All modern housewives try to salt trout at home on their own. In order to salt fish tasty and quickly, they use classic recipes for salting trout and new methods of preparing red fish - whole, in pieces, in brine and dry.
How to pickle trout? The recipe at home allows you to cook lightly salted sea, river - frozen, chilled or fresh fish - tasty and quickly at a time convenient for the housewife. After quickly salting the trout, the finished fish fillet can only be cut into slices and served to guests at the holiday table as an appetizer or offered to family members for a home feast.
That's right, home-style salted trout is a healthy product - a ready-made red fish dish, ideal for preparing delicious salads, beautiful holiday sandwiches, cold appetizers, and fillings for tartlets.
Cooking features
Salting trout at home may seem like a difficult task only to a completely inexperienced cook. With minimal culinary skills, even a novice housewife can cook lightly salted red fish. Knowing a few things will help her do this in the best possible way.
- It is better to purchase trout for salting in the form of an uncut carcass. This kind of fish is the cheapest. As a bonus, the cook can get a hefty portion of red caviar.
- Fresh or chilled trout is more suitable for pickling than frozen trout. If you purchased a more affordable frozen product, it should be given the opportunity to thaw under natural conditions, without a sharp temperature change.
- You can salt trout carcass, steaks or fillets. You will have to cut up the fish even for salting the carcass. It’s difficult to do this just for the first time; the necessary skills are developed quickly. The belly of the carcass is ripped open and the entrails are removed. This must be done carefully: there may be caviar inside. Then the fish must be washed. If you use a mosquito net, the result will be better. Then, with the help of gauze, the film is removed from the belly of the fish, blood clots are removed with a spoon, after which all that remains is to cut off the head and tail - from them you can cook a delicious fish soup. The prepared carcass can be cut into fillets or steaks. The skin is not removed at this stage - the trout is salted along with it.
- To salt fish, use sea salt or regular table salt, coarsely ground: it does not draw the juice out of the fish, so the trout remains juicy.
- When salting trout, salt must be supplemented with sugar or honey, only then will the fish have a delicate and harmonious taste. You can diversify the bouquet with various spices, herbs, and lemon.
- The speed of salting depends on the chosen recipe and the size of the pieces. Salting a carcass usually takes 2–3 days. Fillet and steaks are usually salted within 24 hours.
You need to store fish in the refrigerator, preferably in brine - then it will not spoil longer. Another option is to wrap the trout in paper or cloth, in this form it can be kept both in the main chamber of the refrigerator and in the freezer. In the refrigerator, medium-salted trout retains its shelf life for 10 days, while lightly salted trout can be stored for only 6 days. Fish will not spoil in the freezer for at least a month.
How to salt trout - choosing a carcass
It is preferable to buy a whole carcass for salting and then fillet it. If it is not possible to purchase fresh fish, then pay attention to chilled fish. The main criteria for choosing a product: transparent eyes, light pink gills, absence of mucus on the skin and no pungent odor.
But whole fish is expensive, so housewives buy steaks to save money. In this case, give your preference to the chilled version. The meat of fresh trout has a soft pink color with light-colored veins.
You can salt fish from frozen fillets. It’s just that the taste qualities with this cooking option are significantly inferior.
Classic trout salting recipe
Compound:
- trout (filleted) – 1 kg;
- salt – 60 g;
- sugar – 20 g;
- black peppercorns – 10 pcs.;
- bay leaf – 2 pcs.
Cooking method:
- Prepare the trout by washing it, gutting it if necessary, filleting it and cutting it into portions.
- Mix salt and sugar.
- Pour a spoonful of this mixture into the bottom of the container in which you will salt the fish. It is important that it is not metallic, otherwise the salted trout will have an unpleasant iron taste.
- Place 5 peppercorns and a bay leaf on the bottom of the container.
- Place half of the trout on the bottom of the container, backs down.
- Sprinkle with two tablespoons of curing mixture.
- Place the remaining pieces on top, this time with the backs facing up. Sprinkle them with the remaining salt and sugar mixture, add the remaining pepper and bay leaf.
- Cover the container with a lid and put it in a cool place.
Trout salted according to this recipe will be ready to eat in a day. Before serving, it is recommended to cut it into thin slices and sprinkle with lemon juice. It is not customary to pour oil over trout when serving, as it itself is quite fatty.
With salt and sugar
- Preparation time: 1-2 days.
- Number of servings: 8 persons.
- Calorie content of the dish: 198 kcal.
- Purpose: for dinner / holiday table.
- Cuisine: Russian, Scandinavian.
- Difficulty of preparation: easy.
