Hot smoked mackerel and pink salmon roll “NUT”

Mackerel is a fish very rich in useful elements. Let's consider smoking mackerel at home in a hot smoked smokehouse.

Mackerel in any form, but gourmets prefer to smoke it. To do this, they purchase or make their own smokehouses for hot smoking, so that delicious aromatic fish is always on the dinner table.

Smoking mackerel at home gives it an incredibly beautiful color and attractive aroma. In order to smoke fish, you should have a special device - a smokehouse. To start hot smoking, you should check the fish for freshness.

It must be the same size, because this is how it can be smoked efficiently and acquire a golden color. The fish should be fatty, then it will be very tasty. Read also: Turkey steak cooking recipes.

What is a smokehouse?

Smokehouses for hot smoking are made in different versions, but they have the same principle of operation: the smoking process occurs due to intense smoldering of wood in a metal container with a tightly closed lid and a grate inside on which the products are placed. Wood smokes due to the fact that the container is placed on fire.

Smoked mackerel

The product, located on the grate above sawdust or wood chips, is thoroughly impregnated with smoke and reaches its proper condition due to the high temperature, which is more than 50 degrees.

The grate should be slightly above the middle of the smokehouse. In such designs there must be a lower tray that can be pulled out. It is needed so that ash and grease can fall there. Tall structures are not suitable for home smoking, as the fish will not be able to be properly smoked. At home, portable smokehouses are used, and in private homes you can install a stationary one. The material used is stainless steel sheets.

List of possible failures

Even if you carefully follow the presented recipe, it is impossible to completely protect yourself from unforeseen problems with the finished dish. The most popular failures are:

• sticking to the grill or frying surface - due to insufficient lubrication of the place of contact with the fish;
• raw dish - at low temperature or failure to comply with the time regime;
• burnt product - as in the previous case, only in reverse.

The ideal cooking time is obtained taking into account the characteristics of your technique.

One of the most popular disadvantages of hot smoked mackerel at home is the excessive concentration of liquid smoke. Considering the presence of several manufacturers of this product on the market, choosing the ideal proportion can only be done through trial and error.

Why does mackerel burst when hot smoked?

If cracks appear on the body of the fish during heat treatment over an open fire, most likely, low-quality raw materials for smoking were chosen. As stated in the requirements for the selection of mackerel, its skin should not have any traces of mechanical damage. These are the areas that are most susceptible to high temperatures.

Why does hot smoked mackerel fall apart?

Loss of structural integrity is most often observed when preparing a delicacy in a slow cooker or oven. This is due to prolonged exposure to insufficiently high temperatures. Do not put mackerel in a cold oven. It must be heated to operating temperatures - only after that fish are placed in it.

Preliminary preparation and salting of mackerel at home

The process of smoking mackerel at home in a hot smoked smokehouse is not expensive and is quite fast in time!

The final product has an excellent authentic taste. If the fish is frozen, it should be completely defrosted. Before the smoking procedure, the fish should be gutted by carefully cutting the belly and removing the entrails. The head of the fish does not need to be cut off, which will give the smoked product an aesthetic appearance. Next, the fish should be thoroughly dried.

After coating the inside of the mackerel with salt, turn it over on its back and sides every half hour.

You can salt fish by diluting salt in water. For three medium-sized mackerel you should take 50 grams of salt and one liter of water. Pour the solution over the fish and leave for 1.5 -2 hours, then rinse it thoroughly and dip it in a napkin. After drying, you can rub the mackerel on all sides with various spices to enhance the taste.

Preparation

How to smoke hot smoked mackerel? First you need to prepare her for this.

