Every fisherman, whether professional or amateur, can easily recognize a perch if the latter is hooked. In addition to the characteristic yellow-green color with dark stripes on the back, it is distinguished by the peculiar shape of the dorsal fin. The perch seems to consist of two parts, one part is hard and has spiny rays, and the other is softer. Similar spines are also present in the anal fin.
Perch is a predator, this is evident even at the first meeting. A disproportionately huge mouth with many teeth is the result of nature’s work so that even small individuals can feed on small fish. Some perches can even have fangs.
Anyone who has ever caught a perch will probably remember its small scales, which fit so tightly to the body that sometimes it seems as if it were some kind of skin.
If we talk about large representatives, then in the river you can find perch weighing only a few hundred grams, while marine species are larger and weigh more than 10 kg. Perch has its own natural enemies, even in the underwater world; it can easily become a victim of larger predators.
We have already mentioned the color of river inhabitants, but sea bass is completely different from its fellow. You can distinguish it not only by its characteristic red color, but also by its huge eyes.
Despite the fact that perch is not considered a commercial fish, it lives in all types of water bodies in the northern hemisphere. The only thing it needs for life is a weak current, the presence of vegetation and animal food. Marine representatives prefer shallow water, although they can thrive in the depths.
Fish as a food product is recommended not only for adults, but also for children. Nutrients can be transferred to the baby in the womb, so there is no question of including seafood in the diet. However, many today prefer to create a menu based on the total energy output, mistakenly discarding fish, considering it a high-calorie product. A nutritious product should not be confused with a high-calorie product.
For a clear example, consider the chemical composition of perch meat. To begin with, we note that its calorie content does not exceed one hundred thousand calories. This indicator is calculated for 100 g of product, so with simple operations you can calculate the energy yield of the entire dish.
Smoked bass is nutritious and low in calories.
The next point is the method of preparing the fish. It is traditionally believed that smoked foods are harmful to the body. We must destroy this stereotype, as it has no basis. Smoked perch is even lower in calories than, for example, fried or boiled, and the amount of nutrients is preserved as much as possible when the product is processed with smoke.
There are rumors about the dangers of such food due to the presence of carcinogens, but with proper smoking, the level of harmful deposits may not be so significant.
Due to its rich content of vitamins, proteins and microelements with such a caloric value, perch is classified as a dietary food. Even those who are prescribed a strict diet can eat fish in any form. Smoking perch is the most common method of preparing it. The smoke-soaked delicacy will not only be an excellent snack, but will also fill the atmosphere with warm memories that accompany the entire smoking process carried out at home.
The content of fatty acids and vitamins makes perch meat extremely healthy. Thanks to the variety of microelements that enter the body in its pure form, the functioning of the heart, nervous system, and endocrine system is normalized, metabolism is improved, and cholesterol levels in the blood return to normal. The most amazing property is that with regular consumption of this fish, the aging process of the body slows down.
In real life, performing this or that manipulation is much more difficult than both mentioned in theory. As a result, incorrect actions often lead to product damage. Such a sad ending is also typical for smoking. You need to clearly understand that there is no single correct formula for cooking fish. Everyone chooses their favorite recipe, supplementing it with their own ideas. But there are some rules that remain the same. They are considered a guarantee of success in cooking.
Smoking products means subjecting them to smoke containing substances that can preserve and preserve organic fibers, giving them a characteristic taste and smell.
Possible mistakes can lead to the fish becoming saturated with carcinogens - heavy volatile elements that are a product of wood decay. Failure to comply with the requirements often leads to the development of microbes in the tissues of the fish, which subsequently leads to rotting. You can continue to list the failures, but it will be much more effective to formulate the basic requirements for proper smoking.
Each point contains some nuances. If you provide them, you can smoke perch in a smokehouse without much difficulty.
River perch can become prey for any spearfishing enthusiast. Fresh fish, caught yourself, is the most suitable material for smoking. This does not mean that those who are far from fishing do not have the opportunity to fulfill their culinary dreams. We'll have to be content with what they offer us in stores. Usually you can find frozen sea bass on the counter. Freezing does not make it possible to properly verify the freshness of the product, so you will have to rely on visual characteristics.
If you are lucky enough to find chilled fish on sale, then remember that its shelf life is very limited. Freshness can be checked by pressing the carcass with your finger. The deformed area should disappear within a few seconds. The eyes of a fresh fish are transparent and not sunken. The gills should be light pink in color.
Unfortunately, the salting procedure does not boil down to the banal addition of salt to the container where the carcasses are stored. Salt must effectively penetrate the fibers of the fish to remove excess moisture, otherwise all conditions for the growth of bacteria are created there.
It is impossible to quickly salt fish, so you need to calculate the time. First, the carcass is butchered. There is no need to remove the scales.
