Incredibly Delicious Sprats from Whitebait
Enthusiastic anglers can share hundreds of fish recipes, from traditional fish soup to stuffed pike. We will discuss a product called sprats, for which you'll need to buy an autoclave from our store for home preparation.
Due to the adverse environmental situation, water resources are depleting. This also affects the production of canned goods. In a can of sprats, you can often find small fish such as herring, anchovies, fry, sardines, or Caspian sprat.
An autoclave for canning is an essential component in any kitchen, allowing you to prepare and, most importantly, properly preserve any product without exposure to air.
So, we will need the raw material - sprats are usually made from sardines, but advanced anglers prefer a more suitable substitute - whitebait or bleak.
Whitebait is a fish with a light belly and nearly straight gray-blue back. Its body is not very long but elongated, with compressed sides. The tail ends with a large dark fin with a deep notch. The color of the scales is metallic, with a mirror shine.
Whitebait is quite similar to sardines, but it has more tender meat and a higher quality fat layer. It is relatively easy to catch in certain latitudes using the appropriate fishing gear - one trip can yield up to 5-6 kg of fish.
Main Stages of Preparing Sprats from Whitebait
Using an autoclave, you can prepare tasty and tender sprats from whitebait that rival the famous Riga sprats in flavor. What should you start with? First of all - gutting the fish and completely removing the head.
Sprats in oil are canned smoked fish. For their preparation, fresh or frozen fish sized from 7 to 12 cm is chosen. Types of fish used for making sprats include Baltic sprat, sardine, Caspian sprat, white sea and Atlantic herring, and European anchovy.
At this stage, scales are not removed for the intermediate smoking process. The fish are rinsed with water and the tails are hung on bamboo sticks across the width of the smoker. They should hang in a well-ventilated area for at least a couple of hours to dry slightly.
Using a hot smoker loaded with alder or birch chips, start smoking the fish for about half an hour. The temperature during this process can range quite widely from 40 to 60 degrees Celsius - this parameter depends on the size of the fish and the duration of preliminary drying.
Remove the sticks with fish again and place them in a well-ventilated area for 1-2 hours. Prepare jars - clean glass jars of 250 or 500 ml volume, placing a couple of peppercorns at the bottom.
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The fish is packed tightly almost to the top of the jars, and the following is added on top:
- 1 teaspoon of salt,
- bay leaf,
- a little garlic,
- sunflower oil, which should completely cover the fish.
The amount of sunflower oil depends on how tightly the fish is packed in the jars and the volume of the jars. Usually, 20 to 40 grams of oil is sufficient. The jars are sealed with lids and shaken a bit to mix the oil, salt, and spices.
The jars are placed in an autoclave, where the temperature is set between 105-115°C and the pressure at about four atmospheres. At 100 degrees Celsius, the sprats cook for about an hour, at 115 degrees Celsius - 40-45 minutes. You can try both methods - the taste is almost indistinguishable.
Store the finished sprats in a dry and cool place. The finished product will be appreciated even by true gourmets. It is an ideal snack for any festive table that you can now enjoy any day.
Also read:
- Crucian Carp in an Autoclave
- Pike in an Autoclave
- Silver Carp in an Autoclave
- Bullheads in an Autoclave
