How to salt nelma at home in a delicious way - step-by-step recipe with photos

How to properly prepare nelma for salting?

Frozen fish should first be thawed at room temperature. Then wipe the salmon with a dry towel or paper napkins. After this, gut the carcass and carefully remove the films from the abdomen. Now cut off the head, tail and fins. Next, use a sharp, thin knife to separate the fillet from the spine. It is recommended to dry the meat.

How to salt nelma correctly?

There are few ways to salt nelma and they are all extremely simple. Let's look at them.

Salt fresh or chilled nelma

Place cling film on the table or cut a large plastic bag. Place a few broken bay leaves on your work surface. You can add a pinch of dry herbs. Add about a tablespoon of salt. Now place the prepared nelma fillet skin side down. Sprinkle the meat evenly with salt, not too much. You can pat the pulp a little. After this, place the fillets on top of each other, skin side out. Then wrap the nelma in film or a bag, put it, for example, on a tray and put it in the refrigerator. After 12 hours, the fish is ready to eat. You can cut and serve after washing off the salt and drying the nelma.

Salt frozen nelma

Fish that has been frozen is recommended to be salted slightly differently. Take the defrosted fillet and place it in a clean, dry glass or enamel container. Now sprinkle the fish meat with salt (2 parts) and sugar (1 part) on top. For every kilogram of nelma, take a total of 75 g of bulk products. After this, fold the fillet skin side out and place pressure on top. Place in the refrigerator for a day. It is advisable to turn over 2-3 times. Then rinse off the remaining pickling mixture and dry. Slice and surprise your guests and family.

Salt nelma before frying

Both small pieces of fillet without skin and nelma steaks 2-3 cm thick are fried. Before cooking, the prepared fish should be lightly sprinkled with salt and chopped spices, and then left for 20 minutes at room temperature. During this time, the product will be saturated with aromas and will have a more pronounced taste. Then you can fry over high heat for literally a few minutes on each side. It is recommended to use vegetable oil.

Nelma belongs to the salmon family, which means that beginners should carefully consider what can be prepared from it so as not to spoil the product. Due to the fairly fatty meat, nelma should be cooked very quickly, otherwise the meat will become bitter from too rapid oxidation. It is better to divide the fish into parts and cook nelma in different ways. The easiest way to prepare lightly salted nelma.

Depending on its habitat, the weight of nelma ranges from 2 to 40 kg, but on average, fishermen get nelma weighing 5-10 kg.

You shouldn’t add so much salt at once unless you’re having a party. After all, it is not recommended to store lightly salted nelma for more than a week. Freeze fresh nelma and pickle it as needed.

So, let's start salting nelma. Clean the nelma from scales, remove the head and entrails. Be careful, autumn nelma may contain caviar, which can also be salted separately. You remember that nelma is a salmon species, which means its caviar is very tasty and healthy?

Wash the cleaned salmon and dry it with a towel. Make a deep cut along the ridge and remove it. Lay out the nelma like a book and get rid of large bones.

Mix coarse salt and pepper and sprinkle generously over the uncovered fillets. If desired, you can add finely chopped onions, this will add piquancy to the fish.

For a fish weighing 3 kg, you need at least 100 grams of salt, and 1 tsp. pepper

Cooking features

Before salting, nelma must be thawed without exposing it to sudden temperature changes. It should thaw in the main chamber of the refrigerator, then lie for a while at room temperature. An attempt to speed up the process of defrosting nelma using a microwave will lead to a deterioration in its organoleptic qualities.
For salting, nelma is cut into fillets. You can salt it with the skin. There is no need to remove the scales, since the fish will still be skinned before serving. Before salting, the carcass must be gutted, washed and blotted with a napkin, then the head and fins of the fish must be cut off, and the main carcass must be cut into fillets. You need to carefully gut the nelma so as not to damage the gall bladder and the eggs that may be inside.
In order for the curing mixture to be most aromatic, it is better to grind the spices immediately before preparing it.
The duration of salting nelma depends on the size of the pieces and the marinade recipe. This process usually takes from 6 to 24 hours. The exact time is indicated directly in the recipes.

