Dried catfish is a real delicacy that is not embarrassing to serve even at the holiday table. Balyk is made from it, dried in steaks or strips, small catfish - whole. In this form, the fish is not only tasty, but can also be stored for a long time. Most often, cooks have to deal with specimens weighing from 3 to 5 kg. For drying, you need fresh catfish that has not been frozen, ideally caught with your own hands. The process of preparing a homemade delicacy is not quick or easy, so it doesn’t hurt to be patient and have information on how to dry catfish.

Balyk

Method 1
Remove the entrails from the catfish, but so as not to touch the gallbladder. Cut off the tail at the level of the anus. Cut into carcass (belly), back (balyk) and layer (the part closer to the tail). Cut the tail part into pieces 6 cm thick. For salting, prepare enamel dishes; if you don’t have one, you can line any with food-grade polyethylene, so that you can then wrap the fish on top. Sprinkle all parts with salt. For 10 kg of fish you will need approximately 1.5 kg of coarse salt. Place the top and the end of the tail on top, sprinkle with salt, and put pressure on it. Place the container with fish in the refrigerator for three days. Then remove the catfish pieces from the salt and soak them in water for about two hours.

Dry the fish and hang it to dry in a ventilated, dry place for three days.

After three days, the dried catfish should dry out. Remove the pieces of fish, wrap each piece in a separate cloth or piece of foil and put it in the refrigerator. You can try catfish no earlier than two weeks later.

It is important not to dry out the fish

Method 2
Cut the fish into balyk and tesha. Place a layer of salt about three centimeters thick at the bottom of the container. Rinse the balyks in running water, rub with salt and place in a salting dish with their backs facing down. The amount of salt should be about 40% of the weight of the fish. You can put crushed ice on top. Salt the meat separately.

After 36 hours, pour cold brine over the fish and leave for 15-30 days, depending on the air temperature and the size of the fish carcasses. Then wash them in brine and dry for three days in the cold.

To prevent salt deposits on the balyk, they are soaked in water at a temperature of 4 degrees. Soaking time is from 5 hours to two days. Next, the pieces are tied with twine and hung for two to three days to drain. The balyks are then placed on hooks under a canopy and dried for 10-30 days, depending on humidity and temperature. In winter, the drying process is longer - up to 45 days.

You can determine the readiness of the balyk by its elastic, light yellow flesh. The fish should have a pleasant smell.

Store prepared dried catfish in wooden boxes on parchment in a well-ventilated area at 10 degrees and air humidity of about 75% for no longer than 3 months.

Steaks

This option is suitable for withering a large specimen. For a catfish weighing 20 kg, you will need 5 kg of coarse salt. Fine salt is not suitable for pickling.

Preparation procedure:

1. Clean the fish carcass from scales, scrape off the mucus, cut off the head and tail, remove the entrails and rinse well in water.
2. Cut the carcass crosswise into pieces 3 cm thick.
3. Roll the steaks in salt and place in a bowl. Sprinkle another layer of salt on top, cover the container and put it in a cool place for three days.
4. Then rinse each steak with water and dry with a napkin.
5. Place pieces of fish on paper clips and hang on a rope in a ventilated place for a day or two.
6. Remove the steaks, wrap each piece separately in thick cloth napkins and refrigerate for two days.

The dry-cured steaks are now ready to eat. They can be wrapped in foil and stored in the refrigerator.

Recipe for dried straws

Dried catfish straws will appeal to all beer lovers. A three-kilogram catfish is suitable for its preparation.

Ideally, to prepare dried catfish straws, you need a special dryer, but at home you can replace it with a dryer for fruits and vegetables, which many households have.

Preparation procedure:

1. Clean the catfish carcass, gut it and wash it.
2. Remove the fillet from each side of the fish, remove large bones from the flesh with tweezers, and cut off the skin with a sharp knife.
3. Cut the catfish fillet into thin strips along the grain, taking into account that the strips will become thinner during drying. It is optimal to cut them about 1 cm thick.
4. Boil water in a separate bowl, put salt in it, stir so that it dissolves faster. The ratio of water and salt is 1:1.11.
5. Immerse the prepared fish strips in the resulting solution and put it in the refrigerator for a day.
6. Drain the brine, place the fish strips on a cloth and dry.
7. Now the straw blanks need to be withered. To do this, place them in the dryer and keep them in it for three to four hours at a temperature of 120ᵅC.
8. Cool the workpieces and turn on the dryer again for 1-2 hours.
9. Now the straw is ready for use. To store, put it in bags or wrap it in foil and put it in the refrigerator.

