Salted mackerel recipe. Very tasty salted mackerel - how to quickly and tasty salt mackerel at home. Salted fish in brine with onion skins
There are many popular recommendations for choosing the right fish and how it is prepared for salting. Salted mackerel is a delicious dish, so there are many recipes for its preparation. Each housewife has her own subtleties of salting mackerel at home.
How to choose the right fish
To make salted mackerel tasty, it is important to choose the right fish. It is not recommended to use a small carcass, because it has a lot of bones and very little fat content. Fish weighing 300−350 g is ideal.
Mackerel must be fresh. You can determine how long fish has been sitting on the counter using several indicators. Fresh fish's eyes should be transparent and light. And the smell is vague and barely noticeable. The color of the fillet is light, with a gray tint. You should buy in special stores with good refrigerators and freezers, but not in spontaneous markets.
It’s easy to pickle fresh frozen mackerel at home, just follow simple tips. To prevent the mackerel from spoiling, the salting process is carried out at low temperatures. It is recommended to store the product in the refrigerator or cellar.
The container in which fish is salted must be made of glass, enamel, or plastic. You cannot use metal containers because they oxidize. For pickles, only regular coarse salt, not iodized, is suitable. This way the fish will retain its attractive appearance longer.
For salting, you can take either a whole carcass or pieces of mackerel. How long the fish will be salted depends on the size of the cut: it will take 3 days to salt the whole fish, and a day for pieces.
Salted mackerel should not be stored in the freezer because it will change its consistency. To make the fish very tasty and spicy, you can add bay leaves, pepper, and spices as desired.
Popular recipes
A quick recipe for salting in pieces - a worthy dish for any table. This cooking method is especially preferable for people who do not want to wait a long time to eat salted fish.
To prepare, you will need frozen or fresh medium-sized mackerel (300-350 grams), vinegar, a tablespoon of salt, half a teaspoon of sugar, pepper, and vegetable oil.
First you need to clean the fish, wash it in cool water. Next, the tail and head are cut off. All internal organs are removed. Before cutting, you need to rinse the fish again. The mackerel should be cut into small pieces (3 cm each). Then you need to mix pepper, sugar and salt. And roll each piece in this mixture. Next, put all the pieces in a glass container and leave overnight. In the morning, you need to remove excess salt and pour in a mixture of vinegar and vegetable oil for 2 hours.
Ambassador in marinade
This recipe is good for quick and tasty salting of fresh frozen mackerel at home. This delicacy is on store shelves. However, it will be much tastier if you cook it at home. The ingredients you will need are 3 medium mackerel fish, onions, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon salt, three times more vinegar, one teaspoon of sugar, laurel, different types of pepper, vegetable oil.
First you need to remove the fish from the freezer. There is no need to defrost it completely. Next you need to wash it, cut off the tails and heads. After this, cut into pieces. Next, cut the onion and garlic into rings. Prepare the marinade - mix vegetable oil, vinegar, spices, sugar. Place the mackerel pieces in a bowl and fill with marinade, add onion and garlic.
The fish is marinated for 24 hours. It turns out to be a very tasty and healthy dish.
Lightly salted fish
If you need to salt mackerel very quickly and tasty, use this method. After all, the dish will be prepared in just 2 hours! To prepare you need fish, water, pepper, salt, onion, bay leaf. The fish needs to be cleaned, the head and tail separated, and the internal organs removed.
Next, the brine is boiled. Place chopped onion in boiling water. Next add salt and pepper. Let cool. In the meantime, cut the mackerel into pieces. Place the fish in a bowl and pour the marinade over it. Leave for 2 hours. After the specified time, the fish is ready to eat. It turns out very tasty and in a very short time.
Pickles without brine
You can quickly and deliciously salt mackerel without brine. There are many recipes, here is the most popular dry salting.
Ingredients: mackerel, 2 tablespoons of salt, sugar, pepper, spices, seasoning, mustard powder 2 teaspoons, bay leaf. Initially, you need to clean the fish, wash it, cut off the tail and head, and remove the internal organs. Next, cut into pieces 2-3 cm thick. Place in a glass bowl and sprinkle with all the spices. Finally, cover with a lid and leave for two days.
Spicy pieces
Ingredients:
- mackerel - 2 fish;
- salt - 4 teaspoons;
- 1 teaspoon sugar;
- pepper;
- water - 200 grams;
- coriander;
- basil;
- Bay leaf;
- carnation.
The cooking process is simple, so even a not very skilled cook can handle this. Pour all the spices, salt and sugar into boiling water. Cover with a lid and cook for 10 minutes. At this time, cut off the tail and head of the fish, take out the insides. Cut the fillet into pieces and place in a container. Fill with brine and leave for 1 day.
