Hello dear colleagues in the disease!
I want to share the recipe and technology for making raw smoked salmon and at the same time try out the experimental format for presenting the recipe proposed by Zeus to test interest in microblogs. Let's salt, ripen and smoke together! But for a long time, a whole month

As a result, the product will look something like this:

The first and very important is the choice of meat. In my city there are several fairly large markets, supermarkets and small butcher shops. The market disappears because the quality is extremely unstable, resellers buy pigs in the villages from different owners, certificates are bought, it is dangerous for a dry farm. In supermarkets, the quality is stable but poor, the meat is pumped up like bodybuilders. Thank God we have a small network of grocery stores, as they say boutiques, they sell their pigs, the quality and freshness are quite acceptable. The cutting is a little lame, but oh well, the best available.
I take two pieces. Pay attention - there are pieces from the side of the neck, they are much more interesting and varied in terms of cut than the usual one, the second one on the other side is the same. Usually sellers try not to show them and are surprised at my choice.

Films, fat and side parts do not touch. I'm just trimming the edges.

Weigh - 2860 grams.
For salting you will need per kg.
Nitrite salt 28 grams (for my taste, it will turn out slightly salty)
A mixture of sugars "crystal" - 10 grams.
Garlic, peeled, chopped with a knife Bay leaf, juniper 1-2 things, ground ginger on the tip of a knife.

Antioxidant - sodium isoascorbate - 0.5 grams per kg.
Someone will say he cheats a bastard, poisons himself and his family. But I will say - no, this additive helps to preserve the color of the meat, prevents the formation of carcinogens, objectively the meat is more beautiful and tastier. The additive is allowed in our countries and even in the EU and the USA. Sooner or later, it will appear in Pavel's assortment and will be like with phosphates.

Further worse - a preservative - potassium sorbate - 1 gram per kg. this is half the rate. Well, I don’t like to breed mushrooms and unknown animals on the products that I will eat. On my scales, there is an unproven harm of this preservative and the risks of eating some mycotoxins or something else more interesting. Sock odors, bacterial mucus...save! The meat should smell like meat and spices. Moreover, the appearance of mold on this product is unacceptable. In my opinion, the additive will not interfere with the assortment of container sausages. The choice is yours, I don’t impose, I just ask you not to ask how and with what to wash off the mold.

We mix all the ingredients and sprinkle the meat in any suitable container (not aluminum) or in a bag.

Now you need to wait a couple of three hours until the meat starts up the juice and dissolves the salt and the rest of the disgrace. Mix and salt according to the usual scheme. I keep overnight at room temperature and then send it to the refrigerator for 10 days, no less. I change it periodically as I remember.

Will continue to pickle

I will continue
It's been five days of salting. The meat released the juice and began to slowly soften.

I do not drain the juice, it is a concentrate of taste, later it is almost completely absorbed into the meat.
Smell awesome! Garlic, lavrushka and juniper are an excellent bouquet!
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Well, everything! Salting completed!
Moving on to maturation
The meat after the refrigerator is a little slimy, it has become much softer. Almost all liquid was absorbed together with extractive substances.
The aroma is excellent!

I wash off all the spices under cool water, since most coarse spices are not difficult to do.

After salting, a pattern began to appear. I really like this breed of pigs, it has streaks of lard in this longest muscle, there is no such thing in meat from a supermarket, for me this is a sign of a more or less normal growth rate of a mumps.

I cook nets and put meat in them.

After that, it must be rolled and lightly beaten off with a fist, so it will acquire the correct shape and soften further.

I wipe it with napkins and send it to the camera.

It is not ready for smoking, not tomorrow, not after tomorrow. Even when the crust dries up, it's too early to smoke. It should ripen, it will take at least two weeks, the meat will become dense, the humidity will drop, the surface will become dry. If you hurry with smoking, you are guaranteed to get a product of mediocre quality, where instead of the aroma of smoke in a bouquet with the taste of meat and spices, you will have to savor sourness, at best light. Not only is it tasteless, it's also unhealthy. No drying in the smokehouse in the process! The maximum is a very short-term sanitary and then in a week not earlier.
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Time flies!
Tomorrow I'm going to the village to visit the smokehouse.
This is how the balyki look now.