Dried catfish straws should be dense in consistency, moderately salty and have a beautiful amber hue

When cutting catfish for drying, the skin and excess fat must be removed.

Some lovers of dried catfish recommend adding granulated sugar to the salt: for 5 heaped tablespoons of salt - 1.5 heaped tablespoons of granulated sugar.

In addition to salt, when salting, you can add black peppercorns, coriander peas and a little cumin (on the tip of a knife).

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Dried catfish

Tasty and tender catfish meat is suitable for any culinary delight. And even old large catfish are sometimes eaten, despite the persistent smell of mud. For example, from a large catfish weighing over 10-20 kilograms, you can prepare a dried delicacy that will be an excellent addition to a glass of foamy beer or just a hearty dinner. Recipes for dried catfish are different: it is baled or whole small catfish are dried, but we chose two of the most unusual: catfish dried in steaks and catfish strips.

Catfish dried in steaks

This recipe for dried catfish is perfect if you don't know what to do with a catch that is too large and doesn't do well in frying or fish soup. So, let's take:

• catfish carcass weighing 20-25 kilograms,
• coarse salt - approximately 5-7 kilograms.

• Number of servings: 20-25;
• Preparation time: several days.

We scrape the carcass from mucus and scales, cut off the head and tail fin. After this, we gut and rinse the entrails with cold water. Now comes the time of slicing: we cut the catfish crosswise into steaks about 2-2.5 centimeters thick. Roll each steak generously in coarse salt and place in a container. Add another layer of salt on top, cover the fish with film and send it to cool for salting. Let it sit in the refrigerator for three days.

Then we wash the catfish for about half an hour under the tap. Dry in napkins or paper towels so that excess moisture comes out immediately. After this, we take paper clips and place each piece of catfish on the paper clip, like on a hook. We hang paper clips on a rope on the balcony for a day.

After drying this lightly, remove the catfish steaks from the hooks. We wrap each of them separately in canvas and send them to ripen in the refrigerator for a couple of days. After this, the dried catfish is ready, you can eat it immediately or put it in foil and store it in the refrigerator, waiting for the right opportunity.

Dried catfish straws

Catfish can be good not only in steaks. For example, it will make a favorite snack of many beer lovers - dried fish straws. Large catfish will serve as a good basis for such straws. Let's take for it:

• som - 3 kilograms,
• salt - 7 kilograms,
• water - 6 liters.

• Number of servings: 6;
• Preparation time: several days.

On an industrial scale, dried catfish straws are prepared in special dryers, where they are thoroughly blown with warm, dry air, preventing insects from accessing direct sunlight. At home, of course, it is irrational to keep such a dryer, but you can use suitable kitchen equipment, for example, a dryer for vegetables and fruits, which can now be found in many housewives.

We clean, gut and wash the catfish. Then remove the fish fillet halves from the spine and pull out the large bones with tweezers. To prepare the strips, you need to remove the skin from the fillet, so cut it off with a sharp knife. We cut the prepared fillet along the grain line into narrow strips. Don’t be too overzealous: when drying, the fillet will decrease in volume, and if you don’t want to get a cobweb instead of a straw, cut strips at least half a centimeter thick.

Separately, boil water and dissolve salt in it. Industrial production requires a 1:1.11 ratio of water and salt, but you can deviate a little from this standard. We dip our fillet strips into the prepared brine and leave them in the refrigerator to salt for about a day. Then we drain the brine and dry the pieces for the straws on a cloth.

Place catfish strips in portions in the dryer, set the temperature to about 120 degrees and dry for 3-4 hours. Then let it cool and run the dryer again for a couple of hours. Transfer the finished straws into a bag or foil and store in the refrigerator. Dried catfish straws in finished form have a beautiful amber hue, salty taste and dense consistency.

If you are a fish lover and enjoy cooking it at home, then you will be interested in how to prepare catfish balyk, which has a very delicate taste and at the same time turns out to be quite satisfying. Ready-made balyk can be stored in the refrigerator for quite a long time, and it will always help you out if unexpected guests arrive.