All cutting comes down to removing the entrails. Some experts advise leaving the entrails and gills if the carcasses are small. We recommend separating at least the gills.
Keeping fish in brine for a long time is called marinating; it is necessary to break down the fibers and kill microbes in them. After marinating, salted fish is already considered edible. There are two ways to salt fish before smoking: dry marinating and liquid marinating.
It is almost impossible to over-salt fish. Firstly, this is its property, and secondly, in both cases described, the next step will be soaking the carcasses in clean water for some time. After removing excess salt, you will have to ventilate the perches so that all the moisture comes out.
To deliciously cook a product smoked with natural smoke, you need to use a special device. The oven, which is used by residents of apartment buildings, only provides some kind of imitation of the process. Baked fish will have to be additionally treated with liquid smoke. Hot smoked perch is prepared in a smokehouse under the influence of smoke with a temperature of about 100°C degrees. Cold smoking has some significant differences. The results are also different.
In the first case, the fish will be smoked for less than an hour. Its meat becomes loose, the bones are easily separated. In consistency it looks like it is not baked, but has a characteristic taste and smell. This fish can be stored for only a few days. Despite this, recipes for hot smoking are more often found on various forums, due to the simplicity and speed of preparation. This fish is great to cook at the dacha for a family dinner or lunch.
You can smoke fish with cold smoke only after a few days. The resulting meat will be elastic, with a pronounced fishy taste. In this form, it retains many vitamins and nutrients. The smokehouse is designed so that the smoke cools down to 27°C degrees before entering the fish section. Cold smoked perch will last for several weeks in the refrigerator. The difficulty is that it is difficult to smoke fish without interruption, and this is the main condition. For perch, smoking with cold smoke for a day will be enough. As a result, you will be able to prepare your favorite dish deliciously and enjoy it with pleasure.
Smoked fish is a great alternative to traditional kebabs. Smoking fish is no more difficult than frying kebabs, and it tastes no worse than meat. Let's look at a hot smoked recipe using river perch as an example.
In order to smoke perch, we need only two ingredients: the perch itself and salt. Take as much perch as will fit in the smokehouse. Or more if you want to do several “passes” of smoking. We smoked for one time, we had 3 kg of medium-sized river perch. Do not skimp on salt; each fish needs to be well salted.
Before salting, the fish must be washed and cleaned. You only need to clean the insides. The head and scales must be left. We had the perch already cleaned and frozen, so all we had to do was wash it thoroughly in running water.
Cleaned fish should be generously rubbed with salt on all sides. Don’t be afraid that you will over-salt, the salt will not have time to be completely absorbed.
Also rub the gutted bellies with salt.
In this form, leave the fish to salt for 4 hours. Then remove the perches and rinse off excess salt and leave to dry. You can dry them with a napkin. The fish is ready for smoking!
Our smokehouse consists of a small iron box, two grates of different heights and two lids.
The top lid closes hermetically to prevent smoke from escaping. Thus, on such a smokehouse you can smoke 2 layers of product.
So, first let's prepare the smokehouse. You need to place wood chips on the bottom of the smokehouse. It is this that gives the product a unique smoked smell. You can buy wood chips in a store, or you can prepare them yourself from alder, cherry or apple trees. To do this, you need to finely trim the tree branches with an ax. In the summer we use our own wood chips, but now we have these wood chips from a pack.
Important
Do not use wood chips from resinous trees!
Place the wood chips in a thin layer evenly on the bottom of the smokehouse.
Then sprinkle them with water and cover with the first lid.
Place the first grate on top and lay out the first layer of fish.
Then place a second grill and place the second layer of fish on it.
Then the fish is closed with a second, airtight lid and sent to the fire.
We make a fire right in the grill where we usually grill kebabs. Smoking requires a good, even flame.
Cooking time for hot smoked perch is 20-30 minutes. Moreover, it is necessary to remove the smokehouse from the heat and open the lid 2 times to release excess steam. The first time you can do this 5 minutes after you put it on the fire, and the second time after 15 minutes.
As a result, you will get such a golden, fragrant fish.
Hot smoked perch is perfect as an appetizer with cold beer. But not only. By preparing mashed potatoes and vegetable salad, you will get a completely complete original dinner. The meat of hot smoked perch is very tender and soft, moderately salted. It even disintegrates in your hands, and is separated from the skin and bones incredibly easily. Another advantage of this product is that it can be stored in the refrigerator for quite a long time.
My husband often likes to go fishing, but it’s not always possible to catch a decent fish; more often than not, a small fish is caught with a fishing rod, which we hot smoke over a fire. Today, fishing again brought only a small fish - perch, so I’ll tell you how to deliciously and quickly smoke this fish, which you won’t be ashamed to serve with cold beer.