1. Thaw the fish
   . If you purchased mackerel frozen, then place it in cold water for 2-3 hours until completely defrosted. Do not try to force the process with boiling water or even warm water, otherwise the carcasses will soften and lose their shape. This product is not suitable for smoking.
2. Cut the mackerel
   . We separate the head from the carcass, scrape out the insides with a spoon and free the ribs from the black film. We leave the skin, but particles of soot will settle on it, which we will not eat.
3. Salt the fish
   . You can marinate or pickle hot smoked mackerel using detailed instructions. Dry salting involves the use of salt (1 tablespoon per 1 carcass), sugar (1 teaspoon), red and black pepper, and garlic. You need to rub the fish with salt and garlic passed through a press, and then sprinkle it with pepper (determine its proportions to taste). The fish should be stacked on top of each other, each tier should be sprinkled with additional salt. In this form, mackerel should simmer in the refrigerator for 6-8 hours. The wet method involves the use of marinade. If you are preparing 4 medium-sized carcasses, you need to bring 3 liters of water to a boil, add lemon juice (from 1 lemon), 10 grams of black peppercorns, 6 bay leaves, 6 cloves of garlic (ground), 4 tablespoons of salt, 1 tablespoon Sahara. All this needs to be boiled for 5 minutes, cooled to room temperature and used for its intended purpose. The marinade should cover the mackerel completely. It needs to be kept in the refrigerator with it for 12 hours. You will find other marinade options in the selection.
4. Dry the mackerel
   . After dry salting, the fish must be thoroughly rinsed from excess salt, wiped dry, tied with a rope and hung for 6-8 hours in a well-ventilated place. When we smoke salted mackerel, it breaks in the smokehouse and a lot of fat leaks out. To prevent this from happening, it needs to be dried. It will dry out and will even cook faster and last longer. After wet salting, wash the fish too, wipe it and hang it to dry. To prevent the skin from bursting and the fish to maintain its integrity in the smokehouse, do not remove the rope and smoke directly with it. But the fish should not be placed on a clean grill, but on the leaves of fruit trees or bushes. For example, on currant or cherry leaves. They will burn, but not the fish.

Hot smoking mackerel

The prepared fish should be tied lengthwise along the carcass with a cloth rope and placed on a wire rack, which has been pre-lubricated with oil or some kind of fat.

Wood should be poured into the bottom of the smokehouse. This can be alder chips, sawdust, chopped willow twigs, oak, juniper, birch. To enhance the flavor, wood chips from apple and pear trees are added to smokehouses. In order for mackerel to be smoked at home in a hot-smoked smokehouse, it is customary to add raw branches. The more different types of wood, the more flavorful the fish will be.

Place the grill with fish on special ledges that are located at the desired level in the smokehouse. The fish is placed so that the belly lies on the grill. Don't forget to check that the tray is in place. Ash should pour into it and fat should drain. The absence of smoke from burnt fat gives an excellent result without bitterness.

In order to smoke on a portable smokehouse at home, you need to move the gas or electric stove to the balcony. After heating the stove, place a smokehouse on top with a tightly sealed lid.

Switch the stove to medium heat and smoke for ten minutes. Open the lid, release the smoke and seal again for fifteen minutes. Hot smoked fish takes no more than half an hour to prepare. The fish should be smoked until an even golden color appears. It must be turned over once on each side. To prevent it from being damaged during smoking, the mackerel should be placed on the grill with a gap from each other.

Sometimes it is impossible to determine the readiness of a product by appearance. In this case, take a sample.

Smoked mackerel

It is not recommended to remove the finished mackerel from the grill while it is hot. Turn off the stove and let the structure and its contents cool. Remove the cooled rack and carefully transfer the fish. Remove the rope after it has cooled completely.

Having considered smoking mackerel at home in a hot smoked smokehouse, the recipe for such a tasty fish can be supplemented. To serve, cut the mackerel into portions. You can serve it with onions pickled in vinegar, potatoes boiled in their jackets, fresh herbs and black bread.

Bon appetit!

Hot smoked mackerel recipe

Ingredients:

• Mackerel s/m – 5-6 pcs.
• Salt pepper.
• Vegetable oil.
• Well, a smokehouse.)

How to smoke mackerel at home?

1. To start, I bought mackerel (it's ideal for smoking) and defrosted it naturally. I took the fish headlong, as the seller assured me that this was the right thing for smoking!
2. I removed the fins from the mackerel and properly gutted the fish. I have already described a more detailed process in the article - mackerel baked in the oven.
3. Also, due to the small size of the smokehouse, I had to cut off the tails of the fish, which you don’t have to do. After that, I rinsed the fish and dried it with a paper towel.
4. Rub the mackerel well with salt, inside and out. I peppered it a little. You can also add a little lemon juice. I left the mackerel to salt for about 30 minutes.

Prepared the smokehouse:

1. During this time I prepared the smokehouse. To prevent the fish from sticking to the grill, we decided to cover it with foil.
2. And grease a little with vegetable oil. This process, I think, is also optional. But still.
3. I placed several freshly cut alder branches on the bottom of the smokehouse. By the way, you can take branches of any fruit trees: apple, plum, cherry, etc. Well, or buy a ready-made bag of sawdust for smoking in the store. A couple of handfuls will be enough.
4. I lit the grill in advance so that the large logs could reach the coals. In general, the smokehouse is placed on an open fire, but in our case the iron is very thin and you actually have to cook on coals, otherwise the mackerel will burn.
5. I put grates from an old gas stove on the grill.)) So the smokehouse fits perfectly on the fire.
6. I put a grate with foil in the smokehouse.
7. Placed the fish on top. I put the smokehouse on the grill.
8. And covered it with a lid. For half an hour I forget about the mackerel and go about my business.
9. After 30 minutes I open the lid and observe the following picture.
10. Hot smoked mackerel at home is ready! Bon appetit.
11. It is better to serve smoked fish with fresh herbs and your favorite side dish, or without it.)
12. By the way, the next day, cold mackerel (for me personally) becomes even tastier.
13. If anything, please do not scold me about the correctness of actions in this procedure, since I am not a professional and am simply telling you how we do it. This article is not a manual.
14. Next time I’ll share a recipe for chicken breast, also cooked on the grill.
15. And finally, I suggest you evaluate a “multi-cooker” made from a gas cylinder. Gorgeous thing!

How to smoke mackerel

The main thing in the question of how to smoke mackerel in a hot smoked smokehouse will be the choice of fish and sawdust. The quality of the dish will depend on these factors: if the fish is large, the cooking time will increase, if it is small, it will decrease. The choice of sawdust will influence the production of smoke - the main ingredient in cooking meat. It is worth choosing wood species that smoke richly - this is the only way to get golden, delicious mackerel, loved by many. It is different from a carcass made using liquid smoke.

How long to smoke fish in a hot smoker

Depending on the size of the carcass and the fat content of the meat, the answer to the question of how long to smoke mackerel will be 0.5-1 hour. At this time it is worth adding defrosting the carcass if it was frozen, gutting and processing with spices. Please note that you will need to salt the fish using brine or marinate it before hot smoking. The final taste of the dish will depend on this.

The average cooking time for hot smoked mackerel, which is smoked using the right materials and equipment, is 25 minutes at a temperature of about 100 degrees. You can tell that the fish is ready to eat by the dark golden color of the skin, shiny dry surface and pleasant aroma. The finished smoked fish has a soft meat consistency, leaving no marks on a toothpick when tested.

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How to smoke mackerel in a smokehouse

An important parameter on how to smoke mackerel in a hot smoked smokehouse is the choice of sawdust. Alder and willow are considered ideal materials; it is important to know how to arrange them correctly to obtain the best taste. If these tree species are not available, hornbeam, ash, oak, and birch are suitable. By adding several juniper branches to the main fuel, the fish will acquire a bronze hue, a specific aroma and a slight taste of gin.

An important point for obtaining a tasty dish is the placement of smoking material. This is done in the following way:

• 2 cm of small wood chips mixed with thin twigs, broken into 5-centimeter pieces, are placed on the bottom;
• lay 1 cm of bark on top;
• young leaves are laid to the level of the lower lattice;
• If there is no smokehouse at home, the process is replaced by the use of liquid smoke.

How to smoke mackerel

The best option for smoking mackerel in a smokehouse is to use a stainless steel grill. For a smokehouse, it is better to choose a tightly fitted lid to prevent access to oxygen. The optimal height for a home smokehouse will be 50-60 cm: there is no need to choose more, because the fish is laid in layers. If you increase the height, the top layer may remain unsmoked and the bottom layer may burn.

After every 5-10 smoking sessions, the smokehouse is cleaned of resin and carbon deposits, and the grates are cleaned after each cycle. You need to choose equipment so that it complies with safety regulations: it is better to smoke in a box with comfortable handles or grips, and remove from the heat with special mittens. It is better to use a reliable support stand with a height of up to 35 cm along with the smokehouse so that the equipment does not tip over.

If there are conditions in the smokehouse chamber for hanging fish, metal hooks are used. To do this, the carcasses need to be cut. It is better to smoke with the product hanging upside down to avoid bruising. They spear the fish so that all the carcasses face the same direction. They should be placed at a short distance between each other, but not close to each other, so that the smoke spreads evenly.

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If the mackerel is small, then it can be smoked on simple wire grates, curved in the shape of the Latin letters S or U. In this case, the carcasses are placed on the back, the grates are coated with oil, and placed at a distance of 10 cm for better smoking and smoke passage. After installing the equipment, you need to light a fire under it to evenly cover the bottom. The fire stays strong for the first minutes; it is worth maintaining it until an intense white house appears from under the lid. This will be a sign that the carcass has begun to smoke. After 6 minutes, you need to reduce the heat so that the smoke maintains its pressure.

A bad option would be the appearance of bluish or gray smoke - this indicates that the smoking unit has burned out and needs to be changed, but this occurs extremely rarely and when hot smoking large fish in a marinade. If this happens, you should remove the grill from the heat, let it cool, open the lid, and make sure that no smoke comes out. Remove the fish along with the grid, replace the material and repeat the procedure again.