Catfish balyk - recipe

Before you make balyk from catfish, you need to choose a good fish, this is what the final result depends on. The catfish should be the freshest and thickest fish you can find.

Take the selected carcass, skin it, remove the peritoneum and ribs. You should only have the fillet left for salting. Cut it into pieces. Pour salt into the bottom of the dish in which you will salt the fish (it is better to use a glass or enamel utensil), place the fillet on top, then salt again, and fillet again. Alternate layers in this manner until you run out of fish.

Cover the dish with a lid and refrigerate for 3 days. Then remove the fish, rinse and hang in a well-ventilated place. Leave it for 3-4 days, but make sure that the fillet does not dry out. When the fish has dried, wrap it in foil and let it lie in a cool place for 3 days.

After this, cut the fillet into thin slices and help yourself.

Cooking fish according to this recipe will take you less time, but the taste will be just as delicious.

Cut the catfish so that only one fillet remains. Cut it into pieces 5-6 cm thick and rinse. Place the fillets, cut sides down, in a marinating bowl so that the pieces fit snugly together and sprinkle coarse salt on top. If necessary, place a second layer of fish on top and also sprinkle it with salt.

Place the container in the refrigerator for 2 days, then remove the fish, rinse and hang the pieces in a cool place for several days. After this time, your balyk will be ready.

Catfish balyk is prepared in production for several months. To prepare at home, you can use one of the two proposed recipes. Dried balyk is especially good; it can be stored in the refrigerator for a long time after cooking. The fish is fragrant with spices, translucent when cut, and has an amazingly delicate taste.

Catfish balyk is first kept in salt

• Number of servings: 5
• Preparation time: 2 minutes
• Cooking time: 1 minute

Smoked catfish

If you don’t have a smokehouse, but really want to cook smoked balyk from catfish, this original recipe will help you achieve your plan.

Preparation:

1. Grind pepper, cloves and bay leaf. Mix these spices with 3 tbsp. l. salt and 2 tbsp. l. Sahara.
2. Catfish fillet, cleaned of bones, skin and excess fat, weighing about 500 g, rub with a mixture of salt, sugar and spices, put in the refrigerator overnight or at least 2 hours. Press the lid and weight down on top of the fish.
3. Take a deep cast iron frying pan and cover it with an iron grate. Pick up a large semicircular iron lid.
4. Place foil on the bottom of the pan.
5. Place slightly damp sawdust on the foil. Instead of sawdust, you can prepare a mixture for smoking: mix 150 g of rice, 1 tbsp. l. a spoonful of loose leaf tea and 1 tbsp. l. Sahara.
6. Brush off any remaining salt from the fish piece with a paper towel. Blot away any remaining moisture.
7. Place the frying pan on the fire. When the sawdust begins to smoke, place the fish on the grill and cover with a lid.
8. Smoke catfish on low heat for 40 minutes, turning after 20 minutes to ensure even cooking.

Real smoked fish balyk is prepared using the cold smoking method, at a smoke temperature of no higher than 30 degrees. This takes from 24 to 48 hours, and it is difficult to reproduce the process at home without a special smokehouse.

How to make dried balyk from catfish fillet

This is real balyk, which is prepared using an accelerated method; after salting, it is air-dried for several days.

Products:

• som – 3 kg;
• salt – 1 kg;
• coriander – 10 g.

Preparation:

1. Gut the catfish, remove mucus to white skin, and wash well.
2. Cut off the fish's head and tail. Separate the fish fillet from the bones and skin.
3. Place the fillet in a container with coarse salt, sprinkle coriander on top, then another layer of salt.
4. Press down on top with a lid smaller in size than the pickling container, and place a weight on top.
5. Store on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator for 7 days.
6. Soak in cold water for 8 hours.
7. Hang the fillets for 3 days in a cool, ventilated area.
8. The finished balyk can be stored in food parchment in the refrigerator for 3 months or longer.

Balyk can be dried or smoked. Real dried balyk takes several months to prepare, but at home the cooking process is reduced to 10 days.

Sturgeon balyk was considered one of the most delicious fish dishes. The best was balyk, made from “blank” sturgeon (i.e. not caviar), it is fattier.

