A Detailed Guide to Fish Smoking and Roasting Methods and Techniques

1. Smoked fish. The raw materials for smoked fish are mostly medium-sized fish such as black carp and grass carp, but carp, silver carp, pomfret and other fish can also be used. Through processing, they are made into tasty convenience foods. The production method is as follows:

① Splitting and cutting. After selecting the fish, wash them clean with water, scrape off the scales, trim off the fins, slit open the belly, and remove the internal organs. But do not puncture the gallbladder, to avoid making the flesh bitter. Then use a cloth rinsed in hot water to wipe away the blood stains, black membrane and so on inside the abdominal cavity. Next, cut open the fish head so that the fish body becomes a flat piece. For larger black carp, after removing the head, the dressed body can be split along the backbone into two fillets. It can also be cut into fish chunks of suitable length.

② Soaking. The ingredients are refined salt and soy sauce. For 100 kg of fish chunks, add 3 kg of soy sauce and 1.5 kg of refined salt. Soaking time: 1.5-2 hours in summer, 2-3 hours in winter. To reduce the fishy smell of freshwater fish, you can first put an appropriate amount of ginger slices into the soy sauce, boil and filter it, add salt, let it cool, then soak and drain off the water before frying.

③ Deep-frying. Add oil to the wok at 10 times the amount of fish to be fried. For example, if 4 kg of fish chunks are fried per batch, then 40 kg of oil is needed. Fry over high heat, with the oil temperature required to be around 200°C. When the fish chunks float up, stir and shake them apart to avoid sticking together. Fry until the fish chunks are firm and dark brown; generally about 3 minutes is enough, then scoop them out and drain the oil.

④ Seasoning. The seasoning liquid ingredients per 100 kg of fish are 6 kg of white sugar, 3 kg of yellow rice wine, 2 kg of ginger, and 20 g of monosodium glutamate. Preparation method: wash and mash the ginger, and squeeze out the ginger juice; put the white sugar in a small amount of water and boil until melted, then add the yellow rice wine, ginger juice and monosodium glutamate and stir evenly. Then put the fried fish chunks into the seasoning liquid, and after they absorb the flavor, scoop them out and drain them, and they are ready for market. Alternatively, the fish chunks that have absorbed the flavor and been drained can be arranged on a steaming rack. Spread a layer of wood shavings, rice or white sugar on the bottom of an iron wok, cover with the lid, and heat the wok over an open flame so that it carbonizes and produces smoke to color the fish chunks; the operation method is similar to smoking meat.

2. Roasted fish. Roasted fish mostly uses small hairtail or small miscellaneous fish as raw materials, and through processing they become a side food that is lightly salted, aromatic and tasty, and convenient to eat. The processing method is as follows:

① Raw material handling. Choose fresh marine or freshwater small miscellaneous fish with complete body shapes, and remove the heads, tails and internal organs. If it is small hairtail, it should be cut into strips about 6 cm long, while small miscellaneous fish are best kept whole after removing the heads. After washing with clean water, soak in brine at a concentration of 8%-10% for 5 minutes, then drain off the water.

② Seasoning preparation. The aroma of fragrant roasted fish mainly comes from the blending of various spices. The formula is: 100 kg of cleaned fish, 400 g of fennel, 5 kg of white sugar, 300 g of cassia bark, 6 kg of soy sauce, 400 g of Sichuan pepper, 3 kg of refined salt, 300 g of ginger slices, 3 kg of yellow rice wine, and 24 kg of clean water.

Preparation method: first wash and crush ingredients such as fennel, add them to clean water and boil for 1-1.5 hours, then filter and take out the solution, and put the filter residue into an appropriate amount of clean water again for a second boiling, filter out the second solution, and combine the two solutions. Finally add the white sugar, soy sauce, refined salt, yellow rice wine and so on and stir to dissolve.

③ Steaming and roasting. Spread the prepared fish chunks flat on a wire rack or bamboo sieve, and place them in a steamer to steam until cooked. Then move them into a drying room at 80°C for roasting for 7-8 hours. After the fish pieces are 60%-70% dry, take them out and put them into the spice solution to soak for 30-40 minutes, stirring constantly so that they absorb the seasoning evenly. Then put them into the drying room again for a second roasting for about 4 hours, and after they are 90% dry, they are delicious fragrant roasted fish. For convenience of consumption, the finished product can be packed in small plastic food packaging bags at 250 g each and is then ready for market.