Pork salmon is a type of cured meat and is easy to make at home. Such hand-made harvesting is a guarantee that the meat does not contain harmful additives and preservatives. Pork balyk at home is delicious both simply dried and smoked in smoke (cold) from fruit sawdust. This allows you to get a delicious snack with a delicious crust and delicate aroma.
Despite the fact that homemade balyk ripens (withers) for a long time, the result cannot but rejoice. Pink pieces of pork, laid out on a plate, can decorate any table. As practice shows, any preparations from meat and fish can be successfully cooked at home, the main thing is the presence of such a desire.
What is needed for this?
In order to make pork balyk at home, you need to choose the meat well. The right choice would be loin or pork neck. It is best to make this delicacy from fresh meat, as thawed product has a distorted taste and provides a lot of moisture. If you decide to opt for fresh pork, keeping it in the refrigerator for a day or two is the best choice. Thanks to this, the finished product will turn out softer and juicier, and will have an appetizing aroma. The recipe for pork balyk at home can be different - both with the use of dry salting, and with dipping in brine with and without various spices. If you use any spices, it will give the meat a specific taste and increase its shelf life.
Natural salting
It is best to use coarse sea or rock salt for salting pork. This kind of it dissolves in meat juice not too quickly, and the meat is salted less. The time required for salting may vary, depending on the size of the piece. As a rule, for one kilogram of pork, about three days will be enough. In addition, you need to take into account the age of the pig - the meat of a young animal will be cooked faster.
How to cook pork balyk at home?
For this you will need the following ingredients:
- 1 kg of pork;
- 100 grams of salt;
- spices.
First of all, you need to properly process and prepare a piece of meat. It is imperative to remove all cores and films, as well as, if desired, fat (you can leave it). Then the cleaned pork must be washed under running water and dried, then grated with salt and put in a pre-prepared dish. A plastic bag with a zipper is good for salting pork. It is convenient to salt the meat in it, because you can turn it over several times without getting your hands dirty.
How to dry meat?
After that, the salted pork must be removed to a cold place, with a temperature not exceeding 6 degrees. If you salt meat while warm, there is a risk of developing dangerous bacteria. Pork balyk at home during cooking will release juice, which does not need to be drained. Pieces of meat need to be turned over several times a day. As soon as the salmon is salted, it should be dried with a clean towel and rubbed with a mixture of any spices to taste. For dried pork, spices such as allspice and black pepper, coriander, marjoram, rosemary, cumin, bay leaf, chili pepper, and paprika are well suited. There are also ready-made spice mixes for pork on the market, but they tend to contain a lot of salt.
After sprinkling the balyk with spices, wrap it with gauze to avoid winding it and spices falling off. It is necessary to wrap a string over the gauze (as on sausage loaves), making a loop at one end, on which the product can be hung. Dry-cured pork balyk at home should be dried for several days at room temperature, and then it should be placed in the refrigerator. You can do it a little differently: place the meat near the hot battery for a couple of days, and then put it in the refrigerator. Until the final readiness, it is better to keep the pork for another 2-3 weeks, despite the fact that you can eat the product as early as the fifth day. If desired, you can dry it even longer - it only becomes tastier.
Brine method
You can cook pork balyk at home in another way. For this you will need:
- 2 kg of pork loin on the bone or 1 kg of boneless meat;
- 100 ml of water;
- 6 grams of salt.
If you purchased a piece of bone-in pork, you will have to prepare it. It is necessary to separate the meat from the bones, holding the knife almost perpendicular. Once you cut the meat from the ribs, you need to carefully cut out the spine. After that, the loin needs to be cleaned, remove excess fat. The output should be a neat piece of meat with a small layer of fat.
After that, using a syringe, brine is introduced into the prepared pork, at the rate of 100 ml per kilogram of meat, with a salt concentration of 6 grams per 100 ml of water. After that, the meat is placed in a pre-prepared dish and pressed down with some heavy load. Then turn the meat several times a day.
Meat aging
After 3 days, the salted pork must be washed, tied with a strong linen thread, wiped with a clean natural cloth and hung to dry. Initially, pork balyk at home, the photo of which is presented in the article, is placed indoors at a temperature of 25-30 degrees per day. After that, the meat should be left for further drying in a cooler place or smoked in cold smoke on fruit sawdust. The product is ready for use in a few days.
- 1 kg pork tenderloin;
- coarse (rock) salt - 3 tbsp. topped spoons;
- granulated sugar - 0.5 tablespoons;
- freshly ground black pepper - 1 teaspoon;
- spices - to taste.