First, the abdominal cavity of the sturgeon was cut off and the organs (heart, liver, and intestines) were removed. An incision was then made in the middle of the spinal column. Having cut off the head and peritoneum, they removed the viziga (dry veins covering the spinal column) through a cut hole, washed them in water and hung them to dry. Then they tore out the glue and laid it out to dry on the boards.

The sturgeon carcass was not washed in water; it was rubbed with saltpeter and covered with salt. In the latter, the sturgeon lay for four to five days. If salted, it should be hard; if soft, then it should remain in salt for up to six or seven days. Then the balyk was soaked in water, if well salted, then for a day, and if weakly, then for twelve hours. It was important not to over-soak it. If the sturgeon was still soft, it was tied lightly in a balychnitsa and smeared with saltpeter diluted in water, from which it turned pink. In sunny weather, the balyks sang faster than in cloudy weather and had a more marketable appearance.

Cut off sturgeon and stellate sturgeon heads were salted into the root (i.e. for future use, for a long time). The cut sturgeon peritoneum, from which the meat was made, was also placed in the salt, where it remained for a day, no more than two. After which it was soaked for 8-12 hours, and then straightened with spacers and dried in balychniki. They also prepared balyk from beluga.

Balyk from sturgeon fish

Sturgeon fish species include: sturgeon, thorn, kaluga, beluga, stellate sturgeon, bester. These fish, living in natural conditions, are listed in the Red Book. At the same time, today there are many factories engaged in breeding fish, including sturgeon.

To prepare balyk from sturgeon fish, you can use frozen, chilled or live fish.

If there is live or chilled fish, before cutting it is necessary to bleed it by cutting the gills, and in beluga, in addition, make a longitudinal incision in the tail, below the anal fin. Rinse the bloodless fish, thoroughly clearing the belly of mucus, then cut the belly between the pectoral fins, not reaching 3-4 cm from the anus and avoiding cuts to the intestines. When gutting, carefully remove from the fish the eggshells or milt, fat deposits, intestines along with the anus, all other entrails, as well as the dorsal string (vizig). Rinse the gutted fish thoroughly with water until blood, mucus and other contaminants are completely removed.

If you have frozen fish, you must first defrost it in air at a temperature no higher than 20 degrees C or in water at a temperature no higher than 15 degrees C. There should be five times more water than fish. The fish prepared as indicated above must be cut, depending on the type and size, into sides, backs and sides.
** Salting sturgeon:
Pour a layer of salt 1-2 cm high at the bottom of the salting container, then lay the fish in tight, even rows, skin side down, sprinkling each layer of fish with a 1 cm layer of salt. After a day, pour all this with cold brine at the rate of 100 grams of salt per 8 liters of water. The fish should be completely covered with brine. Approximately, fish should remain in brine for 4 to 7 days. We take the fish out of the brine and wash it thoroughly in a saline solution prepared at the rate of 100 grams of salt per 5 liters of water. After washing, it is necessary to keep the fish in the air to equalize the salinity. This process will take 2-3 days.

Now the fish needs to be tied or stitched. When hanging the fish with twine, tie and sew the fish (backs) or just sew it (sides, sides) with twine, while making a loop for hanging the fish on slats (poles, ramrods). Now the future balyk needs to be dried under natural conditions, in the open air. In warm weather this will take from 1 to 2 days, in colder times of the year from 2 to 4 days.

Now all that remains is to smoke our balyk. The approximate time the fish spends in the smokehouse is from 30 to 40 hours. During the initial period of smoking, the temperature should be no more than 23 degrees C. By the end of smoking, the temperature should increase to 30 degrees C. Ready sturgeon balyk can be stored at a temperature of 0 - 2 degrees C for 45 days.

Balyk from carp

Balyk was prepared from carp somewhat differently than from sturgeon. They also cut across the back, took out the spinal column, took away the head, and dipped the carcass itself into boiling strong brine on the count: One, two, three?. Then the fish were hung on runners to dry. These balyks were not sold; they were eaten only by the owners themselves.

Balyk, or salted and dried meat, is an excellent snack for beer, a nutritious camp meal, and simply a very tasty dish. For balyk, chefs advise using large fish, weighing more than 5 kilograms. So, balyk made from catfish, carp, and carp is good. But it is best to use large carp for such a delicacy. Why? - you ask. There are several reasons for this: firstly, the carp is not too bony, unlike its “relative” carp, which means you don’t have to painstakingly select bones from the future balyk with tweezers. Secondly, carp, even the largest, practically does not pick up the smell of mud. Well, thirdly, carp meat is very tasty and there is a lot of it. Convinced? Then we prepare balyk from carp!

