Hot and cold smoked pike: cooking recipes

Fish selection

Fish for smoking is suitable both fresh and frozen. When choosing raw materials, freshness comes first. Before smoking, make sure the quality of the pike. It is determined by the following indicators:

• The surface must be clean, without damage, the scales must not be knocked down.
• The color of the gills can range from dark red to pink, depending on age.
• The eyes are light, slightly protruding.
• The scales are shiny, there is mucus on the surface.
• The smell is of fresh pike, specific.
• The consistency of the meat is dense or slightly weakened.

Fresh pike

If the fish does not meet the listed requirements, it is better not to use it for smoking. And you shouldn’t buy fish of questionable freshness. This may be indicated by a sour, musty, putrid smell in the gill cavities, weak, loose consistency, pulp separating from the bones, cloudy, sunken eyes.

The average weight of carcasses is 1-1.5 kg, but can reach 5-6 kg. And the largest individuals grow up to 35 kg. But you need to understand that large pike meat is too dense, rough, tough and dry.

How to ensure fish conservation

Hot smoked pike does not have a long shelf life, but you can extend it using the refrigerator. Pike prepared in this way can be kept in it for up to one and a half months without losing its taste. Smoked fish absorbs foreign odors very well, so it should be wrapped in parchment paper. Just before eating, the pike is heated to enhance the smoky smell, and after heating the meat is easier to separate from the skin.

In many countries, pike is considered one of the most delicious aquatic inhabitants, and dishes made from it are considered delicacies. Now you can enjoy your favorite dish at any convenient time and delight your loved ones with a new culinary delight - the ability to smoke fish.

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The best raw materials for smoking pike

To smoke pike, give preference to wood materials such as alder, rowan, plum, cherry, maple, willow, and oak. Most of them have bactericidal properties. The quality of poplar, chestnut, ash, and willow is slightly lower. The pleasant aroma of pike is obtained by adding juniper along with berries. You can supplement this set with freshly harvested hay with wildflowers and aromatic herbs, eucalyptus, raspberries, and black currants. They are easy to prepare with your own hands.

Plum chips

Chips from freshly cut trees will make the aroma of smoked meats sharper and more pronounced, while old and even rotten ones will give a delicate aroma and a beautiful golden color. If branches are used, be sure to remove all leaves so that during the smoking process they do not ignite and spoil the food with soot. It is undesirable to use wood with bark; the products may turn out bitter. Before placing the wood chips in the smokehouse, the bark is removed.

Important! If you do not want to spoil the smoked meats, do not use coniferous resin-containing materials from spruce and pine. The use of birch will give the products a tar taste and smell.

Smoking pike in a hot smoker. Little tricks

To make smoked pike really tasty, you need to be able to create the “right” smoke:
beech, alder, ash, poplar, oak chips are suitable for smoking pike;

for flavor, you can add apple, plum chips (up to 1/3 of the total volume) or juniper berries;

the smoke should not be too moist, otherwise the pike will be cooked and not smoked.

The temperature in the smokehouse needs to be increased gradually - this way the fish will remain juicy. Pike does not contain much fat, and any loss of it will worsen the taste of future smoked meats.

However, there is one trick: to make smoked pike more tender and juicy, place apple slices in its belly. It will soften the fish and give it an unusual aftertaste.

Hot smoked pike

Cooking hot smoked pike is very simple.

Preparation

Before processing, the fish is washed, removing mucus, and blotted with napkins so that it does not slip in the hands in the future. The scales are not removed.

A very careful incision is made in the abdomen between the pectoral fins from the head to the anus so as not to touch the peritoneum. They pull out the insides carefully, since the gall bladder cavity is located near the head. If its integrity is violated, the fish becomes very bitter. By making an incision under the gill covers, the gills are removed, since they contain a large number of microorganisms that, after smoking, can cause spoilage of the product.

Pike cutting

The abdominal cavity is rinsed, removing blood clots from the spine. Clean outside.

