In our house we love fish - in all its forms. And we ourselves are fishermen with all our hearts.
Fish fried, boiled, steamed, baked, grilled, on skewers - all sorts of different things!

But I suggest you remember about dried fish!

In my city, a kilo of dried flounder costs 700-1000 rubles... This is insanely expensive, so I dry the flounder myself, when a kilo of fresh-frozen flounder costs only 100 rubles.

Maybe someone will find the recipe useful if it catches my eye)

If the flounder has a head, cut off the heads and thoroughly clean the inside of the fish.

And then we clean off the scales, which the flounder essentially has almost none at all.

When the flounder is cleaned, let the water drain a little.

We take a bowl or basin and begin to fold the flounder, while rubbing each one with salt inside and out.

We leave it on the table overnight.

In the morning, we take the fish out of the basin and rinse it under the tap - this is necessary in order to wash off the salt from the surface, and so that the fish ultimately has a “marketable” appearance.
Of course, you don’t have to rinse it - but only when the fish dries, there will be white salt stains on the surface of its skin.

I place the fish on paper towels in order to remove excess moisture, and when the fish is hung out the window, the water does not drip down from my 8th floor.

In order to dry flounder, you need, for example, a wooden block with nails driven in and bitten off caps on which the fish is hung.

We hang the fish outside the window and dry it until done.

I dry outside the window for 3 days in the summer or 5 days in the fall. And in winter I dry sea fish on the balcony in the apartment - there is no smell at all from sea fish - the house is warm from the radiator, so the fish needs 4 days.

The main thing is not to dry out the fish! The fish should always feel a little damp to the touch! The fish is salted and you won’t be able to get poisoned by it! But chewing dried fish is not so pleasant.

About three years ago, a little less, a friend approached me. A couple of years before, he sold his Moscow apartment and moved to live at his winter dacha in the Tver region. with a large plot: I wanted to escape from the bustle of Moscow into beautiful open spaces, fresh air and leisurely village life.
But after some time it turned out that the money received for the apartment was slowly being spent, and it was necessary to look for sources of income.
And he came up with the idea of ​​drying flounder for sale. Having compared retail prices, I found out that the most expensive flounder is the ruffed flounder Hippoglossoides platessoides

and took aim at her. Their heads are cut off on board the fishing vessel - so I can’t give you a photo of a specimen with the head: I didn’t hold it in my hands.
But in order to make sure that it is a ruff, it is enough to know the differences between the types of flounder by the pattern on the skin and fins, as well as by the shape of the body.

A friend read about the general principles of salting and drying fish, built a climate-controlled drying chamber, called wholesale fish stores, went and bought 25 kg for testing, salted it, dried it - and was dissatisfied. Well, he didn’t throw it away, of course - he called his friends and had a beer - but it was clear that they wouldn’t buy such quality from him.
He simply threw away the second 25 kg: it was under-salted and stale.
The fish from the third experimental batch, having dried, became not dry - but for some reason sticky, with the consistency of plasticine.

Well, then he gave up - he realized that there were some subtle nuances that he didn’t understand, which you don’t write about on the Internet - and he invited me to be a technologist.
And now, going from the Volga to buy flounder, he came to pick me up, we drove to one of the bases near Moscow, selected blocks with ruff flounder - and went to his dacha.
It immediately became clear that the friend did not know what kind of salt was needed: he bought expensive sea salt from the ABC of Taste, did not know that the fish needed to be sorted by size, did not know how much salt to put in and how long to salt - and what then needed to be soaked. In general, I didn’t know anything - not even how long to dry it and with what airflow.
So I won’t list the errors for a long time, but I’ll just try to describe how it’s roughly necessary - in case it still comes in handy someday.

