Of the entire salmon family, sockeye salmon occupies a special place on the pages of cookbooks. The meat is of moderate fat content, it is fattier than chum salmon, but not as fatty as salmon or trout. Sockeye salmon also stands out for the color of its meat, which has a bright red natural color. An appetizer made from lightly salted sockeye salmon will always look great. And so that the taste doesn’t let you down, it’s better to salt the sockeye salmon yourself.

It's not just about saving money. Sockeye salmon is a predator and feeds mainly on crabs, shrimp and small crustaceans. In fact, they color sockeye salmon red and give it a unique taste. Salting at a factory or on a ship is standard, and sometimes a lot of spices are used for this, which kill the taste. Sockeye salmon meat becomes common, like any other fish.

It’s easy to prepare lightly salted sockeye salmon at home. The same recipes are suitable for it as for other species of the salmon family, with just one caveat: try to use as few spices as possible unless your dish requires something special.

When the sockeye salmon is completely defrosted, clean the scales and remove the tail, head and fins. Fillet the fish. If you find caviar or milt, they can also be salted, at the same time as the fillet. The speed of cooking lightly salted sockeye salmon depends on the method you choose for cooking.

If you are in no hurry and have a day or two to spare, use this method of preparing lightly salted sockeye salmon.

• 2 kg sockeye salmon fillet;
• 1 liter of water;
• 150 gr. salt;
• 50 grams of sugar;
• 1 lemon (juice)
• 100 gr. vegetable oil;
• Spices - optional.

Place the sockeye salmon fillet in a deep bowl or vessel.

Heat the water and dissolve salt and sugar in it. Add freshly squeezed lemon juice to the brine and pour this brine over the fish.

Press the fish down with a plate so that it is completely immersed in the brine, and place the container with the fish in the refrigerator for 12 hours.

Drain the brine, transfer the sockeye salmon to another bowl and fill it with vegetable oil. Mix well and put the sockeye salmon back in the refrigerator for 12 hours.

After this time, lightly salted sockeye salmon is ready. If you do not use it all at once, it can stand in vegetable oil for at least a week without compromising the taste.

Dry, quick way to prepare lightly salted sockeye salmon

Cut the sockeye salmon into manageable pieces.

Mix salt and sugar in the following ratio:

• For 3 tbsp. salt – 1 tbsp. l. Sahara.

Roll each piece of fillet in a mixture of salt and sugar and place in a bowl. It is highly undesirable to use metal containers for salting, and if you don’t have anything like that on hand, place a plastic bag inside the pan and put the fish directly into it.

Send the remaining salt and sugar there, and don’t be afraid that the fish will be over-salted. The degree of salting depends only on the salting time.

Place an inverted plate on top of the fish and place pressure on top. Usually this function is performed by a three-liter bottle of water. Leave the fish to salt for 4 hours at room temperature.

This time is enough for the sockeye salmon to become lightly salted. Shake the salt off the fish and rinse the fillet pieces under running water. Do not soak or soak, just rinse with water.

Dry the sockeye salmon fillet with a towel, wrap the fish pieces in cling film and place them in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Now, lightly salted sockeye salmon is really ready.

Watch the video on how to cook lightly salted sockeye salmon:

How to salt fish yourself? With the strong rise in price of imported trout in vacuum packaging, this issue is more relevant than ever. Moreover, the domestic product has continuous advantages, while the foreign one has disadvantages. See for yourself: Norwegian and fish from the Faroe Islands are too fatty, bred in captivity. Although it is beautiful (remember the white stripes - this is fat), it is not at all as healthy and tasty as wild Murmansk salmon or Far Eastern sockeye salmon.

You know what you put in your fish, but it’s better not to even know what you put on it and how you salted the salmon from the store. It should be remembered that salting can be one of the ways to sell fish of second freshness.

The only downside to homemade salted fish: you have to cut it yourself. But it only takes 15-20 minutes.

Advice. It is better not to buy chilled fish. Most likely, this is the same frozen one. The fact is that our fishermen usually freeze it right on the boat.

What kind of fish to take

Almost any red fish is suitable for salting. Coho salmon and chum salmon perform well, but they are a bit dry for stewing and frying. Trout, salmon, sockeye salmon are simply wonderful fish. You can take larger fish, salt only part of it, and use the other part for steaks or fry fillets, you can stew them in sauce... Yes, even pink salmon is very tasty when salted, and by the way, very cheap. Only its appearance is the most modest of all salmon. Pink salmon meat is rather gray and holds its shape less well when cut.

