If you love smoked fish, then cooking it yourself is not difficult. To do this, you only need desire, fish and a smokehouse.
Smokehouses are homemade or factory-made. Making your own smokehouse is very simple, any container with a tight lid is suitable for this. It will be necessary to install a grate in it at a height of 20-30 cm from the bottom, on which the fish will lie. And you can mount a strong metal rod under the lid itself, on which you can hang fish. The main thing in smoking is that the fish does not touch the small firewood smoldering at the bottom, but is simply enveloped in their smoke. A smokehouse with firewood at the bottom and with fish on the grate is installed on any open source of fire: a gas burner or a fire.
Fish for smoking must first be salted. If the fish is small, then it can not even be freed from the insides. The big one is better to rip open the abdomen and remove the insides from it. Wash the fish, shake off excess water and rub with salt. Salt is needed as much as it sticks to each wet carcass.
Start smoking a very small child already 30 minutes after salting, a medium one - after 5-6 hours, and a large one - in a day. During this time, the fish carcasses will absorb the amount of salt put to it. Before smoking, the fish must be wiped from moisture, which appeared due to exposure to salt.
At the bottom of the smoker, put a layer of small twigs or wood shavings, preferably alder. The shavings must be damp so that they do not ignite from the heat, but slowly smolder and smoke. If the branches are very dry, then it is worth spraying them with water first. Branches of coniferous trees are categorically not suitable for smoking, although experts say that a tiny branch of juniper in the total mass of firewood will not hurt in any way. Well suited for smoking shavings and branches of fruit trees.
The fish on the grill should be laid out as freely as possible so that the whole carcass of the fish is enveloped in smoke. If the fish is large, then it should open the abdomen so that the smoke gets inside. It is recommended to start smoking at a lower temperature, and finish at a higher one. So at first the fire under the smokehouse should burn very weakly, and this should last a quarter of the time. Further, the fire can be increased so that the smoke becomes hotter and more intense.
The time of smoking fish can only be determined experimentally. It all depends on the size of the fish, how much of it is on the grate, what humidity the firewood was put into the smokehouse. A small fish can be ready in 10-15 minutes, and a large one may take several hours. The readiness of the fish can be determined visually - the fish acquires a beautiful golden color and the skin becomes dry.
You can smoke absolutely any fish, even sea, even river - it all depends on your preferences. You should not smoke fish that has been frozen - after defrosting, its flesh becomes very loose, and after smoking it will soften even more, and the fish may simply fall apart into unappetizing pieces. Smoke the fish and enjoy your meal!
