Saurian fish: useful properties and recipes for cooking

Valuable commercial fish is better known to the mass consumer in canned form. Frozen saury appeared on store shelves relatively recently and immediately gained their fans. Tender, fatty fish meat, rich in vitamin-mineral complex, Omega-3, 6 fatty acids is widely used in home cooking. Doctors recommend including fish in the diet for diseases of the joints, gastrointestinal tract, to improve brain function.

Sea fish: what kind of fish they are, what they look like and where they live

The salmon (Cololabis saira) belongs to the family Macrolephagous of the order Sarganoaceae. It lives in the highest layers of the ocean in areas with temperate and subtropical climates, preferring the water with a temperature of 14-18 ° C. During long food migrations it often accompanies herds of anchovies, cavassi, and sardines.

The maximum length of the fish is 40 cm with the weight of 170-180 g. Longevity - 6 years.

What does it look like?

The short, flattened on the sides and elongated in length saury body is covered with fine, easily crumbled scales. The elongated triangular snout highlights the lower jaw protruding beyond the upper and a barb on the chin.

Body coloration varies from silvery on the belly to dark blue on the back. A low longitudinal stripe stands out on the gray flanks. The dorsal and anal fan-shaped fins are opposite each other. Behind them, closer to the tail, there are 5-7 small accessory fins. Feature of the representatives of macrofleck - greenish skeleton.

Where does it live?

The range of gregarious pelagic fish extends to the Atlantic (Northern and Southern Hemisphere), Pacific (Northern Hemisphere) and Indian Oceans.

Pacific saury winters off the coast of Korea, Japan, moves along the northern coast of the Kuril Islands in spring and summer, enters the Petropavlovsk-Komandorskaya subzone, and reaches the coast of Alaska and California. It enters Aniva Bay from where it travels north to Terpeniya Bay, skirting the east coast of Sakhalin.

Atlantic saury is distributed in the Atlantic Ocean from southern Canada to Bermuda. Common in Iceland, Morocco, the Aegean and Adriatic Seas.

What does it eat?

The basis of feeding flock fish - zooplankton, consisting of small crustaceans, eggs, fish larvae.

Varieties

Two species of saury are distinguished:

1. Pacific. The species, which lives in the Pacific Ocean of the Northern Hemisphere, is characterized by long seasonal migrations over distances of up to a thousand kilometers.
2. Atlantic. Common off the coast of Great Britain, in the Mediterranean. In addition to the Atlantic, occurs in the Pacific and Indian Ocean. Atlantic saury or Atlantic mackerel has more elongated jaws that form a beak. Otherwise, the species does not differ much from the Pacific.

Reproductive process

The fish becomes sexually mature by the age of three. In the Pacific, spawning continues year-round, but females lay oval-shaped eggs 1.5-2 mm in diameter from mid-October to June.

The fecundity of a single individual depends on weight. The maximum value is 22 thousand eggs per season. Batch spawning stretches over several months. During the spawning period, shoals are divided into small, sparse flocks. The hatching and already fertilized eggs with a bundle of filaments attach to floating algae and are carried long distances by currents.

The larvae first stay in the thick of sargassum algae, fry gain weight in shallow waters with a rich food base. When the offspring gain strength and are able to withstand the sea currents, the fish join in flocks and begin to migrate.

What is the difference between the saury and the sardine?

Both species of fish have a commercial value, the same diet, the same glycemic index. This is where the similarities end.

Characteristics of the saury:

1. Appearance. The body is long, narrow. The head is triangular sharp.
2. Weight, length. 180 g, 28-40 cm.
3. Areal. North Pacific Ocean, South Atlantic, Aegean, Adriatic Sea.
4. Taste, flavor. Meat is tender, moderately fatty with a specific flavor.
5. Culinary use. Most often used for salads and first courses.

Characteristics sardines:

1. Appearance. Rounded body with large head.
2. Weight, length. 100-150 g, 20-25 cm.
3. Areal. East of the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea, Marmara Sea, Black Sea.
4. Taste, flavor. Meat is delicious, with pronounced acidity.
5. Culinary applications. More suitable for baking in the oven, on the grill.

If we talk about the benefits of each species, sardines have more Omega-3, vitamins B6, B12, A, PP, tocopherol, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, zinc. Sardine surpasses sardine in content of vitamins D, B1, B2, B9, C, sodium, chlorine and iodine.

Composition and calories

Saury meat is rich in protein, cobalamin, calciferol, riboflavin, pyridoxine, chromium, phosphorus, potassium, copper. The fish contains polyunsaturated fatty acids Omega-3, useful for cardiovascular diseases, diseases of the joints.

