Most of the "young" entrepreneurs believe that it is impossible to make money on smoking fish, and that such a business will bring more problems than profit. But they are all very wrong. Such a thing is easy to implement and relevant at any time of the year, because among consumers there is always a demand for smoked products.

Smoking at home

Smoking is the process of preparing fish by keeping it in an enclosed space filled with smoke from wood. Finely chopped wood (chips) should be used as kindling. The most important thing is not to use coniferous trees. Often used alder, willow, birch, oak or apple tree. They should be separated from the bark, finely chopped, soaked and placed in the bottom of your smoker, you can also put thin fresh twigs.

To begin with, you should purchase a smokehouse, usually it is a metal box with grates inside. Also, the box has a lid, which must be closed very tightly so that the smoke cannot escape.

Fish for smoking is also worth choosing correctly. Try to establish direct supplies of raw materials from manufacturers. Fatty fish are best suited: greenling, pike perch, perch, pike and others. Before smoking, the fish is most often salted, but you can cook it fresh.

Before salting, large fish should be gutted: remove gills, entrails and a dark film on the ribs, you can also fill the abdominal cavity of the fish with various spicy herbs (basil, dill, parsley and other spices). This is done to remove the bitterness in cooked fish, however, this procedure is not required for small fish. It is important to note that whitefish are an exception, and they must be gutted anyway, otherwise they will turn out bitter.

Especially tasty is the fish, which was soaked in spicy rossol before smoking, which makes its cape very tasty and tender. It is best to keep the fish for 2-3 hours in rossol just before smoking. During the smoking process, you will have to open the lid of the smoker and check the readiness of the product, try to do this quickly and carefully so as not to release too much smoke. Upon completion of smoking, the fish should be dried from fat with tracing paper or paper towels.

Hot smoking method

Using this method, you should be as careful as possible. With hot smoking, there is a big risk of losing fish, your precious time, and also losing customers.

The essence of hot smoking is keeping fish in hot smoke, and the main danger is the possibility of burning fish carcasses over an open fire.

For such smoking, cyprinids (bream, asp, sabrefish), cod (cod, burbot), salmon (chum salmon, pink salmon), sturgeon (starlet, sturgeon) are best suited, but other fish can also be used.

First of all, the fish should be gutted and thoroughly cleaned, then soaked in a 10% salt solution for 2-4 hours. Also, gutted fish can simply be rubbed with salt inside and out, and then let it soak for 3-4 hours. Next is the matter of smoking. For smoking, a thick-walled metal box with properly selected grates is suitable. At the bottom of the box you need to put firewood, which can be used as a birch, alder or aspen. To give the fish a golden color, it is worth pouring aspen sawdust. Above the firewood, grates should be installed. Then arrange the fish so that it does not touch each other, and also does not adhere to the walls of the smokehouse itself. With good heat, the fish should be cooked for 35 to 45 minutes.

Smoking in an air grill

Airfryer will save a lot of time, as well as produce much more products in the time saved. Professional smokers confirm the simplicity of this method of smoking, having calculated, they realized that, subject to all the rules and regulations, such smoking will take no more than two hours. The smoking time directly depends on the size and fat content of the fish, and usually lasts 20-40 minutes. You also need to remember that you should not keep the fish in hot smoke for more than 2.5 hours.

Small, portable smoker

As mentioned above, smoking with an air grill is very simple. You need to choose a fish of the same size, gut it, cut off the tail and head, rinse thoroughly and dry well with paper towels, make sure that there are no paper fibers left on the fish. Next, you need to make a mixture of coarse table salt and various spices and coat the fish with it inside and out. To salt the fish, let it lie down in this form for 2-3 hours, depending on the size of the fish, then put the fish on the grate at a small distance from each other, and put sawdust moistened with water on the bottom of the air grill. If you laid out dry sawdust, then they should simply be sprayed with water. Smoke the fish for 30 minutes in an air grill heated to 210 degrees Celsius.