Fish at the bases is sold in blocks, packed in sewn bags. It is impossible to select unbroken and unfrozen blocks: the bags are opaque. But you can touch the bag and understand that the edges of the blocks are even and smooth. You also need to look for torn bags. Then the contents are visible: if the block inside is dry and whitish, then the rest in this batch will most likely be the same. This means you shouldn’t take fish from this batch.
Most likely, they won’t let you into the freezer; they will take the bags to the scales. But a bag rejected with reason will be replaced.

The label is glued directly to the bag. Look, two different labels - we've traveled many times


The fish are not sorted by size (Size: Ungraded). FAO-27 - fishing area according to FAO coding.

The name of the vessel is indicated here: Chernigov.
But surprisingly, the Latin name is given completely incorrectly - Anarhichas minor, spotted catfish. A different family altogether.
That is, the confusion with names that we encounter on the counter does not always come from illiteracy or fraud of the seller: sometimes it starts right at sea.

Rip open the bag


and extract the blocks


The temperature of the block is even after the road from the Moscow region to the Tver region. - no higher than -20C: blocks in sewn bags, bags were riding on top of each other in the back of a pickup truck, nothing was defrosted. Your hands immediately become cold and painful; gloves don’t help.

We weigh the fish and record the results in a work log.
As a rule, the weight does not coincide with that indicated on the label, especially when exactly 30 kg is indicated: it never happens exactly.
By the way, it is usually a little more: 30 kg is the guaranteed minimum.
Only after defrosting, the net weight of the fish will always be slightly less: in addition to the fish, we paid for the weight of frozen water at the wholesale warehouse.

Place the blocks in all available containers - troughs, basins, vats - for defrosting


We have about 20 of these different basins and troughs.

And let it thaw slightly - so that the specimens do not defrost, but only separate from each other.


You cannot tear off the fish with your hands: you can damage the skin.

Instances that thaw from the blocks are set aside

The rest of the fish from the block, having thawed, remains right at the bottom of the trough

We sort the fish by size, we will have 3-4 weight categories

it is clear that this batch contains all fish with caviar.
You need to sort in order to salt small fish separately from large ones: small ones need less salt, and we salt them for 2 days, and large ones - all three.

Large specimen

The underside with which the flounder lies on the ground

We put fish of the same size in a vat (trough, etc.) - but reaching 10-15 cm to the edge: soon the brine - brine - will begin to separate and rise, in which new batches can then be salted.
Then we take out the fish, weigh it - it is important to know how much fish is in each of the vats - then we throw several handfuls of salt at the bottom of the vat and lay the fish in layers, sprinkling salt from the handful


We start salting as soon as the fish is sorted; it is still frozen inside. This is very important: if you salt completely defrosted fish, then while the salt passes into the muscles through the thick skin, they will already begin to deteriorate inside.
That’s why fish often disappears from those who try to salt it while fishing in the summer.
Those who read about the capelin ambassador from me remember that I also salt it while still frozen - as soon as I manage to separate it from the block and put it in a container: it will thaw itself, release a little water, and take the salt.

Place the flounder on the bottom of the metal with the dark, thick, rough skin down, and then place the layers so that the dark sides face the dark and the white sides face the white


do you see some specimens with spots? This is an obvious future marriage - but we salt such fish along with good fish: because it loses only aesthetically, but it will be tasty like everything else. But we will test quality precisely for these ugly reasons: so as not to take for testing anything that will definitely go to waste - such an increase in profitability.
The salt we used was Baskunchakskaya grind No. 2, which is not available in stores. We took them in 50 kg bags from the salt base in Maryino.
The required weight of salt was determined by the residual weight: they took a 2 kg sample, salted it by eye, then weighed how much salt was left - and counted how much was consumed.
Knowing how much the fish weighed in each vat, the ratio of salt to fish was calculated. A large sample ultimately allowed us to determine the optimal amount: 4.7% of the weight of the fish.
And according to reference books and textbooks - from 7% to 15%. I think I know why. The main task of the Soviet food industry technologist was not to create delicacies - but to guarantee the preservation of products, save them from spoilage by over-salting and not poison the population. Well, you can’t sit down yourself.
But I need a person to try it and say “ah!”

