Fans of fish dishes are well aware that the most delicious fish is cooked at home. The same applies to smoked mackerel. There is no need to use a smokehouse for smoking, since it is possible to do without it. All that is required is to acquire patience for 3-4 days, the result is smoked mackerel, the taste and external qualities will be much better than a store-bought product.

To smoke this fish at home, you will need the following components:

• mackerel – 3 pieces;
• water – 1 liter;
• onion peel - 1.5 - 2 handfuls;
• salt – 120 grams;
• sugar – 1 tablespoon;
• pepper mixture – 1 teaspoon;
• bay leaf - 2 - 3 pieces;
• liquid smoke - 1.5 - 2 tablespoons;
• Sunflower oil – as needed.

How to cook mackerel as smoked at home

First step. First you need to clean the fish, that is, remove the head, fins and entrails. Then thoroughly wash the inside of the black film, as it imparts bitterness to the finished fish.

Second step. Then you need to prepare a container in which the fish will be “smoked”. A two-liter plastic bottle with the neck cut off is best suited, as other containers may acquire an orange color and a smoky smell, and there is no need to constantly turn the mackerel in the bottle to acquire the desired color and taste. Then the mackerel must be placed in the prepared container with the tails up.

Third step. Then you need to start preparing the brine for smoking. To do this, you need to pour the onion skins into a saucepan (which you don’t mind, as it can get colored) and fill it with water, then boil and let stand for 30 minutes. This procedure will help the brine acquire a red color.

Fourth step. After this, you need to boil the pan with the husks again and pour salt, bay leaves, a mixture of peppers and sugar into it. Then let it simmer for about five minutes.

Fifth step. Then you need to strain the brine from the husks through a colander and pour liquid smoke into it. The brine needs to be placed in a cool place (balcony) so that it cools down, and then poured into a plastic container with fish and refrigerated for 3-4 days for the smoking process.

Sixth step. After the time has passed, remove the smoked fish from the refrigerator and place it on kitchen napkins to dry. This process lasts 6 hours.

Step-by-step recipes for preparing hot and cold smoked mackerel at home

2018-05-05 Ekaterina Lyfar

Grade
recipe

4916

Time
(min)

Portions
(persons)

In 100 grams of the finished dish

17 gr.

12 gr.

Carbohydrates

1 gr.

185 kcal.

Option 1: Classic recipe for smoked mackerel at home

Smoked mackerel most often appears on our tables during the holidays. It goes well with any side dish and can serve as a snack for beer and other drinks. But in stores you often find fish of inadequate quality. It’s better to smoke it yourself, especially since it’s not that difficult.

Ingredients:

• Mackerel - 1 kg;
• Salt - 40 g;
• Sugar - 10 g.

Step-by-step recipe for mackerel in a smokehouse

Before starting cooking, you need to defrost the fish. To do this, fill the carcasses with cold water and leave for several hours.

Remove the gills, head and entrails of the fish. Rinse the ridge very thoroughly to get rid of any remaining blood.

Rub the mackerel with salt and sugar. If desired, you can add some ground spices, such as white pepper. Leave the fish in the cold for 4 hours.

Rinse the carcasses or dry them with a clean towel. Let them dry for another hour in the fresh air.

Line the bottom of the smoker with fruit shavings. You don't need to put too many wood chips, otherwise the smoke will be too acrid.

Light a fire under the smokehouse. When it starts to smoke, you need to insert the grate with mackerel inside.

After 10 minutes, open the smokehouse lid. Release the smoke, then cover the pan again.

In half an hour the mackerel will be ready. It must cool completely in the smokehouse. Only then can you open the lid and start tasting.

It is very important to choose the right sawdust. Use only hardwood, fruit trees are ideal. Conifers can impart bitterness to fish due to their high resin content. You can combine several different types of sawdust to get an indescribable taste and smell.

Option 2: Quick recipe for smoked mackerel

To save time, you can clean fish that is not completely defrosted. This will make it easier for you to cut the mackerel as it will retain its firm texture.

Ingredients:

• Mackerel - 1 kg;
• Liquid smoke - 15 g;
• Coarse salt - 15 g.

How to quickly cook smoked mackerel

Rinse defrosted fish. Cut off the head, rip open the belly. Remove the entrails from each carcass.