They have become noticeably denser, the color pleases. Hardening crust does not appear, matured perfectly.

The preservative worked great, there is not even a hint of mold. It smells of spices and a little whey.
I'm happy, you can start smoking.
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Reached the smokehouse!
I have it homemade, nothing like that, but it works well. Since this smokehouse is not entirely intended for cold smoking, it is necessary to make adjustments to literary representations. Everywhere they write cold smoking for a long time up to 7 hours, like many others, I did it for the first time, it was unrealistic to eat the finished product. For such long periods of smoking, it is necessary to have special equipment, where the product is fumigated with a weak smoke of low concentration. In my smoker, like in many others, the smoke is highly concentrated and does not leave the chamber so quickly, which means that the time must be reduced and the preparation of the product must be carefully approached before smoking.

The essence of the smoking process is the deposition of smoke substances on the surface of the product. Scientists have counted more than three hundred compounds in the smoke, it is not possible to understand them, you just need to create conditions for the deposition of the necessary substances. The product must be dry, otherwise the acids will settle and the very sourness will appear, which I consider a marriage. I put the salmon in a smoker, turn on the convector and the heating element at the lowest power of 20C, for three hours during this time the crust becomes completely dry and the temperature of the meat rises, leaves the dew point. Since most of the necessary components of the smoke are perfectly deposited on fat, I lightly lubricate the surface of the meat with refined sunflower oil, this will create additional protection against acid, improve the color and aroma of the product, the oil will then be absorbed or dry as it was not.

Scientists and doctors unanimously speak about the presence of carcinogens in the smoke, I don’t argue with them, but I can’t refuse this, so I try to reduce the harm by means of controlling the burning temperature of the wood chips and reducing the smoking time - the aroma is obtained and that’s it. I regulated the combustion temperature for a long time, now I already know approximately what kind of blower should be for the combustion temperature of the wood chips to be no more than 300C
I won’t say how long to smoke, I don’t know, it depends on many factors. I don’t understand at all why they write about it in recipes, someone will smoke in an hour and someone won’t get it in five, it all depends on the equipment, I burned only two glasses of wood chips. One rule - BETTER SMOKED THAN SMOKED. In appearance, my balyk is not yet smoked, a deceptive feeling, the color will then appear and excess smoke cannot be obtained from it.

But it is not ready yet, now you need to wait until the smoke substances penetrate into the thickness of the meat, some reactions occur there, the humidity of the product drops and the smell from a sharp smoky becomes the aroma of smoking. It will take at least two weeks, not a day to air and eat. We need a delicacy, we will wait, wait again ... otherwise good product not receive, send back to the camera.
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It's only been four days, see how the color shows up.

Left as it was and right as it is now, the process will continue.
The smell changes becomes pleasant, gentle smoked.

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Well that's all! The wait is over!

I take a knife, I'll slaughter now

Well, what can I say? It was worth it!
The smell from smoky completely transformed into a real aroma of smoked meats, light smoke mixed together with the smell of ripe jerky and spices, wonderful! Three-quarters of the sensations have already been obtained, now the taste is slightly salty, full-fledged, rich, multifaceted. When chewed, the center melts in the mouth, and the fat and streaks prolong the pleasure, they are soft and chew very easily. There is not a hint of sourness, everything turned out perfectly for my taste! It was possible to keep it in the cell for some more time, then it will become drier, but I like it this way

Thank you for your patience! I hope it was interesting and useful, I tried to show everything as detailed as possible. This technology and principles are quite suitable for other products.
Photos from previous series.

Alexey.

When there is an urgent need to preserve the caught fish for a long time, it is impossible to do without cold smoking. Cold smoking of fish is a troublesome business, which includes a preparatory stage, which consists in the fact that first they dig a chimney three to five meters long, 50 cm in diameter ( rice. 8).

For a chimney, it is more rational to choose a natural steep bank, it is easier to dig a chimney tunnel and equip the firebox in the form of a flat area or a recess in the ground. At the outlet of the chimney, a wooden barrel without a bottom is usually installed or a kind of square pipe with smooth end edges is knocked together from boards. Pre-salted and soaked fish is hung on top of a barrel or pipe on transverse sticks with hooks.