- Preparation time: 96:30
- Time for preparing: 96:00
- Servings: 8
- Complexity: light
Cooking
We will cook dry-cured pork balyk at home in two stages: salting the pork tenderloin and drying it.
- Put a mixture of salt with sugar and pepper in a deep bowl, roll a piece of meat in it, then rub its surface with this mixture. Close with a white napkin, put oppression on top so that juice stands out from the meat. Put in the refrigerator for 4 days. Turn the meat every day. On the fifth day, remove from the refrigerator, dry thoroughly with a napkin or paper towel.
- Prepared meat is put into the refrigerator in a jar with a closed lid. On the second day, the secreted juice is drained, and the sudok is placed with a slight slope so that excess liquid is collected. For this purpose, you can put a plastic jar lid under the bottom of the vessel. The accumulated liquid is removed every day by turning the piece of meat. Removed from the refrigerator on the sixth day.
- Further, to make pork balyk at home, you need to dry it. Grate a well-dried salted piece of meat with a mixture of spices. Which one to choose depends on your taste, this is a completely creative stage of preparation.
You can make it from the finished "hops-suneli" by adding mustard seeds. Second composition: crushed nutmeg, coriander seeds, paprika powder. Cumin, juniper berries, dried and crushed are also used.
- After the pork is well rubbed, it is tightly wrapped in several layers of gauze, tied tightly and hung in a dry, warm place. Preferably where there is air movement. After 4-5 days, the surface of the meat will harden, a small crust will form. Pork balyk is ready, you can serve it to the table. Store it in the refrigerator without removing it from the gauze package until it is completely ripe. See how it looks in sliced form in the photo. The cut is evenly colored.
The most reliable and ancient method of preserving meat products is salmon, the name is caused by an analogy with dried red fish. Pork balyk, at home, is a delicious, spicy product and an excellent cold appetizer for the festive table.
The decisive moment is the choice of meat tenderloin: pork neck, sirloin or loin - pork pulp from the back. A small layer of fat is required so that the dried delicacy is not too dry. A piece of tenderloin can be large in size, but not too thick. You can even cut it lengthwise, remove the cores (if any). After all, it should be salted evenly.
This type of balyk can be prepared with your own hands if you have a home-made smokehouse or a factory-made smoke generator for cold smoking at your disposal. Some craftsmen make smokehouses from metal barrels. You can replace them with the most ordinary barbecue. 
This homemade pork balyk recipe also requires salting the meat at first. The salting method, in contrast to the above (dry) method, also has a “wet” version. A brine is prepared at the rate of: 10 g of granulated sugar and 100 g of salt per 1 liter of water. In boiled brine, the meat is kept under pressure for 5 days in a cool place, also turning over every day. It is believed that the wet salting will make the salmon more juicy and tender. After salting, no matter how it is carried out, the meat is dried, that is, it is hung in a draft for 2 days. Before that, it must be thoroughly rinsed in clean water, dried, packed in gauze.
Now you can start the smoking process, which will take no more than 2 hours. Let's describe the sequence of actions:
- make a fire in the barbecue;
- pour alder chips or sawdust to the bottom of the oil lamp, 3 handfuls will be enough;
- put the meat on the grate, cover the wood chips with a pallet;
- close the smokehouse tightly with a lid, put on fire;
- after 1 hour, remove the smokehouse from the fire, replace the burnt wood chips with fresh ones, clean the soot from the lid and put it on fire again;
- smoke for another 1 hour;
- The product will be ready after 2 - 3 hours of air cooling. It is also recommended to keep it in the refrigerator for several hours before drinking.
It is sometimes believed that smoked pork salmon, juicy, fragrant, with a golden crust, is preferable to dry-cured. Yes, and it cooks faster. This, as they say, is a matter of taste. But the smoked product should be stored wrapped in foil for no more than 4 days at a temperature not higher than +2 degrees. While the shelf life of dry-cured is much longer.
We offer you to visually get acquainted with how to cook pork balyk at home. The video will teach you how to cook hot smoked balyk in summer cottage conditions.
Video:
Balyk products rightfully considered one of the best fish products. Balyk from fish can be smoked and loose (dried). In order to prepare balyk products, fish should first be cut, then moderately salted, and then either slightly dried and smoked in smoking chambers in a cold way, or air-dried.
Types of fish balyk
Dried balyk
Hanging (dried) balyks are dried on towers of a special design in a well-ventilated room with closed blinds. It is under these conditions that the fish is gradually dried to the desired moisture content.