This type of home business will bring you no small profit. The product is always in great demand among buyers, but it should be remembered that having gained a clientele, you should not degrade the quality of your product, otherwise you will lose not only existing customers, but also the potential growth of your business. You should approach the matter with full responsibility, choose fresh fish for smoking, try to take it from trusted suppliers that you trust. Also, one should not neglect the basic rules of smoking, doing business and, of course, safety.

Smoked products are popular delicacies at any time of the year. And the demand for them is unlikely to ever fall. Smoked lovers can make a business out of their hobby. For this you do not need to have professional education but it takes a lot of effort and time. Fish smoking as a business is highly competitive. You can break through with a really high-quality product.

Business features

The business of smoking fish at home is not as simple as it seems. It has many pitfalls, and its effectiveness varies depending on a number of factors, which we will discuss below.

It is important to carefully consider such points as:

choice of premises;
search for sales markets;
purchase of products;
purchase of equipment;
manufacturing process.

If you are ready for a long-term business, then growing a walnut as a business may interest you. Despite the fact that the tree will bear fruit only after five years, in the future, you can earn money on the plantation for many years. Here you will find information about organizing a walnut business.

Sales and risks

To attend to the establishment of a network for marketing products should be even before the production of products. The fact is that fish products have a short shelf life, they should not be allowed to be “deposited” in warehouses, otherwise they will have to be disposed of. Selling smoked fish as a business is a business that requires some skill.

Retail consumers are wary of new products, the cost of television advertising is expensive, online advertising in this industry is not very effective. Initially, be prepared for the fact that sales will be slow, and the promotion of goods will depend on effective work sales managers.

Range finished products

At the initial stages for the sale of products, the ideal options would be:

small grocery stores;
markets;
beer bars - smoked products are tastier and healthier than chips and other snacks.

Later, catering establishments may join this list.

We advise you not to sell through a supermarket chain: they, wanting to get a big benefit, overestimate the price. Most likely, not all products will be sold, and already expired will return in the form of illiquid assets to your company.

After expanding production, it is possible to think about creating a network own stores smoked products.

Business plan

Before starting a fish smoking business, a business plan must be drawn up to evaluate costs and revenues, determining when the payback will come.

The cost of a fish business is made up of the initial investment and monthly costs.

One-time expenses

purchase of equipment;
smoking units - 200 thousand rubles * 5 \u003d 1 million rubles (in order to provide 10 tons of products per day, 5 such installations are needed);
refrigerator and refrigerator - 200 thousand rubles;
other - 1 million rubles;
purchase of furniture - 1 million rubles;
costs for re-equipment and repair - 1 million rubles;
purchase of technical specifications - 110 thousand rubles;
purchase of a car - 1 million rubles.

Total: 5.320.000 rubles of initial investment.

Monthly costs

rent for premises: 700 thousand rubles;
production costs (electricity, other utilities, Consumables) - 850 thousand rubles;
purchase of raw materials - 5 million rubles (250 rubles per kg * 20 thousand kg);
wages for employees (based on 12 people) - 400 thousand rubles;
transport costs (including work with wholesalers) - 150 thousand rubles;
taxes and fees - 400 thousand rubles;
advertising - 300 thousand rubles;

Total: 7.800.000 rubles monthly.

Income

It is known that in the process of smoking the fish loses up to 10% of its weight. Suppose a company processes 20 tons of fish per month, that is, they produce 18 tons smoked products.

If we take for granted that a kg of finished products will be sold for 550 rubles, and all manufactured products will be sold, then the income per month will be: 18,000 kg * 550 rubles = 9.9 million rubles.

Net profit will be 9.9 - 7.8 = 2.1 million rubles.

Profitability - 27%. (2.1 / 7.8).

Payback will come in three months.

As a conclusion

Once you decide to start a fish smoking business, don't stop! Find a team of like-minded people, study legislative framework, analyze the strengths and weak sides competitors, create a high-quality and unique product, expand the range, surprise!

The sale of meat is a niche that has quite high competition. At the same time, it is quite possible to make money on sales. meat products. : calculate costs and profits.

For more information on how to open a pawnshop, read. Consider the opening plan from paperwork to solving security issues.

general information

Like any other business, the smoking business has a number of its own characteristics. If you plan to open a production facility aimed at a wide range of consumers, you should equip the premises, following numerous sanitary and hygienic requirements.