Rinse the mackerel again, making sure there are no black films left on it. Dry the carcass with a paper towel and rub with salt inside and out.

Place the fish in a baking bag. Leave for 40 minutes. After half an hour, you can turn on the oven at 200° so that it has time to warm up.

Pour liquid smoke into the bag. Distribute it over the entire surface of the fish. Tie the bag and place the dough in the oven for 25 minutes. Wait until it cools down before serving.

If you have time, it is better to defrost the fish gradually. First, move it from the freezer to the refrigerator. After a few hours, you can remove the mackerel and leave it indoors. Once the excess liquid has drained, begin cleaning and cooking the fish.

Option 3: Smoking mackerel at home in the oven

In a quick recipe, we have already tried cooking mackerel in the oven. There is a more complex and time-consuming method. The fish turns out incredibly tasty and aromatic even without a smokehouse!

Ingredients:

• Mackerel - 1 kg;
• Salt - 200 g;
• Sugar - 100 g;
• Lemon juice - 30 ml;
• Water - 2 l;
• Garlic - 3 cloves.

Step by step recipe

Squeeze the garlic into a small bowl and add salt and lemon juice. Grind all the ingredients. You can add any spices if you wish.

Warm up the water. When it boils, add sugar and garlic paste. Stir until the dry ingredients dissolve.

Boil the marinade for 5-7 minutes, at the same time wash the fish and remove all excess.

Pour marinade over mackerel. Let it cool completely indoors, then transfer it to the refrigerator for 12 hours. After this, the liquid must be drained. Wait for the fish to dry completely (2-3 hours).

Preheat the oven to 180°. While it is warming up, prepare a large cauldron. Place alder sawdust on the bottom and place a sheet of foil on top. Make several holes in it.

Place a wire rack over the foil. You need to put mackerel there. Close the cauldron with a lid and place it in the oven for 45 minutes.

Carefully inspect the fish you plan to buy. Of course, it is better to purchase a fresh carcass, but this is not always possible. Make sure that the mackerel is of a uniform shade, elastic, and not deformed. If there is damage or yellow spots somewhere, it is better to refuse the purchase.

Option 4: Hot smoked mackerel

If you like the hot smoking method, be sure to try this recipe. Remember that this mackerel can be stored for no longer than 6 days. It should be kept in a dry and cool place.

Ingredients:

• Mackerel - 1 kg;
• Salt - 100 g;
• Ground pepper, spices to taste.

How to cook

Rinse each carcass thoroughly. It is not necessary to cut off the head and fins, but the insides will have to be removed.

Grind the spices with salt in a mortar. Thanks to this, their taste and aroma will become more pronounced.

Rub the fish inside and out with the spice mixture. Wrap the carcass in foil and leave it in the refrigerator for a day. During this time, you will need to turn the mackerel several times.

Place the sawdust in the smoker. Light a fire.

Spread the fish carcasses evenly over the surface of the smokehouse. They shouldn't touch each other. Smoke the mackerel for half an hour over medium heat.

If you do not have a special smokehouse, you can use a regular grill and grate. A metal bucket with a lid is also suitable for these purposes.

Option 5: Cold smoked mackerel

Most often, mackerel is cold smoked. This is due to the fact that the carcass contains a lot of healthy fats. During hot smoking they simply melt.

Ingredients:

• Mackerel - 1 kg;
• Water - 1 l;
• Sugar - 10 g;
• Salt - 100 g;
• Bay leaf, nutmeg, black and allspice.

Step by step recipe

Thaw the fish. Rinse each carcass thoroughly, cut out the gills and entrails. Rinse the mackerel again with cool water and dry.

Warm up the water. When it boils, you need to add salt, sugar and spices. Stir until the grains are completely dissolved, and remove the mixture from the heat.

Wait for the brine to cool completely. Pour liquid at room temperature over mackerel. Cover the vessel with a lid and place pressure on top. Let the fish salt in the refrigerator for 2 days.

Rinse the mackerel thoroughly to remove any remaining salt. Open its belly and secure it with toothpicks or matches. Let the fish dry completely.

Hang the carcasses in a ventilated place. Leave them there for 2-4 hours.

When the fish is slightly dry, it can be moved to the smoking chamber. The mackerel will hang there for 24 hours. Make sure that the temperature does not exceed 25°.

