The aromatic and tasty fish taranka (ram, ram) from the carp family has always been popular in the south of Russia and Ukraine - it was dried and served with beer. Subsequently, any dried fish, such as roach and roach, began to be called ram. Dried taranka was the most accessible and cheapest snack in Rus', so it was very popular. All residents of Kuban and the Azov region know how to make ram: first, the fish is salted and then dried, as a result of which it acquires a special spicy taste and aroma. You won't find a better snack to go with beer!

How to cook ram: selecting and processing fish

Since ram is now called any dried meat, for this dish you can take not only ram, roach or roach. Other varieties of fish are also suitable - bream, white bream, saberfish, pike, crucian carp, rudd, ruff and gudgeon. Very tasty ram is obtained from blue bream, silver bream, whitefish, womer, perch and goby. The fish should be of medium fat content and small in size, otherwise it will not be salted and will spoil. The fattest fish are bream, vomer and sabrefish have a medium fat content, ruff is very tender and has few bones, dried perch is sweetish, and pike is richly tart and piquant.

It is not necessary to process the fish in a special way to salt the ram - it is enough to rinse it well and remove the entrails if the fish is small. Some gourmets like ungutted ram - everyone has their own tastes. However, in the summer, when the inhabitants of rivers and lakes feed on greens and microorganisms, it is better to gut even small fish, otherwise an unpleasant odor will appear during the drying process, and the taste of such ram will be bitter. By the way, it is also better to remove the gills - they can ruin the taste of the fish. How to salt the ram if you still decide to leave the insides? To do this, before salting, pour a saturated salt solution into the throat of the fish - for this reason, many people prefer to salt the ram live. The fish opens its mouth and swallows the brine, which makes it possible to properly salt the internal organs.

First, the fish is salted and then dried. How to pickle taranka at home? There are different recipes for salting ram, but usually they use two methods - wet and dry. The wet method is suitable for small fish, the dry method is suitable for large fish weighing more than 1 kg.

Wet salting of fish

According to this recipe, the ram is salted in a fairly concentrated brine, and the degree of salt concentration is checked with a raw egg - it should float to the surface. A strong solution for salting fish is called brine, and the fish is kept in it for about 3-4 days, and so that it does not float and is salted evenly, it is covered with a metal mesh on top or a grate is placed on which a weight is placed. The bucket, basin or pan where the ram is salted should be placed in a cold place so that the fish does not spoil. For wet salting, fish weighing less than 0.5 kg is usually taken. In general, the question of how much to salt the ram depends on the size of the fish - the larger it is, the longer the salting process will be.

After this, the salted fish is washed well and soaked in fresh water - small fish for 30 minutes, and large fish for several hours. In this case, it is recommended to change the water several times, and after the first change of water, let the fish lie in the air, come to its senses and allow the salt to be evenly distributed in the tissues. Then you can put it in the water again, and when the fish starts to float, the soaking process can be considered complete. Don't worry about how to salt the ram without oversalting it - it is believed that it will absorb as much salt as needed. Salted and soaked fish becomes slightly transparent and acquires a light amber hue.

How to make taranka correctly: dry salting method

First, rub the fish well with salt, pour salt into the belly, into the cut on the back and into the gills, if you decide not to remove them. The carcass is pierced with a fork or knife and salt is rubbed into the holes. Pour about 0.5 cm of salt into a large stainless steel metal dish, place the ram in dense rows with the back facing down and sprinkle generously with salt on top to create a real salt layer 1 cm thick. For 1 kg of fish, approximately 250 g of salt are required.

Make another layer, and then place a plate smaller than a pan or a wooden board on top - this is necessary to provide fresh air to the fish. Place a pressure on the lid and put the fish in a cold place, such as a refrigerator, cellar or balcony. At the same time, make sure that the fish does not get exposed to sunlight. By the way, at first it is better to apply a little pressure, after about 6-7 hours you can increase it - this way the fish will be salted evenly. It is interesting that in Rus', in villages, fish was salted in a wooden box with holes, which was placed in a spacious container.