Tender fish of the whitefish and salmon families, including char, grayling, omul, are tied with twine, like hand-knitted boiled sausage.

Large fatty fish (carp, silver carp, grass carp), bursting during heat treatment, are placed horizontally so that the fat does not leak out. A wooden barrel is placed on top of the chimney pipe, with the help of which the intensity of draft and smoke is regulated. in other words, the process of cold smoking itself.

The neck of the chimney (the junction with the barrel) is lined with sand, clay or turf to prevent smoke leakage.

Great importance is given to the initial stage of ignition of the firebox. First, dry branches of alder, mountain ash, ash are kindled. And only when a steady draft is formed at the exit, the fire is sprinkled with dry sawdust, thin branches or rotted bark of deciduous trees. The exceptions are the branches of birch and aspen. Birch emits too much resin and is not suitable for cold smoking, and aspen adds a bitter taste to the fish.

According to gourmets, branches and sawdust of black and red mountain ash, pear, alder, chestnut, grape and ash give the best taste to fish.

The smoking process lasts from one and a half to two days (the outlet temperature is not more than 40oC).

It is unacceptable to speed up the smoking process by opening the damper on the chimney, increase the flame of the fire, and also use resinous tree species (spruce, pine, fir, larch, birch, oak).

After two days, the product is ready for use. The fins at the base of the head easily come off in the finished fish. By their taste, you can determine the degree of readiness of meat.

Finished products are placed in containers with ventilated holes, where they can be stored for several months at room temperature.

Due to time savings, instead of a chimney, when smoking, an ordinary metal barrel with a knocked out bottom is often used, which simultaneously acts as a furnace and a chimney. There is an improved version of the smokehouse device, when a stove is installed next to the barrel. But most often the firebox is a pit adjacent to the barrel. Although, by and large, there is no difference between similar smoking devices, since the distance to the fish still remains insignificant. You can smoke fish on such a simple device faster than on a classic device with a natural chimney. This is perhaps the only plus of barrel smokehouses. The disadvantages include the fact that the smoke, passing through a short pipe - the barrel does not have time to cool and to some extent filter out, partially settling on the sandy-clay walls of the chimney. The longer the chimney, the better the quality of the fish.

The smoking process is laborious and lengthy, which you always want to speed up by throwing more unburned wood residues, leaves and roots into the furnace. The process, of course, is accelerating, but this affects the quality of the products.

As a result, the angler faces the following problems:

- due to the increase in smoke temperature, the shelf life of fish is reduced;

- Carcinogenic substances are formed in the fish (the quality of the product deteriorates).

Output: fish smoked in violation of the cooking technology is unpleasant in taste (very bitter) and, moreover, unsafe for human health.

Nevertheless, following the entire technological process of smoking and not saving time, fish can be perfectly smoked in a device with a short chimney, i.e. in a barrel (only wooden barrels are used). But in terms of taste, the final product will be inferior to fish smoked according to the classical scheme with a natural chimney.

You need to be especially careful when buying cold-smoked fish, as some unscrupulous people (usually poachers) smoke fish without observing existing sanitary requirements, and also use resinous tree species. The black-brown color of the fish indicates that it was most likely unfit for food even before smoking began. Having smoked fish in this way, they try to pass off a stale product as a delicacy. Such disguise of spoiled fish as well-smoked confuses gullible buyers. You can tell a good fish from a bad one if you sharply tear off one of the pectoral fins and smell it.

To speed up the process of cooking large fish, after gutting it is cut into pieces (pieces) across the ridge along with the spine, after cutting out the upper (dorsal) fin with a sharp knife. Sliced ​​pieces of balyk after smoking are slightly weathered in the wind.

Attention! There are hundreds of times more food poisoning from cold-smoked fish than from hot-smoked fish. So think carefully before taking on this difficult and troublesome business.

It must be said right away that small but fatty fish are usually smoked in this way: bleak, podust, dace, smelt, smelt, vendace and especially small omul, grayling and whitefish. At the first stage, a frame of stakes is made and driven into the ground, less often a stationary structure is used. The poles driven into the ground are covered with pieces of plastic film, which are nailed to the poles with small wallpaper nails with large caps. The entrance to such a smoking chamber is sealed last, with the condition that it can always be opened and penetrated if the coals flare up. When the angler has a plastic bag, the frame is made taking into account its dimensions ( rice. nine).