The situation is much simpler if you want to start smoking fish at home for personal consumption and for minimum sales in the local market. For this you will need absolutely small investment and some of my own efforts. Let's talk in detail about what is needed to create your own mini-production.

First steps

Considering fish smoking as a business, you should understand that first of all you will need industrial premises. This will be the main and most costly part of the future business. Not everyone can afford to build their own turnkey smoking shop, so entrepreneurs prefer to rent ready-made production facilities.

Since there are a lot of requirements for the premises, canteens in industrial areas can be considered as an object. In addition to the fact that they are being built in accordance with all regulations and norms, their location will correspond to one of the conditions for the creation of a smoking shop, namely: its location is not less than 300 meters from residential buildings.

The direction you have chosen is high level risk according to SES classification. That is why this body has a lot of requirements and standards for the opening of the workshop.

SanPiN norms

SanPiN 2.3.4.050-96 sets out in detail the rules for organizing the production and sale of fish products. We will not describe in detail the entire section, but only dwell on those points that relate directly to the smoking shop.

Requirements for the organization of a smokehouse

1. Production of smoking fish products, in addition to the premises where the main technological processes(cutting, defrosting, salting and leveling), should in without fail be equipped with the following rooms:

a refrigerated room for a daily supply of raw materials;
room for the preparation of saline solution;
a room for packaging finished products;
refrigerator for temporary storage of finished products;
a room for sanitizing returnable packaging;
a room for drying and storing containers;
container warehouse with a site for its repair;
a room for storing sawdust and fuel, as well as detergents and disinfectants, smoke liquid;
storage room for auxiliary and packaging materials.

2. Smoking chambers must be equipped with tight-closing doors, hatches and mechanical exhaust ventilation.

3. Elements of the smokehouse (ramrod, slats, etc.) must be doubled. They are sanitized once per shift. Chambers and cages are treated once a week.

4. Thermometers, psychrometers and moisture meters should be installed in smoking chambers to control temperature and humidity. Their testimony is recorded in special journals. Hot smoked fish must have an inside temperature of at least 80 degrees.

5. Raw materials for the production of smoked products must comply with the requirements of regulatory documents.

6. Finished products must be quickly cooled (to a temperature of 20 degrees), packed and placed in a refrigerator. Until the moment of sale, hot smoked products should be stored at a temperature of -2 ... +2, cold smoked - -5 ... 0 degrees.

7. Hot-smoked fish before freezing should not be stored for more than 12 hours from the moment it was unloaded from the smoking oven. Freezing of fish occurs immediately after cooling, the temperature should not exceed minus 18 degrees.

8. Containers for packaging (boxes) of smoked fish must have openings on the end sides.

9. When producing smoked balyk products in small packages, it is necessary that all inventory has its own marking.

10. Slices and pieces are stacked with special forks or spatulas.

11. Tables, cutting boards that are used in the processing of fish must be washed with a hot solution of soda ash (5%), then disinfected, rinsed and dried.

12. The export of finished products and the supply of raw materials must be carried out through separate entrances and elevators.

13. Transportation, storage and sale of hot and cold smoked finished products must be carried out in accordance with the requirements for perishable products.

In addition to the SES, it is necessary to coordinate the opening of production with Rosprirodnadzor, the veterinary and fire services, and Rostekhnadzor.

Equipment costs

Equipment for smoking fish can be purchased and installed with a relatively small amount of money available - about 300 thousand rubles. This is taking into account the fact that you will purchase it not new, but used. For work you will need:

refrigerators for storage of raw materials;
baths for washing and salting products.

Smoker selection

Today on the market there is big choice smoking chambers with various technical specifications. Imported smoking equipment can provide minimal profitability when processing from 8 to 10 tons per day. Small enterprises that do not have such volumes may pay attention to domestic units. Their price starts from 130 thousand rubles.

