One of the tasty and healthy fish of the salmon family is smelt. It is found, as a rule, in the northern seas, as well as in deep lakes. Fresh smelt smells like a cucumber. The size of smelt is relatively small, it can vary from 10 to 30 cm. Since smelt has quite fatty meat, this allows you to use different methods for preparing it. This fish can be stewed, marinated, smoked, baked. The easiest way to prepare smelt is to simply fry it. To do this, roll the fish, cleaned of its entrails, in flour and fry in oil on both sides for about 5 minutes. In addition, smelt produces aromatic and rich soup. Dried smelt can be a good snack for beer. The benefit of dried smelt is to preserve those beneficial properties that are lost during heat treatment.

The benefits and harms of smelt fish

Smelt meat contains a large number of various minerals and macroelements - vitamins PP, calcium, sodium, chlorine. It is also enriched with iron, chromium, fluorine, and nickel. The calorie content of smelt is approximately 100 kcal.

Smelt can only cause harm if it is caught in a dirty pond. In this case, it may contain harmful substances that can lead to poisoning.

When choosing smelt, you should pay attention to the gills. For any fresh fish, they should be red. The whiter the gills, the more questionable the freshness of the smelt.

Smelt is a small fish from the Salmon family. This seafood has an unusually delicate taste and a wide range of medicinal properties. The benefits and harms of smelt are always of interest to people who want to include this product in their daily diet. Its popularity is due to its usefulness, low calorie content and various cooking methods.

What does smelt look like and where is it found?

A small sea fish with delicate silvery scales. Its lifespan is from one to ten years. It has an elongated body of 20-30 cm, but in some cases it grows up to 40 cm, and weighs about 350 g. This marine inhabitant is characterized by transparent fins and a green back. The eyes are bright black, and the mouth is small in size and has a large number of large teeth. An interesting feature of the fish is the smell of fresh cucumber.

The fish can be found in the northern seas and lakes, bays and estuaries of Russia, Scandinavia and the Baltic states. It often moves to cooler areas to search for food. Its diet consists of small crustaceans, planktonic algae and small fish.

Composition of smelt

Sea fish is popular not only for its excellent taste, but also for the presence of irreplaceable healthy components in its composition. This is a high-protein, easily digestible product with low calorie content.

Nutritional value of healthy smelt

Vitamins		Minerals
		macronutrients		microelements
				Manganese

Such a huge content of organic and inorganic substances significantly enhances the nutritional value of fish. Therefore, it must be included in the diet to promote health and prevent various diseases.

Calorie content of smelt

The calorie content of smelt per 100 grams is 102 kcal, but this figure may vary, as it depends on the time the fish was caught, its habitat, and also on the method of preparation.

Moderate consumption will saturate the human body with essential substances and will not cause harm to the figure.

What are the benefits of smelt?

The benefits of smelt for the body are invaluable due to the high content of vital micro- and macroelements. It is recommended to include fish in the diet for the treatment and prevention of many diseases, since it:

• copes with problems of the cardiovascular system;
• strengthens bones and joints, supplies the body with plenty of calcium;
• improves metabolism and provides a feeling of lightness in the stomach;
• has a good effect on dental health;
• fights swelling, ridding the body of excess fluid;
• used to heal external damage to the skin.

Sea fish is useful due to its rich chemical composition, since the beneficial substances it contains help to comprehensively strengthen and restore the functions of the body and stabilize the functioning of important systems. Therefore, with the systematic use of seafood products, the likelihood of forgetting about many serious diseases will significantly increase.

Smelt in folk medicine

The fat of this sea fish is often used in folk medicine as an antibacterial and healing agent. For various skin injuries - scratches, cuts, ulcers, burns - fat is used as a lotion to speed up healing and fight against many bacterial organisms.

Can children eat smelt?

Due to the significant content of macro- and microelements, vitamins and acids, the product is necessary for children to strengthen the musculoskeletal system and support the immune system. Before giving the product to your child, you need to remove the seeds from it and boil it. To check if your baby has an allergic reaction to fish and to protect himself from problems, it is necessary to administer it gradually in small portions. On average, complementary feeding can be started at 1.5 years of age.