During the salting process, liquid is formed that will have to be drained, and the salting time depends on the size of the battering ram. A fish weighing up to 100 g is salted for 1-2 days, a medium-sized fish weighing 600-800 g is enough for 3-4 days, and large fish will need from 5 to 14 days until completely salted. As soon as the ram stops releasing juice, it is ready, but first it should be washed well and soaked in cold water for 2 hours, then kept in vinegar water for an hour - take about 50 ml of vinegar per bucket of water. This is done to prevent the proliferation of pathogenic microorganisms, which cause the ram to deteriorate very quickly.

How to dry ram correctly

Make a double thread and string the fish on it at a distance of at least 7 cm from each other, passing it through the eyes so that the valuable fat and brine do not flow out through the mouth, but remain inside. Some fishermen dry the ram on hooks, and place the small fish on a wooden surface and turn it over as it dries. This kind of ram turns out to be especially tasty, tender and rich. Fish “garlands” should be hung in a well-ventilated place, but in the shade - in the attic or on the balcony, making sure there are no insects. By the way, soaking in vinegar water is a reliable preventive measure against flies, because the smell of vinegar repels them. If flies land on your fish, it is best to discard it immediately as they may lay eggs on it. For more reliable protection against insects, it is better to put together a special box for drying fish and cover it with a fine mesh.

Many people dry fish in Isidri dryers - in this case, you need to slightly open the ram's gills (if they have not been removed), trim the belly and secure it in the open form with toothpicks.

After 3 days it can be considered dried. If you want dried ram, wait 2 weeks. Properly dried ram is neither soft nor hard, has a pleasant taste and smell, has a reddish-amber hue without yellow spots, and glows slightly in the light. Fish salted wet becomes more juicy after drying, while salting without water produces drier fish.

How to make ram delicious: secrets of gourmets

• For salting, use coarse salt, which has the ability to draw moisture from the fish. The less liquid there is in the fish, the faster it will dry out and be more tasty. In addition, fine salt forms a crust on the surface of the carcass and prevents the fish from becoming salty.
• Adding a small amount of sugar to the brine makes the fish very tender, piquant and tasty.
• How much weight should be pressed when salting? Typically a weight of 3-20 kg is placed, depending on the size of the fish and personal preference. If you salt fish in the summer, cover it with cloth or gauze to prevent insects from getting inside.
• If you want the fish to dry well, cut it slightly after salting. This applies mainly to large fish, because small fish dry out much faster.
• During dry salting, many housewives drain the brine from a pan or bucket manually, which is not very convenient. The ideal option is to drill holes in the bottom of the dish, and then the liquid will drain on its own. Then this dish can always be used for salting fish.
• If you dry out the ram, moisten it with water and wrap it in parchment for 2 days, periodically moistening the fish. Fish that is too dry can be ground to the consistency of flour and sprinkled on salads, soups and main courses.

We store the battering ram correctly

Dried taranka can be stored for up to 4 months if it is prepared according to all the rules. You can put it in layers in sterilized jars, roll up the lid and put it in the cellar - this way it will remain fresh for up to 10 months. Often the fish is kept in a basket, bag, or wrapped in parchment paper, but dried fish only feels good in a cool place in a plastic bag or foil, and it has a shorter shelf life. In the refrigerator, the ram is stored in the freshness zone - for this, the fish is greased with olive oil and placed in glass jars. You should not keep salted fish in the air for a long time, because fish oil oxidizes and the ram acquires a not very pleasant taste. At low humidity, the fish becomes moldy, at high humidity it dries out, so ideal storage conditions are 80% humidity and a temperature of 3-8 °C. In kraft paper, covered with polyethylene on one side, the batter is stored for 8-10 months.