Cutting

Tip: It is very convenient to cut fish with scissors. They cut everything very easily. You can take a knife of medium length; it will help peel the meat from the ribs.

Another tip: it is more convenient to cut fish if it is not completely defrosted.

Cut off the tail and head, if any. A lot of fish is sold gutted; cutting it is more convenient and easier.

Clean off the scales and then wash the fish. It doesn’t always need to be cleaned, but if there are a lot of scales on the skin, you won’t get rid of them later.

Cut the skin along the ridge, going around one or both sides. Use your fingers to separate the ridge on one side, reach the backbone with your hand and separate all the back meat from the bones.

Cut out the ventral fins with scissors.

Turn the fish over so that the separated part is on the bottom and the bones are on top. Helping yourself with a knife, separate the ribs from the meat, then the tail part of the ridge.

If there are films left in the area of ​​the insides, remove them. But the main film goes away along with the ribs.

Separate the dorsal fin, and also cut out the fin from the bottom of the tail.

And use a knife to separate the ridge from the second half of the fish. It’s also better to start at the top and then tear off the ribs.

And you got two halves of red fish fillet.

If you wanted to use some of it for steaks, then, of course, you first had to cut them off, and then fillet the fish.

Pickling

Mix 2 tbsp. sugar and 1 tbsp. salt (per 1 kg of fillet). Sprinkle a thick layer over the meat. Fold the fish so that the skin is facing out. Place in a container with a lid. Cover with film. If the fish is fat, then you can put a small load. No more than half a kilogram. Usually I salt 2-3 kilogram fish and don’t add any weight.

The fish itself produces juice and is perfectly salted in it.

What to add

Dill goes perfectly with fish. You can sprinkle it on the fish during salting or after.

A few pinches of lemon zest will go well with the red fish; it should be added to the pickling mixture. If you want to add lemon when serving, then garnish the fish with thin slices.

To make the fish salty and more tender, you can grease it with odorless oil when salting.

It happens that pepper, spices, bay leaves, and garlic are added to fish when salting. The taste is interesting, but it is very different from what we are used to.

How much salt to add

Lightly salted fish will be ready in just 8-10 hours. But this is not the safest option, since there may be other life lurking in the fish. Therefore, it is better to salt it for a day or two. It will be saltier, but safer.

To stop the salting process, you need to drain the juice that the fish gave. To be safe, cut it into pieces.

How to cut

It is convenient to cut by placing the fillet skin side down. I would not recommend turning the meat onto a board when it comes to our fish. It is very soft and will fall apart instantly.

Cut with a sharp knife, slightly diagonally, to get wider pieces. The remaining skin can be used to cover the fish in the tray to prevent airing.

Important! Before slicing, check that you have removed all the bones when cutting.

For the recipe with photos, see below.

I can't stop singing praises! Tasty, tender, healthy, fish cooked with your own hands is especially good. When salting at home, you can control the amount of salt and prevent oversalting. I like medium-salted red fish, even more lightly salted. Salted sockeye salmon or trout goes well with boiled potatoes. You can also use this fish as a snack for beer on a Friday night.

Well, if you live by the sea, for example in the Far East or Kamchatka, then it is wiser to take fresh fish for salting, but after salting, deep freeze it for a month. I shared a good recipe for salting fresh red fish in the comments to this post. Great recipe!

For consumption in salted form, trout or trout is best, purely for my taste. These species of the salmon family have very tender and moderately fatty meat. Salmon, for example, is much fattier; it is best to bake salmon or cook soup. Pink salmon, on the contrary, is less fatty, it is better to fry it, it is very tasty in batter, but this is a topic for the next article

Defrost and wash medium-sized sockeye salmon. We wash the fish once again, freed from the head, tail, giblets and fins. For salting, it is best to cut the fish into small pieces, about the thickness of a finger, about 1.5 cm. If you wish, you can fillet the fish - remove the skin and remove the bones. But I prefer to salt fish this way.

Place the pieces of sockeye salmon in a deep bowl, sprinkle with salt and sugar. For 2 tablespoons of rock salt I take a heaping teaspoon of sugar. For aroma I add some dried Provençal herbs. Cover the bowl with a saucer that fits freely into it. And press down with a liter jar filled with water. We put it in the refrigerator. In order for the fish to turn out lightly salted, it is enough to stand there for several hours, about 6-8.

