Smoking herring

Smoking fish in nature is a pleasure! The fish is eaten quickly, especially in good company.

Wood chips for smoking should be small. You can take a store-bought one or prepare a small amount yourself. Immediately before smoking, the chips should be slightly moistened with water, it must be moist.

1. If the herring is frozen, it needs to be thawed before cooking. This can be done with the help of modern kitchen appliances, for example in a microwave oven. But still, it is best not to make a quick defrosting. To do this, put the herring in the refrigerator in the evening and leave it overnight. In 8-10 hours, the fish will thaw. At the same time, it does not deform. If you managed to buy fresh fish, the process will go even faster.

2. I wash the thawed fish under running water, lightly dry the carcasses with paper towels. Herring is not a large fish, so you do not need to clean it from the insides, so it will be juicier. Just remove the gills and put the herring in a bowl.

3. Sprinkle the fish with salt, mix very carefully so as not to damage the integrity of the carcasses. Leave for 15 minutes to salt. It is not necessary to take longer, since the fish is small and tender, it is easy to over-salt it. Then we wash off the salt from the fish, hang it in the open air so that it dries.

4. After the specified time, we lay out the herring on the grill of the smokehouse, pre-greased with vegetable oil. Cover with a lid. We leave the fish to smoke for half an hour. This time is quite enough for the fish to smoke well, acquire a wonderful aroma and a light golden hue.

5. Then we remove the grill with herring from the smokehouse, let it cool down. The smell is incredible!

We serve smoked fish with arugula or any other herbs to taste.

Bon appetit!