Smokehouses for small businesses allow you to make cost-effective production when loading 200-300 kg per day. This can be a good option not only for start-up entrepreneurs, but also for those who are going to expand. Having assembled a line of 5-6 units, it is possible to ensure the processing of 8-10 tons of finished products per day. Smokehouses for small businesses will allow you to raise economic efficiency equipment.

Raw material

Now let's talk about raw materials. Namely, about what will be smoked and where to come from. You need to develop a range of products based on the culinary preferences of the inhabitants of your region. It is also desirable to buy fish in your city or region. This moment is fundamentally important, since only by reducing the time of transportation will you be able to get a high-quality and fresh product that has all the necessary documentation.

Therefore, when choosing fish smoking as a business, carefully study the market of raw material suppliers so as not to incur losses in the future. After all, you are risking not only your own in cash but also the taste of the product. Focusing on small industrial volumes, you should not order 20 tons of fish.

Quality issues of purchased raw materials and finished products are among the most important that you may encounter when starting a business. Without the necessary education in this area, think about a technologist and a specialist in quality control of incoming products. The latter may be concurrently and veterinarian. He has the right to issue all necessary accompanying documents for finished products.

Sales and risks

An entrepreneur who smokes fish at home does not expect a big sale. It is enough to have a point in the local market, regular customers and the products will be sold out. Another thing is if the volumes of finished smoked fish are quite high, and sales are not properly established. Products are stored in a warehouse for a long time and deteriorate due to short sales periods.

A well-established sales network will be the key to success. You can conclude contracts with large retail chains. But you should evaluate the share of risks when working with such giants. They tend to greatly inflate retail prices, while achieving maximum profit. Customer demand is down, stock is spoiled due to short shelf life, and you have returns of expired products from customers.

A good solution would be to open your own small outlet. In addition, you can provide products for sale to small stores, where, subject to a certain level of retail prices, you can get guaranteed sales of your products and low returns.

Finally

When choosing fish smoking as a business, do not forget that the basis of the enterprise should be the high quality of your products. By sticking to traditional recipes, using fruit sawdust and firewood, and purchasing high-quality and fresh raw materials, you will be able to win the trust of customers and earn a good reputation for your company. And that is the key to a successful business.

Area: 24 m2
Temperature in the chamber: -7С°

Technology Description:

The chamber is conditionally divided into two parts. The first part (upper) is used to store raw materials (frozen or fresh meat or fish). The second part (lower) is for finished products.

It is important to know:
1.

Meat and fish cannot be stored in the same refrigerator!
2. Raw materials at a temperature of -7C ° can be stored for no more than 2 weeks, respectively, in the warehouse should
a stock is kept for two weeks, and batches are kept for spending the raw materials that came first.
3. The refrigerating chamber may not be part of the premises and be mounted outdoors under a canopy.

2.
Room for salting, cutting and smoking

Area: 27 m2
Drainage ladder required Wastewater in room.

Technology Description: In this room, the raw materials are cut, washed and salted. Then it is strung on skewers or laid out on grills (for fillet or for meat that is smoked in a horizontal position). Skewers or grates with products are placed on the crate, hung in the room for 30 minutes, after which it is moved to the drying chamber for drying before smoking.

3. Room for smoking

Area: 27 m2
Room temperature: 18-20C°
Humidity: not higher than 60%
The room must be equipped with ventilation, as well as a chimney with a diameter of 110 mm for Izhitsa-GK.

Technology Description: After drying, the crate with the semi-finished product is moved to the smokehouse for hot
(Izhitsa-GK) or cold smoked (Izhitsa-1200M2). After smoking, the products are hung for
stabilization of the color (golden color) of the smoked product, after which the crate on the trolley moves to
packing table.

The total maximum energy consumption of the workshop - 25 kW.
Workshop productivity - up to 600 kg. finished products per day.