The content in 100 g of the edible part of saury of vitamins, minerals:

Vitamins:

• Cobalamin - 0.002 mg.
• Calciferol - 0.003 mg.
• Nicotinic acid - 2,8 mg.
• Riboflavin - 0.22 mg.
• Pyridoxine - 0.001 mg.
• Folate - 0.01 mg.
• Thiamine - 0.03 mg.
• Ascorbic acid - 1.9 mg.
• Folate - 0.006 mg.

Micronutrients:

• Cobalt - 0.02 mg.
• Chromium - 0.06 mg.
• Iodine - 0.05 mg.
• Copper - 0.11 mg.
• Fluorine - 0.43 mg.
• Zinc - 0.7 mg.
• Molybdenum - 0.004 mg.
• Iron - 0.6 mg.
• Manganese - 0.05 mg.

Macronutrients:

• Phosphorus - 220 mg.
• Sulfur - 195 mg.
• Potassium - 285 mg.
• Sodium - 100 mg.
• Chlorine - 165 mg.
• Magnesium - 20 mg.
• Calcium - 15 mg.

Fat content of 100 grams of the product - 19.5, 14.1, 0 g, respectively. The calories are 205 kcal.

How is the saury useful?

Omega-3 fatty acids in 100 g of saury covers the daily requirement of the body, and vitamin B12 contains 40% of the daily requirement.

Useful actions of the fish:

1. Improves twilight vision, perception of color by the visual analyzer.
2. Boosts immune response.
3. Regulates the function of the nervous system.
4. Participates in hematopoiesis, increases hemoglobin levels.
5. It prevents anemia, blood clots, rickets, osteoporosis.
6. Mineralizes bones, strengthens tooth enamel.
7. Prolongs youthfulness of the skin.
8. Supports the work of the thyroid gland.
9. Normalizes the metabolism.
10. Improves sleep and appetite.
11. Inhibits the growth of tumors.

The product improves digestion, regulates blood pressure, acid-base balance, blood glucose levels.

Canned Syrah

Saila in cans is a convenient and inexpensive product. It can be kept for a long time, always at hand, there is no need to clean and gut it. It remains only to open the jar, extract the contents, add as an ingredient to soup, salad. You can use it as a pie filling, make a pita roll or just eat it with bread as a snack, taking a minimum of time.

How is it useful?

After a long time heated in an autoclave, canned saury retains:

• omega-3 fatty acids;
• vitamins D, PP, group B;
• amino acids;
• minerals.

These chemical elements are responsible for the product's benefits. When canned fish is consumed, cognitive abilities of the brain are improved, cholesterol metabolism is adjusted, myocardial functions are supported, vascular walls are strengthened.

Canned fish strengthens men's health, increases fertility, normalizes digestion, and prevents vascular accidents.

Canned Sea salmon stabilizes the kidneys, liver, thyroid gland, regulates the contraction of muscle tissue. Canned food containing calciferol is useful for people working in the North with short daylight hours and polar nights.

How to choose and store canned food

When choosing canned food pay attention to the following points:

1. The can should not be rusty, bloated, deformed. In glass packaging, it is easier to assess the quality of the contents, the ratio of fish and fillings. According to the state standard, the container is filled with saury by 70 percent.
2. If the product is not adulterated, jars of natural fish in the second row of the lid have the number 308, with the addition of oil - 931, blanched in oil - 186.
3. Refuse goods with an expired shelf life or if there are a few days left before the expiration date.
4. Choose canned goods made in the vicinity of fishing grounds between August and October. This fact increases the likelihood that the produce is made from fresh raw material, not frozen.

The best preserves are made according to GOST 7452-2014.

How to make canned food at home

It is not necessary to buy canned saury in stores. If you are concerned about excess salt, antibiotics and harmful bacteria, you can cook the fish yourself at home.

Ingredients:

• 2 freshly frozen saury;
• 50 ml of 9% vinegar;
• 2 tsp. salt, sugar;
• Glass of oil (refined);
• bay leaf, pepper, to taste.

How to cook:

1. Sterilize two half-liter glass jars and metal lids.
2. Defrost saury on the refrigerator shelf. Peel, gut, and rinse. Cut off head, tail. Cut into 8-inch pieces.
3. Place tightly in a saucepan.
4. Make marinade by combining and mixing all remaining ingredients. Pour over the fish.
5. Put the pot on the stove, stew over low heat for 3.5 hours under a lid, and 20 minutes without the lid to let excess moisture evaporate.

When ready, put the fish into jars and cover.

Is it possible to eat fish with weight loss?