It is allowed for small pike (less than 1 kg) not to be gutted before smoking, but large fish caught in the summer-autumn period must be gutted. For ungutted fish, make a strong salt brine for smoking pike and pump it with a syringe into the peritoneum.

Carcasses weighing more than 2 kg are cut crosswise into pieces. In this case, you can remove the head.

According to the recipe for hot smoked pike, you can prepare a semi-finished product from plastered pike at home. On the back, along the dorsal fins, an incision is made in the flesh with a sharp knife, and the knife is drawn along the spine, dividing the carcass into 2 halves. The head is also divided in half. They unfold the semi-finished product like a book, remove the insides, clean it of blood clots, and wash it.

Salting pike

Pike is salted dry. Per kilogram of fish take 100 g of salt. Dip carcasses or pieces in a mixture of salt and spices, salt the abdominal cavity, and pour the mixture into the gill covers. You can use anise, cardamom, cumin, coriander, thyme, allspice. The salted products placed in a non-oxidizing container are placed in the refrigerator for 12 hours. After that, the fish is washed to remove salt; if it turns out to be too salty, it is soaked for an hour. Hot smoked pike should be medium salted.

Semi-finished products ready for smoking are blotted from excess moisture with napkins and dried outside in the shade for at least 30 minutes.

Smoking

To smoke pike in a hot smoked smokehouse, wood chips are poured into the smoking chamber and a tray is installed into which the fat will drain during smoking. Grates are fixed in the upper part. They can be installed in one or several rows.

Preparing the Smokehouse

Important! You cannot overload the chamber with semi-finished products, otherwise too much moisture will be released and instead of smoked products you will end up with boiled ones.

The carcasses are placed belly down on the smokehouse grates. The distance between adjacent products is left at least 1 cm so that the sides are well smoked. Close the lid tightly. Install the smoking chamber on the heating source.

According to the recipe for smoking pike in a hot smoked smokehouse, the temperature of the air and smoke in the chamber is maintained within the range of 80-110 °C.

Hot smoked pike

The process takes place in 2 stages. The first 20-25 minutes are smoked with the lid closed. Then, the lid is opened, the products are ventilated and dried until the skin becomes dry. At the next stage, close the lid again and continue smoking for 25-30 minutes, depending on the weight of the fish.

The total time for hot smoking pike is 45-55 minutes. After this time, remove the smokehouse from the heat, remove the lid and leave the fish in the smokehouse until it cools.

The meat of the finished pike should become white after smoking, the skin should easily separate from the flesh, and the flesh should come away from the bones.

Advice! When smoking pike in a hot smoker, monitor the quality of the smoke. If it turns yellow, it means something unexpected has happened - the food has burnt.

Smoked meats are placed in the refrigerator for 24 hours to mature the meat. Hot smoked pike will become much tastier, denser and more aromatic.

Smokehouse: what you need to organize it

Smoking pike in a smokehouse can be done both in the fresh air and at home, if you have a powerful hood in the kitchen. In any case, you will need:

• smoking box made of non-flammable material (usually stainless steel),
• cover for it
• fish racks,
• firewood for smoking (sawdust, shavings, small branches, chips),
• wood for the fire (if you are not smoking on the stove),
• a supply of water or a fire extinguisher for safety precautions.

Many inexperienced smokers prefer to treat the fish with “liquid smoke” before starting smoking. You should not use it: “liquid smoke” will overpower the real aroma of smoke and haze, and besides, it is harmful to the body!

Cold smoking

Cold smoked pike according to the recipe at home takes longer to prepare, but is considered more tasty.

Salting

Prepared semi-finished products - whole carcasses, layers or pieces - are salted using dry or mixed salting. Salts take 100 g per 1 kg of pike. Roll in salt, not missing the abdomen, gill cavities, and head. Place on a base of salt in an enameled or stainless steel bowl. Press down with pressure and put in the refrigerator at a temperature of 2-4 ° C for two to three days. Stir the fish 2-3 times.