Hot smoked mackerel

Ingredients:

• Mackerel
• Salt
• Pepper

Preparation:

1. Slowly defrost the fish as in the previous recipe. Gut it, remove the gills and wash the mackerel well with cold water. Rub with a mixture of salt and pepper and put in the refrigerator for 5 hours. Before smoking, dry the fish well, laying it out on a dry napkin.
2. For smoking we use a handful of wood chips from alder or fruit trees. Place the fish in the smoker so that they do not touch each other, cover the lid. Smoke over moderate heat for 25-30 minutes.

Smoked mackerel without smokehouse

Ingredients:

• Frozen mackerel 4 pcs
• Black tea in a bag 2 pcs
• Onion peel - a handful
• Salt 4 tbsp. l
• Sugar 1.5 tbsp
• Liquid smoke 1 tbsp
• Water 1 l

Preparation:

1. While the mackerel is defrosting, add all the ingredients except “liquid smoke” to the water and cook over low heat for 20-30 minutes.
2. After the liquid has cooled, you need to strain it and add liquid smoke. Place the gutted and headless fish in a tray and fill it with the prepared broth, cover it with a lid and put it in the refrigerator for three days, turning it over every day to ensure even salting.
3. After the salting time has passed, the mackerel must be dried by hanging it by the tails for 5-6 hours.
4. To give a brighter color, the fish can be rubbed with vegetable oil.

How to smoke mackerel in a hot smoker

Ingredients:

• Mackerel
• One lemon
• Salt

Hot smoked mackerel at home:

1. First you need to prepare the fish.
2. Gut the mackerel and rinse under running cold water.
3. Cut the lemon in half and, squeezing it in your hand, thoroughly rub the fish with it. Then take salt and rub the fish.
4. In a grated state, let the mackerel stand for 1-2 hours.

Let's start smoking mackerel:

1. To prepare hot smoked mackerel, we need a special smokehouse.
2. Today, there are a huge number of different types of smoking boxes on the market. They all differ in price, size (from small to large) and the number of grilles. The choice depends only on your needs, whether you need to smoke one fish at a time or ten at once.
3. To smoke mackerel at home, I use a small smokehouse produced back in the Soviet years.
4. Sprinkle a small layer of alder sawdust on the bottom of the smoking box.
5. We install the grill and place the mackerel on it. Before placing the fish, wash off the salt!
6. Light a barbecue or fire.
7. Place the smokehouse on the grill and place a brick on top of its lid.
8. The cooking time for hot smoked mackerel depends on the thickness of the fish and your smoking box.
9. Usually I keep it for 10~15 minutes, no more. Otherwise, the fish can be overdried and it will not be as tasty and juicy as it should be.

Option 11. Cold smoked mackerel

Cold smoked mackerel at home turns out to be very tasty and aromatic. Here you will need a special smoke regulator. As in previous versions, the fish is first marinated in a marinade and then placed in the chamber of the device. It takes a little longer to prepare than others, but the end result is simply amazing.

Ingredients:

• 4 fresh mackerel;
• 220 g salt;
• 100 g sugar;
• 2 liters of water;
• 5 bay leaves;
• 15 peas of allspice;
• 60 g ground nutmeg.

Step by step recipe

Step 1:

Mackerel carcasses are freed from entrails, washed well, and kept in cold water for 3 hours.

Step 2:

Wash again, cut out the gills, dry on paper napkins for 20 minutes.

Step 3:

Prepare the marinade: add salt and sugar to a saucepan with two liters of water and boil over medium heat. Add bay leaves, nutmeg, allspice, and boil for 8 minutes. The marinade is filtered and cooled.

Step 4:

The fish is placed in the marinade and kept under load for 2 days.

Step 5:

After 48 hours, the fish is removed from the marinade, washed well under running water, and cuts are made along the belly.

Step 6:

The carcasses are hung on hooks and left for several hours in the open air.

Step 7:

Alder chips are placed in a special compartment of the smoke regulator.

Step 8:

Mackerel is placed inside the chamber, closed, the temperature is set to no higher than 40 degrees, and smoked for about 12 hours.

Step 9:

The fish are taken out of the chamber, hung again on hooks and left in the air for another couple of hours.

Before cold smoking, you can marinate mackerel in a dry marinade: pour salt into a container (100 g per 1 kg of fish). Add a little salt to the belly and gills of the fish. Place the mackerel in a container, add more salt on top and leave under the load for two days. And also, if desired, you can add some fish seasoning along with salt.