Salted nelma can be served as a cold appetizer as part of sliced fish, or used to make sandwiches and salads.

Lightly salted nelma - a simple recipe for gentle salting

Nelma is one of the valuable commercial fish varieties, and this is not in vain. Nelma meat is rich in fats and amino acids, and yet it is considered dietary and low-calorie. Lightly salted nelma, the recipe for which you will read below, can be eaten at least every day, without harming your figure.

Ingredients: onion, nelma, vegetable oil, salt

Nelma is a fairly large fish, and there are specimens weighing 40 kg. Of course, these are already giants, and in our stores the average size of nelma is 2 kg. These are young individuals and their meat, when salted, turns out to be very tender.

Wash the fish, trim the head and tail. It is not necessary to clean the scales, nor to remove the skin.

Make a cut along the ridge and halve the carcass into two parts. Remove the backbone and large bones. Cut the carcass into pieces that are convenient for you.

Place a handful of coarse salt at the bottom of the bowl and place the fish mixed with salt.

It is better to take coarse salt, sea salt. It draws water out of the meat better, and this makes it denser and tastier. Some people prefer to add spices right away, and for nelma the following are suitable:

ground black and white pepper;
Bay leaf;
carnation.

All these spices can be added later. Try just salt first.

Cover the top of the fish with an inverted plate, put pressure on the plate, and put the bowl in the refrigerator.

Unlike other salmon, nelma salts out very quickly. Literally after 4 hours it can already be taken out of the refrigerator.

Rinse each piece in water and place on a cloth or paper towel to dry the fish.

You can already eat it, but if you want to improve the taste, you will have to work a little more.

Peel a large onion and cut it into rings. Sprinkle the rings with salt and mix, pressing a little with your fingers. Mix pieces of nelma with onions, put them in a jar, and fill with vegetable oil.

Place the jar of fish in the refrigerator for another 2 hours, and now lightly salted nelma will truly become a culinary masterpiece.

Lightly salted nelma is a great addition to boiled potatoes, or just make yourself a sandwich. This is a wonderful appetizer, tender, with moderate fat content, and it won’t last long in the refrigerator.

Smoked

Nelma is prepared by smoking, after which the fish is obtained with a special delicate taste. Preparing this delicacy at home is a simple process that does not take much time.

Composition of ingredients for hot smoking

For smoking carcasses use:

Product	Quantity
Nelma	1 kg
Salt	100 g.
Ground white pepper	Taste
Vegetable oil	2-3 tbsp. l.

Step-by-step cooking process

Hot smoked nelma is prepared in the following steps:

The fish is gradually defrosted at -1°. The head, fins and entrails are removed. The carcass is cleaned of scales and cut in half along the ridge. If the carcass is very large, the fillet is divided in half. The fish meat is washed under cold water.
Rub the fish with salt and pepper, put it in a bag and put it in the refrigerator for 4-5 hours.
The fish is washed with cool water, dried on a paper towel, and tied with twine so that the fish does not fall apart during the smoking process.
The fish carcass is hung on the street to drain the remaining water.
Moistened alder chips are poured into the smokehouse, the tray is closed, and the grates are lubricated with vegetable oil.
Place the fish meat skin side down on the grill. Leave a gap of at least 1 cm between pieces of fish.
Within 10-15 minutes. the fish is dried at 60-70°. Then boil to soften at 100-120°. Smoke the carcass until golden brown at 90-120°.
The finished fish is aired outside for 2-3 hours to 2 days.

To make a dish from this type of fish tasty, they try to choose the right carcass and observe some features of the cooking process:

They are trying to buy ice fish. When a fish is thrown onto ice, it freezes instantly, but in ice-covered fish the cold does not penetrate deep inside, which means it will contain less water.
A 3-5 kg nelma carcass is considered ideal, since it is small in size but contains a sufficient amount of meat.
If the fish remains frozen for a long time (not lower than -18°), then its meat is considered disinfected and therefore can be eaten raw.
When salting nelma, the amount of salt is calculated to be 10-15 g per 1 kg of fish. If you add a little sugar (1:2), the meat is lightly marinated and retains its pink tint.
Nelma must be salted before smoking.
Fish requires heat treatment, but not at high temperatures, otherwise the carcass may dry out.