Pike in brine

To salt pike for smoking with mixed salting, after rubbing the fish with salt, place it tightly in containers and gradually fill it with brine. Place the oppression and salt it for two or three days in the refrigerator.

After salting, the fish is washed from salt, soaked for 2-6 hours, the surface is blotted with napkins, removing excess moisture, and hung on hooks by the tail in the open air for a day.

Smoking

Smoking is carried out using smokehouses or smoke generators.

Cold smoked pike can be smoked in smokehouses consisting of a hearth, the so-called “smoke smoker”, a chimney and a processing chamber. To prepare the apparatus for smoking, light the fireplace, direct the smoke into the smoking chamber, and place the fish in the chamber. Can be hung by the tail fin or placed on bars. Close the apparatus with a lid and smoke at a temperature not exceeding 30 °C. If smoking is carried out using a smoke generator, then the wood chips are placed in the smoke generator body, covered with a lid, and set on fire. Turn on the compressor and pump smoke into the smoking chamber where the pike is located. Smoked at a temperature not exceeding 30 °C.

Cold smoked pike

The time for cold smoking of pike is from 10 to 24 hours.

After the smoking process is completed, the fish is left outside for a day or two, covered with gauze to ripen and dry. During this time, cold smoked pike will absorb all the aromas of the smoke and become much tastier.

How to prepare pike for smoking

To get not only tasty, but also healthy food, you need to smoke pike at home. This is the only way to guarantee the naturalness of the process, without the use of chemically active substances. Even factory products cannot boast of the purity of the process, since “liquid smoke” can be used.

Preparation for smoking is the most important step. This is where the factors influencing the taste of the finished fish are laid. There are many recipes, but they all boil down to pre-salting or marinating.

Pickling

Salting should be done only with coarse salt. We won’t go into details, but it is known that fine salt removes moisture worse, so the fish can rot. Salt is calculated approximately as follows: for every kilogram of product there should be one tablespoon.

• The pike carcass is freed from the entrails and washed, but the scales are not removed. It will play a protective role during smoking, and it is easy to remove immediately after cooking.
• After washing the carcass with water, you can proceed to the next step. To salt fish, you will need salt in the specified proportion, as well as black pepper, allspice, dill and herbs de Provence. It should be noted that there is no unambiguous algorithm here, and spices are added to taste. The main ingredient is salt.
• You need to rub the pike inside and out, not sparing the prepared mixture. To ensure that the salt is effectively absorbed into the fibers, it is recommended to wrap the fish in a plastic bag.
• It is better to store the workpiece in the refrigerator, and in winter - at home on the balcony. The salting process cannot be rushed. You will have to wait at least three hours, but experts recommend leaving the carcass in salt overnight.

Next, we interrupt the algorithm, since we will consider another cooking option, and from now on all manipulations will be the same.

Pickling

You can marinate pike in a solution. Add 100 grams of salt to one liter of water. A larger amount of brine is prepared based on this proportion. To get a complete marinade, add 5-6 peas of allspice and ground black pepper to the solution.

The bay leaf gives a characteristic smell, and lovers of garlic flavor are not forbidden to add the desired ingredient. The pickling time in the marinade is about three hours. In principle, it is no different from the dry method of salting fish, but it is believed that the marinade penetrates more deeply into the fibers. This method is used for unplanned outdoor recreation, at the dacha, when pike has to be smoked at an accelerated pace.

• The fish carcass is freed from excess salt or washed with water to remove the marinade. But before you start smoking hot smoked pike, you should check the degree of salting. To do this, the carcass is placed in clean water. The density of salt water is greater, so the fish will drown; this sign indicates that the salts in the fibers are higher than normal. But there is no reason to be upset. It is enough to leave the pike in the water and in just a couple of hours it will emerge.
• Now you can wipe it with a towel or napkin and dry it slightly. This completes all preparations. The result should be a semi-finished product with whitened fins, a predominant odor of seasonings and no mud odor.