If the mackerel tastes too salty, you can additionally soak it in cold water. The fluid needs to be changed every hour. The procedure must be carried out before smoking begins.

Option 6: Mackerel in liquid smoke with onion skins

This recipe is suitable for smoking mackerel and other types of fish. Thanks to liquid smoke and onion peels, it acquires a pleasant color and aroma.

Ingredients:

• Mackerel - 2 pcs.;
• Water - 1 l;
• Salt - 50 g;
• Sugar - 20 g;
• Onion peel - 70 g;
• Bay leaf, pepper mixture.

How to cook

Rinse the onion skins thoroughly. Fill it with water.

Add sugar and salt to the water. Place the vessel on the fire. While it is heating up, clean and wash the fish.

When the onion broth boils, add liquid smoke to it. Add a mixture of peppers and a few bay leaves there.

Leave the broth on the stove for another 20 minutes. Let it simmer, covered, over low heat. After this period, you need to strain the liquid.

Place the mackerel in the brine. When it has cooled to room temperature, you can move the dish to the refrigerator.

The fish will be smoked for 2 days. Don't forget to turn it over periodically, about 2-3 times a day.

To give the mackerel a brighter shade, you can additionally rub it with vegetable oil. Also, for these purposes, 1-2 bags of high-quality black tea are sometimes added to the marinade.

Option 7. Fragrant smoked mackerel at home

Almost everyone likes the breathtaking aroma of smoked mackerel, which evokes a serious appetite. Buying it today is not difficult; such fish are sold both in markets and in stores. But the amount of salts and calories in such products is prohibitive, and not everyone can afford smoked mackerel. But, as it turned out, it can be easily and simply smoked at home using the most affordable products. The classic recipe involves smoking mackerel in a marinade based on mineral water, a small amount of sugar and liquid smoke.

Ingredients:

• 3 liters of mineral water without gas;
• 6 small mackerel;
• sugar - 85 g;
• salt - 65 g;
• 25 ml liquid smoke;
• onion peel - 160 g.

Step-by-step recipe for smoking mackerel at home

The mackerel is freed from its entrails, washed thoroughly, laid out on a paper towel and left for half an hour to dry.

Pour mineral water into a deep container, add sugar, salt, and add onion peels. Place over medium heat and bring to a boil.

The liquid is removed from the stove, cooled, liquid smoke is poured into it, and stirred.

Mackerel is immersed in the marinade, covered with a lid, a weight is placed on top and kept for two days.

Every 12 hours, stir the fish in the marinade.

Instead of mineral water, it is permissible to use ordinary water, but it must first be filtered.

Option 8. Smoking mackerel in a bag with liquid smoke

The following recipe is for those housewives who have an oven at home with an “aerogrill” mode. To prepare smoked mackerel, you will need a regular plastic bag in which the fish will be marinated. It turns out very tender, aromatic, and tastes in no way inferior to store-bought.

Ingredients:

• 55 ml liquid smoke;
• 6 mackerel carcasses;
• 220 g salt.

How to cook smoked mackerel at home

The head is cut off from mackerel carcasses, the belly is cut, the entrails are removed, and washed well.

The inside of the carcass is rubbed with salt (1 tablespoon of salt for 1 fish).

The outside is coated with liquid smoke.

The fish are placed in a plastic bag and kept in it for 45 minutes.

After the specified time, the fish are removed and thoroughly wiped with paper napkins.

Place on the oven rack, adjust the air fryer mode and cook for about half an hour at a low temperature.

To add flavor, you can rub the inside of the mackerel not only with salt, but with any fish seasoning.

Option 9. Smoked mackerel at home with strong tea

Fans of healthy eating will enjoy the following recipe for making smoked mackerel at home. The version is somewhat similar to the classic one, only here there is no liquid smoke, and in addition to onion skins, strong tea is added to the marinade, which gives the fish a beautiful dark brown hue. And the presence of bay leaf, ground coriander, and peppercorns makes mackerel very aromatic and appetizing.

Ingredients:

• fresh mackerel - 3 pcs.;
• about two liters of purified water;
• 3 handfuls of onion peels;
• salt - 70 g;
• 45 ml strong iced tea;
• 4 bay leaves;
• 12 black peppercorns;
• 30 g ground coriander;
• 35 g sugar.