Smelt is good for the bones and joints of a small organism, and can also improve or restore vision, which is quite important nowadays for schoolchildren who spend all their time near a computer monitor.

Is smelt good for dieting?

The seafood product does not have a high calorie content, so it is perfect for a diet menu when served with vegetables and herbs. It contains a huge amount of easily digestible proteins, which explains the benefits and nutritional value of fish. It is best to eat it baked, since the calorie content after such heat treatment is slightly reduced.

During the diet, you are allowed to eat even fried healthy smelt with the addition of a large amount of raw vegetables and herbs to the finished dish. Such a lunch will quickly fill you up, give you strength and energy, and also speed up your metabolism, which will have a positive effect on your figure.

Are there any benefits to fried, dried and dried smelt?

Sea fish retains many useful components during processing. Frying is the simplest and most common way to cook fish. Even after heat treatment, it has a positive effect on brain activity, immunity, and the support system.

Dried fish enriches the human body with essential components that prevent the appearance of wrinkles, slow down aging, reduce the occurrence of heart failure and are an excellent prevention of cancer.

Dried healthy smelt is necessary for pregnant women for the development and growth of the baby’s brain, as well as in the fight against depression.

How to cook delicious smelt

According to numerous surveys, it became known that this seafood product tastes best when fried. To do this, you just need to clean the fish, getting rid of the entrails, roll it in flour on both sides, and place it in a non-hot frying pan with sunflower oil. Here is one of the most delicious recipes for preparing healthy smelt:

But frying is not the only method of preparing fish tasty and, most importantly, healthy. Healthy smelt is baked, stuffed, smoked, marinated, grilled and even stewed in white wine. The product goes well with lemon sauce, vegetables and cheese. It is also used to prepare fish soup and cutlets. In Scandinavia, excellent quality fish oil is obtained from it, and canned food is very common in other countries.

Harm of smelt and contraindications

Every product has contraindications, smelt is no exception. Sea fish can cause significant harm to the body in the following cases:

Important! Being careful when buying fish and preparing it will help you protect yourself from unpleasant consequences. Also, before use, you need to make sure there are no allergies or problems with the excretory system.

How to choose and store smelt correctly

When choosing sea fish, you need to pay attention to the smell and appearance of the product. There are several criteria that will help you make the right choice:

1. The smell of smelt should resemble a fresh cucumber, if it smells like fish, this means that the product is expired.
2. If the belly of a sea fish is not swollen, the scales are smooth and shiny, the eyes are bulging and transparent, and the gills have a dark red tint and are characterized by the absence of mucus, then the product is fresh.
3. If you have doubts about the expiration date of smelt at home, you should place the fish in water, then the fresh product will instantly sink.
4. When frozen, a pale tint to the gills and drooping eyes are acceptable.

It is necessary to store sea fish in freezers, since when frozen it does not lose either its taste or beneficial properties. But before that, it needs to be thoroughly washed and cut, removing the insides. Without freezing, the product can be stored for no more than three days if it is dried, cleaned of entrails, rubbed with salt both inside and outside and placed in a cloth moistened with vinegar.

Dried and dried sea fish are stored for a year, wrapped in wrapping paper and placed in a wicker basket or cardboard box, which should be in a warm, dry place. When pickled, smelt should be stored in the refrigerator for about 2 days, just like fried and boiled.

Conclusion

Moderate consumption of valuable seafood in any form will saturate the body with useful components and maintain health and youth for many years. It is important to know the benefits and harms of smelt, and also to be able to choose the right fresh product.

Do you know that smelt is a “vegetable”?

Such a categorical statement is used by fishermen who catch this wonderful fish, which emits a smell that is very similar to the aroma of fresh cucumbers. It is so concentrated that in its habitat it can fill the streets located near a reservoir. The smelt is a symbol of St. Petersburg, and in May there is even a holiday dedicated to this fish, which is timed to coincide with its entry into the Gulf of Finland.

