Smoked fish and cheese, step by step

1. Fresh fish, cleaned straight away

Only perfectly fresh fish, cleaned the same day, goes into the smoke.

1. Which fish — Trout of 250–500 g is smoked whole. Carp is cut into fillets or butterflied: split along the backbone from the back and opened out, with the skin left on.
2. Signs of freshness — Eyes are clear and bulging, gills bright red and moist, and the flesh is firm. A smell of ammonia or sourness means the fish doesn't go into the smoke.
3. On ice — From catch to salt the fish is on ice or at 0–2 °C (32–36 °F), for 1–2 days at most. Fish that has lain in the sun or in a warm car doesn't go into the smoke.
4. Clean it at once — Take out the guts and the gills, because they spoil first. Scrape the black film from the belly and the blood along the backbone with a spoon, then rinse in cold water.

Why: Fish spoils in a day or two and carries parasites and a type of botulism that grows even in the fridge. In mackerel, tuna and sardines left warm, histamine forms, and neither smoke nor cooking destroys it.

• Lean fish (pike, zander, haddock) dries out in the smoke: smoke it for less time and cook it at 70–75 °C.
• Catfish and carp from muddy water can taste of mud: if they're from your own pond, keep them in clean water for a few days.

2. Salting without nitrite

Salt gives flavour, draws out water and holds back bacteria.

1. Plain salt — Use plain non-iodised salt; curing salt isn't used for fish. Weigh the salt and sugar on a scale.
2. 8 % brine — 80 g of salt and 20 g of sugar per 1 L of water. Use a brine only once; spices to taste: bay, peppercorns, juniper.
3. Time in the brine — At 2–4 °C, sardines stay in for 1–2 hours, trout of 250–400 g for 4–6 hours and butterflied carp for 8–12 hours.
4. Rinsing and drying — Rinse the fish quickly in cold water and hang it in a draught in the shade for 1–2 hours. The skin should be dry and slightly tacky; wet fish turns grey and bitter in the smoke.

Why: Fish is salted only with plain non-iodised salt; curing salt isn't used for fish. The most important step after salting is drying: the golden colour depends on it.

• You need enough brine to cover the fish, roughly 1 L per 1 kg of fish.
• Fillets for hot smoking can be dry-salted: 25 g of salt and 5 g of sugar per 1 kg of fish.

3. Hot-smoked trout · Locked

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4. Cold-smoked fillets · Locked

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5. Cheese that doesn't melt · Locked

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6. Paprika, salt, garlic and eggs · Locked

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