According to their taste qualities, hanging fish balyki are valued higher than smoked ones, because, being in the above conditions for a sufficiently long time - up to one month or more - the product fully matures and acquires its own special "bouquet". Under the influence of heat and air, their own proteolytic enzymes and microflora are activated, due to which the gradual maturation of the fish occurs. This process is somewhat similar to the ripening of cheeses.
Cold smoked balyk
As for cold-smoked fish balyks, they are smoked and dried in 5-7 days. The process of maturation of such balyks is quite simple and therefore their "bouquet" is limited by the own taste of fish and the aroma of smoked meat. Both together provide excellent gastronomic qualities of cold-smoked balyks.
What kind of fish is balyk made of
For the preparation of balyk products, large fleshy and fatty fish are used, for example, fish of the sturgeon, herring and salmon families. In addition, good balyks are also obtained from ocean fish - sea bass, catfish, notothenia, halibut, umbrina, merow and others.
In order for all technological processes for obtaining balyk products to proceed correctly, and the finished product to be sufficiently uniform in taste and quality, fish must be cut in a special way. As a result of this cutting, parts of the fish are obtained, called tesha, back and side. Tesha is the abdominal part of the fish, and the sidebar is the two halves of the fish carcass, which contain both the dorsal and abdominal parts. Beluga carcass sidebar is prepared only from the dorsal part of the fish.
Requirements for a fish balyk
Preparation of balyk from fish requires a high sanitary-technical level of production. This level of production is found in fish processing enterprises to which raw materials are delivered - most often in the form of salted semi-finished products or in the form of.
Dried and smoked fish fillets are usually stored in industrial refrigerators for no more than 1-2 months. However, they should be periodically checked for mold. And in the home refrigerator, balyk products can be stored for no more than 5-7 days as a whole (piece) and 1-3 days in the form of sliced slices.
The cost of smoked products that can be found in the store depends on the type of meat: fish, chicken or pork, each has its own price range. On the table as a cold snack, there may be both sturgeon and sturgeon. Another important parameter is the part of the butchered carcass. This is especially true for pork.
Traditionally, it is believed that the most expensive type of meat is balyk. In our understanding, as in the understanding of many sellers or suppliers, salmon is a meat tenderloin in which there are no bones, sebaceous streaks, and elements of fat. However, if you strictly approach this issue, you can find that salmon is related only to fish.
The word "balyk" came from the Turkic language and is authentically translated as "fish". In the modern lexicon, the dorsal part of valuable fish species is called balyk. The meat, taken along the ridge, is salted and then dried. It is understood that pink salmon or chum salmon can be used as balyk. Bright representatives of salmon are sockeye salmon and trout. All of them have a similar texture and taste of meat. Often, an inexperienced consumer cannot even distinguish what kind of fish is presented to him.
Varieties of balyk
A cheaper alternative available for purchase is silver carp or catfish balyk. Their meat has a slightly different structure, but if you cook it correctly, you get a product that is not inferior to red fish in taste and useful qualities.
Fishing enthusiasts also have the opportunity to treat themselves and their families to home-cooked balyk. Pike is considered a popular trophy. Its meat is quite dry and fibrous, but if you follow the tips given in the pre-marinated recipes step by step, then after hot smoking the fibers will be saturated with the necessary moisture, as a result of which the meat will become tender and juicy.
It is impossible not to emphasize that sturgeon crowns our original catalog of seafood. Due to its high cost, it is not always on sale. It is difficult to find sturgeon salmon in a provincial town. But in large metropolitan areas there will always be specialized stores or hypermarkets, so residents here are a little more fortunate. However, you will have to pay a decent amount for a delicacy.
Gradually, the term "balyk" migrated from the sea to land, and now even on the price tags they write that the buyer is provided with pork balyk, although it simply cannot exist in nature. We will not focus on these subtleties and present popular recipes for making balyk from various meats.
If everything is quite unambiguous with fish, then it is still unknown which part of the pork carcass is cut into balyk. Here again there is a difference of opinion. Initially, balyk was called two cuts of muscle formations, which were located along the spine in the back of the carcass from the inside of the abdominal cavity. Today there is no such principled approach. The role of a balyk can be played by a loin or a neck. The most important condition is the absence of layers.