Numerous recipes for preparing nelma can vary greatly, but the main requirement remains heat treatment of the carcass. It is permissible to use raw fish for food, provided that the storage temperature is maintained. It is recommended for the diet menu, but not in moderation.

Saturated ear

In order not to interrupt the unique taste of nelma, the fish soup should be cooked with a small amount of vegetables, spices and herbs. The recipe should be very simple, without cereals and with a minimum amount of greens.

Potatoes – 4 pcs.;
Nelma – 1kg (preferably whole);
Onions – 2 pcs.;
Salt, spices, herbs.

Clean the fish, rinse thoroughly and cut off the head and tail. Cut the fillet into 5 centimeter pieces.
Finely chop the potatoes into cubes. Let it cook.
After 5 minutes, add the fish, head and tail, to the pan.
Bring water to a boil. Meanwhile, chop the onion and add it to the potatoes and fish.
Cook the fish soup for about 20 minutes and add spices and salt to taste.
Finely chop the greens and add them before removing the soup from the heat.

Other options for salting fish

There are options suitable for both freshwater and sea fish. It's better if it's frozen.

This is a very quick option, because the fish is salted in three hours, maybe a little more. It is suitable for the following types of fish:

Pink salmon;
Salmon;
Salmon;
Chum salmon;
Sockeye Salmon;
Coho salmon;
Chinook;
Taimen;
Whitefish;
vendace;
Omulya.

You also need coarse salt, and not iodized. We need about 15% of the weight of the fish. You can do more, salmon won’t take more than they need. You can also add a little sugar, pepper and herbs.

Salting is done like this. We gut the fish and remove the head, season with salt and wrap it in parchment (you can use weaving, but it’s natural). Leave it in the room (or in the refrigerator) for three hours. We check readiness by how easily the bones and skin are separated from the meat.

This fish can be stored for about three days. But you can also freeze it. Just don't use polyethylene for this.

This is a good option for fish that will be smoked later. Salt needs about 10% of the weight of the fish itself. Salting in brine is most suitable for anchovy, sabrefish, sprat, bream or roach. The fish must be small, because it is salted whole. No need to add sugar. To prepare, generously salt the fish and place it in a jar or saucepan. We place oppression on top. It is thanks to him that the very brine appears - the juice secreted by the fish and mixed with salt. It should cover the fish entirely. We wait three days. You can store fish for up to half a month.

Important! If the brine becomes cloudy, be sure to drain it. You can also add vegetable oil to brine.

Cold brine is suitable if you plan to further marinate the fish. The fish is prepared in brine three days in advance. In both cases, salt is needed about 15% by weight of water.

For hot brine we take:

500 ml water;
Honey – 2 tbsp;
Salt - twice as much as honey.

We cut the fish thinly. Fill with brine and wait three quarters of an hour.

When we add acid to the brine, be it lemon or tomato juice, vinegar, wine, we will already have a marinade. You can add bay leaf or spices here. It is best to marinate fish after salting, for example, using a dry method.

Important! It’s not easy to over-salt fish; it usually takes as much as it needs, but if this does happen, keep it in milk for an hour or two. This, by the way, will make its taste more tender.

Recipes for cooking in the oven under a fragrant cheese crust with vegetables

In addition to salting, nelma is also great for baking. The dish will turn out very tender and satisfying, and all the elements necessary for the body will be preserved.

So, we need the following ingredients:

nelma – 1 kg;
hard cheese – 300 g;
onions – 4 pcs.;
tomato – 2 pcs.;
sweet pepper – 2 pcs.;
sunflower oil;
salt, red and black pepper.

