Salted Anchovies
1 hour Recipe Yield:
500 g Difficulty:
Medium recipe
Salted anchovies - a recipe for Italian cuisine, everyone knows and loves salted anchovies, from which a lot of dishes are prepared. They can be easily prepared at home, and most importantly, during fermentation, you will not feel the unpleasant smell of fish. If you use other small fish, the smell will not be pleasant. It is better to buy anchovies for pickling in the spring, since fish after winter does not have a large amount of fat, and it is the fat that gives that unpleasant smell. The only unpleasant moment is that after cutting the fish, it becomes twice as small. You can keep fish in brine for a very, very long time and remove it from the salt as you use it. The longer the anchovies ferment, the more tender they will be and they will practically melt when cooked.
Cooking Recipe
The recipe for salted anchovies is very simple. First you need to prepare a brine from cold water and salt. You need to keep the fish in this brine while you process it. Remove the head and entrails from the anchovies. Pour a thick layer of salt into a ceramic or glass bowl and place a layer of prepared fish without the head. Cover a layer of fish with salt, place the next layer of fish on top, cover with salt and so on until the end of the fish. Finish with a thick layer of salt. Place a ceramic plate on top and place a weight weighing approximately 4 kg.
The next day, a brown sauce will appear on the surface of the salt, and the salt will gradually rise along the walls of the dish. The salt will need to be returned, and if there is not enough liquid, add a small amount of brine. Ferment anchovies for three to six months; the longer you keep the anchovies in salt, the more tender they will be afterwards. Remove salt from the finished anchovies, rinse them in a weak brine, remove the backbone and peel and place them in glass jars.
Now the anchovies need to be poured with olive oil. The amount of oil depends on the density of the anchovies. Close the jars of anchovies tightly with a lid and place in the refrigerator. In this form, anchovies can be stored for a very long time, up to a year. During this time, the oil soaks salted anchovies, and the anchovies, on the contrary, soak into the oil, so both can be used in cooking.