It is better to place the vats one inside the other, using the upper one as a pressure for the lower one.


The fish in the upper container was covered with a pair of boards wrapped in plastic bags, and stones wrapped in bags were placed on them.
Every 12 hours the vats were swapped: the top one was placed down.

Fish larger than 20 cm were salted for three days, small ones for 48 hours.
Then they washed it off the salt and soaked it in water for 3 hours, the one that had been salted for 72 hours, and the one that had been salted for 2 hours for 48 hours.
The large one was hung for 5 days in a chamber of 16 sq.m, lined with galvanized sheet, at T=15C and poor air circulation.
Small - 4 days.
They were hung on frames, piercing the tail stems with pieces of aluminum wire. What’s good about the drying chamber is that there are guaranteed to be no flies or other insects there.
In industrial production, fish is dried under powerful hot fans for 2-4 hours, and it goes on sale - but fish that has been dried, like ours, gradually over several days, is much tastier.

The finished product was collected in cardboard boxes: for tasting and for pre-sale packaging

Exposition 5 days.
Dark side

Bright side

I peeled off the skin and it came off all at once.

The fat in the fin area and the anatomy of the muscle plates - myomeres - are clearly visible. This structure of muscle tissue helps the fish bend its body to move through the water.
And understanding this geometry allows us to eat fish without choking on small bones. Now I’m not talking about dried fish, but about boiled, oven-baked or fried fish.
Do you see a thin white stripe running along the entire body from the head to the tail? This is a lateral line with nerve endings located in it that perceive changes in water pressure from the wave movement of water that occurs when reflected from other fish or stones: this helps the fish navigate in space, especially in conditions of limited visibility.
Bunglers and incompetents start eating fish, irrationally pick at its side or back with a fork, destroy the architecture - and then choke on the scattering bones. And we will run the side of the fork along the side line, separate the upper part of the carcass from the bottom along it, and then begin to peel off the myomeres with the tips of the teeth - and small bones will begin to be released from the myomeres and become visible, after which they can easily be removed from the fish directly on the plate, not sending their mouth.

The flesh from the spine is also removed almost in one piece, this is an indicator of quality

Once there were interruptions in the supply of ruff flounder from Murmansk, so we took the sea flounder Pleuronectes platessa for testing

she is pretty, but in taste compared to the ruff she lost

The business itself, of course, is not simple.
At the beginning of 2012, flounder-ruffe cost - if you take it in small wholesale, up to 1 ton - 145 rubles / kg.
He gave the dried meat for 650 rubles/kg. It seemed to us that there was a margin.
But only fish loses from 30 to 60% of its weight during drying - so consider the profit. Moreover, transportation costs, labor, depreciation of the drying chamber in which he initially invested money.
And his flounder, bought for 650 rubles, he traced, was given at 850 rubles per kg to the saunas (that link had a job - just transport the batch from place to place and get delta for 200 rubles per kilogram), where it was sold customers for 1200 rubles/piece.
A friend tried to sell directly to the sauna for 850 rubles, but he was so scared that he was discouraged from such transactions.

So my friend abandoned this business about a year ago. Firstly, when he made fish without me, the quality was worse, and sometimes there was a defect: the flesh was not dry, but sticky, or did not separate from the bones at all - we broke our heads, looking for the reasons. We did the timing of my work, and videotaped, and carefully weighed, and controlled the temperature, and measured the speed of the draft in the chamber with an anemometer, but we still couldn’t figure it out: he said that while working without me, he repeated everything one after another.
But I have a guess that he did not have time to sort and salt 100-200 kg of fish without me - and it overheated and began to spoil.
And it was expensive for him to call me every time, although I didn’t charge much back then: 10 thousand rubles. for departure, $100 per day.
Now, if anything, it’s more expensive.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of the salt crystals, larger than black peppercorns - but it was one of the most delicious things I’ve tasted in my life - only the platform of this warehouse in Maryino


In such 1-ton bags, salt is brought from Baskunchak and repacked in the hangar that is visible from behind into 50-kilogram bags. I recently asked a friend for the address of the base, but he doesn’t remember it at all.
It's a pity.