Cooking instructions

The recipe for preparing nelma begins with cutting the fish. First, the fins are cut off, then all the insides are removed. Next, the fish is cleared of film, bones and ridge are removed (they can later be used to prepare fish soup).
We wash the resulting fillet under water and cut into thin pieces. Place the nelma in a separate bowl. Salt, pepper, season according to your taste preferences.
After this, coarsely chop one onion and add it to our fish. Stir and leave to marinate. We clean all other vegetables and cut them into half rings. Take a baking sheet, lay out the fish with onions, place the vegetables on top, sprinkle with vegetable oil, add a little salt and pepper.
Grate the cheese on a coarse grater so that it covers all the ingredients. Turn on the oven, heat it to 200 degrees, put the baking sheet in the cupboard for 40 minutes. During this time, the fish will bake and absorb all the aroma of the vegetables.

So our nelma is ready, baked under a cheese crust with vegetables.

Fried in a frying pan

Nelma fish, the recipes for which are related to dietary cuisine, is cut into small pieces, then rolled in flour on all sides. After this, the pieces are fried in a frying pan and served hot, they are combined with hot sauce or pickles.

Composition of ingredients

For the recipe for cooking in a frying pan, use these products:

Product	Quantity
Nelma	1 PC.
Vegetable oil	2 tbsp. l.
Flour	½ tbsp.
Pepper, salt	Taste

Step-by-step cooking process

Prepare nelma in a frying pan in steps:

The fish is cleaned of scales, the belly is cut and the entrails are taken out. Large fins are cut off and the salmon is washed under cold water.
Cut the fish into equal pieces 2-3 cm thick, open the pieces and divide them in half with a knife.
Sprinkle each piece with salt and roll in flour on all sides.
Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan. When it starts to smoke, add pieces of fish.
Cook the fish in a frying pan over low heat and covered. Each side takes about 5 minutes.

Nelma in foil in the oven

1 Nelma carcass (about 800 grams);
1 lemon;
1-2 cloves of garlic;
2 medium onions;
3 tablespoons olive oil;
1 tomato;
1 bell pepper;
2 small carrots;
seasonings for fish to your taste;
a pinch of sea salt;
a bunch of parsley.

The total time to prepare the dish is 60-70 minutes. Calorie content: 86 kcal per one hundred gram serving.

Rinse the fish carcass, clean the abdominal cavity of any remaining entrails, and remove the scales. Dry with paper towels;
Pass the garlic cloves through a crusher, add fish seasonings and salt. Generously rub the mixture onto the fish carcass inside and out. Sprinkle with juice squeezed from half a lemon and leave to marinate for 25-30 minutes;
Peel and wash vegetables: carrots, onions, bell peppers. Cut the onions into quarter rings, carrots into slices, and bell peppers into short strips and sauté in a frying pan in olive oil. Add salt and let cool;
Cut the remaining half of the lemon and the tomato into half rings;
Line a baking dish with 2 layers of foil (cut with excess so that you can fold the edges and cover the fish), grease with olive oil;
Make cuts in the side of Nelma (at an angle), place the carcass on foil and stuff the belly, alternating slices of tomato and lemon, on which, in turn, place sautéed vegetables. Insert the remaining half rings of lemon and tomato into the side cuts;
Finely chop the washed greens and sprinkle them on the stuffed fish carcass;
Fold the edges of the foil and place in a preheated oven to bake for half an hour.

How to deliciously fry nelma - cooking recipes in a frying pan

Nelma fillet – 500 grams
Tomato - 4 pieces
Onion - 1 head
Milk - 1 cup (250 milliliters)
Flour - 2 tablespoons
Oil - 3 tablespoons
Greens - 5 sprigs
Salt - 1 teaspoon
Pepper - on the tip of a teaspoon