Classic recipe for fish
Already by definition, it becomes clear that small fish will not go for making balyk. From it, at least, it is necessary to remove the fillet, and this will be possible only if the carcasses have impressive dimensions. The technology for preparing smoked salmon for all types of fish remains the same. The reason for this is the similar consistency of the meat. For drier and more fibrous meats, marinating is recommended, but simple salting is considered the most natural way to prepare salmon.
- The first step is to separate the loin. It is convenient to cut it with a sharp knife along the ridge on both sides, and then remove the costal bones.
- A mixture is prepared in which salt, red and black pepper, thyme and dill are added. The tenderloin is sprinkled with the mixture and placed in a flat container.
- If the fillet pieces turned out to be large, then oppression is placed on top.
- After a day, the salmon can be smoked, but before that, the remaining salt should be removed by wiping the pieces with a napkin. Some prefer to soak the fish. This method of removing salt is also effective, only after the procedure you will have to dry the salmon for several hours.
Marinade with spices
The fastest way of salting is associated with pickling, this is soaking meat in a liquid salt solution with the addition of spices. This solution can be made using water, white wine or vegetable oil as a base.
At home, the easiest way to prepare a marinade on the water. All additives are added to boiling water. The recipe implies compliance with the proportions of water and salt. The rest of the seasonings are taken to taste. For fish, the marinade is made according to the following proportions: 70 grams of salt is taken per liter of water when cold smoked or 40 grams of salt when hot.
After the water with spices boils for 5 minutes, it must be cooled. Balyk is placed in the finished marinade, and after 6 hours it will be ready. Excess moisture will have to be removed. It is enough to hang the clipping in a draft. After an hour, the surface of the meat will be covered with a thin film, which indicates that it is time to smoke the fish.
Cold smoking
To smoke salmon, you need to have a smokehouse at hand, in which the smoke cooled to a temperature of 25 ° C processes the product in a special box. This processing method is called cold smoking. At the same time, the structure of meat fibers does not change significantly. Balyk turns out to be elastic, slightly moist with a pronounced smell of smoke and a taste of fish. The product retains its calorie content and all useful elements.
The material used is fruit tree chips. The process itself takes more than a day. The exact duration cannot be called, since it depends on the size of the pieces. The finished product should not only be covered with a golden crust. The meat on the cut will be monotonous, and moisture will no longer stand out.
Raw fish has a different shade of fibers, but they all resemble a glassy mass. Smoked meat acquires an opaque color, by which one can judge the degree of readiness of the balyk.
Salting meat with a dry marinade
Pork balyk is prepared using a similar technology, only each stage takes much longer. This is due to the specific structure of the fibers. Salt must penetrate the entire depth, otherwise the cold-smoked balyk will be hard.
- First of all, you need to cut the meat so that you get layers no more than 4 cm thick. Then salt and pepper are poured onto the cutting board. The meat is not only dipped into the composition, but also pressed into it, as if dough is being prepared. So the salt will more effectively penetrate the fibers. Finished pieces are stacked under oppression. They must be completely salted, and for this you will have to wait 3 days.
- After salting, the meat is soaked in cold water for about an hour. Wet meat should not be sent to the smokehouse. It is pre-dried in a well-ventilated area. As with fish, the real preparation of balyk is determined only by the cold method. In the absence of heat treatment, the meat does not lose its structure, which means it will remain elastic. But if it is salted incorrectly, it will become tough. Many try to avoid such troubles by exposing the salmon to hot smoking. Indeed, the effect of this will be amazing, but the taste of real freshly smoked meat will change.
Salting liquid marinade
Choosing a recipe with a liquid marinade allows you to smoke balyk both cold and hot. In addition, a small change in the algorithm will make it possible to smoke boiled meat to get a cooked-smoked product. The preparation of the marinade is based on the dissolution of salt and spices in water or oil.
Vegetable oil will be used only if it was decided to abandon the cooking procedure. For 1 kg of meat, 200 g of oil is required, a tablespoon of salt, pepper, garlic is added to it. You can use lemon juice or vinegar, these components will break down the fibers, making the meat softer. However, they are not suitable for cold smoking, because the sour taste will remain. With hot smoking, the smell and taste of vinegar disappear.
Pieces of meat are dipped in oil, and then placed in a bowl in the refrigerator. Turn the meat every 3 hours. It will be ready in a day of such pickling.
The traditional way to prepare a marinade is broken down into steps.
- One liter of water dissolves 60 g of salt.
- The water is brought to a boil.
- Ingredients are added: garlic, basil, peppercorns, bay leaf.
- 20 g of sugar is added.
- Boil 10 minutes.