Sayra can be eaten when losing weight, pregnant, lactating women and children. It is important to cook it correctly, so that the useful product does not cause harm to health.

When losing weight

The product is included in the diet for overweight, obesity.

Useful properties of fish for weight loss:

• Fills the lack of vitamins, micro and macronutrients;
• Improves digestion, sleep;
• Accelerates metabolic processes;
• normalizes blood cholesterol levels.

To get the maximum benefit from the product, nutritionists recommend steaming saury without salt, poaching it in water, or stewing it. To balance the diet, it is enough to eat 150 grams of fish twice a week.

Pregnant

While carrying a child in women weaken the immune system and feel the lack of nutrients. Pregnant women to a greater extent need a balanced diet, rich in vitamins, minerals, unsaturated fatty acids.

The deficiency of these elements is covered by the inclusion in the diet of saury in boiled, baked and stewed form. Fish, rich in proteins, is easier to digest than meat, does not weigh on the stomach, helps digestion, supports the heart and blood vessels. Cod gives quick energy, prevents thrombosis, late toxicosis, fetal abnormalities.

Canned product should not be used during pregnancy, because it contains preservatives and a large amount of salt.

Breastfeeding women

When breastfeeding, you can eat boiled, baked, stewed saury or ukha 1-2 times a week from the second month. Low-calorie, nutritious dishes improve the quality of breast milk, saturating it with the necessary chemical elements for normal child development.

In addition, saury supports youthful skin, beauty of hair and nails. Establishes metabolism, supports the health of the kidneys, joints, thyroid gland and blood vessels.

Canned fish is better to exclude from the diet, as the product provokes allergies, upset stomach of mom and baby.

Children

Pediatricians advise giving saury to kids from three years of age. Fish included in children's food:

1. Supplies the building material for cells - proteins.
2. Gives quick energy.
3. Prevents the development of rickets.
4. Improves mood.
5. Participates in the formation of the musculoskeletal system, the muscle corset.

Children who regularly use fish, more successfully learn the school curriculum, withstand physical and mental stress, think faster, better concentrate.

Harm and contraindications

Sauré is contraindicated in case of allergies to fish protein, obesity. It is worth to give up the product in chronic liver and pancreatic diseases.

Where to buy and how much it costs

You can buy sea salmon in supermarkets, fish stores, markets, wholesalers and online marketplaces. Freshly frozen fish is sold, depending on size and region, at 190-250 p. per 1 kg. A tin of "Natural Saira" 240g costs 190-300r.

Rules of storage

Freshly gutted fish keeps its freshness on the refrigerator shelf for one day. To extend the shelf life up to two days, it is sprinkled with salt or lemon juice.

In a household freezer fish retains consumer properties for 3-4 months.

The average shelf life of canned product - 2 years at a temperature of 0-5 ° C, humidity up to 75%. After opening the jar contents should be consumed immediately or put in a glass or ceramic container, close lid, store in the refrigerator for no more than two days.

Cooking applications

Boiled, pan-fried, stewed, baked, smoked, salted. Canned product is used as a snack on its own or as an ingredient in soups, salads, fillings.

The main thing is not to add many spices, so as not to interrupt the delicate flavor of saury.

What can be combined with?

Products included in fish dishes or used to prepare side dishes:

• hard cheese;
• boiled eggs;
• mushrooms;
• rice, potatoes;
• Onions, green onions;
• vegetables fresh, pickles;
• dill, parsley, cumin;
• garlic;
• black pepper, bay leaf;
• white cabbage (fresh, sauerkraut).

Salads with saury dressed with lemon juice, mayonnaise, vegetable oil, mustard.

What can be cooked from saury

Soups, ukha, rassolnik, soups, stews, appetizers, and a variety of salads are prepared with fish. They make sandwiches, meatballs, meatballs, and waffle cakes for appetizers.

With fresh or canned product get delicious stuffed eggs, fish pâté, fillings for flood pies, rastegayev.

How to cook saira fish deliciously: recipes

In addition to the famous sairah soup, the fish is often fried and baked in the oven.

In the oven

Fish cooked in the oven does not require additional gravy, sauces.

Products:

• 3 pieces of fresh saury;
• half a lemon;
• 3 sprigs of parsley, dill;
• Mixture of ground pepper, salt;
• vegetable oil.

How to bake:

1. Gut, rinse the fish. Leave heads and tails.
2. Rub the carcasses with spices. After a quarter of an hour, put a lemon cut into thin slices into the bellies.
3. Spread a sheet of foil on a baking tray. Grease with oil, place 3 fish. Place a sprig of parsley and dill on top of each one.
4. Cover fish with second sheet of foil. Seal the edges.
5. Send the tray with the contents for 30 minutes in an oven heated to 180 degrees.