Taranka is a completely dietary and very healthy product, containing protein, valuable fish oil, iodine, chromium and many other useful substances. Dried fish protein ensures proper metabolism, and omega-3 fatty acids protect against cancer, stroke and heart attack. Taranka makes incredibly tasty soups and snacks. If you consider that the calorie content of taranka is only 88 calories, you can afford to eat it every day without fear for your figure!

My father-in-law is a professional in winter fishing, it’s not just his hobby, rather it’s part of his life. You can talk with him about fishing for hours; in addition to conversations, he supplies all relatives with various freshwater fish. We, of course, are very happy about this, so we had to learn how to salt it.

Not all fish are suitable for ramming; ideally these are small bream or roach, rudd, etc. My chief taster is solely responsible for salting fish and cutting meat in my house. Therefore, how much he oversalted it over the 12 years of marriage only God knows, but how much fish did not turn out, and it was oversalted or overdried, you can’t even tell. Every time the fish didn't work out, we wondered. How to properly salt taranka at home? Only years later, my other half found the real secret of pickling. And what do you think it is? The secret to a perfect ram is frost. Ideal salting is achieved by salting the fish and letting it stand in the cold, preferably even in the cold. And it doesn’t matter whether you gut it, worms and all sorts of nasty things won’t grow in it. If the fish is not gutted, it will be juicier and even tastier. It is not necessary to put salted fish under a press; the press simply speeds up the salting process and reduces the time from three days to two. This does not affect the taste in any way.

For pickling you only need two components.

• Fish - (any quantity you have)
• Salt per kilogram of fish 200 gr. salt.

We wash the fish under running water and place it in a deep cup. On the bottom, where a layer of salt was previously placed, between the layers of fish, we also sprinkle salt, but not in a very thick layer. Cover with a lid and send to a frosty, dark place.

After three days, we wash the fish of salt under running water, and pierce it with a thin wire or twine through the eye or gills, it doesn’t matter.
I dry fish at home, fortunately I have a big house, and there is a place where you can salt the fish, but if you dry it outside and it’s summer, then you should cover the fish with a net or gauze, since flies will definitely want to lay eggs in your fish. After three days of drying, the fish can be eaten with or without aromatic beer.

Step 1: prepare the fish.

Before we prepare the ram for salting, we will wash it and its scales under running cold water to remove mucus. Afterwards, we transfer the fish carcass to a cutting board and, using a kitchen knife, make an incision along the belly of the fish from the lower rear fin to the gills. Then we manually remove all the entrails and very carefully wash the gutted fish to remove blood clots and remaining pieces of entrails.
Attention: if the fish is small, then it is not necessary to gut it. It is better to gut large fish. Now, if you wish, you can clean the fish from scales. To do this, place the fish carcass in a large bowl or sink filled with cold water so that the fish scales do not fly apart and, using a kitchen knife or a special fish knife, clean the ram. There is no need to remove the fish head.

If the fish is large, then transfer it to a cutting board and make a longitudinal cut along the back of the carcass so that the fish is better salted. I prefer not to scale the fish, as it lasts longer this way.

Then rub the fish generously with salt, especially carefully in the area of ​​the head and gills. For this procedure, you need to use only coarse salt and always without impurities (not iodized). If you use finely ground salt, then a crust will appear on the fish, which will prevent the brine from penetrating inside, and thus the ram will not be salted well.

Step 2: prepare ram (ram) - salt the fish.