Before serving, wash the fish to remove excess salt and place on a plate. Serve with boiled potatoes or live beer. Bon appetit!

Everyone is interested in your opinion!

Don't leave in English!
There are comment forms just below.

How to salt sockeye salmon tasty and quickly: recipes for lightly salted red fish

5 (100%) 1 vote[s]

Among all salmon, sockeye salmon is considered the most delicious - after salting or smoking it remains very juicy. It's all about the thinnest layers of fat, which, when processed, give the meat of this type of red fish a special, delicate taste.

I love lightly salted fish, but manufacturers often use so many chemical additives as preservatives that I no longer want to buy it. Moreover, there is no desire to feed such a “delicacy” to your loved ones. Therefore, I have been preparing sockeye salmon preparations myself at home for a long time and will post several recipes here.

Naturally, the best product remains freshly caught fish. Only residents of the Pacific Coast can afford such luxury; the rest of the population has to be content with freshly frozen semi-finished products. In the huge refrigerators of specialized stores, you should pay attention to whole sockeye salmon carcasses without heads, frozen by shock. Be sure to carefully examine the preparations for the future delicacy before purchasing - there should be no traces of primary processing or suspicious stains on them.

At home, leave the fish to defrost in the refrigerator. Do not rush into thawing - any acceleration of this process can ruin an expensive product.

After the carcass has completely thawed, drain the water that appears in the bowl with the sockeye salmon - it is strictly forbidden to use it for cooking broth, as some sites recommend.

If upon inspection everything turns out to be perfect, carefully separate the caviar or milt. They can also be salted. Scrape the black film from the walls of the belly with the back of a knife so that the finished delicacy does not become bitter.

Rinse the prepared carcass and entrails in plenty of water and place in a colander or thick sieve - we don’t need excess water. As soon as the water stops dripping, wipe the workpiece with a linen napkin. Our further actions directly depend on how you want to salt sockeye salmon.

Sockeye salmon fillet in brine

My favorite way to prepare this delicious fish. You need to cut the pre-cleaned carcass along the ridge very carefully and pull out the spine along with the large bones. Next, we spread both halves on the table and carefully examine each piece, pulling out the remaining bones with tweezers.

What we need:

• 1 kg sockeye salmon fillet;
• 5-9 tbsp. l. table salt;
• 1 liter of purified drinking water;
• 200 ml refined oil.

How to prepare:

1. Dry the fillet with skin lightly with a kitchen napkin.
2. Place a saucepan of water on the fire and add salt to the boiling water. As soon as the crystals dissolve, remove the brine from the stove and wait until it cools. Strain through several layers of gauze - rock salt contains a lot of insoluble particles, which will then crunch unpleasantly on your teeth.
3. Place whole pieces of fillet in lukewarm salted water for 30 minutes. Don’t be afraid to overdo it with salt – this fatty fish will never take too much.
4. Now we take the salted sockeye salmon out of the liquid and lightly blot it with a paper towel.
5. Cut the delicacy into portions and place in a glass or plastic container with a lid.
6. Fill the treat with oil. If desired, you can add spices at this stage. I use ground allspice and crushed bay leaf.
7. Close the jar of fish tightly with a lid and place it in the refrigerator for 10 hours.

You can use this preparation in any way you like – from breakfast sandwiches to complex salads.

Dry pickling

A quick and low-budget option for preparing a healthy delicacy. You should not be afraid that as a result of such processing the sockeye salmon will become dry - the special structure of the tissues in the muscles of the red fish will not allow seasonings and spices to spoil the juicy preparation.

What we need:

• 1 kg of fish without bones;
• 4 tbsp. l. table salt;
• 2 tbsp. l. granulated sugar;
• 1 tsp. spices to taste.

How to prepare:

1. Carefully remove the skin from the prepared fillet.
2. Sprinkle the mixture of dry seasonings and spices evenly over the surface of the fillet on both sides.
3. Wrap the sockeye salmon in parchment and place it in the refrigerator for a day. Be sure to place a deep plate under the package - during the salting process, the fish will give juice.

Before using, I lightly wipe lightly salted fish with a paper towel so that undissolved grains do not get into the sandwich or salad.

Onion-lemon preserves

A very tasty way to prepare tender pieces with a citrus aroma. I recommend it to all lovers of red fish as a fragrant base for a sea cocktail or a cold appetizer.