The secret to getting a tasty balyk is in the correct cutting of the fish. For balyk we need to separate the fillet. We start by cutting off the head and tail fin, removing the fins and entrails. After this, we thoroughly rinse the carp from the inside, removing the remaining entrails, blood and films from the abdominal cavity. Using a sharp knife, make an incision along the back of the fish. Then we carefully layer the fish from the tail to the belly, separating the ridge. Using a hatchet or sharp knife, trim the ribs and leave them in the fillet.

Now the future balyk from carp needs to be cut so that the fish is well salted and tasty. The optimal cutting for large fish is as follows: carefully cut off the back of each fillet half and cut crosswise into pieces of 2-3 centimeters. We cut the belly along the ribs and roll it into rolls. That's it, the fish is cut up and ready to be turned into a delicious, aromatic balyk!

To prepare balyk from carp at home, in addition to fish, we will need:

coarse salt (sea salt is best),
spices for fish - of your choice,
pickling container,
oppression,
nylon thread,
gauze.

The first stage of preparing balyk is salting. It is best to salt carp in a dry way. Place a layer of fish in a salting container and sprinkle with a handful of salt. If you want to make the taste of balyk a little sweeter, add sugar to the salt in a ratio of 4 to one (for 4 tablespoons of salt - 1 spoon of sugar). Sprinkle the fish pieces with spices. After this, place the next layer of fish and again sprinkle with salt and spices. Place the salted fish under pressure in the refrigerator for 3 days. During this time, it must be stirred at least 2-3 times.

After three days, the salted carp is ready for the second stage - washing and soaking. First, wash each piece of fish in running water. Let's try it: if the salt in the taste is strong enough, soak the fish for a couple of hours in cold water - it will draw out the excess salt. We take out the soaked pieces and dry them on a towel.

And now, the last stage is approaching: carp balyk needs to be dried at home. We string pieces of balyk onto a nylon thread and hang it in a cool, dry place where fresh air can be provided - on a glazed balcony, loggia, in a ventilated basement, cellar or pantry. If you make balyk in the summer, it is better to additionally wrap it in gauze to protect it from flies and other insects. In the meantime, while the balyk is drying, you can have time to go fishing again, or at least read about new ways of fishing on the main page of our website. It takes two days to dry the balyk, after which we remove it, wrap it in parchment or natural fabric and send it to ripen in the refrigerator.

The finished balyk turns out tender, soft, and guests and household members will surely like it.

Catfish balyk

We gut the catfish without touching the gall bladder, cut off the tail at the level of the anus, cut off the peritoneum, going onto the sides, this will be a treat. We cut the tail like sausage, in pieces of about six centimeters, this is actually balyk.

Salt in enamel or stainless steel containers. If there is none, you can cover any with a piece of plastic film, preferably one that is intended for packaging food. Polyethylene is better with a margin of size.

We lay them in tight rows with the cuts up and down, sprinkling the pieces of tail with salt, approximately at the rate of 1.5 kg of salt per 10 kg of fish. If cut carefully, it can be packed very tightly. We lay all these layers on top with a mahalla (end of the tail) and pieces of meat, skin side up. Flat pieces, naturally, are also salted. Sprinkle everything on top with salt, press down with pressure, if it’s polyethylene, wrap the pieces up.

Coarse salt, regular salt is fine, but in no case extra salt. finely ground. The coarser the grind, the better. The best one is the one that is transported by barges from Baskunchak. In warm weather, it is better to keep the jug in the refrigerator, when it gets colder - on the balcony, whoever has what options.

We keep the fish in brine (brine), if necessary, we take out as much as necessary, wash it thoroughly under running water, and scrape the skin with a dull knife. We hang the pieces for a day or two. Once the skin has hardened, everything is ready; there is no point in drying it any further.

We use the back for cutlets, pies, etc., including hot smoking. When cutting, we use the hinges that the catfish has. Having the skill, a half-centner catfish can be cut with a pocketknife. Wash the fish only before drying; before cutting, you can only scrape it lightly; anyway, all the mucus will appear only after salting.

The fish does not lose quality for six months, until the next season.