Fish for soup: how to choose the right fish, how to cook it

Varieties of fish soup

The most delicious is considered to be red fish soup cooked from sturgeon, salmon, beluga, stellate sturgeon or nelma. It is called amber for the special color of the broth, steep broth and delicate sweet taste. In second place is white - a stew made from pike perch, ruff, perch and whitefish. They form a good combination with other species: catfish, tench, ide or burbot, but the main ingredient should be 3 times more.

Black fish soup is a fish made from carp, crucian carp, carp, rudd, asp and other species. This is not to say that it is tasteless, no. It’s just that such a dish sometimes turns out cloudy and also has a muddy taste. As a rule, this can be corrected by pouring a shot of vodka into the cauldron. In addition to red, white and black fish soup, there are many others - some are presented in the table.

Name	The right fish for fish soup	Peculiarities
Team	Sea and river	In rare cases, potatoes are added
Sweet	Any suitable	Add 2-3 times more carrots
Cancerous	Crayfish and any fish	Products are taken in a ratio of 1:2
Arkhangelskaya	Fresh halibut, cod	Season the broth with milk and heavy butter
Onezhskaya	Saffron milk caps and sushik	Requires salted fish
Donskaya	Pike perch, perch, crucian carp	Tomatoes are added to the stew

A good fish soup can be prepared from sea fish: cod, halibut, sturgeon, vomer, ice fish, sea bass or squama. Due to the widespread belief that traditional Russian fish soup is prepared only from river fish, many refuse the royal recipe. It often includes shrimp or crayfish tails, and when served, the yushka is decorated with red caviar.

Denis Borisov

Assistant chef of the restaurant "Fisherman's House"

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Species such as gobies, mackerel, roach, and willow are definitely not suitable. They give off a too strong aroma, which is unacceptable. When cutting, it is important to remove the gills, as they negatively affect the smell and taste of any first dish.

? Which fish makes the most delicious fish soup?

In the middle zone, fish soup is mainly prepared from river fish.

The most suitable types of fish for fish soup: pike perch, perch, sterlet, trout, burbot and ruff. From sea fish: cod, halibut, notothenia, ice fish, sea bass, flounder, mackerel, sturgeon, blue whiting, sardinella, salmon.

It is impossible to name one fish that makes the best fish soup. Because to get a tasty fish soup you need at least two types of fish. It is desirable to have small and large fish. For example, ruff and pike perch.

Small ones will make a big contribution to the broth. It will be rich. Pieces of pike perch will look beautiful in soup. And it will also give the main taste to the ear. Don't overdo it, two or three types of fish will be enough. A fish soup made from several fish is very useful.

❌ You should not cook fish soup from the following river fish: crucian carp, bream, gudgeon, roach, carp, smelt, eel, bleak. Also, bad fish soup comes from sea fish: lamprey, roach, gobies, mackerel, navaga, herring, sabrefish, ram.

Luxurious fish soup is made from expensive fish: salmon and sturgeon. But the head and tail of these fish are inexpensive, just what you need for fish soup! They are often sold in sets in stores at normal prices.

Can I use frozen fish?

Any chef will insist that the most delicious fish soup can be cooked exclusively from fresh carcasses. Frozen and even left in the refrigerator for a little while (2-3 hours) lose their unique smell, taste, structure and beneficial properties. You can only make regular soup from such fish.

In addition, the fish soup should be cooked in the fresh air in a pot over a fire. They do this almost immediately after they remove the nets or catch the prey with a fishing rod. There is nowhere to store the catch in the wild, so fresh fish is immediately sent to the cauldron, but this is only a plus. You can use both small carcasses and large fish. Naturally, large specimens are gutted and cut into portions. Heads and tails are often added to the stew - the broth from the bones is much better, it becomes jelly-like.

It is acceptable to prepare the first course from chilled white or red fish, which cannot be caught yourself or bought fresh in some regions. Of course, the ukha will not be classic, although it will not be inferior in taste. You can choose another option, for example, Finnish chowder with salmon and cream.

Additional Information. A good broth is so rich and thick that the next day it hardens, turning into jelly. However, the stew is almost always eaten at one time, as it is very tasty.

Cooking secrets

Now that it is clear which fish is more suitable for fish soup, you need to decide on the technology. Despite all the tricks and efforts of the cook, it will not be possible to serve the right stew at home. It is prepared in nature, and not all types of fish are suitable. There are many recipes, supplemented with photos or videos. However, they do not always talk about such important things as cutting carcasses and cooking dishes. Particular attention should be paid to this - the aroma and taste of yushka depends not only on the ingredients taken, but also on the actions of the cook.

Things to remember:

You should cook fish soup only from freshly caught live fish, which is sticky;
try to use small fish and large carcasses - small fish give fat, and portioned pieces look great on a plate;
fish of any size are cut, while for small ones it is better to cut off the head, for large ones it is enough to remove the gills;
fillets of sea carcasses can be used for salting, since the heads and tails make the broth tastier;
A little trick will help you avoid bones in the broth - boiling the carcasses in a gauze bag;
the fire should smolder so that the dish simmers, and does not seethe or boil strongly (this will cause it to become cloudy);
You can close the cauldron with a lid only at the very end.

Before removing from the heat, pour a shot of vodka into the soup and simmer a small coal so that the soup acquires the distinctive aroma of a campfire. After finishing cooking, cover the pot with a lid and leave to “rest” for 10-15 minutes. Serve with plenty of fresh herbs, a slice of tomato or lemon.