Step by step recipe

Pour onion peels into a container with purified water, place on a small flame of fire and after boiling, boil for 16 minutes.

The resulting broth is cooled and poured into a clean container through a sieve.

Add strong tea to the decoction, cover with a lid and leave for 25 minutes in the refrigerator.

The broth is filtered again.

Pour sugar, coriander, salt into the broth, add bay leaves and allspice, stir well.

Gutted and washed mackerel carcasses are immersed in the prepared liquid, covered with a lid, a weight is placed and left to infuse for 3 days in the refrigerator.

Every day the fish in the marinade is stirred.

If you don't have ground coriander, you can use coriander seeds or substitute cumin.

Option 10. Hot smoked mackerel at home

At home, you can also smoke mackerel using a hot method, and you do not need a special smokehouse. All you need is a deep container, a small wire rack, dry tea leaves, a small amount of rice cereal and a few simple ingredients. In this recipe, the main thing is to follow the process exactly and take products strictly according to the specified standards.

Ingredients:

• 3 small mackerel;
• water - 1,200 ml;
• sugar - 80 g;
• salt - 85 g;
• 18 black peppercorns;
• 20 g coriander seeds;
• 55 g dry tea leaves;
• 165 g rice cereal.

How to cook

Bring the water to a boil, combine with sugar, salt, peppercorns, coriander and 20 grams of tea leaves.

Remove the liquid from the stove and cool.

Gutted mackerel carcasses are immersed in a cold marinade and left for 1 day.

Fed mackerels are hung by their tails with special metal hooks to drain excess moisture.

Rice cereal is poured with a small amount of water and left to swell for 30-40 minutes.

The cereal is mixed with the remaining tea leaves and wrapped in a sheet of foil so that there is a small hole left for the smoke to escape.

Place the foil with the contents in a deep container and set it on fire.

When smoke comes out of the foil, a small metal grid is placed inside the container, on which the mackerel is laid out.

Close the lid and smoke the fish for half an hour.

After 30 minutes of smoking, the fish is turned over to the other side and smoked for the same amount of time.

The smoking process can be slightly increased, but not more than 10 minutes.

Option 11. Cold smoked mackerel

Cold smoked mackerel at home turns out to be very tasty and aromatic. Here you will need a special smoke regulator. As in previous versions, the fish is first marinated in a marinade and then placed in the chamber of the device. It takes a little longer to prepare than others, but the end result is simply amazing.

Ingredients:

• 4 fresh mackerel;
• 220 g salt;
• 100 g sugar;
• 2 liters of water;
• 5 bay leaves;
• 15 peas of allspice;
• 60 g ground nutmeg.

Step by step recipe

Mackerel carcasses are freed from entrails, washed well, and kept in cold water for 3 hours.

Wash again, cut out the gills, dry on paper napkins for 20 minutes.

Prepare the marinade: add salt and sugar to a saucepan with two liters of water and boil over medium heat. Add bay leaves, nutmeg, allspice, and boil for 8 minutes. The marinade is filtered and cooled.

The fish is placed in the marinade and kept under load for 2 days.

After 48 hours, the fish is removed from the marinade, washed well under running water, and cuts are made along the belly.

The carcasses are hung on hooks and left for several hours in the open air.

Alder chips are placed in a special compartment of the smoke regulator.

Mackerel is placed inside the chamber, closed, the temperature is set to no higher than 40 degrees, and smoked for about 12 hours.

The fish are taken out of the chamber, hung again on hooks and left in the air for another couple of hours.

Before cold smoking, you can marinate mackerel in a dry marinade: pour salt into a container (100 g per 1 kg of fish). Add a little salt to the belly and gills of the fish. Place the mackerel in a container, add more salt on top and leave under the load for two days. And also, if desired, you can add some fish seasoning along with salt.

Option 12. Smoking mackerel in liquid smoke

Liquid smoke is a special flavoring that gives fish a delicious aroma of light, pleasant smoke and a beautiful dark brown hue. With it you can easily and quickly cook delicious mackerel without leaving your apartment. The recipe is very simple and does not require any culinary skills.

Ingredients:

• 6 fresh mackerel;
• 90 ml liquid smoke;
• 35 g sugar;
• 1,250 liters of water.