Brief information characterizing smelt

Smelt belongs to the salmon family, more precisely to a special genus - Osmerus, which has a number of distinctive features:

• a wide mouth filled with numerous teeth large enough to damage human skin - so some care must be taken when handling it
• delicate, non-shiny scales that are easy to clean
• the fish has high vitality, remaining alive in the air for several hours, which in turn has a positive effect on its taste

A live fish looks very attractive: its yellowish-white sides and belly are beautifully set off by the upper part, which shimmers in green-blue. But they still value it not for its appearance, but for its delicate and unique taste.

The size of this fish depends on the depth and area of ​​the reservoir in which it lives, so the length of the smelt can vary significantly: from 8 to 35 cm. The maximum weight of the fish is only 350 grams, but at the same time it is an object of industrial fishing and is always welcomed by amateur fishermen .

Composition and calorie content of smelt

The benefits and harms of smelt

The fatty and tender meat of this fish has a pleasant taste and is recommended for consumption by all categories of the population, including the elderly and children. It is easy to clean and tasty in all its forms: fried, boiled, salted, smoked...

Despite the relatively high calorie content of smelt, its moderate consumption will not harm your figure, and you can get a lot of pleasant sensations from delicious food, rich in many healthy ingredients. This fish is one of the record holders for potassium content, which plays an important role in water-salt metabolism and also affects many systems of the human body.

Smelt can only be harmful if there are allergic reactions to it.

However, some experts believe that such fish, caught, for example, in the Neva (in a large city), can still pose a certain danger to humans, because it will necessarily contain arsenic and polychlorinated biphenol, which in turn can lead to serious poisoning. However, there is another opinion: if smelt is caught in season (wherever), then it does not contain harmful toxic elements.

Well, unfortunately, it’s up to you to decide which opinion to trust...

Features of cooking and eating smelt

Smelt meat is quite fatty and is suitable for both frying and steaming. You can make soup with it, you can stew it or cook it on a grill, stuff it and put it in the oven... But still, the most popular option is frying smelt, previously rolled in flour with spices. Naturally, first you need to clean and gut it (which, fortunately, is very easy to do, especially if the fish is fresh).

A very small fish can be turned into a delicious snack for beer, for which you need to generously salt it and fry it in oil. Dry smelt, which is obtained both at snow drying plants and at home, is no less popular. It is also tasty salted or dried.

It should be noted that some doctors recommend eating fried smelt along with the bones, which are tender in the spring and do not spoil the taste. They believe that this option of eating fish is an excellent way to prevent osteoporosis, as it allows you to restore the correct ratio of calcium and phosphorus in human bones.

Smelt is a small silvery fish that belongs to the salmon family. Its main fishery is concentrated in the White, Baltic, and German seas, in the waters of the Gulf of Finland, on Ladoga, and in large northern lakes (Onega, etc.). Leads a gregarious lifestyle.

There are several types - Asian, European (smelt), freshwater, dwarf. The standard size of smelt is approximately 10-15 cm; there are individuals up to 30 cm long.

What are the beneficial properties of smelt fish, its calorie content

Smelt meat is easily digestible, it is very tender and fatty, which is why smelt fish snacks turn out so tasty. Cleaning the fish does not take much time; there are practically no scales on it. Smelt contains various vitamin and mineral compounds.

The benefits of dried smelt are provided by elements such as molybdenum, sodium, chlorine, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, potassium and many others. Smelt meat is rich in easily digestible protein (per 100 g of fillet – 15.5 g of protein). The calorie content of dried smelt is extremely low and amounts to only 90 kcal per 100 grams of product. It is completely calorie-free, so you can eat fish without restrictions and not worry about gaining extra pounds.

Nutritionists and medical specialists recommend including dried smelt in the diet, as it has a preventive and therapeutic effect in the fight against osteoporosis and bone fragility. It's all about a significant amount of phosphorus and calcium, which are easily absorbed and strengthen bones and joints. It is interesting that smelt for beer is eaten together with the seeds, since their size is so insignificant that they simply cannot be felt and do not cause any discomfort.