Well, I told you all this so that you know and remember: all this dried fish in markets and stores is made in much the same way: as a rule, in the garage and on the knee. Only, unlike us, manufacturers usually do not have drying chambers and climate control. And even these cameras are not there: they are drying in the attics.

When almost any product can be bought in a store, not many people decide to prepare delicacies themselves. However, it is worth looking carefully at the labels of industrial products. Too many preservatives and not enough benefits. Dried, salted and dried flounder is very easy to prepare at home. Having spent very little effort and time, you will get a truly healthy, dietary and tasty product.

Cooking dried flounder at home: drying

Ingredients

Flounder 1 kg Sea salt 100 grams Iodized salt 100 grams

• Number of servings: 1
• Cooking time: 2 minutes

Dried flounder: homemade recipe

Many people do not like to cook flounder dishes. This fish has a rather specific smell and seems unsuitable for cooking. However, it is moderately fatty and very healthy. Try making dried flounder. To do this, you can take both fresh and frozen carcasses.

Ingredients:

• whole fish carcasses of the same size;
• very coarse sea and iodized salt.

The salt should be coarse for optimal salting. The ratio is chosen to be 1 to 10. For 1 kg of fish, take 100 g of sea salt.

Preparation:

• if you use frozen carcasses, they must first be thawed, first in the refrigerator, then at room temperature;
• clean off the scales, remove the entrails of large fish; if there is caviar, it is better to leave it;
• For large individuals, the tail and head with gills are cut off in a circle to leave more meat, small ones are left like this;
• the prepared carcasses are placed in any suitable container and sprinkled with salt;
• the salting process will take from 3 to 5 days;
• At the end of salting, the carcasses are wiped of salt and hung on a fishing line in a dark but well-ventilated place for up to 5 days.

Calorie content and benefits of dried flounder

This sea fish is considered one of the most useful in dietetics. During drying, liquid and fat come out of the carcass. The result is a low-calorie delicacy. It can be eaten by anyone who watches their weight and adheres to the principles of proper nutrition.

How many calories are in dried flounder? Approximately 90 kcal per 100 g, while it contains a fairly high percentage of pure protein.

Among food products, flounder is the champion in terms of natural collagen content. This amazing substance helps maintain youthful skin and healthy joints. Like all marine life, its meat is rich in iodine and phosphorus. This helps improve brain activity and increase vitality.

Dried flounder is an easy to prepare and healthy delicacy. Moreover, it can be prepared from both fresh and frozen fish. With a little effort, there will always be a delicious snack on your table.

1. This time we came across a flounder without heads, but with caviar. And we couldn’t resist and decided to dry it.
2. I remembered a recent trip to Primorye on vacation and how we feasted on dried flounder in a cafe on Sportivnaya Embankment. And how for a long time they could not quench their thirst. Got a salty one.
3. We decided to dry it to our taste.
4. We remind you once again how to choose flounder: the fish should not have “rusty” stains, mechanical damage, or an unpleasant odor.
5. Frozen with minimal slush content without snow crumbs, or in a thin ice glaze.
6. Be sure to defrost freshly frozen fish before cooking, preferably in the refrigerator.
7. It’s better to buy flounder, like us, without heads. Or, when cutting, immediately remove the heads and discard.

1. Remove the blood from thawed flounder, even better, not completely thawed, being careful not to damage the caviar.
2. It is better to remove the scales.
3. Make cuts every 2-2.5 cm along the entire carcass on both sides. Just do not cut the spinal bone.
4. In a bowl, mix sugar, salt (be sure to be coarsely ground!), and coriander. Pour a thin layer of this mixture into the bottom of a deep container. Rub each carcass with this mixture and lay out the flounder in layers, sprinkling each layer of flounder with a mixture of salt and sugar.
5. Sprinkle the top layer of fish with sugar and salt as well. If you don't have enough, mix more, maintaining the proportions.
6. We put a load on top of the fish - we have two thick cutting boards, and close it with a lid. And leave for 40 minutes at room temperature. If your flounder is thicker than ours in the photo, you can leave it for 1 hour.