Facilities and equipment for cold-smoked fish shops

Cold smoking workshops have soaking, thermal (drying and smoking) and packaging departments.
Soaking compartment has the required number of baths in which fish is soaked. Depending on the capacity of the chambers and the capacity of the soaking baths, from 0.7 to 1.4 baths with a capacity of 7-10 q of fish each are installed per smoking chamber. As a rule, the soaking department is equipped with plumbing.
Hung up. Drying of fish before smoking is carried out on hangers or in drying chambers. Hangers are placed on towers or under a canopy and protect them metal meshes. The fish is hung in 2-6 tiers. Ground hangers suit from 2.5 to 4.5 m in height. For better blowing of the fish and its speedy drying, the structure is made in the form of a long narrow salmak. elongated across the direction of the prevailing winds.
Smoking ovens of chamber type. From 3 to 20 cameras are placed in one building. There are chamber and tunnel type smoking ovens. Tunnel chambers are installed in mechanized factories. Chamber-type smoking ovens, built in the areas of consumption at fish trading enterprises, are somewhat different from the design of the chambers of the Caspian basin.
Chamber-type smoking ovens of the Caspian Basin are located in wooden buildings. The lower part of each chamber from the inside is lined with bricks 0.5-0.8 m high. The chambers are arranged in one or two rows (Fig. 9). When placed in two rows, the chambers retain heat better, have higher exhaust pipes, which leads to good smoke draft and reduces the smoking process. With a single-row arrangement of chambers, the aeration of the room and the removal of smoke are better carried out by opening the ventilation windows. The area of smoking chambers ranges from 30 to 50 m2. The most common cell sizes are 6×8 or 5×8 m. The height of the cells varies from 2.3 to 3 m. Each cell has a door and four or two 0.25×0.4 m m below the ceiling.

At fish processing enterprises, smoking chambers are completely made of bricks. These chambers, in comparison with the chambers of the Caspian Basin, are smaller in area, but much higher.
The most common size of chamber-type smoking ovens is 5×4 or 6×3 m, height 3.5-4.5 m. Smoking in these chambers is carried out in 4-6 and even 8 tiers. The chambers have exhaust pipes providing good smoke draft. Unlike chambers in the Caspian basin, chambers at fish trading enterprises have ventilation windows 0.5 × 0.5 m in size, located at the bottom, 1 m above the floor, which allows for a slightly different smoking mode.
Preliminary drying of fish on hangers, as well as the process of smoking in chamber-type smoking ovens, largely depend on the state of the weather. In cold weather, the process is significantly lengthened.
Mechanized drying and smoking tunnels eliminate the need for breaks between "chickens", provide artificial drying and smoking in special tunnels, where smoke is supplied from special furnaces, and draft is provided by a fan system. Drying-smoking tunnels are widely used in our mechanized large and small smoking plants located both in industrial fishing areas and in industrial centers in the consuming regions of the country.
In tunnel-type drying chambers, fish is dried with warm air. Drying tunnels have a length of 16-26 m, with a cross section of 1.7 × 1.7 or 2 × 2 m. 10 or more cages or trolleys with fish are loaded into the drying tunnel.
Trolleys move along rails, cages move along a monorail. Fish are loaded into the tunnel from one end side and unloaded from the opposite side. The supply of air heated in the air heater is carried out by a fan according to the counterflow method, i.e.

towards the movement of trolleys (Fig. 10).

In the presence of long tunnels, uneven dehydration of fish occurs along the height of the trolley. In the lower rows of the trolley, the fish dries out more slowly than in the upper rows. To eliminate this shortcoming, one of the largest fisheries institutes proposed to install a radiant thermal panel in the floor of the drying chamber.
Behind Lately in the construction of new smoking industries, they began to use drying chambers tunnel type with a simultaneous placement of four trolleys (Fig. 11). In such dryers, intensive and uniform drying of fish is achieved by using a reverse-vertical air movement - from top to bottom, from bottom to top, with the appropriate arrangement of semicircular air ducts under and above the trolleys. Drying is carried out according to the counterflow method with air recirculation.