Of course, we use coarse salt as a marinade for fish. You can also flavor the fish with tasty and aromatic seasoning and fresh herbs. The main thing is that you and your family like the taste of the ingredients used.
We gut the caught fish and wash it thoroughly in several waters. There is no need to clean the perch; the skin can be easily removed from it immediately before consumption. Place it in a deep bowl. Add salt and ground black pepper to taste. 
We also add chopped fresh dill to the fish. 
Stir and let the fish sit for a while for 10-15 minutes. This is quite enough. 
Place the fish lightly marinated with salt on a grate in a horizontal smokehouse with alder chips or any other chips laid on the bottom. 
Let's make a fire. 
Close the smokehouse with a lid and place on the fire for 20-30 minutes. This is quite enough, since the fish is not too large. 
When the cooking time for the fish is up, carefully open the lid. Our home-smoked fish turned out to be so beautiful, ruddy and very tasty. It's easy and simple to prepare, and best served with cold beer. 
Svetlana and my home kulinarochka2013.ru wish you all a bon appetit!
Fish and seafood
Hot smoked sea bass- amazingly tasty fish, cooked with your own hands in a home mini-smoker. You don't need any knowledge or experience to bring this simple recipe to life. You will enjoy both the process itself (especially its short duration) and the final result, the taste and aroma of which cannot be described in words.
Having at her disposal a carcass of smoked sea bass, any housewife can easily prepare not only amazing sandwiches, but a very simple and tasty salad that will amaze with its nutritional value. At the same time, the calorie content of the product is very small. Nutritionists define it at the level of 100 kilocalories per hundred grams of fresh product, and if it is smoked, the calorie content is reduced to 88 kilocalories, which allows smoked perch meat to be consumed even by those people who are actively involved in calculating the energy value of products. In this case, the predominant component is proteins.
Smoked red sea bass is not only a very tasty fish, but also an excellent dietary product. Eating the meat of this type of fish has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the organs and systems of the human body, especially the vulnerable thyroid gland. Taurine contained in sea bass meat is of great benefit, since it is this vitamin that promotes active cell growth and rapid tissue regeneration.
Attention should be paid to such an important fact as cutting sea bass at home, which does not pose any difficulties at all - the fish arrives on the shelves of our stores in the form of a finished carcass, most often frozen.
We will be happy to share the secret of how to smoke hot-smoked red sea bass at home with chefs of various levels in a detailed recipe with step-by-step photos. Once again you will see that preparing unique and impeccable delicacies is very simple.
Preparing an amazing delicacy from red snapper meat does not take much time. If the perch arrives at your table frozen, allow it to thaw naturally. In order to preserve its quality, defrost only in the refrigerator, placing the carcasses in one layer in a deep bowl tightly covered with cling film. This will protect the fish from chapping.
Let's proceed to the very first and simplest step of preparing this dish: Rinse the fish carcass in running water and dry it with paper towels before salting.
Place a few handfuls of regular salt on a plate and then roll the fish carcass over it. A little salt should be placed inside each red snapper. Let the fish sit in salt for several hours at room temperature. Protect it from dust, insects and direct sunlight.
As soon as the salt is well dissolved on the surface of the fish, rinse the carcasses in running water and dry, wiping with paper towels. Fish prepared for smoking should look like in the photo.
Carefully place the fish on the smoker grates as shown in the photo. Carcasses should not touch each other.
For seven carcasses you need to install both levels of the smokehouse. Don’t worry – there won’t be a lot of fish, don’t let the unit run idle.
This is what a mini smokehouse looks like, assembled into two levels. Once you are sure that the fish will feel comfortable, set the grates aside for a while.
Light the fire, let the charcoal burn in the firebox, and then carefully place it in the pan. After this, place a sawdust tray on top of the fire, into which pour a generous handful of alder chips. Pour boiling water into the water seal bowl, and then put the grates with the perch carcasses back in place. The mobile smokehouse is ready for use - cover it with the lid. Now watch the thermometer reading: as soon as the hand reaches 90 degrees Celsius, start counting the time.
After forty minutes, open the smoker, then add some shavings and admire the appearance of the perch. If desired, you can turn the carcasses over to the other side. Close the smokehouse and wait.
After the next half hour, the hot smoked sea bass will be completely ready.
In order to take a sample from a fragrant fish delicacy, it must be cooled to a cold state. This will take three to four hours. During this time, the fish will be saturated with smoke and take on the appearance as in the photo. Using a sharp knife, separate the fillet from the bones and skin, and then cut it into portions. And if you were preparing fish for beer, then simply cut the carcasses crosswise into thin pieces, leaving both the skin and the backbone - it will be much tastier. Hot smoked sea bass is ready.
Bon appetit!