The result is a spicy and very tasty fish. Serve well with first courses and side dishes. And also in the form of sandwiches.
Salting whole fish
We will need 2 mackerel fish, salt, pepper, onion skins, sugar, tea leaves and a liter of water. Step by step steps:
- First, boil the water along with the onion skins. Next, dissolve sugar and salt in water. Add tea leaves.
- At the end, you need to strain the brine and leave it to cool.
- Take the fish carcasses and rinse them under cold water. Then we cut off the heads and tails. We take out the internal organs and rinse them in water again. Dry the mackerel thoroughly.
- We take a suitable vessel made of enamel or glass and put the fish there. Fill with brine, cover with a lid and leave for at least 12 hours at normal room temperature. At the end, we put the delicacy in the refrigerator for 2-4 days, turning the fish over from time to time.
The list of recipes for salting mackerel at home can be continued endlessly. After all, there are a huge number of them. And every housewife needs to find that very method of cooking that will truly become a family tradition.
Salted mackerel is an interesting dish because it can be eaten every day and cook for a special occasion. No one will remain indifferent thanks to the unusually wonderful taste. This product is also very beneficial for human health. This is because mackerel contains many useful substances and microelements.
Attention, TODAY only!
Buying salted fish in a store that meets all the consumer’s needs is a problematic matter. Manufacturers do not spare salt and spices for long-term storage of the product. There is only one way out - buy frozen fish and cook it yourself. I already wrote, today I’ll tell you how to salt mackerel quickly and tasty. The recipes are simple, with a minimum of ingredients and time spent. As a bachelor, I don’t really want to spend hours in the kitchen.
I salt mackerel in brine and without it, in pieces and whole. It all depends on the required time frame. If you need to make a tasty and appetizing snack with the shortest turnaround time, say, in 2 hours, then of course I cut the fish into small pieces and put it in brine. If time is not pressing, then the mackerel spends the next 2 - 3 days in the refrigerator in the form of a gutted and headless carcass.
Since I belong to the cohort of fishermen, of course I try to try all the recipes I have found for salting fish. Some suit my needs and are used often, others are left only as a last resort when orders come in from friends who have planned a visit for a shot of tea.
However, I will not bore you, dear reader, with third-party lyrics, but will move directly to recipes that allow you to salt mackerel for any celebration or everyday life yourself.
Everyone knows that there are no comrades in taste and color. Therefore, having followed the proposed recipe for the first time, in the future you can make some changes in the concentration of ingredients and salt it to your taste.
Preparing mackerel for salting
Preparing mackerel for salting begins in the store. It is extremely rare to find fish on store shelves that are similar in color to those that appear in photographs of cookbooks, magazines and websites, but if you want to see mouth-watering pieces on the table, let me give you a couple of recommendations.
- Avoid buying fish with a lot of ice. It is clearly not fresh and has been defrosted more than once.
- Buy carcasses without signs of impact or excessive pressure.
- There should be no reddish spots on the fish. There is nothing serious in their presence, but there may be eaters at the table who want not only to eat a deliciously prepared fish dish, but also to see the beauty of every piece. And cleaning these stains after defrosting is quite a tedious task, since it is troublesome to wipe off greasy stains with just a stream of water. But if this doesn’t annoy you, then everything is fine.
- And the last recommendation is to buy only fresh mackerel. This applies to all products.
And now directly about preparation for salting and the necessary equipment.
Defrosting and cutting mackerel
To defrost I use two methods:
- I leave it on the shelf in the refrigerator overnight.
- At room temperature for 2 - 3 hours.
In the first case, the fish is salted whole after gutting; the second method is convenient when you need to salt the mackerel in pieces. The fact is that fish that has not completely recovered from freezing is more conveniently cut into even pieces.
Cut off the head and tail fin. Carefully rip open the belly and remove the lump of entrails.
You should not start washing at this stage. It is better to let the pieces sit for a while at room temperature until completely thawed, and then rinse them under running cool water. This makes it possible to completely remove the blood and film lining the abdominal cavity.
Necessary equipment
With the necessary tools and containers everything is simple.
- Requires a cutting board.
- Sharp knife.
- Enameled pan for preparing brine.
- Glass jars with the required capacity. Usually it is 800 - 1000 grams with a wide neck.
- A deep plate or saucepan for chopped fish.
Salting mackerel in brine pieces and whole
Mackerel in brine is a relatively quick cooking method. The fish is in a fairly concentrated salt solution and manages to go through the salting phase in a short period of time.
