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I caught many garfish in various sizes in the spring, so there will be slightly different times for salting and smoking. Most garfish, which I smoked, weighs 500 g or more. The small garfish are fried in the pan. In autumn you can buy garfish at the port for cheap money. They are usually very large. I like to choose the garfish at 800 grams, it is an appropriate size to smoke, they are also easy to peel and will not get dry. Therefore, this recipe adapted to this size and of course to my smoke oven.
I start by cleaning the fish, remove entrails. Cut up the belly from the anus to the head and take it all out. Remove the blood clot which is along the backbone of the abdominal cavity, this is renal blood, and is not very tasty. Use a stiff, small vegetable brush to scrub off the blood. A good advice. Be careful not to cut too much up in the head because the fish is hung on a spear through the eyes. The head can then loosen and the fish is falling down. A good tip is to use wooden sticks of 6 mm. A wooden stick is not hot as an iron spear, so the fish remains on the wooden stick. Wet salting: I make middle strong brine around 8%: For 12 l cold water, add 1 kg fine salt, it fits 16 large, nice garfish between 600 g and 800 g, which fits my salt tank and smoke oven. The salt must be completely dissolved in the cold water before the fish are put into the brine. Fish of this size may well be in the brine for 12 hours, but try yourself if you have larger or smaller fish. Remember that water temperatures should not exceed 5 °C. It is no problem in October and November, but otherwise one must use a refrigerator. Once the fish have been overnight in the brine, they are taken up and rinse thoroughly with cold water for blood and slime residues which the brine has forced out of the fish. The fish hung out to dry with the expansion pins in the belly, so they also dry inside. The drying time is hard to predict, as the weather played a part. The fish should not hang in the sunlight, but like in the draft. Beware of flies here in the summertime. I have made two frames with Tesa mosquito net for windows, the first on top of smoke oven, and the second set in front of the gate. Now the fish are first dried in the smoke oven without the fly come to the fish. Until now I have dried the fish for 4 to 6 hours so the skin does not stick to your fingers anymore. News: A cage lined with nets, I have also made. Now smoked garfish: Oven temperature starting at 80 °C. The fish are smoked in 1 hour with an open damper. Oven temperature is now 60 °C and the fish are smoked for 1 to 2 hours with open or closed dampers. Oven temperature is now 50 °C fish smoked continued for 1 hours with closed damper. A total of 4 hours. A brief explanation for this: Smoke oven made ready for smoking, the temperature is 80 °C and fish with expansion pins in the belly hung fast in without touching each other (it is not always necessary with expansion pins). The temperature of the electronics set to 60 °C, and after approx. 60 minutes the temperature dropped to this. The damper is fully open, so the fish can get rid of the moisture. Close the damper in the top, and the temperature maintained at 60 °C until the fish is "cooked". I have the experience that it takes 1 to 2 hours; try it with a meat needle at the thickest part of the meat up by the neck. The temperature of the electronics set to 50 °C, and it all can fit themselves for the next 1 hours. See whether there will be heavy smoke out of "Jethætten" during this period. If the smoke at a time is inadequate, you have to refill with wood dust. After 3 hours, the fish got a beautiful golden color and is ready to be eaten hot. The fish you do not need here and now, can "overnight" in the smoke oven - in winter time. Otherwise, wrap the fish in parchment paper and put it in the fridge, so the smoky taste just sucked into the meat. I would just like to come up with a good recipe for "Garfish Salad." Clean the fish for bones and cut meat into small pieces, come gradually meat into a blender and blend the meat with mayonnaise, lemon juice from one lemon and white pepper for taste. Serve on toasted bread with garnish, salad leaves on bottom and finely chopped red onion as sprinkle. A cold beer and a dram are very suitable for this. Bon appétit Jørgen Walter |
Also try the other recipes
[Hot smoking of silver eels]
[Hot smoking of salmon & trout]
[Hot smoking of harvest herring]
[Hot smoking of mackerel]
[Hot smoking of cod roe]
[Homemade smoking cheese]