Tunnel-type smoking chambers with hearth fires have a length of 16 to 26 m, the cross section is the same as in the drying tunnels, namely 1.7 × 1.7 and 2 × 2 m. Each smoking tunnel has at least eight hearth furnaces (Fig. 12). The loading of sawdust into the furnaces is carried out through the corridors located in the basement and running in the direction perpendicular to the tunnels. The exhaust pipe is installed at the end or in the middle of the tunnel. The fish is loaded into the chambers on trolleys or cages.
Chambers with a remote smoke generator. Availability a large number hearth furnaces complicates the maintenance of the thermal department and does not make it possible to regulate the temperature and relative humidity of the smoke entering the chambers, and to use automatic control devices. Using a remote smoke generator, these disadvantages can be eliminated. In Astrakhan at the fish factory. Krupskaya in 1941 built a mechanized cold smoking shop with a central smoke generator placed in a separate room (Fig. 13). The simplest smoke generator is made of boiler iron and has the shape of a truncated cone: the diameter of the cone is 2 m, the height is 1.8 m, the pipe diameter is 0.4 m.
The supply of smoke from the generator to the smoking tunnel is carried out according to the injection method according to the scheme shown in fig. 14.

As a result of this method of supplying smoke, there was excess pressure in the tunnel, which led to smoke in the entire workshop room.
If there is a separate generator, the smoke supply must be carried out according to the suction method, as shown in fig. 15, and use a special spark arrester. On fig. 16 shows a diagram of an ejector-spark arrester developed by the author. The ejector makes it possible not only to catch sparks for fire safety purposes, but also to increase the smoke draft from the generator due to smoke ejection.

Chambers of the Leningrad type are tunnels 3 m long, 1 m wide and 2 m high. The fish, previously strung on a ramrod, is placed on frames located in the chamber in 4 tiers. The one-time capacity of each chamber, depending on the size of the fish, varies from 2.5 to 5 q. In the same chamber, both drying and smoking of fish are carried out. A plywood sheet with holes is placed above the fish to evenly distribute air throughout the chamber during the drying process (Fig. 17). Drying is carried out with heated air supplied to the chamber by means of a fan. Dry air is blown in through the upper opening A, moist air is removed through the lower opening B. Smoke generation is carried out in a special oven located next to the smoking chamber. The furnace has two fireboxes located one above the other; the lower one is for firewood, the upper one, with a grate, is for sawdust. The flue gases through the chimney B exit into the smoking chamber through a series of holes, wash the fish and the exhaust smoke exits the chamber through a number of other holes.

Exhaust hoods are installed at the doors of the smoking chambers, through which smoke is removed that seeps through the doors into the workshop room. Tower chambers are widely used in the meat industry for smoking meat products. In 1938, a tower-type chamber was built at the smoking plant of the Moscow Fish Plant. Mikoyan. The chamber is a shaft with a height of 5 floors with a base area of 30 m2. Two endless plate chains move inside the chamber, making eight turns.
The chains, located at a distance of 2.5 m from each other, are driven by six-pointed stars from an 8 kW electric motor. In the basement there is a combustion chamber, which is separated from the smoking chamber by a metal grate (Fig. 18). Heating devices are installed on the side walls of the shaft, providing the necessary smoke temperature in the chamber. An exhaust pipe is installed in the upper part of the shaft.

Fish with a chain speed of 1.2 m/min goes through the shaft many times from top to bottom and from bottom to top, so the finished product leaves the chamber uniform in quality and moisture.
Large-sized fish are smoked in tower-type chambers Total duration smoking this fish for 3 days. The daily productivity of the chamber is 30 kg of fish. For 100 quintals of finished products, 30 quintals of sawdust and 4 quintals of firewood are consumed.
Packaging department. A dry, warm and bright room with a width of 8-10 m and a length of 15-25 m is allocated for the packaging compartment. Half of the area of the premises is occupied by sorting and packing fish into containers. Depending on the size of the production, 2-3 sorting tables are installed, each measuring 1.5 × 2.5 m, and racks for hanging poles with smoked fish. The other half of the room is allotted for capping, hanging and labeling boxes with finished products and forming a wagon batch.

Fish is a wonderful product. Its nutritional value is high, it contains a lot of high-quality proteins and easily digestible fats. Our body's needs for basic minerals such as phosphorus, potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium can be fully met by fish products. Ways to increase the shelf life of fish have been known for a long time, these are salting and smoking. The preservative effect of smoke on fish is so great that the harmful microflora is not restored. long time later. Smoke is a natural antiseptic, it increases the shelf life and gives the fish a special taste and aroma. Therefore, smoking fish has been known for a long time, especially in the Orthodox tradition.