How to cook

Water is poured into a container, sugar and salt are dissolved in it, placed on low heat, and brought to a boil.

Remove from heat, pour in liquid smoke, stir.

The brine is cooled, mackerel, previously processed and washed, is immersed in it, and kept for three days under load in the refrigerator.

Smoked mackerel is removed from the brine, washed, cut and served.

For flavor, you can optionally add some Provençal herbs to the cooled brine.

Option 13. Smoking mackerel at home with lemon

If you have a mini-smokehouse at your summer cottage, you can safely adopt this recipe. It is extremely simple, you just need to stock up on sawdust from fruit trees, dry tea leaves, sugar and lemon. The mackerel according to this recipe is tasty, tender and aromatic, with a pleasant sourness.

Ingredients:

• 3 mackerel;
• 1 lemon;
• 35 g salt;
• 55 g sugar;
• 60 g dry tea leaves;
• 0.5 kg sawdust.

Step by step recipe

The head of the mackerel is cut off, the entrails are removed, and washed.

The lemon is rinsed and cut into thin slices.

Place 2-3 slices of lemon into the belly of the fish, rub the carcass with salt, and place it in the refrigerator for half a day.

Sawdust is combined on a tray with dry tea leaves and sugar.

The mackerel is dried on a paper towel and placed on a special smokehouse grate.

Turn on the device and smoke the fish without smoke for 12 minutes.

Insert a tray with sawdust and smoke with smoke for about half an hour.

The device is turned off, and the fish is left in the smokehouse for 25 minutes.

If you don't have lemon, you can lightly sprinkle the fish with apple cider vinegar.

Option 14. Mackerel in the smokehouse

Another option for the happy owners of a mini-electric smokehouse. Without leaving your apartment, you can prepare excellent, juicy, aromatic mackerel, almost no different in taste from that smoked in the open air. The recipe is a little similar to the previous one, only instead of lemon, coriander, cloves, allspice and bay leaves are added here.

Ingredients:

• 4 mackerel;
• 20 g ground coriander;
• 12 allspice peas;
• 4 bay leaves;
• 4 cloves;
• 45 g salt;
• 30 g sugar.

How to cook

Clean the mackerel from its entrails and rinse thoroughly.

Pour coriander into the container, add cloves, allspice, salt, mix well.

Rub the dry mixture onto the fish inside and out.

Place 1 bay leaf in the belly of each mackerel, wrap the fish in cling film and keep in the refrigerator for several hours.

Remove the fish from the refrigerator, free it from the film, wash it again, and dry it with a paper towel.

Alder sawdust and a little sugar are poured into a special tray.

A tray is inserted into the lowest section to collect fat droplets.

Mackerel are placed on the grates.

After pouring water into the water seal, turn on the device and adjust the average level.

After the first smoke comes out, pull the hose onto the chimney and turn on the hood.

After a few minutes of smoking, reduce the level to minimum, and smoke the fish for another 12 minutes.

The finished mackerel is kept in a switched off smokehouse for a couple of hours.

To avoid having to wash off the fat from the pan for a long time after smoking, cover it with a sheet of foil.

Mackerel, like no other fish, is perfect for smoking. Moderately fatty, with a small number of bones, aromatic fish will decorate any table. Cooking mackerel is not difficult, because there are no shortage of craftsmen who can make a home smokehouse from an ordinary steel box.

Ingredients for preparing hot smoked mackerel:
- medium-sized mackerel;
- salt;
- spices to taste.

Preparing mackerel

It is important to consider two points here:
1. If you bought frozen fish, carefully inspect the fins. The presence of the slightest reddish tint in the color of the fins indicates that the fish was repeatedly defrosted and frozen again. If the fish is good by all criteria, defrost it without water or heat - naturally at normal temperature.

2. If the skin of the fish is damaged, then you should not buy such mackerel - when smoked, the meat will “crawl” out of cracks and holes, the fish will simply look unappetizing.

The fish should be gutted, the gills and the black film inside the abdomen should be removed to prevent bitterness from appearing. Rinse the carcasses and dry with a paper towel. Then salt the fish. We put the fish in the bag. Add salt at the rate of ½ teaspoon per fish. We tie the bag and put it in the refrigerator for 4-5 hours. Turn the bag over from time to time to salt the fish.