If we consider the simplest recipe, then it is the same type as salting other representatives of the fish stock.
Classic recipe for salting mackerel at home
While the fish is undergoing the final stage of preparation, the brine is prepared in an enamel pan. To prepare brine for 2 - 3 medium-sized mackerel, take:
- Two glasses of cold water.
- One and a half tablespoons of salt.
- Half a tablespoon of sugar.
- Seven to ten (depending on size) peppercorns. I have a bag of mixed peppers for these purposes.
- Two bay leaves.
All ingredients are placed in a saucepan and brought to a boil. After boiling for 5 - 10 minutes, remove the pan from the stove and leave until cool.
We put the fish cut into pieces in a jar (if you need to salt the whole mackerel, then take a proportionate container - a saucepan or a plastic container) and fill it with brine that has cooled to room temperature. Close the jar with a lid and put it in the refrigerator. After 10 - 12 hours, lightly salted mackerel is ready. For those who like the brine “harder”, leave it in the brine for up to 24 hours.
Fish prepared in small quantities is consumed quickly.
To prevent the fish from being over-salted, it is better to drain the brine for storage and put the mackerel in a plastic bag in the freezer. But I don’t think it will come to that.
Other recipes for salting mackerel using brine
The recipes for “wet” salting of mackerel proposed below differ from the classic one mainly in the use of additional ingredients as additives.
They were adopted from the sites of fellow fishermen. I’ve tried it and I can say that it turns out quite tasty and fast. However, they are not used as often as the classical method. I don't want to mess around with it any more.
The recipe is used as written down in a notebook.
Mackerel in tea brine
Thawed, gutted and freed from excess moisture after washing, the mackerel is filled with brine using loose black tea. “Princess of Dope” would do just fine.
The brine is prepared with the following ingredients (for 2 - 3 tails):
- A liter of cold water.
- 3 full tablespoons of coarse salt.
- 3 tbsp. spoons of loose leaf tea.
- 1.5 - 2 tbsp. spoons of sugar.
We make tea. While hot, stir salt and sugar and let cool to room temperature. Place the mackerel (in pieces or whole) in a container of adequate volume and fill it with tea brine.
In this form, the fish remains in the refrigerator for three days.
In principle, you can eat cooked fish straight from the brine, but I recommend letting it sit overnight in the sink, placing it in a colander. In a few hours the mackerel will become weathered.
Mackerel with onion peel
For the brine, the classical composition of ingredients is used, but a couple of handfuls of onion peels are added. I didn’t notice much of a difference in taste, but the fish acquired a rather attractive color.
To try, take a couple of mackerel, prepare a regular brine with the addition of husks. Cool it and pour over the fish. Two to three days (no longer needed) in the refrigerator and you can serve.
How to salt mackerel without brine (dry salting)
To be honest, I prefer dry salting of mackerel. The fish turns out to be the most delicious.
When I buy a couple of tails, I use an ordinary glass jar for salting. The volume is quite enough. When I stock up on five to seven kilograms, I use a wooden box that I specially put together for pike and have been successfully using at the dacha for a year now.
Dry salting of mackerel in a wooden box
There are no complications here. I sprinkle the bottom of the box with coarse salt. Thawed and gutted fish are placed whole in rows. Each row is sprinkled with salt.
I don't use any spices. I tried a mixture of salt and sugar - I didn’t like it. Now it's just salt. I don't use pressure. The juice (brine) released during salting flows out through the cracks in the bottom of the box. The fish is salted in 2 - 4 days. Then you can send it to the smokehouse and serve it as is. Packed tightly in plastic bags and sent to the freezer of the refrigerator, the fish feels great until it needs to be served.
Since I use this method to salt at the dacha, it is worth taking precautions against the ubiquitous flies. A gauze cape folded in two layers does the job.
In winter, at home, I used the method once, placing the box in the bathroom. The end result is delicious mackerel for any occasion.
Dry salted mackerel in a jar
The fish goes through the preparation stage and is cut into pieces. Next, it is placed in a colander to remove excess moisture.
A mixture of salt, sugar and black pepper is prepared in a mug for one fish:
- A full tablespoon of coarse salt.
- Half a tablespoon of sugar.
- Pepper is taken to taste. For me it's half a teaspoon.
I rub each piece of mackerel with the mixture, put it in a prepared glass jar and put it in the refrigerator for a couple of days. I don't close the lid.
When serving, remove any remaining salt with a knife. I don’t wash it off with water, because there’s no need for excess moisture.
Bon appetit.