Cold smoking.

For fatty varieties of fish (halibut, catfish, mackerel, catfish, burbot), the cold smoking method is more often used. It lasts from 3 to 5 days at smoke temperatures up to 40 degrees. The electrostatic field reduces the technological time to 2-3 hours. This cold smoking technology is used in industrial environment. See more industrial electric smokers. Small fish (300-500 gr.) are smoked for two days, and large fish up to 6 days. The weight loss of the fish in this case is 10-15% of the original.

Cold-smoked fish can be stored in a refrigerator at a temperature of 3 degrees. within a week unpacked, and vacuum-packed 4-6 weeks. However, the first three days it is the most palatable. After 16 days of storage, smoked fish loses its taste.
Cold smoked smelt. For 1 kg of fish take 100 g of salt, 6 g of allspice and 6 g of black pepper. The smelt is cleaned, the insides are taken out, sprinkled with salt and pepper and left for a day in a cool place. Then, strung on a skewer or on hooks, the smelt is smoked for 20 to 50 hours.
Cold smoked herring. Gutted herring of weak salt is washed, dried for an hour and smoked at a temperature of no more than 30 degrees. Sometimes the herring is not gutted, but this spoils the taste, bitterness appears. Herring is smoked from 6 to 18 hours.
Cold smoked fish is a traditional Russian product. There is no such product in Europe. See the article how to cook at home cold smoked trout.

Hot smoking.

All types of fish are suitable for hot smoking, but river fish are considered especially tasty. perch, carp, burbot, eel, bream, tench, cod. Usually, they smoke at a temperature of 90-130 degrees for 20-120 minutes. Before smoking, small fish (Baltic smelt, capelin) are salted without gutting, and large ones are gutted. It's fast, reliable and easy. At home, it is often used because fish is smoked quickly, and immediately after smoking it can be served without cooling. See article smoked fish for dinner
Home smoking in ovens made on alder firewood without leaves with the addition of a small amount of juniper, peeled of needles. Before laying the fish, the oven is heated. Pre-salted fish is placed in the oven for baking. When the fish is baked to readiness, they proceed to the final phase of smoking. They close the valve of the pipe and extinguish the fire in the furnace, filling it with alder sawdust. The duration of smoking depends on the design of the oven, it is necessary to identify its properties in practice. Smoking in the oven lasts an average of 2-3 hours. Keep in mind that it is easy to spoil fish by choosing the wrong wood for smoking. In no case do not burn conifers (spruce, pine) in the smokehouse. The fish will be bitter. They are usually smoked on alder, aspen, willow or on branches of fruit trees. There is little benefit from leaves and green branches; it is better to smoke on rotten logs.
Home smoked in a box. Sawdust is poured at the bottom of the smokehouse, a baking sheet is placed for the dripping fat, grates for fish carcasses are placed above it. Then close the box with a lid, heat and smoke for 20-30 minutes at a temperature of 130 degrees. Sometimes the smokehouse is placed on a primus or gas burner. In this case, the smoking time increases to 2 hours at a temperature not exceeding 90 degrees. Hot smoked fish is made less salty, usually no more than 7%. Home-smoked fish is not designed for long-term storage, it is slightly salty and less saturated with smoke, so in summer it should be eaten on the day of cooking. The meat of properly smoked fish is evenly baked, easily separated from the skin, crumbly. With careless smoking - the fish is bitter in taste, viscous, or undercooked. If the fish falls apart and fat flows from it, these are signs that it has been in the smoker longer than it should be or it was too hot.

Smoking preserves from fish. Often, fishermen, to save their catch, especially in the warm season, salt the fish while still in the sea. The ambassador is doing cool. Fish preserves are intended for smoking later, on the shore. If the fish has had time to salt too much, it is better to soak it in cold water, changing the water every 2 hours.

Smoking equipment.