Ingredients:

• 2 kg of fish;
• 2 large lemons;
• 1 large light-colored onion;
• 1 tbsp. l. table salt;
• ground black pepper - to taste and desire.

How to prepare:

1. We clean the fish from bones and skin, chop it into small pieces. I cut it into thin translucent bars, like noodles.
2. Squeeze the juice from the citrus fruits, peel the onion, wash it and cut it into thin rings.
3. Place fish stock and onions in layers in a glass or plastic container with a lid. Sprinkle each layer with spices and pour with fresh juice.
4. Close the filled container tightly with a lid and place it in the refrigerator for a day.
5. During the salting process, shake the container with canned food regularly so that each slice is evenly saturated with spices and juice.

I serve the delicacy to the table in a deep, beautiful plate along with the resulting juice and onions. This addition is especially good for new potatoes with butter and herbs.
And finally, a few tips for cooking lightly salted red fish:

• Never use metal containers during work. It is better to have an enamel pan with a solid coating or food-grade plastic containers on hand for pickling. Salt can react with metal, and instead of the most delicate delicacy, you will get a product with a high content of the heaviest oxidation products of chemical elements;
• Contrary to the opinion about the advisability of using sea salt in canned fish, I do not recommend seasoning homemade preparations with it. They will become bitter and unpleasant to the taste;
• Only coarse table salt is suitable for pickling - the product with a powdery consistency has a slightly different weight than indicated in the recipe. And therefore, you won’t be able to guess the exact dosage of the flavoring.

All types of lightly salted fish are perishable products. Therefore, I do not recommend keeping such a preparation in the refrigerator for longer than 7 days.

There are many types of red fish that have won the attention and love of many gourmets: salmon, trout, sockeye salmon, pink salmon, coho salmon, chum salmon, salmon, chinook salmon, nelma, whitefish - and these are only the most popular varieties. The benefits of red fish are preserved better, of course, in its raw form, but if we talk about processing methods, then it will give the most vitamins, microelements, and fatty acids to the human body when cold smoked or after salting at home.

Salting red fish at home with your own hands will always have undeniable advantages compared to buying salted fish:

Firstly, store-bought fish undoubtedly has a certain amount of preservatives added for its longer storage, so that it does not have time to spoil before someone buys this product;
- secondly, the question of price - ready-made salted red fish costs almost twice as much as fresh;
- thirdly, you salt the fish yourself to your taste - add as much salt and spices as your own taste tells you, and not as is customary on the production line. Thanks to this, your red fish turns out tender, aromatic, fresh, cooked with soul, and therefore many times healthier and tastier.

Therefore, every gourmet red fish lover needs to know a couple of recipes to suit his taste in order to please himself and his household from time to time. We will try to cover every aspect of this process, which is not labor-intensive, but requires certain knowledge.

First step - choose red fish

In the process of salting red fish at home, a lot depends on the red fish itself, which you choose in a store or at the market. It is best to buy an uncut whole carcass; it can be chilled, which would be ideal in our case, or frozen. The softest and most tender meat is considered to be salmon, trout and sockeye salmon. Pink salmon and chum salmon are not such fatty fish varieties, so when salting, sunflower or olive oil is added to them for juiciness. From an aesthetic point of view, salmon and trout will look the most impressive on the table due to the fact that these are the largest varieties of red fish of all.

Second step - prepare the workplace

Now you need to equip a comfortable workplace. You will need a kitchen carving knife, a container for salting fish, a weight (something heavy to press the fish in the container), a mixture of salt and spices, and culinary scissors. It is best to choose a container for salting made of glass; in extreme cases, enamel or plastic food containers are suitable - consider its size so that all the fish that you will salt will fit. As a pressure, you can take a three-liter glass jar of water, a plastic bottle also filled with water, or something similar. You can do without oppression - it promotes better penetration of salt and spices into the fish meat.
If the purchased red fish is frozen, leave it to defrost at room temperature - under no circumstances put it in the microwave, under water or speed up the process in any other way, everything should happen naturally.

Third step - cut the fish

First, cut off the head of the fish with a carving knife, and all the fins with culinary scissors. Then we cut the belly and take out the fish entrails. If you find caviar in the abdomen, carefully remove it without damaging it, peel it off the thin film and place it in a small container with salted warm water (two tablespoons of salt per half liter of water), leave it there for 10 minutes. If there is milk in the belly, feel free to salt it along with the main carcass.
To free the carcass from the bones, you need to cut it in half along the spine and remove the bones by hand.
The remaining unused fins, head, and tail can be frozen and later used to cook aromatic and rich fish soup.