After salting, rinse the mackerel to remove any remaining salt, dry it with a towel, and place it in an open, non-sunny place to allow the fish to dry.

Place alder chips or thin twigs on the bottom of the smokehouse and lightly spray them with water.

We place a tray directly on the branches, which covers the grill with the fish from strong heat during smoking.

We close the lid (our smokehouse has a side lid to make it convenient to place the grill with fish), and place the smokehouse on the fire stand.

We place three fish on the grill, but so that they do not touch each other.

Open the smokehouse and place it on a shelf for 15 minutes.

Using a toothpick, check the readiness of the fish on one side.

You should purchase mackerel only in trusted stores, so as not to accidentally buy a spoiled product. The quality of fish can be determined as follows. Firstly, it is unacceptable for it to have an unpleasant odor and looseness. Secondly, it should not be covered with a thick layer of ice (this is how stores disguise the poor quality of the product). The fresh product will be elastic, strong and without a distinct odor.

Having bought mackerel for cold or hot smoking at home, you first need to prepare it. It is advisable to gut the carcass, remove the head and intestines. After this, dry with a towel. By the way, you can leave the head. Clean and processed fish can be pickled or salted.

How to pickle mackerel?

It will be easiest; you won’t need to look for special ingredients or spend a lot of time. It is enough to cover the mackerel with a thick layer of salt and black pepper. If desired, you can add other spices intended for fish.

The easiest way to salt is to cover the mackerel with a thick layer of salt.

The container in which the carcasses are located will need to be covered with a plate or cling film. After this, you need to leave it in the refrigerator for about 10 hours. It is not advisable to shorten the time, otherwise the fish will not have time to salt.

Before cooking it in the smokehouse, you will need to shake off excess salt. The fish has absorbed everything it needs in a day, and now all that remains is to hold it in the smoke. This recipe is suitable for both hot and cold smoking at home.

Simple marinade for mackerel

Marinade for hot smoked mackerel is useful if you want to make the fish more flavorful. It is not difficult to prepare, the main thing is to follow the instructions.

Ingredients:

• fish - 1 kg;
• water - 2 l;
• lemon juice;
• bay leaf;
• salt - glass;
• sugar - glass;
• garlic - 2-3 cloves;
• black peppercorns;
• onion peel.

You need to boil water, add salt, sugar, bay leaves and onion peels. You should also add lemon juice (about 20 ml) and chopped garlic. You need to cook for about 10 minutes, then turn off and cool.

The fish carcasses should be dipped into the resulting brine and left there for at least 2 hours. After this, the meat must be removed and dried. Now you can begin the process of hot or cold smoking.

Marinade with bay leaf and coriander

Anyone can marinate mackerel for smoking. To do this, you don’t need to have any special cooking skills. The brine is made extremely simply and quickly: it usually takes 10-15 minutes to make it. Some people wonder why a marinade is needed to cook fish in a smokehouse? Of course, you can do without it, but it is what provides the unique taste. Spices, salt, and other elements make the fish aromatic, juicy, soft and tender. This is the kind of product that will delight guests and loved ones. You can't buy it in a store - it's prepared according to a unique recipe.

Ingredients:

• fish - 2-3 pcs;
• water - 1 l;
• sugar and salt - 2 tbsp. spoons;
• pepper;
• coriander - 1 tbsp. spoon;
• bay leaf - 5 pcs.;
• carnation.

The marinade is prepared at home as follows. Pour a liter of water into a saucepan; if there is a lot of fish, then the amount of liquid can be increased. Place on the fire and start boiling. When bubbles appear, add salt and sugar. There is no need to be afraid that a sweet ingredient will ruin the taste. Sugar just helps make the carcasses absorb spices and salt faster, so it is necessary in small quantities.

Marinade at home

Place the remaining spices in the water. If you wish, you can add your own seasoning; there are no restrictions on this - the main thing is that it does not spoil the product. The fish needs to be soaked for about 12 hours, you can increase the time to a day. Before smoking, you should hang it by the tail for about 1-2 hours. This is necessary to ensure that all the liquid is glass. Now the carcasses can be sent straight to the smokehouse. If you cook it hot, you can start eating in 30-45 minutes. According to this recipe, the dish turns out tasty, aromatic and piquant.

