Desalinating dried/smoked fish
In the metropolitan area where I live, there is truly a great selection of dried fish in various ethnic food stores, my favorite of which is herring. However, it is always very salty and I have a somewhat high blood pressure so the doc said keep my salt intake under control as well as I don't really like salty food very much.
Is the saltiness essential to the preparation of dried fish? Can the fish be as nicely dried/smoked without using so much salt? Finally, the most important question is, is there a way to desalinate the dried herrings that I otherwise like so much? E.g. I would make eggs with minced dried herring and not add any salt to the eggs, hoping that would neutralize the saltiness and the mix is still so salty I can barely eat it.
Best Answer
You are correct in that salt fish are very salty. Where we live salt herrings are a tradition. The way to remove the saltiness is to soak them, changing the water every few hours.
The trick here to really getting the saltiness out is to split the back. (The belly should already be split.) This is really important.
I once had someone cook them for my family and they were so salty you could barely stand to eat them. When asked if they had soaked the fish they replied that they had soaked them for two days! Then someone asked if they had split the back and, of course, the answer was no. They didn't know to do that.
If soaked properly the fish should not be totally fresh but should taste like fresh fish that you seasoned with salt.
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Quick Answer about "Desalinating dried/smoked fish"
Place the fish into a large bowl and pour boiling water over the fish. The water should cover the fish. Cover the bowl and let the saltfishHow do you Desalt smoked fish?
The desalting can be done in two ways: a quick boil or a soak the herrings for a few hours in water. Overnight soaking is not recommended as all the salt may be entirely removed. If very salty, it is recommended to soak the fish for as long as you need it to be desalted.What is the fastest way to Desalt a fish?
Fill a large bowl with enough clean water from your sink to completely cover the fish. Put all of the dried fish inside of the bowl and leave it alone for about 30 minutes. The water will moisten the meat and rinse off any excess salt used to dry the fish out.How do you rehydrate dried fish?
Soak the Bacalao in the refrigerator for 8 hours with 2 to 3 changes of fresh cold water. After soaking the Bacalao for 2 hours in the refrigerator, drain the water from the bowl. Cover the bowl again completely with fresh cold water and repeat this process after 3 more hours of soaking in the refrigerator.How to Cold Smoke Fish Primitive Preservation
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Answer 2
A wonderful classic dish from Europe starts with salt cod. You soak it for 24 hours with many changes of water, just in a bowl in the fridge, then cook it in milk until it softens. Then you make a mash from the cooked cod, some potatoes, and cloves of garlic that you gently cook in olive oil. Finally whip the olive oil into the mashed up fish/potato/garlic puree and grate fresh black pepper into it.
You can serve this as a warm spread for bread or you can use it as the basis of a gratin, with gruyere cheese grated over it and then baked in the oven until the cheese forms a brown crust. Delicious.
So if you want to experiment with salted fish, this is what I would start with. Quite easy to do and very inexpensive (salt cod is surprisingly cheap).
Answer 3
A good rule of thumb is to soak the fish for 1 day per centimeter of the thickest part of the fish. That's the general rule for dried fishin Norway.
Answer 4
You could soak it in fresh water overnight, but then it won't be dry anymore of course.
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