Spice-salted herring in pieces
Salting fish in pieces is not a simplified version of salting the whole fish but a different method with different rules. A whole fish salts through its skin, slowly and evenly, and it can be kept for a week. Skinless fillet takes the salt within a day, and it is easy to overdo: the salt goes in from every side at once.
Hence the weak brine — a teaspoon of salt to a glass of water, that is around four per cent. For a whole fish that concentration would be too low; for bare fillet it is just right: over a day the pieces take up exactly as much salt as they need and do not turn to stone.
The same set of spices, the same fridge — but if you are ready to wait three days and want firmer meat, take whole spice-salted herring instead.
Whole spiced salt herring takes the same fish as an uncut carcass over three days, while Korean-style silver carp hoe uses no heat at all and leans on vinegar instead of salt.
Caloric content: 215kcal
Prepare the fish
Take the skin off and pick out the bones
Cut it into serving pieces
Measure out the salt and the spices
Make the brine and let it cool
Pour the brine over and put it in the fridge
Serve
Notes
- The brine goes on cold. The salt is dissolved in hot water because that way it goes into solution completely, but the fish can only be covered with it once it has cooled right down: in warm brine the surface of the fillet will start to cook.
- Turn the pieces over every two or three hours. The ones that float up will salt twice as slowly as those at the bottom, and one container will give you fish of two different tastes.
- Choose a container in which the brine covers the fish. A wide bowl with a thin layer of liquid will not do that, and the top will stay undersalted.
- Take the bones out before salting, not after. Out of salted fillet they come away together with the meat, and instead of neat pieces you get mince.
- A day is a minimum, not an exact time. Thick fillet from a big fish may take a day and a half; thin fillet from a small one will be ready in eighteen hours. Tasting is easier than counting.
- Keep it in the same brine, in the fridge. Fillet lifted out of the liquid dries out and darkens within a day.
Recipe and step-by-step photos — kolizhanka.net.ua.