Why is dried smelt so popular?

The predominant part of the smelt caught is sent to special factories for processing. It is frozen, smoked, canned, dried, etc. Dried smelt for beer is very popular in our country. This fish is also available on store shelves fresh and chilled, salted in a mixture of spices, and dried.

The pleasant smell and high fat content in the fillet make this fish an ideal raw material for frying. In addition, it is used in the preparation of fish soups, stewed and baked with vegetables. It goes well with various side dishes. However, dried smelt retains all its beneficial properties, which is why it is so loved by many people and is especially popular among beer connoisseurs.

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Smelt is a delicious fish of the salmon family, which is known to all true gourmets. Residents of St. Petersburg are waiting with bated breath for the moment when she goes to spawn along the Neva. Fishermen catch it and sell it to everyone who wants to enjoy the wonderful taste.

Meat is healthy because it contains many important microelements and vitamins. It can be eaten by those who dream of losing at least a little weight.

In our material we will talk about the benefits and harms of smelt, how it is useful for various categories of people, as well as the calorie content of the product per 100 grams (how many calories are in fresh, fried, dried, dried fish).

How to choose

Fresh smelt smells like cucumbers. This aroma is given to it by the mucus covering the skin. It contains aldehydes. The same substances are part of the essential oils of cucumbers.

When choosing dried fish you need to be careful:

• The color of a good product is transparent amber.
• The back should be sharp, which indicates proper drying.
• There should not be a lot of salt visible on the carcass.

The refrigerated product can be stored for a week. Also consider:

• The fresh product has a silvery color; during spawning the back may be dark.
• The scales should cover the body completely.
• The normal color of the gills is pink-red. A white or gray tint indicates that the fish is not fresh.
• The eyes should be clear, the pupils should be narrow.
• The presence of greasy plaque or thick mucus is unacceptable.

Composition, calorie content per 100 g, BJU content

Contains phosphorus, chlorine, fluorine, iron, potassium, sodium, vitamins B, A, D.

Nutritional value of fresh product:

• Proteins - 15.4 g.
• Fats - 4.5 g.
• Carbohydrates - 0 g.
• Glycemic index - 0.
• Calories - 102 kcal.

Nutritional value of dried smelt:

• Proteins - 28 g.
• Fats - 3 g.
• Carbohydrates - 1.5 g.
• Calories - 145 kcal.

Nutritional value of fried fish:

• Proteins - 13.8 g.
• Fats - 12.6 g.
• Carbohydrates - 3.3 g.
• Calories - 181.4 kcal.

Nutritional value of dried product:

• Proteins - 24.5 g.
• Fats - 5.3 g.
• Carbohydrates - 0.1 g.
• Calories - 147.8 kcal.

Beneficial properties for the human body

It is advisable for adults to feast on this tasty fish more often, because it:

• Strengthens the immune system.
• Prevents bleeding gums, has a positive effect on tooth enamel.
• Improves digestion and intestinal motility.
• Stimulates collagen production.
• Has a beneficial effect on the condition of the skin and hair.
• Improves the condition of the central nervous system, helps fight stress.

Pregnant women and nursing mothers can eat smelt.

It will be useful for them because:

• Rich in iron, which helps prevent the development of anemia.
• Speeds up metabolism and improves digestion.
• Helps keep bones and teeth strong.

Children over one year old can be given boiled smelt. Fish rich in vitamin D will promote normal bone development.

For schoolchildren who spend a lot of time at the computer, smelt will help preserve their eyesight, as it contains a lot of vitamin A.

For the first time, children should be offered a small amount of a new dish. to make sure it does not cause allergic reactions.

This fish is also very useful for older people.

If you use it regularly, you can:

• Normalize blood pressure.
• Strengthen the heart muscle.
• Improve memory.

Since the glycemic index of this product tends to zero, diabetics can afford to prepare delicious smelt dishes. It is advisable to combine them with fresh vegetables.

Potential dangers and contraindications

Fish contains thiaminase. This enzyme is capable of destroying vitamin B1.