Smoked mackerel, prepared at home with your own hands, you and your guests will definitely enjoy it. Unfortunately, you rarely see high-quality fresh products on store shelves. Manufacturers often use harmful chemical additives and cheap dyes. And we would really like to please our family and guests and offer delicious mackerel prepared with natural products.

We offer several recipes with and without the use of liquid smoke; we hope that smoked mackerel will become a traditional holiday dish for your family.

To prepare delicious fish, always use fresh or freshly frozen product, pay attention to the storage conditions and shelf life. If the product has been defrosted several times, the cooking result will disappoint you; the meat inside will be loose and mushy.

So, to prepare delicious smoked mackerel we will need:

• Fresh mackerel - 3 medium carcasses, approximately 1 kg.
• Tea leaves - 2 tablespoons;
• Coarse salt, preferably sea salt - 5 level tablespoons;
• Sugar - 2-3 tablespoons without top;
• Liquid smoke - 4 tablespoons;
• Boiled water - 1 liter.

We also need a plastic bottle with a capacity of 2 liters.

Before cooking, defrost the fish, wash it, cut off the head and carefully gut it so as not to damage the meat and the skin is smooth and beautiful.

Prepare the marinade. Pour boiling water over the tea leaves, add a little salt, sugar and liquid smoke. It is better to prepare the marinade in advance; we need it cooled to room temperature.

Wash the plastic bottle, cut off the top part so that the length of the carcass fits. Place the prepared fish upside down and pour in the marinade.

Place in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. If the contents in the bottle are tightly packed, you need to turn it over several times to get a rich taste.

When our fish is marinated, we take it out of the refrigerator and hang it by the tails for a couple of hours to dry. It is convenient to use metal paper clips for fastening. As a result, we get a beautiful golden color and a pleasant aroma of smoked mackerel. Before serving, grease with sunflower oil, cut into pieces and decorate with lemon, olives, and herbs.

Now we will share a recipe on how to cook smoked mackerel at home without adding liquid smoke.

Smoked mackerel without liquid smoke

• Fresh mackerel - 3 medium fish;
• Coarse salt - 4 tablespoons;
• Sugar - 3 tablespoons;
• Tea leaves - 3 tablespoons;
• Onion peel - 1 cup.
• Spices to taste (black pepper, allspice, coriander, bay leaf) or use a store-bought set of spices for marinating fish.

Prepare the mackerel. It must be defrosted, washed, cut off the head and remove the entrails. Gutting must be done carefully so as not to damage the carcass. Do not remove the skin; it will ruin the appearance of the finished dish.

Prepare the marinade. Brew tea in a liter of boiling water, add spices and onion skins. Let the marinade simmer for 5-10 minutes until it turns a rich brown color. Spices should give off their aroma. Cool to room temperature and add salt and sugar. The marinade is ready.

Place the prepared fish in a convenient container, cover with marinade and refrigerate for 3-4 days. After this, remove, dry and hang the carcasses by the tails for 3-4 hours. Before serving, wipe with vegetable oil. You should end up with smoked mackerel of a beautiful golden color with a delicate aroma of spices.

Mashed potatoes, vegetable stew, sauté, and rice with vegetables are great as a side dish.

Hot smoked mackerel in a home smokehouse

To prepare you will need:

Thawed mackerel - 4 pieces;

Seasoning for smoking fish - 1 sachet or use spices separately. They harmonize perfectly: bay leaf, coriander, peppercorns, allspice and others to taste;

Coarse salt - 3 tablespoons;

Fruit tree sawdust - 2-3 handfuls.

Thaw the carcasses. Remove heads and entrails and rinse thoroughly. Rub with salt and spices and place in a cool place for 5 hours. Then remove and dry with a paper towel so that during smoking the excess fat does not drip and the skin does not crack.

Smoked mackerel tastes better if you dry it in a cool place for 10-12 hours.

When placing fish on the smokehouse grate, it is important that they do not touch each other, but are at a short distance, about 5 cm. It is better to tie the mackerel with a rope. Thanks to this technique, it remains intact, the skin bursts less and all the juice remains inside.

Place the prepared fish on medium heat and open it every 5-10 minutes and release the smoke to avoid bitterness. The skin bursts from strong fire, so the temperature should be low.

The dish cooks quickly, about 15 minutes, and turns out tender and flavorful. Goes great with grilled vegetables or baked potatoes.