1. After 40 minutes, take out the flounder and rinse it thoroughly under running cold water.
2. Coarse salt is very good at drawing out excess moisture from flounder and making its meat denser.
3. Rinse the salt in the slits too.
4. Don't be afraid, the fish will be salted as needed. Rinsing off the salt is necessary so that the fish does not become oversalted during further drying.

1. Now we put it in a colander.
2. And leave for a few minutes so that the fish dries a little.
3. 10-20 minutes, no more.

1. Now comes the most important step.
2. We pierce each flounder carcass with an awl in the tail area and thread a hook - ours is made from a huge paper clip.
3. It can be made of thick wire.
4. It is better to do this procedure over a basin so that the water flows into it.

1. Now we have to hang the fish for drying.
2. To do this, we use a device of our own miraculous invention - we hang a grid on the shelf for storing bottles from the refrigerator.
3. If there are a lot of fish and there are not enough bars of the grid, we additionally stretch copper wire 1-1.5 mm thick in several rows.
4. We hang the flounder carcasses on it, leaving a small space between the carcasses so that the fish is well blown with air. Leave it overnight. We always try to hang it out for drying overnight. It’s not so painful to wait for the result).

1. And now we hang a large computer fan on the very front crossbar, in front of the very first row of fish.
2. We fix it so that it blows over all the fish.
3. If you don't have a computer fan, you can use a regular fan.
4. With the help of a fan, the fish will be ready in 12-20 hours.
5. If you dry without a fan, the drying time can last up to two or even three days.
6. Don't forget to place the basin so that the moisture flows into it and not where it falls.

1. Finally, our patience is satisfied.
2. Interestingly, there is practically no smell. The flounder itself was initially of good quality.
3. For a small flounder, drying for 12-15 hours is quite enough.
4. If you like it completely dry, you can leave it to dry further.
5. Just keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn’t dry out.

1. So, the most difficult thing in this recipe is to withstand the time while the flounder is drying.
2. The fish turns out very tasty, lightly salted. There will definitely be no increased thirst after it!
3. Bon appetit to you, from Peter de Crillon!
4. Like them - they inspire us to create new videos. Write comments. Subscribe to our channel to stay updated on new recipes.

Delicious dried fish is not only an ideal snack for beer. And without foam, she goes with a bang, especially in the warm company of friends. In this case, the most important criterion is the quality of salting, as well as the further preparation process. It’s rare to find what we think is a successful fish in stores. It may be over-salted or over-dried, and for some it may be too wet. Therefore, the ideal option is to prepare it at home yourself. Today we are interested in drying it so that it “squeaks behind the ears”? art, since those who tried to prepare fish for the first time often ended up with sticky, over-salted or under-salted fish, which quickly spoiled.

River or sea

Most often, dried bream, perch and other river inhabitants are sold in our stores. They taste good, but still cannot compare in quality with sea fish. Therefore, if you decide to buy a fresh frozen product and cook it yourself, then it is better to give preference to the latter. Dried flounder is a real delicacy. Try it once and you will forget about roach and bream forever.

Another important fact is the infection with helminthic infestations. When choosing marine life, you risk virtually nothing. Therefore, dried flounder is much preferable to the perches we are used to.

Sun-dried or dried

Most often, people confuse these two methods of cooking with each other, so let's dwell a little on the terminology. Dried fish is obtained by drying pre-salted raw materials. It can also be meat. However, it is often called dried. What's the difference? Dried fish is a complete and independent dish. But the dried product is considered a semi-finished product. It can be either fresh or salted, but is used only for cooking, and not as an independent snack.