Because of this, it is forbidden to eat smelt raw, otherwise you may get poisoned. It should not be given to dogs and cats either.

Drying, smoking and frying destroy the dangerous enzyme, therefore, you can enjoy cooked fish without any fear.

Before cooking smelt, keep in mind that:

• The presence of an ulcer or gastritis is a contraindication to eating fried fish.
• An allergy to seafood is a sign that this fish should not be consumed.
• Smelt is capable of accumulating toxins, which often lead to poisoning, so it must be purchased only in trusted places.

This fish can be smoked, salted, dried, stewed, boiled, fried. Since it does not have sharp bones, it should only be washed and gutted first. It is permissible to eat it whole, which is what true connoisseurs do.

Fried, boiled and stewed smelt is included in the diet 1-2 times a week. A standard portion is about 200 g.

It is permissible to consume salted and dried ones no more than once a week, and if a person suffers from hypertension, then it is advisable to completely abandon such a delicacy.

Use in cooking

You can make fish soup from fish, but more often it is eaten fried, dried or dried.

To prepare the lobe, you need:

• Wash and gut the fish.
• Pour vegetable oil into a frying pan, place the carcasses tightly, sprinkle with onion rings, salt and pepper.
• Pour water so that the carcasses are half covered.
• Simmer for 5-7 minutes over low heat after boiling.

Fried fish: Gut the smelt, roll in spices mixed with salt, and then in flour. Fry in hot vegetable oil or deep fat. The finished product can be eaten with the seeds.

To prepare fish soup, you need to combine smelt with fattier fish, then the dish will turn out delicious:

• Place 100 g of peeled and chopped potatoes, 100 g of peeled and chopped carrots in a saucepan and add water. Bring to a boil, cook for 10 minutes.
• Add 200 g of washed, gutted fish, cut into pieces, to the vegetables, cook for 7 minutes.
• Add finely chopped herbs, salt and pepper to taste, turn off the heat.
• Let it brew for 10 minutes.

How to properly cook smelt fish - useful tips in this video:

For various diseases, weight loss

Dishes made from this fish improve appetite and stimulate the activity of the gastrointestinal tract, so they are recommended for:

• Intestinal atony.
• Stomach ulcer.
• Dyskinesia of the bile ducts.
• Chronic pancreatitis.
• Atherosclerosis and hypertension.
• Arrhythmias.
• Chronic kidney pathologies.
• Hypoparathyroidism.
• Diabetes mellitus.
• Angiopathy.
• Ischemia.
• Edema syndrome.

There are no special diets for weight loss based on the consumption of this fish., but it can be used by those who want to lose excess weight. If you eat 150 g of smelt daily, you don’t have to worry about gaining weight.

If you move actively, play sports, and give up fatty and starchy foods, you can really lose weight.

Certainly, It is advisable to boil or steam the fish. Salted and dried smelt can cause thirst and fluid retention in the body, which will lead to even greater weight gain.

Fried foods are high in calories, and when exposed to high temperatures, carcinogens that are dangerous to the body can form in the oil. It is better for people who want to lose weight to avoid them.

In medicine and cosmetology

In the treatment of periodontal disease, antioxidants of animal origin are actively used today. A drug called “Carotinoly M” was created from smelt.

It contains all the necessary substances required to maintain healthy teeth, gums and mouth. The drug has a strengthening effect on the entire body.

In cosmetology, the beneficial properties of smelt caviar are actively used.

To improve the appearance of oily or combination skin, you can prepare the following mask:

• Mash 20 g of caviar.
• Add 2 teaspoons of natural yogurt.
• Mix well and apply the mixture to your face.
• After 15 minutes, rinse with warm water.

The following mask is suitable for any skin type:

• Mash 20 g of caviar.
• Add 1 teaspoon of flaxseed, peach or olive oil.
• Stir and let sit for 7 minutes.
• Add the yolk and mix well again.
• Apply the composition to your face.
• Rinse off with warm water after 20 minutes.

Fresh smelt is delicious in any form. If you have the opportunity to enjoy it, be sure to eat at least one fish. It is very useful for people of any age, including children.

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