Шпроты - рыбка длиной не более 12 сантиметров и weighing about 15 grams, belonging to the herring family. She lives in the Baltic Sea, in small quantities found in the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
From this fish for many years make canned food, whichcalled "Sprats". Currently, for the preparation of canned food using different small fish. We eat sprats from herring, sprat, kilka, etc. And only at the Baltic fish factories are traditionally prepared "Sprats" from the corresponding fish.
Due to the unique technology that does not change over the years, canned food retains its original taste, regardless of the variety of fish.
Random find (workers repairing oldthe buildings found unused packages for sprats) suggests that sprats (canned food) were produced in Riga from 1890 on Malaya Molochnaya Street by the firm "Maurice and Co". Canned food was recommended to be used chilled (this was indicated on the label), and they were called "Tsar's sprats".
Fish in canned fit in different ways. It depends on the time of year when she was caught. In winter, the fish is laid back up, and in the summer - belly up.
The summer fish is fatter, in warm water it moves little, the back during cooking it cracks.
There is a monument to the sprats: a fish jumps out of a bronze can. The monument was opened in 2008 in Mamonovo, where there is a large plant for the production of canned fish.
Canned fish is thoroughly washed, removedhead, placed in rows on a special baking sheet and sent to the smokehouse for three hours. Next, the fish tightly placed in jars, pour oil, seasoned with salt and pepper. Banks are sealed and sterilized.
Important:real sprats are prepared only with the use of vegetable oil, salt and pepper. No other additives and spices are allowed, if they are indicated on the sprat jar, then most likely the fish in them are of poor quality.
Recently, some manufacturerssave on smoked fish. Prepared carcasses are simply treated with chemical “liquid smoke”, which saves the manufacturer’s money, but is extremely unhealthy for the health of the consumer.
In order to be confident in the quality of the fish and the way of smoking, you can make homemade sprat from the Baltic herring.
Cooking sprats for the proposed recipe -the process is simple and available to any hostess. Tea and onion peels are used as a substitute for “liquid smoke”. Sprat from herring, photos of which are presented below, are prepared from the following products:
Rinse onion peel, pour 2 cups of water and boil for 15-20 minutes. Cool and strain broth.
Tea brew in 2 cups of water, cool, strain.
Defrost, wash, decapitate, and gut fish.
Lay the fish tightly in a heat-resistant dish with a thick bottom. Sprat laid back up, as in canned food.
Sprinkle the fish with pepper (peas) and bay leaf, add oil. Everything is gently pushed-poklonnyat so that the oil fill penetrated between the carcasses of the fish.
Mix the tea, infusion of onion peel, add salt. Stir everything well until the salt crystals are completely dissolved.
The resulting salt solution pour fish.
Put the sprat in the oven heated to 150 degrees, bake at the same temperature until the solution boils, reduce the fire, reduce the temperature to 120 degrees, cook for about 2 hours.
Then let the dish cool, and only then remove the ready sprat.
The recipe can be changed to your taste:
If you are not interested in messing with onion peel, tea and oven, and you want to cook sprat from herring at home, use the following recipe.
Products:
Thaw the fish, rinse well,behead, gut. Put the Baltic herring into a saucepan with a thick bottom, add salt, sprinkle with pepper, sugar, put bay leaf, pour in vinegar and sunflower oil. Pour the contents of the pan with water so that the fish is half in the water.
Cover the pot with a lid and put on a slow fire. Cooking time is approximately 2 hours. Then remove the pan from the heat, cool completely, remove the ready sprats.
To speed up the cooking process, you can use a pressure cooker or a slow cooker, in this case the fish will be cooked in 1 hour.
The original recipe for sprat from herring involves the use of soy sauce. The dish is cooked on the stove and marinated for a day.
Required products:
Defrost the fish, rinse thoroughly, decapitate, gut, fold into a saucepan with a thick bottom or cauldron, pour soy sauce.
Tea brew mixed with butter, put sugar, salt and bay leaf. Mix everything well.
Pour the mixture into the fish.
Put the pot on the fire, close the lid and simmer for 1 hour.
Do not turn the fish and do not remove. Pot with fish put in the fridge for a day. Then sprats can be removed and served. Delicious treat is ready.
The proposed recipe allows you to cook sprats from the Baltic herring (small), capelin, skovodki, sprat and other small fish.
Required ingredients:
Defrost fish, thoroughly wash, gut, remove heads and fins.
Onions clean, wash, cut into rings.
Lay a layer of onion on the bottom of the cauldron, put a layer of fish on top, then a layer of onion, a layer of fish, etc. Put a bay leaf, parsley root, cloves, black peppercorns between the layers on the fish.
Dilute vinegar in a glass of water.
Mix diluted vinegar with sunflower oil and salt.
Pour the mixture into the fish, close the cauldron and put it on a small fire. Dish cook 1.5 hours.
To taste sprats are not inferior to canned store.
Sprat from herring, capelin, sprat and other smallFish easy to cook at home. The recipes given above do not require special skills, exotic products and a lot of time. But, following them, even an inexperienced hostess will be able to prepare a delicacy that will be no worse than canned sprats. And the usefulness of the dish will not cause doubts: sprat from herring is always fresh and does not contain harmful impurities at home.
Cook with love, please yourself and your loved ones.
Bon Appetit!