Fish weighing up to 100 g are salted for 1.5-2 hours without oppression in a plastic bag. Salt consumption per 1 kg of fish is 120 g. Hot coals are poured into the smoking chamber, fresh green grass is laid on them in an even layer.

The fish is ready in 1.5 hours.

In order to prepare a product of high quality, one must firmly adhere to a unique technological sequence.

Those who think that salmon- an ordinary piece of meat subjected to a smoking procedure is deeply mistaken. Real, true balyk is made only from tender pork neck meat, soft, as if melting in the mouth, pierced with thin marble veins. To create a product, muscle fibers are used, located near the ridge, without bones and skins.

First, the piece is salted, and then, to give it a more pronounced taste and better preservation, it is subjected to a smoke treatment procedure. Most often on our shelves there is a hot-smoked balyk, processed at temperatures up to 50°C. The advantages of this method are a short (no more than 48 hours) cooking time, a low percentage of moisture loss in meat and impregnation of the product with fat, which gives it an unusually delicate and refined taste.

Unfortunately, hot-smoked salmon does not have a long shelf life, therefore, if they want to save meat longer, it is processed using a cold method. The resulting product is distinguished by a juicy salty taste, greater dryness and a slightly rough meat structure.

Meat prepared according to any of the recipes is deservedly popular with consumers, allowing you to diversify the diet.

The benefits of smoked balyk:

The bactericidal preparations contained in the smoke rid the meat of putrefactive bacteria. In addition, the smoking procedure allows you to save in it metabolic acids and trace elements that are destroyed during frying, and preserves the original calorie content of the dish.

Harm and contraindications:

The smoke, with the help of which smoking takes place, often contains potentially dangerous substances - carcinogens, which can cause cancerous degeneration of cells. Therefore, it is better if this unusually tasty delicacy is not often present in your diet.

Balyk products rightfully considered one of the best fish products. Balyk from fish can be smoked and loose (dried). In order to prepare balyk products, fish should first be cut, then moderately salted, and then either slightly dried and smoked in smoking chambers in a cold way, or air-dried.

Types of fish balyk

Dried balyk

Hanging (dried) balyks are dried on towers of a special design in a well-ventilated room with closed blinds. It is under these conditions that the fish is gradually dried to the desired moisture content.

According to their taste qualities, hanging fish balyki are valued higher than smoked ones, because, being in the above conditions, it is enough long time- up to one month or more - the product fully matures and acquires its own special "bouquet". Under the influence of heat and air, their own proteolytic enzymes and microflora are activated, due to which the gradual maturation of the fish occurs. This process is somewhat similar to the ripening of cheeses.

Cold smoked balyk

As for cold-smoked fish balyks, they are smoked and dried in 5-7 days. The process of maturation of such balyks is quite simple and therefore their "bouquet" is limited by the own taste of fish and the aroma of smoked meat. Both together provide excellent gastronomic qualities of cold-smoked balyks.

What kind of fish is balyk made of

For the preparation of balyk products, large fleshy and fatty fish are used, for example, fish of the sturgeon, herring and salmon families. In addition, good balyks are also obtained from ocean fish - sea bass, catfish, notothenia, halibut, umbrina, merow and others.

In order for all technological processes for obtaining balyk products to proceed correctly, and the finished product to be sufficiently uniform in taste and quality, fish must be cut in a special way. As a result of this cutting, parts of the fish are obtained, called tesha, back and side. Tesha is the abdominal part of the fish, and the sidebar is the two halves of the fish carcass, which contain both the dorsal and abdominal parts. Beluga carcass sidebar is prepared only from the dorsal part of the fish.

Requirements for a fish balyk

Preparation of balyk from fish requires a high sanitary-technical level of production. This level of production is found in fish processing enterprises to which raw materials are delivered - most often in the form of salted semi-finished products or in the form.

Dried and smoked fish fillets are usually stored in industrial refrigerators for no more than 1-2 months. However, they should be periodically checked for mold. And in the home refrigerator, balyk products can be stored for no more than 5-7 days as a whole (piece) and 1-3 days in the form of sliced ​​​​slices.