Fourth step - prepare the mixture for salting fish

The mixture for salting red fish is always prepared from two components - salt and sugar. If you decide to use any spices, it can be any fresh or dried herbs and herbs, bay leaf, chopped coriander, allspice, mustard - they are added last.
For 1 kilogram of fish meat, take 3 tablespoons of the mixture (you can vary the proportion to your taste). It is best to take coarse salt, without additives - it will promote the release of fish juice, making the taste of already salted fish more natural and natural.
How to use oppression - you coat the fish with the mixture you have prepared, then place it in a bowl, place a plate or flat lid on top so that it directly touches the fish, and press down everything on top with oppression. It will speed up the salting process and help the fish release more of its own juices.

Fifth step - recipes for salting red fish

1. Red fish, salted under pressure

1 kilogram of red fish
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar

Mix salt and granulated sugar. Rub the fish carcass with this mixture, carefully place it in a bowl, and press down with pressure. Leave at room temperature for 2-3 hours, then remove the fish from the dish, remove excess salt and sugar mixture from it and put it in the refrigerator for one day.

2. Dry salting of red fish

1 kilogram of red fish
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon allspice
bay leaf (4-5 leaves)
piece of cotton fabric according to the size of the fish
paper towels

Rub the fish carcass with a mixture of salt and sugar, place bay leaves on the inner barrel, and sprinkle the carcass with spices. After this, swaddle the fish tightly in cotton cloth, skin to linen, then wrap in paper towels. Place in a bowl and refrigerate for 2-3 days. Every morning and evening you need to change the paper towels for new ones and turn the fish on one side or the other.

3. Red fish in soy sauce

1 kilogram of red fish
4 tablespoons salt
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
juice of one lemon

Mix salt and sugar, add soy sauce and lemon juice. Thoroughly rub the fish carcass with this mixture, place in a bowl, cover with cling film and refrigerate for a day. If you eat fish for a long time, for better preservation you can put it in a glass jar and fill it with vegetable oil.
When using this recipe for salting red fish, remember that any soy sauce is a product of processing genetically modified soybeans, which does not bring any benefit to the body.

4. Red fish with dill

1 kilogram of red fish
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar
a large bunch (about 200 grams) of fresh dill

Wash and dry the dill on a towel in advance. Mix salt and sugar and rub the fish with it. Take a third of a bunch of dill and cover the bottom of a pickling bowl with it, put half of the fish carcass on top, skin down, and cover it with the second third of sprigs of greenery. The next layer will be the second half of the fish, laid with the skin up, and finally the last layer - the remaining third of the dill sprigs. Cover everything with a plate and leave under pressure for 7-8 hours at room temperature, then put the bowl of fish in the refrigerator - after two days the fish will be ready.

5. Red fish in marinade (pink salmon, chum salmon)

1 kilogram of red fish
2 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
100 ml vegetable oil
onion, cut into half rings
bay leaf (5-6 leaves)
black peppercorns

This recipe is especially good for low-fat varieties, such as pink salmon and chum salmon: the fish turns out lightly salted, tender, juicy and soft, very appetizing.
Mix butter with salt and sugar, add black pepper, bay and onion. Cut the red fish into pieces 3-4 cm thick (to make it easier to cut, the carcass can be frozen a little), mix well in a large bowl with brine and place in a glass jar. After 8-10 hours in the refrigerator, the fish is ready.
Let's make a reservation about vegetable oil: if you care about your health, it is better to use unrefined sunflower or olive oil, because it retains vitamins and other beneficial substances, does not contain artificial chemical additives, and adds a special flavor to any dish.

We looked at the most delicious basic recipes for salting red fish with your own hands at home.

Finally, some useful tips for aesthetes. There is no point in rinsing fish under water after salting, it will lose half of its taste, and it does not need chlorine and other chemicals contained in city tap water. The carcass can be cleaned of spices and brine using a soft brush and napkins or paper towels, blotting the fish with them. On a holiday table, fish will look beautiful and aesthetically pleasing if you cut it into pieces, place it on a large dish, place lemon cut into slices next to it, and sprinkle fresh finely chopped herbs (dill, parsley, cilantro, celery) on top.

Bon appetit and more healthy homemade food on your table!