Everyone in his life at least once ate such a product as sprats, even if he hates fish. This is because sprats are one of the most common seafood on the shelves of domestic food chains. At the same time, many have probably heard also that they do not call this fish at all, but the method of its preparation. Is it really?
Yes and no. All in all, sprats are really a way to cook canned fish. Today, under this name, young herring, Baltic herring and Caspian tulka are produced, as well as some other types of small fish. At the same time, the species of fish sprat really exists. Actually, canned food got its name precisely in his honor. The fact is that once upon a time, canned fish were made precisely from the Baltic and European sprat.
Any sprats are prepared very simply. The fish is preliminarily smoked, without any special primary processing, and then immediately preserved in oil. The description of the process is somewhat simplified, but in general it looks like this. The smoking process takes place at a temperature of 100-130 degrees and takes no more than 40 minutes. Also, manufacturers use the method of using "liquid smoke" without smoking, simply by adding oil to the sprats.
It is very important that the skin of the fish is not damaged during the cooking process. In this case, any sprats lose their taste. Also, you can not overdo it with the temperature during the smoking process. If it is too large, the sprats will swell and spoil. Separately, it should be recalled that, as in many other similar products, carcinogens are formed in sprats during cooking, in particular, benzopyrene, which is prone to accumulation in the human body.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should definitely read about 7 products originally from the Soviet Union that to taste only Russian.