Smoked fish in the oven

For this recipe, the pike is scaled, gutted and decapitated. Salt only the outside so as not to oversalt (to taste). Leave for 2-3 hours for salting, after which the fish is washed to remove salt and excess moisture is blotted with a napkin. Sprinkle with liquid smoke or dilute it with water 1:10 and lower the carcass into it for 3-5 seconds. Breaded in universal seasoning for fish.

Cooking pike in the oven

Cover a baking sheet with foil and place the fish carcasses. Wrap completely in foil and place in the oven for 20 minutes at 200°C. The carcasses are turned over to the other side and baked until cooked for 20 minutes. The next operation is necessary to form a golden brown crust and dry it - for this, each piece of fish is unwrapped from foil and placed in the oven for a few minutes. Cool and serve.

Cleaning and salting fish

We will start our recipe for hot smoked pike by processing freshly caught fish. As you know, smoking is also necessary for longer storage of products. However, pike smoked with hot smoke cannot be stored for more than three days, and even if it doesn’t have time, it turns out very tasty. And in order for the finished fish to be aromatic and have the “correct” moderately salty taste, you need to know how to cut it and salt it!

To begin with, we clean and gut all the catch. Cut out the gills and rinse with running water. Then you need to distribute the fish carcasses by weight: small pike up to one and a half kilograms can be smoked whole, but their larger “products” should be cut into pieces.

The next stage is salting. Choose the method that you prefer: you can simply rub the pike with salt, place it in a container on a salt bed and wait until the brine is released, or you can prepare a strong salt solution and send the fish to swim in it for 3 hours. You can check the strength of salamur with ordinary potatoes: if they float in the brine, the strength is excellent! By the way, you can also add your favorite herbs and spices (rosemary, coriander, cilantro, paprika) to the brine - then the taste of the finished pike will sparkle with new colors. In any case, if you have already stocked up on firewood and prepared a smoking box, you can spend the salting time with pleasure: sit comfortably in front of your monitor or screen and read the latest articles on the “Fishing for Everyone!” website.

Next, any recipe for hot smoked pike involves washing the fish with cold water and thoroughly drying it. Large pikes at this stage should make cuts along the back and insert wooden spacers.

Useful properties and calorie content

Pike is a freshwater fish that lives both in rivers and in lakes and ponds. The meat softens easily during heat treatment and is well absorbed by the body. Valued for its mineral content – ​​Fe, Ca, P.

Smoked pike

Normalizes fat metabolism in the body. Regulates blood cholesterol levels. Meat, caviar and milk contain fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, which are necessary for improving vision and strengthening the bone skeleton. Fish protein is complete and easily absorbed by our body.

Calorie content is low - 78%. This allows you to include pike in diets for weight loss.

Amount of nutrients in pike:

Little tricks at the end

• Pike scales are not cleaned in order to preserve the integrity of the skin during smoking.
• The following herbs and spices will give pike a specific taste and aroma: cinnamon, savory, nutmeg, peppermint, added during salting.
• Do not buy iodized or fine salt for salting. When using them, fish quickly spoils.
• Choose carcasses of the same size so that they are ready at the same time.

  
  Fresh frozen pike

How much to smoke

Beginning smokers are interested in the question of how long it takes to smoke pike. The duration of cooking hot smoked pike depends on the size of the carcasses.

Place the raw materials evenly. This is especially important for multi-level smokehouses. First, the fish is dried on low heat, then the temperature is raised to 80–110 degrees. Smoking time ranges from 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Readiness is determined by the following criteria:

• The meat turns white.
• Easily detaches from the seeds.
• The surface of the carcass has a bronze “tan”.

The smoke should be moderately dry. If the humidity is high, you will end up with boiled fish instead of smoked fish. Low smoke density will not allow a golden crust to form.

Before smoking, the fish can be slightly dried in the open air.