Harvesting method

Why are we interested in dried flounder today? After all, you can quickly fry it or make a pie with it. The whole point is that such processing makes it possible to prepare fish for future use. If you come across a large batch of fresh fish at a reasonable price, then be sure to take advantage of the offer. Dried flounder is a dietary product that can be stored for months.

To get high-quality and tasty fish, you will first need to salt it, and then it simply hangs in a ventilated place until it is ready. That is, it does not undergo heat treatment and retains all vitamins and microelements in full. And there are a lot of them in fish. These are polyunsaturated fatty acids, calcium and iodine, iron and phosphorus. Regular consumption of this product helps prevent heart and vascular diseases, improve thyroid function, normalize blood clotting and reduce cholesterol.

Calorie content of dried fish

This question interests most women. Of course, if you adhere to the rules of a healthy diet, then salty foods are not included in the list of what you should eat. However, occasionally it’s still worth pampering yourself, especially if we are talking about such a healthy product as dried flounder. This product is not only dietary, but also does not entail weight gain. Therefore, even if you are on a strict diet, you can treat yourself to a piece or two of dried fish, thereby diversifying your diet.

Choosing a fresh frozen product

If you live near seaports, then there is usually no end to the offers. Surprisingly, connoisseurs meticulously choose which flat beauty they are offered to buy. It is believed that dried ruff flounder is the most delicious of all representatives of this species. By the way, its price in dried form is also the highest. This is something to keep in mind if you plan to offer cooked fish for sale.

Cooking method

First of all, we need to buy a quality product. Usually this is frozen fish in braces, which needs to be defrosted a little. But don't wait until it's completely thawed, just enough to separate one from the other. Now you need to sort it by size. If this is not done, then it will be difficult to guess with the dosage of salt, as well as the time required for its complete readiness.

Learning to do everything according to science

In order for the fish to be perfect, salt will require 4.7% of the total weight of the fish. Therefore, weigh large and small specimens separately and get the optimal ratio. According to reference books and textbooks, the proportion is much higher, from 7 to 15%, but in this case you care more about the safety of the fish, and not about the taste. Just sprinkle the fish with salt and put pressure on top. Small specimens will spend 48 hours in salt, and those larger than 20 cm can lie for three days.

At the end of this time, you will need to wash each fish from salt and lightly soak it in plain water. For small fish it will be two hours, and for large fish it will be three. There's only a little time left, and soon you'll have the most delicious dried flounder. The recipe is not complicated, but it also takes some getting used to. Don't forget that iodized salt is not good for you. For salting you need coarse, stone, No. 2 grinding.

Drying process

You will need cameras or frames that are completely protected from various insects. They should be installed in the shade so that direct sunlight does not fall on them. But the breeze is very welcome. The optimal temperature is +15. Each specimen is pierced in the tail area with wire and left hanging in this form. Large fish are removed after 5 days; for small fish, four are enough.

Dried flounder, prepared at home, turns out to be very tasty, but you need to observe all the subtleties: we salt the frozen fish, observe the proportions and be sure to wash and soak the fish and dry it at a low temperature. Industrial installations use hot air blowers. In this case, the drying process is accelerated, but the quality of the final product noticeably deteriorates. Therefore, it is not recommended to repeat a similar experience at home; it is better to wait until the breeze does its job.

Instead of a conclusion

Flounder is a very useful fish, so if you happen to find a large batch, be sure to buy it and store it for future use. During the drying process, unlike frying and boiling, all vitamins and microelements are completely preserved, which makes it an incredibly valuable food product. The calorie content of dried flounder is only 85 kcal per 100 g of product, which is a very low figure. It is considered a dietary product, very valuable in medical nutrition. In addition, flounder is considered an effective aphrodisiac. However, if boiled and fried flounder has no contraindications, then the presence of salt can be considered such. Pregnant women, hypertensive patients and people with chronic kidney disease should avoid it or consume it in small quantities.