Regards, Oleg
Mackerel prepared at home using any of the proposed methods is distinguished by its lightly salted taste, the absence of harmful components and a harmonious combination of spices included in the marinade.
Salted mackerel (1st method) will be ready in 6 hours, and pickled mackerel (2nd method) in a day.
Recipe No. 1. Quick dry salting of mackerel pieces
This is a very simple method that can be used to salt any fish, not just mackerel. At the same time, the beneficial properties of the fish are preserved as much as possible, and the fish itself is very well salted: moderately salted and without additional preservatives.So, lightly salted mackerel, which takes up the volume of a 750-gram jar, will be obtained from 2 medium-sized (weighing 350 g) fish.
Ingredients
- Salt – 2 tbsp. spoons;
- Sugar – 1 tbsp. spoon.
How to cook quick-salted mackerel in brine in pieces
Separate the tail, head and entrails from the fish carcass. Trim fins. Rinse it thoroughly, gut it and remove internal films. 
Cut the mackerel into pieces of approximately 3-4 cm. 
Mix fish pieces with salt and sugar. 
Cover the bowl with fish with film and place in the refrigerator.
After 6 hours, remove the mackerel from the refrigerator. Wash each piece under running water to remove salt.
Pack the mackerel pieces tightly into a 750g jar.
Fill the filled jar with vegetable oil (a little will do, no more than 50 ml). 
Place the jar of lightly salted mackerel in the refrigerator for storage. The fish is ready. Mackerel prepared using the dry salting method does not need to be put in a jar, but consumed immediately after rinsing from salt.
Recipe No. 2. Marinated mackerel pieces in brine
The second way to get tasty fish is to prepare a marinade, which includes various spices, a little apple cider vinegar, salt, and sugar.
The result is marinated mackerel, which has absorbed all the flavors of the moderately sweetened and acidified brine. In addition, onions marinated with fish are a good addition to it.
So, pickled mackerel, which takes up the volume of a liter jar, will be made from 2 medium fish and the following ingredients: 
Ingredients:
- Vegetable oil – 2 tbsp. spoons;
- Apple cider vinegar – 2 tbsp. spoons;
- Onion – 1 head;
- Salt – 2 teaspoons;
- Sugar – 0.5 teaspoon;
- Ground black pepper and cilantro - a third of a teaspoon each;
- Black pepper – 5 peas;
- Cloves – 6 pcs.
Cooking sequence:
Cut the fish as with the first salting method. Cut the onion into half rings.
Place mackerel cut into pieces into a jar, alternating it with onion half rings.
Boil 250 ml of water. Dissolve all the listed ingredients in water, except vinegar. When the solution boils for 1 minute, turn off the stove and add vinegar to the total mixture.
Pour the cooled marinade over the mackerel. 
Close the jar with a plastic lid and place in the refrigerator for a day.
After the specified time, the marinated mackerel is ready. 
Salted and marinated mackerel, prepared at home, are served with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and herbs.
When choosing fish, always carefully study its appearance. It is best to take fish with a wide back, with skin that has a beautiful bright shade, without damage or white coating.
You need to defrost the fish in the refrigerator on the bottom shelf - no need to fill the fish with water or take it out into the air.
Wash the outside of the mackerel, make a longitudinal cut along the belly and carefully remove the insides. Carefully scrape out the dark film with a knife, rinse well again in running water and dry a little.
After this, you can cut the mackerel into not very thick pieces.
To salt mackerel in brine, it is best to use classic spices - peppercorns and bay leaves. The recipe for salting mackerel in brine is very simple - boil the brine, cool it and pour over the fish.
Place the mackerel pieces in a glass jar - it is best to use half-liter or liter jars. Pour water into a saucepan, add salt, sugar, pepper and bay leaf and bring to a boil. The brine needs to be boiled for several minutes so that the salt and sugar are completely dissolved.
After this, the brine must be cooled to room temperature and poured over the fish.
Cover the jars with fish with a plastic lid or film and leave for about four hours. After this, you can put it in the refrigerator for a few more hours. Typically, a liter jar of mackerel is salted for six hours.
To make it convenient to store the fish, it is best to use not very large jars - take the amount of mackerel that you can eat at one time.
Salting mackerel at home will largely depend on your taste preferences. If you like lightly salted fish, then after six hours you can serve it to the table; for those who like more spicy and salty fish, there is another wonderful recipe.
If you like more flavorful fish, then the recipe for salted mackerel pieces in spicy brine is perfect for you. Fish prepared in this way will be a wonderful appetizer for a holiday table.
