Lamprey in jelly

Lamprey in jelly

Category: Fish dishes

Ingredients
Lamprey	1.5KG
coarse salt	200 g

Cooking method

• Cover the lamprey with salt, mix, let the live fish fall asleep, and let the already asleep stand for 20-30 minutes. Remove salt and mucus from head to tail with a dry, coarse cloth. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake hot in the oven for 20-30 minutes.

Time for preparing:

1 hour

National cuisine

Baltic

Note

Lampreys are called fish, but they are a parasite from the order of cyclostomes that lives on large fish and feeds on its blood. Lampreys do not have a spine and full-fledged gills, and instead of a mouth there is a sucker, round, like a leech.

Despite the "scary" appearance and lifestyle, lampreys are considered an exquisite dish in the Baltics. If it is unpleasant for you to even look at this "monster", and not just try, we will get more.
So ... what is the secret of this dish? I'll tell you point by point:
1. There are two ways to kill a lamprey - by cutting off the head or just filling it with coarse salt and letting it fall asleep by itself. The whole difference lies in the fact that by cutting off the head we will lose the internal juices of "fish" necessary for the taste and tenderness of the dish. Therefore, we will use the second method and calmly prepare everything necessary for further work - a baking sheet, jars, lids.
2. Lamprey cutaneous mucus is poisonous, so you still need to use salt to remove it. I do it like this: I hook the salted carcass with the thumbnail of my left hand to the mouth and run it along the entire length from head to tail with a dry cloth in my right palm, tightly wrapping it around the fish. And immediately spread it on a greased baking sheet.

3. We bake for 20-30 minutes, if the juices have evaporated, then add water - for jelly. But you can already consider the lamprey ready, pull it out and immediately proceed to the next point.
4. The fact is that there is sand in the gills, which gets into the fish from filtering water in the river and I do not advise anyone to eat this part. We cut off the heads: a suction cup, and from it a row of dots-holes, and here we cut - behind the last hole.

I want to clarify - there are no more intestines, bones, scales in lampreys (a parasite - what to take from it?), Etc., and therefore cutting the fish consists only in cutting off the head.
5. For many years I have been cooking lamprey, how many recipes I have tried (seasonings, vinegar, marinades) - do not count and came to the conclusion: lamprey is good only in its own juice. That is, you don't need to add anything to it! She already received salt during cleaning, and the rest will only distract from the taste of the delicacy itself. And therefore, we continue to do it very simply:
first course - we eat as it is ...
the second dish - cut into pieces, put in a deep bowl and pour sauce from a baking sheet, if it is not enough, then you can add boiling water. We put it in the refrigerator for a day or two, take it out and ... eat it in jelly. For the sauce resulting from the cooking process will become aspic and freeze in the cold, like jelly.
the third dish - we put the pieces of lamprey in jars, pour the sauce from a baking sheet, to the top of the jar and put in a steam bath for an hour. Roll up and hide in a cold place until the holidays
However, the spring lamprey is very different from the autumn one - in fat content, size ... and a little taste, I think it's clear why. And so I cut the spring small and dry lamprey on a baking sheet and put it in a saucepan, boil it for half an hour on low heat, put it in jars, roll it up. A day or two in the refrigerator and the jelly will freeze.
We store cans in the refrigerator!

Of course, this is just one of the options for cooking lamprey. It is fried, boiled, stewed ... but believe my experience - this is the fastest, most convenient and delicious way.
Bon Appetit!

[harirama]

harirama, thanks for the recipe, I really love lampreys, but where can I get them fresh ...I have not met in Moscow for a very long time

[harirama]

harirama, thanks for the recipe, I love lampreys very much, but where can I get them fresh ... I haven't met them in Moscow for a long time

We still come across in St. Petersburg, but very rarely. The other day I took it from the store, but already dead. And in Estonia, fishing was banned, there it is now quite rare on sale.

Well, what about the taste?

We still come across in St. Petersburg, but very rarely. The other day I took it from the store, but already dead. And in Estonia, fishing was banned, there it is now quite rare on sale.

It was in St. Petersburg that I ate it off from my relative.In Moscow, I saw it already canned in glass jars (in Okey), but it costs more than 500 r

Well, what about the taste?

I don’t know what to compare with, there is a fishy taste, of course, the pulp is elastic, not fibrous in consistency. I only ate homemade lampreys and it tastes so good

Well, what about the taste?

I can't even answer you ... and even approximately - lamprey has its own, peculiar and very delicate taste. Come - I will treat

At the Blacksmith Market (one of the most expensive) lamprey costs 400 rubles, almost completely unusable and up to 800 fresh or live ... she was slightly frozen in the ice. Freshness is checked, as in any fish - you poke your finger in the side and look when the meat rises back, the longer this happens, the older the product. In general, how lucky our service is.
In banks from fish industries, this semi-fish is really expensive - because it is considered a delicacy and is found in few places.
Again, keeping a jar of lamprey open for a long time is not recommended - it starts to smell like fish oil - brrrrr, to eat for a couple of days.

[harirama]

harirama, unfortunately, we can only dream of such a fish, and not only such a delicious, but practically any good fish ...
Thanks for the recipe anyway!