It is best to salt fish in enamel or stainless steel dishes. Take a pan and pour a layer of salt on the bottom, approximately 5-7 millimeters. Place the first layer of battering ram on the bottom of the container. We make sure that the carcasses lie tightly next to each other, but not overlapping one another. Having laid the first fish layer, sprinkle salt evenly on it. The thickness of the salt cover should be approx. 10 millimeters. Then place a second layer of fish on top of the first layer and pour salt on it again. This process is repeated until all the fish are gone.
It is necessary to observe the proportions: for 1 kilogram of fish there are 300-400 grams salt. If you are salting more fish than indicated in the recipe, then the amount of salt is not difficult to calculate. When the entire ram is placed in a container, cover the top of the dish with a lid, the radius of which is smaller than the radius of the pan so that the lid comes into very close contact with the salted fish, and place a load on top of it. It could be a weight or a brick. Now we place the container in a cool place, preferably in the refrigerator.
If you salt fish in winter, then the dishes can be placed on the balcony, the main thing is that they are not exposed to direct sunlight. It may take some time to salt the fish 1-2 days, if the ram is small, if the carcasses are medium in size, salting takes 3-4 days. If the fish is large in size, then the salting process will increase before 7-14 days. The fish will release juice, which must be drained periodically. When the copious release of liquid stops, it means the fish has already been salted and you can begin the final stage - drying the ram.

Step 3: prepare ram (taranka) - dry the fish.

Before drying, remove the fish from the pan and rinse it well several times in a bowl of clean water. After this, fill the container with clean water again and soak the ram for 2-3 hours. After this time, take the fish out of the container and transfer it to a bowl filled with clean water, after pouring vinegar into the liquid at the rate of: for 3 liters of water – 25 milliliters of vinegar. Thanks to this solution, flies will not land on the fish during drying, and this in turn will eliminate the possibility of unnecessary living organisms getting into the ram.
Then we take the fish carcasses out of the solution and string them on twine or thin steel wire. You can also use fishing line. Before hanging the ram, we break its gills so that they dry faster, and if the fish is large, then we put spacers made of matches on the cut belly. It is necessary to string the fish through the eye holes.
Attention: I do not recommend hanging the fish upside down, since in this position all the juice will flow out of it, and it will become very tough and tasteless. Having threaded the fish, hang it in a well-ventilated place, but away from direct sunlight. It is very important to cover the fish before drying. 2-3 layers of gauze or mosquito net.
Attention: if you regularly dry fish, then it is best for you to do this in specially prepared boxes. The box should be well aired on all sides and covered with gauze or mosquito net so that insects cannot land on the ram. It is better to hang it in the evening so that the ram can weather and dry overnight. Now all that's left to do is wait.
First 3-4 days While the fish dries, it has a specific smell. This is a normal process. After this time, the smell will gradually disappear, and at the end of the week a pleasant aroma will appear. If you prefer jerky, you can remove it from the wire. And those who prefer more dried fish need to wait a little longer 4-7 days.

Step 4: Serve taranka (ramming).

Remove the finished ram and place it on a plate. If the fish was cooked with scales or with entrails, then before serving, remove the scales and entrails. If the ram is large, then it can be cut into small pieces. You can serve the fish with beer or serve it with mashed potatoes and fresh vegetables, as you like.
Enjoy your meal!

The most delicious ram is the winter one. After all, fish caught in winter, although not as fatty, has an empty belly, so the insides can be left in and the fish retains its aroma and taste better. True, if the fish is large, then it is better to clean it from the entrails and cut it along the spine so that the carcass dries better.

For salting, use only the freshest fish that has been stored for several hours after catching. Such a ram turns out tastier, since during the salting process the fish is salted evenly.

It is best to store cooked fish in a paper bag in the refrigerator or kitchen cabinet.

If you prefer dried taranka, then it is better to use it as food quickly or store it in the refrigerator.

If you dry fish in winter, then it is better to do it in the kitchen near the gas stove or stove. If there are no flies in cool weather, then it is not necessary to cover the fish with gauze or a mosquito net.

Taranka or ram is the most delicious snack to accompany beer. For some reason, from the store it is always overdried, hard and oversalted, and sometimes the price is too high.

As for me, the perfect battering ram can only be made at home. You can salt ram from ram, roach, silver bream, bream, crucian carp.