To brown the fish, 10 minutes before the end of cooking, unseal, remove the top sheet of foil.

Pan-fried.

Pan-fried saury turns out delicious, looks appetizing because of the ruddy crust.

Ingredients:

• 5 fish carcasses;
• salt, pepper;
• 80 grams of flour for breading;
• 3 tbsp. vegetable oil for frying.

How to prepare:

1. Clean the fish, cut off the heads, tails, take out the insides, rinse. Dry with paper towels.
2. Rub the fish with salt and pepper and let it rest for half an hour.
3. Heat a frying pan with oil. Roll salmon in flour, fry on both sides until browned.

Serve this dish with a vegetable salad.

Recipe for canned saury soup

To make a quick soup from a can of saury, you will additionally need:

• 100 g of rice;
• 3 to 4 tubers of potatoes;
• One onion, one carrot;
• 2 tbsp. tomato;
• pepper, salt, bay leaf;
• dill greens;
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil.

Method of preparation:

1. Put a pot of water on the stove.
2. Rinse rice several times to clean water.
3. Peel vegetables. Potatoes cut into strips, onions in small cubes, grate carrots.
4. Put potatoes with rice in boiling water.
5. Fry onion and carrot in a pan with oil. Add tomato paste, stir it up.
6. Send the roast to the pot. Then mash canned saury with a fork.
7. After it boils, add spices. Remove the pot from the stove when the rice and potatoes are cooked.
8. Allow the soup to stand for 10 minutes.

Serve the first course with chopped greens.

Can you salt it?

A salty fish can also be salted. It turns out lightly salted, spicy and very tasty.

Recipe

To salt 1 kg of freshly frozen fish you will need a set of products:

• a liter of water;
• 150 grams of salt;
• black, white pepper, coriander, a few bay leaves.

Steps of cooking lightly salted salted saury:

1. Rinse thawed fish thoroughly under cold running water. Place in the bottom of a saucepan.
2. Prepare the brackish. Pour salt into water, add spices, and boil for 2-3 minutes.
3. After the salt solution cools, pour it over the fish.
4. Cover with an upturned flat plate, put a burden.
5. In 4 days, gut the fish, cut off the heads, rinse and put into jars.
6. Pour in vegetable oil, put it in the fridge.

Lightly salted saury can be tasted after 24 hours.

A Q&A

Adherents of healthy lifestyles and simply lovers of fish dishes are interested in the organoleptic properties of fish and what kind of healthier saira - fresh or canned.

What does saury taste like?

Fish meat is tender, fatty with a pleasant acidity and a bright, specific flavor that does not spoil the taste, but adds spice.

Canned saury differs in taste depending on the manufacturer, the added ingredients.

Fatty or not?

The product belongs to the fatty varieties of fish, as it contains 14% of fats represented by polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Are there many bones in the fish?

Like any other saltwater fish, saury has few small bones. Canned fish has them, but from the long heat treatment in autoclaves they become soft, almost imperceptible.

Which is better: fresh sairah or canned?

Fresh fish, unlike canned fish, which has undergone a long heat treatment, and sometimes a preliminary defrosting, preserves all the vitamins. Fresh product is less caloric. But during canning unsaturated fatty acids Omega-3 are released and become easily digestible. Also in canned fish are preserved in unchanged form of micro and macronutrients, calciferol, nicotinic acid, B vitamins.

The harm of canned fish:

1. Excess salt, fats, leading to obesity, edema, increased blood pressure.
2. Contact with metal, which increases the risks of activation of oxidation.
3. Entry of pathogenic microorganisms, if sanitary and hygienic rules, production processes are violated.

If the recommended daily rate of saury boiled, stewed, baked - 100-150 g, canned - 40 g.

Interesting Facts

Cognitive facts about saury:

1. According to Rosstat, the population of the Arkhangelsk, Magadan and Astrakhan regions consumes the most fish, less - in Tyva, Altai and Ossetia.
2. In Japan the volume of saury fishing is the third largest after sprat and anchovy.
3. The tastiest meat comes from medium-sized females 2-3 years old.
4. Fishing boats put floodlights with blue lights along the side and red lights on the other side to attract shoals of saury.
5. In the 1980s, when fish were plentiful, the coordinates of the location of huge schools were transmitted to Earth by Soviet cosmonauts.

If properly selected, preserved and cooked fish, from dishes with saury, including canned, you can get a lot of nutrients, maintain health, diversify the menu without damage to the family budget.

Photo of saury