Denis Borisov

Assistant chef of the restaurant "Fisherman's House"

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The most important thing is to cook in a cauldron specially designed for a fire. Aluminum may not be suitable, as it enters into a chemical reaction and oxidizes the dish, which affects its taste.

Recipe 2. Salmon soup with tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 salmon steak, about 300 g;
2 potatoes;
2 large fresh tomatoes;
1 carrot;
1 onion;
1 bay leaf;
salt, peppercorns - to taste;
fresh herbs for serving.

Cooking step by step

Wash the salmon steak, cut it - separate the meat from the skin and backbone. Place the latter in a saucepan and add 1.5 liters of water. Add bay leaf, pepper. Cook for 15 minutes over low heat, skimming off the foam. Set the remaining raw fish flesh aside.
Rinse the vegetables thoroughly, remove peels and husks. Cut the onion into cubes, grate the carrots, chop the potatoes into cubes. Separate the tomatoes from the peel. To do this, make neat cuts and pour boiling water over the fruit for 1.5 minutes. After this, the skin will be easily removed. Cut the tomatoes into slices.
When the skin and spine are cooked, remove and discard. Strain the broth, add salt and bring to a boil again. Add chopped onions, carrots, potatoes. Cook for 10–15 minutes over medium heat.
After a quarter of an hour, add tomatoes and pieces of salmon pulp. Cook for another 10–12 minutes. At the end of cooking, add chopped herbs, steep the soup a little under the lid and serve.

How to defrost fish correctly

It has already been said that fish soup requires only fresh carcasses, but such are not always available. In some cities it will not be possible to find (or the price will be prohibitive) live halibut, sturgeon, coho salmon, sea bass, which is why you have to buy frozen and cut fish. In this case, you should try to preserve the maximum of nutrients and the structure of the pulp. It is forbidden to place the fish in cold or hot water for quick defrosting, much less use a microwave oven.

You must first move the product from the freezer to the refrigerator for several hours. Only after this is it taken out and left in the kitchen. However, you need to monitor the room temperature and time so that the fish does not spoil.

Find out the secret of delicious soup

Secret 1

Adding eggshells will create a clear broth. Before adding vegetables, it must be strained.

Secret 2

Over-salted soup can be easily saved with sugar. Place a piece of refined sugar on a spoon and lower it into the broth until the sugar begins to melt.

Secret 3

Boiled greens look ugly and have no value, so add parsley, dill or basil before serving.

Secret 4

For thickness, it is often recommended to use flour, but it should first be fried in a dry frying pan, otherwise lumps will form.

How long should fish be cooked?

The cooking time of the fish soup depends on the variety, the heat of the fire and the recipe. Small fish will be ready in 5-7 minutes. It will take 15-20 minutes to boil heads, tails, and large carcasses (this applies to sea and river fish). The maximum time is required to cook fish with scales, but no more than a quarter of an hour. You should control the degree of readiness, as boiled pieces will turn into porridge, spoiling the clear broth. Of course, the taste of the dish, smell and stickiness will be different.

You must understand that, regardless of the size of the carcasses, the yushka is cooked on the lowest heat - you should not let it boil. Firstly, the pieces of pulp will change their structure and lose their juiciness, and secondly, the broth will become cloudier.

Despite the fact that nothing unnecessary is put into real fish soup, you need to take into account the cooking time of the remaining ingredients. They are placed in water immediately or sent to ready-made fish broth. Sometimes it takes 30-50 minutes from start to finish of the process. If pearl barley is used (it takes the longest to cook), then cooking dinner will take at least 1.5-2 hours! One option is to make pearl barley porridge in advance and then simply add it to the broth.

It’s impossible to say which fish makes the most delicious fish soup, because everything is individual. There is red, white and black, which is prepared from certain marine or freshwater inhabitants. Carcasses that produce a sweet, clear and rich broth are suitable. If all the nuances are observed, it becomes sticky, and when cooled, it resembles more aspic than a first course. In fact, there is nothing difficult about cooking fisherman’s fish soup.

? A simple and delicious fish soup recipe

✍ Ingredients:

Pike perch – 500 grams
Ruff – 300 grams
Onions – 80 grams
Carrots – 70 grams
Salt - to taste
Black pepper - to taste
Bay leaf – 1 piece
Greens - to taste

? Preparation:

Gut the fish, remove the gills. If there is caviar or milk, then put them aside for separate cooking. You can leave it. A matter of taste. We do not remove the gills from the ruff, but simply cut off the heads. You can also put the brush in gauze. After cooking, it will be easy to remove it from the pan.
Cut the pike perch into pieces. We leave the head. It makes a good broth and has a lot of tasty meat. Some people take the eyes out of fish. Some people eat them with pleasure. Your choice. We cut off the fins.
To ensure that the broth is clear and thick, place the fish in cold water. The water should cover the fish with a small margin. Place the whole peeled onion there. Carrots need to be grated on a coarse grater. You can just cut it. We also put the rest of the ingredients in the pan, everything except the greens. We add it at the end of cooking. A couple of minutes before the end.
Cook for 20 minutes. Even before boiling, foam appears. We remove it with a tablespoon all the time it appears. This is necessary for the transparency of the broth. We count down the time from the moment the boil begins.
5 minutes before the end, throw a small piece (10-15 grams) of butter into the broth. It will give the ear a special taste.

When cooking ruffes, pike and some other fish, a muddy smell occurs. To eliminate this smell, pour 50 grams of vodka into your ear.

So with a small set of products you can get a tasty and healthy fish soup. Some people add potatoes to their soup. This is not bad, but then, as experienced fishermen say, we are cooking soup, not fish soup.