Using the dry method with the addition of salt and sugar is one of the simplest options for salting salmon. You will need a minimum of components and effort. The product turns out very tasty and tender. Ready-made fish can be used for sandwiches, as a snack on a holiday table or family dinner, and used for making salads.
- granulated sugar – 1 tbsp. l.;
- trout (fillet) – 1000 g;
- bay leaf – 3 pcs.;
- sea salt – 3 tbsp. l.;
- lemon juice;
- spices for fish;
- black peppercorns – 5 pcs.
- Take a deep bowl. Place some sugar and salt on the bottom. Place a piece of fresh fish on top, skin side down, then add the sweet and salty mixture again.
- Pour a little lemon juice over the fillet, add a bay leaf and sprinkle with seasonings.
- Place the second part of the fish, skin side up, sprinkle with sugar and salt.
- Press down the product with a three-liter jar of water and place in a warm place for 120 minutes.
- Then remove the press and cover the dish with a lid. Place the fillet in the refrigerator.
- Dry salting of trout will last 1-2 days.
How to salt a trout carcass
Compound:
- dressed trout carcass – 1 kg;
- sugar – 40 g;
- salt – 60 g;
- black peppercorns – 15 pcs.;
- bay leaf – 4 pcs.
Cooking method:
- Prepare the trout carcass by washing it well and drying it with a kitchen towel.
- Crumble two bay leaves, mix with salt, sugar and pepper.
- Rub the fish with the prepared curing mixture on all sides.
- Place the remaining bay leaves into the trout's belly.
- Wrap the carcass in thick paper or cloth. Place in a mold or other container. Place in a cool place for 2 days.
How to salt trout - preparing the carcass
Cutting a carcass involves a simple process, but it is necessary to take into account some features.
- Since trout is an oily fish, it will be difficult to wash it off the work surface. Therefore, prepare a cutting board with film on top. Prepare bags for waste and steaks separately.
- First, wash the fish, gut it if you bought it whole. If you do not know how to do this, then when purchasing, ask that the fish be cleaned.
- Carefully clean the outside of the trout with a piece of mosquito net. It has a rigid base and will clean dirt well.
- To remove mucus from the inside of the fish, use cheesecloth.
- Press down with a spoon along the entire spine. This will remove excess blood from the product.
- The preparatory stage has been completed. Now rinse the carcass again and soak it well with paper towels to remove excess moisture.
- Cut off the head. If you plan to use it for soup, then cut it with a small piece of meat.
- Do the same with the tail. If desired, you can cut several steaks from the tail of the carcass. At this stage, remove the belly and fins.
- Cut the remaining part in half along the ridge. Remove bones from meat.
- Now prepare small pieces for pickling.
How to pickle trout in brine
Compound:
- trout (fillets or steaks) – 1 kg;
- water – 1 l;
- salt – 0.35 kg;
- spices - to taste.
Cooking method:
- Prepare trout fillets or steaks by cutting the fish into pieces no wider than 5 cm.
- Boil water, add salt to it. Boil, stirring, until the salt is completely dissolved.
- Add spices, cook for another minute. Remove from heat.
- Wait for the brine to cool to room temperature.
- Place the trout pieces in a glass dish or plastic container.
- Fill the fish with brine and place a weight on top.
Trout fillets will be ready to eat in 24 hours, steaks in 36 hours. If lightly salted trout does not suit you, you can extend the salting time by a day. The container with fish should remain in the refrigerator all this time.
Cooking trout caviar at home
If you purchased trout or caught it while fishing, and it turned out to contain caviar, you are incredibly lucky. Red caviar is healthy because it contains vitamins E, A, D, the minerals iron, phosphorus, potassium, as well as iodine and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Let's look at how to pickle red trout caviar yourself. It is in its salted form that this valuable product amazes with its excellent taste.
To make caviar tasty, it is important to follow the technology of its preparation. First, let's decide on the necessary tools. You will need a knife, plastic tweezers, a fine strainer (or gauze bag), a slotted spoon, a saucepan, jars and a wire rack (for wiping). You should also prepare salt (1 kg per 1 kg of caviar), olive oil (can be replaced with corn oil) and water.
A quick way to salt trout
Compound:
- trout fillet – 0.5 kg;
- water – 0.5 l;
- salt – 40 g;
- sugar – 40 g.
Cooking method:
- Boil water, dissolve salt and sugar in it.
- Cut the trout fillet into slices no more than 5 mm thick.
- Pour the cooled brine over the fish, after 2 hours, drain the brine, transfer the fish to a dish, sprinkle with lemon juice and serve.
If you use hot brine, the fish fillet can be cut into pieces 2–3 cm thick. You can also eat the fish 2 hours after salting.