• 1 kg pork tenderloin;
• coarse (rock) salt - 3 tbsp. topped spoons;
• granulated sugar - 0.5 tablespoons;
• freshly ground black pepper - 1 teaspoon;
• spices - to taste.

• Preparation time: 96:30
• Cooking time: 96:00
• Servings: 8
• Complexity: light

Cooking

We will cook dry-cured pork balyk at home in two stages: salting the pork tenderloin and drying it.

1. Put a mixture of salt with sugar and pepper in a deep bowl, roll a piece of meat in it, then rub its surface with this mixture. Close with a white napkin, put oppression on top so that juice stands out from the meat. Put in the refrigerator for 4 days. Turn the meat every day. On the fifth day, remove from the refrigerator, dry thoroughly with a napkin or paper towel.
2. Prepared meat is put into the refrigerator in a jar with a closed lid. On the second day, the secreted juice is drained, and the sudok is placed with a slight slope so that excess liquid is collected. For this purpose, you can put a plastic jar lid under the bottom of the vessel. The accumulated liquid is removed every day by turning the piece of meat. Removed from the refrigerator on the sixth day.
3. Further, to make pork balyk at home, you need to dry it. Grate a well-dried salted piece of meat with a mixture of spices. Which one to choose depends on your taste, this is a completely creative stage of preparation.
   

   You can make it from the finished "hops-suneli" by adding mustard seeds. Second composition: crushed nutmeg, coriander seeds, paprika powder. Cumin, juniper berries, dried and crushed are also used.

4. After the pork is well rubbed, it is tightly wrapped in several layers of gauze, tied tightly and hung in a dry, warm place. Preferably where there is air movement. After 4-5 days, the surface of the meat will harden, a small crust will form. Pork balyk is ready, you can serve it to the table. Store it in the refrigerator without removing it from the gauze package until it is completely ripe. See how it looks in sliced ​​form in the photo. The cut is evenly colored.

The most reliable and ancient method of preserving meat products is salmon, the name is caused by an analogy with dried red fish. Pork balyk, at home, is a delicious, spicy product and an excellent cold appetizer for festive table.
The decisive moment is the choice of meat tenderloin: pork neck, loin or loin - pork pulp from the back. A small layer of fat is required so that the dried delicacy is not too dry. A piece of tenderloin can be large in size, but not too thick. You can even cut it lengthwise, remove the cores (if any). After all, it should be salted evenly.

This type of balyk can be prepared with your own hands if you have a home-made smokehouse or a factory-made smoke generator for cold smoking at your disposal. Some craftsmen make smokehouses from metal barrels. You can replace them with the most ordinary barbecue.

This homemade pork balyk recipe also requires salting the meat at first. The salting method, in contrast to the above (dry) method, also has a “wet” version. A brine is prepared at the rate of: 10 g of granulated sugar and 100 g of salt per 1 liter of water. In boiled brine, the meat is kept under oppression for 5 days in a cool place, also turning over every day. It is believed that the wet salting will make the salmon more juicy and tender. After salting, no matter how it is carried out, the meat is dried, that is, it is hung in a draft for 2 days. Before that, it must be thoroughly rinsed in clean water, dried, packed in gauze.

Now you can start the smoking process, which will take no more than 2 hours. Let's describe the sequence of actions:

• make a fire in the barbecue;
• pour alder chips or sawdust to the bottom of the oil lamp, 3 handfuls will be enough;
• put the meat on the grate, cover the wood chips with a pallet;
• close the smokehouse tightly with a lid, put on fire;
• after 1 hour, remove the smokehouse from the fire, replace the burnt wood chips with fresh ones, clean the soot from the lid and put it on fire again;
• smoke for another 1 hour;
• The product will be ready after 2 - 3 hours of air cooling. It is also recommended to keep it in the refrigerator for several hours before drinking.

It is sometimes believed that smoked pork salmon, juicy, fragrant, with a golden crust, is preferable to dry-cured. Yes, and it cooks faster. This, as they say, is a matter of taste. But the smoked product should be stored wrapped in foil for no more than 4 days at a temperature not higher than +2 degrees. While the shelf life of dry-cured is much longer.

We offer you to visually get acquainted with how to cook pork balyk at home. The video will teach you how to cook hot smoked balyk in summer cottage conditions.
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