
A special place is equipped for the smoking procedure. When fishing, fishermen build dugouts, tents, and sheds or other outbuildings are suitable for houses. Crossbars are placed in the room on which the fish is hung upside down.
To build a fire, take various basins and buckets and place them under the fish. A fire is built in containers, and then pieces of rotten wood and sawdust are added to the smoldering coals in order to create and maintain smoke. It is with its help that the smoking process will take place.
The smoke supply is maintained for the first eight hours. You need to stock up on fuel in advance, rotten deciduous trees are best. The fire should be controlled from ignition; it should smolder, emitting a large amount of smoke.
Smoking time
Carcasses of small sizes and weight up to 500 g. smoked for about two days, and average ones can take four days. For a large specimen, a week should be set aside for smoking in a designated place. After completion, the carcasses remain in the smokehouse for another two days according to the technology of the manufacturing process. In this process, a pleasant, rich aroma is acquired, the carcasses become golden in color and are fully dried. But the longer the fish hangs, the better its taste. Large individuals can hang for up to 4 days.
Benefits of cold smoking
Smoking fish at home in a cold smoker provides many beneficial properties. First of all, smoking is a method of preservation by smoke. It has antibacterial properties, killing harmful germs. Unlike frying and boiling, smoking does not create excess fat and water in the fish. The fish is not treated with acids or over-salted, which provides great advantages and benefits.
There are a lot of cooking recipes today. If you use special liquid smoke instead of wood, you can get an aromatic, tasty product without the absence of harmful substances such as volatile carcinogens. According to experts, you can smoke sea and river fish, depending on your personal preferences.
Instant mackerel recipe
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Is it possible today to use a quick way to smoke cold meats with your own hands without a fire? Maybe! Professional chefs advise preparing cold smoked fish using onion peels (dye) and commercially produced smoking liquid.
For example, you can take mackerel. It should be washed, gutted, and the head cut off. Take an enamel pan in which the brine is boiled.
For 2 liters you will need;
- 100 -150 g onion peels,
- 8 tbsp. spoons of salt,
- 4 tbsp. spoons of sugar.
The smoking mixture is pre-cooled, and the brine is filtered so that no husks remain in the liquid. Then liquid smoke - 3 tablespoons is poured into the brine and mixed. The prepared fish is placed in brine and covered with a wooden circle, on which a weight is placed as a press. The fish container should be kept in the refrigerator for 3 days. Next, the carcasses are removed, hung in a convenient place, marinated by the tail, and kept at room temperature for a day.
In order for the fish to turn out tasty and, most importantly, safe for health, fishermen advise performing several simple, useful steps before work:
- As soon as you bring your catch or buy fish in a store, you should immediately cut it up and salt it;
- If possible, freshly caught fish, even large species, are gutted, washed and rubbed with salt. If fishing is delayed, it should be wrapped in a rope and hung upside down, covered with gauze or cloth to prevent flies and midges;
- Before starting work, be sure to wash your hands with soap;
- When working with fish, take care of your hands. It is better to work with thick gloves at all stages;
- Cold smoked fish can be stored for a long time, but it should be kept in a dry, clean room where the temperature does not rise above 3 degrees.
How to cut pike for cold smoking
Smoked fish is a real delicacy that will be a great treat on any table. It is worth noting that smoking not only allows the fish to acquire a refined taste, but also extends its shelf life. Below we will talk about how to smoke fish at home so that you can enjoy its taste at any time.
Favorite method
One of the most common smoking methods is the cold method. It refers to the heat treatment of fish at 25 degrees (no more than 30). Of course, if you know how to smoke fish at home, you will be able to achieve excellent quality of the prepared product.
What to choose?
The following varieties are suitable for cold smoking: salmon, mackerel, beluga, pike perch. You can also cook silver carp, carp, sturgeon, and cod. If you have decided on the variety, it’s time to start processing the fish.
Preparation
Before salting, the carcasses, of course, should be cleaned, gutted, and the entrails removed. Then you will need to remove the gills. If there are dense scales, then you can leave them. Small ones are also removed.
Before smoking fish at home, you need to salt it. There are two types of pickling: wet and dry. So, small specimens can simply be sprinkled with salt and spices, but large ones must be salted using wet salting technology. Wet salting involves marinating the pulp in a saline solution. Salt concentration is 5-8 percent or 27-33 percent. The more concentrated the brine, the less time it will take to soak. In the first case - 12 hours, in the second - only 2. Before smoking fish at home, it is washed and dried.
Spices
To give the pulp a pleasant taste, as well as to neutralize the specific smell of some types of fish, the following spices are perfect: thyme, coriander, pepper, nutmeg, basil, fennel. You can also choose the spices that you like best.
Smoking
Since cold smoking of fish at home must be carried out in a special room, you should equip a barn, bathhouse or tent for it. Inside the selected room, crossbars are placed for hanging fish. Under them there are containers for building a fire (buckets, basins, etc.). When smoking at home, you need to build a small fire, then add sawdust or pieces of rotten wood to the smoldering coals to maintain smoke.
Important point
If you start smoking, then for the first eight hours you need to continuously maintain the supply of smoke, so you should stock up on fuel. In addition, it is important to ensure that the fire does not ignite.
Smoking time
If the carcasses are small (up to 500 grams), they need to be smoked for two days, medium ones - 4 days. A large specimen can often be smoked for a whole week.
Since you should smoke fish at home, strictly adhering to the technology, the smoked carcasses are left for another 2 days in the smokehouse. During this time, they will dry out, acquire a golden hue, and a rich and pleasant aroma.