How to cook nelma

Wash 500 grams of nelma fillet in cold water, cut into pieces 3 centimeters thick.
In a bowl, mix 1 cup milk, pepper and a pinch of salt.
Sift 2 tablespoons of flour into a separate plate.
Place fish fillet pieces in a bowl of milk and then roll in flour.
Pour 3 tablespoons of oil into a frying pan, place on the stove, heat and place pieces of fish coated in flour.
Fry the nelma for 5 minutes on one side, then turn the meat over and cook for another 5 minutes.
Peel and rinse 1 onion. Holding the onion firmly in your hand, cut it into rings.
In a separate frying pan, heat 3 tablespoons of oil and add the onion, fry the onion rings for 3 minutes, until golden brown.
Remove the fried onions from the pan.
Wash 4 tomatoes with cold water, cut in half, add salt and pepper.
Place cut side down in the pan where the onions were previously fried.
Fry the tomatoes for 3 minutes.
Place nelma in a separate plate, place onion rings on top, and halves of fried tomatoes on the sides.
Wash the greens and chop finely.
Before serving, sprinkle fish fillets with herbs.

Oven

To prepare nelma in the oven you will need the following ingredients:

Svezhayanelma. The sizes of the fish are selected based on the needs of each individual person.
Bulb onions. One large one or a couple of small ones may be enough. If necessary, you can get by with even less.
Tomato. One tomato will be enough.
Cheese. You can buy initially grated or grate 100 grams in advance. The type of cheese is selected according to taste.
Vegetable oil. 4 tablespoons is enough. You can use more according to taste.
Mayonnaise. The same amount is 4 tablespoons.

Additionally, you will need salt and pepper to taste.

To prepare, you will need to defrost the nelma and rinse it under clean water, then remove the ridge. Then you should cut the fish and place the fillets on a separate plate.
Cut the fillet into strips or cubes depending on your preference. Then add pepper and salt according to your preference.
Now take the onion and cut half into small cubes, then add to the fillet. Be sure to stir, then leave the marinade for 20 minutes or half an hour.
The second half of the onion should be cut into rings and placed on a dish in which you can fry the product in the oven.
Then the fish fillets should be placed on the same baking sheet. Place a tomato pre-cut into thin rings on top. Then sprinkle the baking sheet with grated cheese. Try to maintain an even distribution over the entire surface. You can add mayonnaise on top of the cheese to taste.
Now all that remains is to put the product in the oven at 200 degrees for 35-45 minutes. At the moment when a beautiful golden crust appears on the fish and cheese, the product can be removed.

Served with greens, potatoes or as a separate dish.

Pickling

Nelma can be salted. To do this you will need:

Nelma, which we will pickle. You can use one carcass or several, depending on the planned number of eaters.
Onion. One medium-sized head is enough. You can take two small ones.
Olive oil. 5 tablespoons is enough.
Seasonings to taste. You will definitely need salt.

It only takes 25 minutes to prepare and takes 6 hours to cook.

Step-by-step instruction

The fish should be washed and removed from bones.
Then cut the fillet.
Then take a suitable dish, pour salt on the bottom and place the chopped fillet on it. If desired, you can immediately add the necessary spices. If there is no such desire, do it later.
When everything is done, cover the fish on top with the dishes and set the pressure. Now it is enough to wait 4 hours.
Then you should take out the fish and rinse it under water. The fish is ready, but you can further improve its taste. Cut the onion into rings and mix with nelma. Now put it in a jar, fill it with olive oil, and put it in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

The product is completely ready for use.

Useful information: nelma is a dietary product that can be consumed regularly and without fear of deterioration in quality.

Nelma, salted with added sugar

Compound:

nelma (fillet) – 1 kg;
salt – 40 g;
sugar – 20 g.

Cooking method:

Without cleaning the nelma, remove all excess and cut it into fillets (leave the skin).
Mix salt with sugar. Sprinkle the shelf mixture over the nelma on all sides. Place the fillet pieces in pairs, skin side out, wrap in gauze and place in a bag.

According to this recipe, you need to salt the nelma for 24 to 48 hours, depending on how salty the fish you want to get. When salted with sugar, red fish acquires a particularly delicate and pleasant taste. At the same time, it turns out juicy.