Entirely
- Preparation time: 1-3 days.
- Number of servings: 6-7 persons.
- Calorie content of the dish: 198 kcal.
- Purpose: for a festive table/dinner.
- Cuisine: Scandinavian.
- Difficulty of preparation: easy.
Salting salmon is entirely pleasant for housewives because it practically does not require cutting. Chefs believe that the better the integrity of the carcass is preserved, the tastier the final product will be. It will take a little more time to make. The duration of salting according to the step-by-step recipe depends on the size of the fish, its type, and the taste that you want to get as a result.
- salt – 2 tbsp. l.;
- fish carcass – 1 pc.;
- olive oil – 1 tbsp. l.;
- sugar – 1 tbsp. l.;
- lemon – 1 pc.;
- black pepper.
- To quickly salt fish at home, open the bellies of the trout and remove the entrails, caviar or milk. There is no need to cut off the head, fins and tail. Rinse the cut carcass thoroughly and dry with paper towels.
- The second step is to know how to prepare the brine to pickle the product. To do this, mix salt and sugar, squeeze out the juice of 1 lemon, add olive oil. Adding black pepper to the mixture will add some spice to the taste.
- Place the fish in an enamel or plastic dish of suitable size. Cover the carcass with the pickling mixture and cover with a plate. Oppression should be placed on top.
- The process of how to pickle whole trout at home needs to be completed by placing the entire structure in the refrigerator. The bottom shelf is best for this.
- Refrigerate the fish until done. This takes from 1 to 3 days. The time it takes to complete the step-by-step recipe depends on the size of the fish.
Salting trout with honey
Compound:
- trout fillet without skin – 1 kg;
- honey – 20 ml;
- sugar – 60 ml.
Cooking method:
- Fillet the trout and remove the fillet from the skin using a wide knife. The knife should be held almost flat and moved, pressing firmly against the skin.
- Mix honey with salt and grind thoroughly. It is not necessary to melt the sweet product to a liquid state before this: when rubbed with salt, it will still acquire the desired consistency.
- Brush the mixture of honey and salt onto both sides of the fish fillets.
- Roll the fillet into a roll and place it in a container. Cover it with a lid and put it in the refrigerator for a day.
- After a day, unwrap the fillet, roll it into a roll with the other side, return it to the brine and place it in the refrigerator again.
- Repeat the procedure on the second and third days.
"Honey" trout
This is an unusual and time-consuming recipe for salting trout. But the taste of the resulting fish is worth the long wait.
Ingredients:
- trout (fillet) – 1 kg;
- salt – 3 tbsp;
- honey – 1 tbsp.
Preparation:
- Remove the fish fillet from the skin and pat dry on a paper towel.
- Mix salt and liquid honey. Using the resulting mixture, thoroughly treat the fish on both sides, gently rubbing it in.
- Roll the trout and place it in a plastic container. Cover it with a lid and place it in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
- Then take out the tray, unroll the fish roll and roll it again, but with the other side. Place the tray in the refrigerator again for a day. The procedure will need to be repeated again.
“Honey” trout will be completely ready on the fourth day.
For salting, sea salt with large crystals is best suited. It will not “pull” the juices out of the fish and the trout will turn out tender and juicy. By the way, it is impossible to over-salt trout. She will take as much salt as she needs, no more. To make the appetizer firm and tender, it is advisable to use chilled fish; after freezing, the structure of the meat may become loose and watery.
Salt trout at home? Nothing could be simpler. For sushi, for example. Or sandwiches for the holiday table - lightly salted trout will also come in handy here. Read the recipe - and more than one - below.
Of course, you can just buy a vacuum-packed piece of red fish in the store. But if you like to cook, then the very idea is lightly salted trout. The recipe is simple, as we will try to convince you of now.
Trout can have different shades of color - depending on whether it is a river fish or a sea fish; grew in a natural reservoir or grown artificially. Let us also remember: a dish made from chilled fish, not frozen, will taste tastier.
Salting trout with vodka
Compound:
- trout fillet – 1 kg;
- sugar – 30 g;
- salt – 40 g;
- vodka – 30 ml.
Cooking method:
- Fillet the trout and cut it into portions.
- Mix sugar with salt, sprinkle the trout with this mixture, rub it in.
- Place the trout in the container in which you will marinate it, back side down.
- Pour vodka over the fish.
- Close the container and put it in the refrigerator.
The minimum time for salting red fish according to this recipe is 12 hours, but you can leave it in the brine for a day. Guests will be pleasantly surprised by the slightly unusual taste of trout prepared according to the given recipe.