The mackerel also needs to be cleaned, washed and cut into not very large pieces - 2-3 centimeters thick. Wash the lemon well in running water, then cut into two halves. Set half the lemon aside and cut the other half into thin wedges or medium cubes.
In a separate plate, mix salt and sugar, add peppercorns and chopped bay leaf. Cut the onion into rings - not very thin.
Pour the required amount of water into the pan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add all prepared spices to the water, except onion and lemon.
Mix the resulting brine well and leave until it cools completely. When the brine has cooled to room temperature, you can fill the jars.
Lay out the fish, lemon and onion in layers. Carefully pour brine on top and cover the jars with a lid or plastic wrap.
We salt mackerel at home in several stages. Leave at room temperature for two to three hours, then transfer to the refrigerator.
If you remove the bones from the fish and salt only the fillets, the mackerel in brine will be ready in 5 hours. Medium pieces of mackerel - 4-5 centimeters thick, will be ready for consumption in a day, and small pieces - 2-3 centimeters can be tasted after 12 hours.
In the video on how to pickle mackerel, you can see all the stages of preparing this magnificent snack. If you are going to cook a large amount of fish, then try to stick to the proportions of salt and sugar - 2:1. Instead of lemon, you can use lemon juice or a little fruit vinegar - this will make the fish more tender.
For spicy salting, you can use any spices to your taste - you can experiment and add ginger, garlic, dill or parsley. All vegetables that contain essential oils are perfect for making spicy sauce.
When the fish is completely ready, carefully remove it from the jar and set it on the table. Bon appetit!
Why buy in a store something that you can easily prepare at home, and at the same time be sure that only high-quality natural products were used. In this recipe we will tell you how to pickle mackerel in brine at home. The mackerel prepared according to this recipe turns out to have a rich golden color and a pleasant taste; we will salt the mackerel whole.
Another noteworthy fact is that the fish is prepared without the use of liquid smoke - a popular means of imparting a smoky aroma and golden color. For these purposes, only natural products are used - onion peels and black tea.
Ingredients
- 1 l. cold water
- 2 fresh frozen mackerel
- 2 tbsp. black tea (without additives)
- 2 tbsp. salt
- 2 handfuls of onion peels (more is possible)
- 1 tbsp. Sahara
How to cook whole salted mackerel in brine
1. First you need to start preparing the brine. Pour the required amount of salt and sugar into the pan. Take heaping tablespoons. 
2. Black tea without additives. 
3. Rinse the onion peel to remove sand and also add it to the rest of the components of the future brine. 
4. Pour cold water over all ingredients. Place the pan on the fire and boil. Then turn off the heat, close the lid and let the brine steep so that it absorbs the aromas of onion skins and tea as much as possible and becomes rich in color. Leave until the pan is cold. 
5. It is better to take larger mackerel, or if the fish are not too large, you will need to reduce the time they are kept in brine. Clean the mackerel, remove all the insides, and take special care to remove all the black films from the belly; they can add bitterness to the fish fillet. Wash the fish thoroughly, especially from the inside. The fins should not be trimmed, since many small bones are attached to them, which can then be easily removed along with the fins when cutting mackerel. 
7. During this time, the fish will be well salted and turn golden.
8. Salted mackerel is ready to eat. You should not store fish salted at home for more than a week, because no preservatives were used in its preparation, so such salted mackerel cannot be stored for a long time. Can be sliced and served.
Recipe No. 2. How to pickle whole mackerel in spiced brine
Lightly salted mackerel is the easiest way to prepare this healthy fish, preserving the maximum of nutrients in it. Mackerel is a fatty fish, which means it contains fatty acids that are so important for our body. In addition, fish is rich in a number of minerals and vitamins.
Preparing lightly salted mackerel is not at all difficult. You just need to pickle it in a salty solution and add some spices. Marinating time – 24 hours. At the end we get aromatic soft fish with all its useful components.
In this recipe we will brine whole mackerel in a spiced brine.
Ingredients:
- large mackerel 1 piece;
- bay leaf 2 pcs.;
- allspice 5-6 pcs.;
- cloves 7-8 pcs.;
- salt 1-1.5 tbsp. spoons;
- boiled water 0.5 l.
Cooking sequence:
Let's boil water and cool it. Pour 0.5 liters of water at room temperature into a deep container. Add 1-1.5 tbsp to the water. spoons of table salt and stir it thoroughly until completely dissolved. The brine is ready. 
Add cloves, bay leaves and allspice to the salt water. 
Let's defrost large mackerel. We wash it, gut it and put it in a container with brine. We completely immerse the fish in water. We put the container in the refrigerator. We keep the fish in brine for 24 hours, longer if possible. 