The fish must be gutted, gills and eyes removed, and washed well. I also remove the luster, because I don’t like it when it scatters later when cleaning, it’s better to remove it all at once. For salting, it is better to choose fish of approximately the same size so that they are salted and dried at the same time. It is also worth choosing a fish that is not too small, but not too large; it is best to take it about the size of your palm. You need to salt the ram in an enamel pan. Sprinkle a thick layer of salt on the bottom. Rub the fish well with salt on all sides and inside. Place the crucian carp in a pan, sprinkle a little salt on top and lay out the next layer.

Sprinkle the top layer generously with salt, place a weight and send it to a cold place for 2 days to salt it. Water will be released, it needs to be drained 2-3 times.

Rinse the salted fish in cold water. Using a needle, thread the fish through the eyes onto a double thread. Broil the fish, open the bellies a little. Hang the future ram in a well-ventilated place, without direct sunlight, distribute it along the entire length of the thread. The fish can be hung on the balcony from the ceiling, but on the first day it is better to place a basin underneath, as water may drip. The next day, insert matches (without sulfur coating) into the bellies of the ram so that it dries better. The fish should hang like this for 2 weeks. It is necessary to ensure that flies do not have access to the fish. You can cover it with gauze, but so that it does not touch the ram; for this, a frame is made or spacers are inserted.

Dried salted fish is called taranka. If you decide to prepare an ideal snack for beer, then any fish from the carp family will do, that is, roach, roach, as well as perch, crucian carp, sabrefish, bream or pike.

Properly dried taranka not only has a rich taste and smell, but is also stored for a long time. Today we will tell you how to properly salt crucian carp on a ram, so that you can then enjoy it during gatherings with friends and going to the bathhouse.

Let's start preparations. The fish should be the freshest, best caught just a few hours ago. In addition to this, you will need salt and vinegar; an enamel container is best for storage; do not forget about wire or string to hang the fish.

Salting crucian carp begins with removing the entrails of the fish - add salt instead, and also rub the fish skin with it. We also add salt through a longitudinal cut on the spish. It is better to use a coarse grind so that a crust does not form and the brine penetrates inside without hindrance.

We begin to place the crucian carp in the pan: salt, then a layer of fish, salt again, etc. Cover the pan with a lid and put it under pressure. You need to choose a place for the pan so that it is not exposed to sunlight and is cool enough. Salting medium-sized crucian carp will take from 5 to 14 days. Don't forget to drain the liquid.

The next stage of preparing the batter is drying. Rinse the fish, not forgetting to add vinegar a little at a time. When it is saturated with brine, you can hang it. It is worth threading the thread through the eye sockets, because if you hang the ram upside down, the brine will leak out. It is best to dry the fish in a ventilated place away from direct sunlight. Gauze or mosquito net will protect the crucian from insects.

How to salt and dry crucian carp

Many people ask: how to deliciously pickle crucian carp? There are several secrets here: during salting, it is necessary to thoroughly rub the places where the entrails were located. The more salt the better. The next secret: do not take the ram out of the refrigerator ahead of time, and also do not try unsalted fish. Drying crucian carp should be done on the balcony, the main thing to remember is that it should be well ventilated, it is advisable that the sun’s rays do not fall on the suspended ram, and that insects do not land on it.

Recipe for salting crucian caviar

In addition to the crucian carp itself, you can salt its caviar. Salting crucian carp caviar has its own secrets. If you are lucky and come across a fish with caviar, then you can treat your guests to delicious salted caviar. To make the dish a success, follow our instructions. First, clean the caviar from the films, and then scald it several times with boiling water.

If you are bothered by the pungent smell of crucian carp, which is difficult to get rid of when salting, then you can fry the caviar. It will acquire a beautiful orange hue and a pleasant appetizing aroma.

Whatever recipe you choose for salting crucian carp or caviar, the dish will turn out piquant and tasty, the ram goes well with beer, and the caviar goes well with boiled potatoes.