The meat is poured with the cooled marinade and soaked for 2 days. Then, with the help of napkins, excess moisture is removed, and the smoking process begins. To boil the meat, you just need to lower it into boiling water. Then the boiling time will increase by 40 minutes. During this time, the meat will become soft, so just smoke it with smoke, and a dish that tastes great will be ready.
Smokehouse for pork balyk
Again, the question arises about the true method of cooking a real balyk. But since we have long moved away from the strict framework, we note that both hot and cold smoking are used. Hot smoking is recommended for those who are just starting their activities. It is believed that the algorithm for cooking dishes with high-temperature smoke is simpler. Wood chips are poured into the smokehouse, a container for fat is installed on top. The product itself is located on the sieves in the upper part. Meat, unlike fish, will take longer to smoke. Full cooking will occur after 1.5 hours from the moment the sawdust smolders.
Cold-smoked balyk has absorbed all the delights of natural smoking, fresh meat and a harmoniously selected set of spices. However, for this you will have to sacrifice time. To prepare balyk, you will have to smoke meat for 7 days. Although such a calculation is given with the conditions of breaks. If it is possible not to interrupt the process, then the dish will be ready after 5 days of hard work.
Smoked balyk should be stored in the refrigerator. If long-term storage is planned, then it is advisable to freeze the product. Chilled meat will be suitable for consumption only for the first few weeks. Subsequently, the quality of the delicacy will begin to decline sharply.
Smoked pork balyk has long been considered a festive dish. Delicious, fragrant meat, with a golden brown crust has a lot of fans. You can cook such a delicacy yourself. The meat will turn out no worse than on the shelves of supermarkets. In addition, in home cooking, you will use only natural products. Therefore, in addition to taste, you will also get a healthy dish. Below is a recipe for smoked balyk in a hot smokehouse.
The composition and calorie content of smoked balyk
The composition of pork balyk is saturated with many useful substances. Vitamins E and group B are found in meat in large quantities. The mineral composition of the product: iron, zinc, iodine, fluorine, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and other vital components.
Pork balyk is very nutritious, satisfying, high in protein and fat. In cooking, it is used as a snack, for making salads, canapes and sandwiches. The dish is high in calories, so it is not recommended for people who are overweight.
100 g of smoked salmon contains:
- Belkov - 15.4 g.
- Fat - 24.9 g.
- Carbohydrates - 0.0 g.
- Calorie -286 kcal.
Like all smoked meats, salmon should not be consumed in large portions.
Preparing and marinating pork
In many ways, the taste of the future delicacy depends on the right choice of meat. To prevent hot-smoked balyk from being tough, you need to buy a tenderloin from the dorsal part. The meat should be fresh, not weathered, without foreign odors. 
Rinse the pork, cut off the veins (if any), dry with a towel. Cut into small bars for easy smoking. Then pickle. You can use two methods of pickling.
Dry way. For such a salting, carefully rub the tenderloin with coarse salt on all sides. Fold in a container, cover, put oppression on top. Marinate 5 days in the cold. During the salting process, juice will be released from the meat. It needs to be drained every day.
Wet salting. Prepare the marinade: 1 liter of water, 10 g of granulated sugar, 100 g of salt. Boil all ingredients, cool. Place the meat in brine, put under oppression, salt for 5 days in a cool place. Turn the meat periodically.
After salting in any way, the tenderloin should be rinsed well with water. Then wrap the pieces with twine, hang in a draft to dry. In the warm season, the product should be wrapped with gauze to protect against insects. The meat should be dried for 2 days.
How to smoke hot
The hot cooking procedure will take two hours. So that the meat does not burn, is not raw and turns out tasty, you need to know how to make the process consistent:
- Light a fire in the brazier.
- Pour 3 handfuls of alder chips onto the bottom of the oil lamp.
- Place a tray over the wood chips, and put the pork on the wire rack.
- Close the smokehouse tightly with a lid, set on fire.
- Simmer over low heat for 1 hour.
- Then remove the smokehouse, take out the meat, pour out the burnt wood chips, remove carbon deposits from the lid.
- Pour new wood chips, load the meat back into the smokehouse.
- Repeat the smoking process for another 1 hour.
Cool the finished salmon in the fresh air for 2-3 hours. Then enjoy the taste. It is recommended to serve this dish with fresh or stewed vegetables, herbs and various sauces. Hot-smoked balyk should be stored for no more than 4 days at a temperature of about +2⁰. If you wrap the meat in foil, you can extend the shelf life up to a week. Enjoy your meal!
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