The designs of smokehouses for fish depend on the purpose. Home smokehouses They are distinguished by the source of heat, they can be gas, electric or wood. Smoking modes in them are mainly set by time. At home, or when fishing, they often use smokehouses made do it yourself. Usually, they do not have means of temperature control, so the readiness of the fish is controlled by secondary signs. Industrial smokehouses are distinguished by the volume of the working chamber and the method of producing smoke. Cold smoking in them occurs with the help of a smoke generator. Industrial smokers for fish differ in the means of controlling the temperature and time of smoking, and hence the cost. Import lines have high productivity. They include automated complexes for fish processing in large volumes, from 20 tons per shift. Small business uses smokehouses with loading up to 300 kg in shift. The line of cameras for industrial smoking of fish starts from 50 kg.

Smoked fish is packed in board or cardboard boxes, in woven veneer boxes with a capacity of up to 30 kg. When choosing the type and size of containers for packaging certain types smoked fish in industrial conditions are guided by the requirements of standards and specifications.

Pseudo smoking with liquid smoke.

Experts say that 70% of the smoked delicacies sold have not been smoked at all. Producers often replace time-consuming traditional smoking by soaking fish in a "liquid smoke" solution. This is a blatant deception of buyers. There is an illusion of smoke smoking, but the smoked flavor is due to the presence of phenol, which is very toxic. When processing stale meat or fish, manufacturers may exceed the allowable concentrations of "liquid smoke" to drown out the off-flavour. There were cases when, after such processing, frankly spoiled products fell on the counter. Watch the video clip (6 mb.) about pseudo smoking .

Price list for the products of the Fish Day smoking shop as of 01.11.2017

Valid for wholesale buyerslei(minimum order amount 3000 rub.)

PRICE for smoking and drying services (raw materials provided by the customer)*

* the price is valid for raw materials supplied by the customer fully prepared for smoking or drying (thawed, cut, salted)

Packaging of finished products produced in the container of the Customer or in the container of the Contractor.

The cost of packaging in the customer's container is free of charge, in the contractor's container 25 rubles / 10 kg of finished products. Container - corrugated box (corrugated tray) size 540x390x115. Packing in smaller containers (Corex) is negotiated separately.

EXAMPLE of calculating the services of smoking or drying with packaging in the container of the contractor:

The weight of a batch of raw materials prepared for smoking or drying is 45 kg

Weight loss of raw materials during smoking or drying - 7.6 kg (16.8%)

Output of finished products - 37.4 kg

The cost of the service for this batch of products:

Cold smoking: 37.4 * 25 = 935 rubles.

Packing: for 37.4 kg of finished products you will need 4 corrugated boxes = 100 rubles.

Total: 935 + 100 = 1035 rub.

Hot smoked or dried\u003d 37.4 * 35 \u003d 1309 rubles.

Packing: 37.4 kg of finished products will need 4 corrugated boxes = 100 rubles.

Total: 1309 + 100 = 1409 rub.

Smoked fish is in high demand and at the same time it is well stored under normal conditions for quite a long time.

These two characteristics make it possible to consider fish smoking as a business, which can be organized in as soon as possible and with relatively little investment.

Technology features

The technology of smoking fish is nothing complicated. You can organize the process even outdoors - a few square meters of free space will be enough, and the simplest smoking device is quite possible to assemble on your own. To do this, it is enough to have a metal barrel and several pipes through which smoke will flow into the smoking chamber. The necessary drawings and advice from experienced craftsmen, if desired, can be found on the Internet, where there are also a lot of recipes for smoking fish of various breeds - from traditional, classic, to very unusual and even exotic.

To organize a larger-scale production, of course, more efforts will be required. You will need a workshop - a room that meets basic sanitary standards and production requirements. It is very difficult to find a ready-made suitable premises. and renting it will be expensive. Building your own workshop will cost even more, in addition, it will take a very long time.

Fish smoking as a large-scale business is impossible without special equipment - smoking cabinets, which are not cheap. The specific price depends on the volume of cabinets, the brand of the manufacturer, as well as the presence or absence of additional functions and capabilities. But even average performance models cost about 300 thousand rubles.

You will also need refrigeration equipment for storing raw materials, baths for salting fish, as well as special devices for organization warehousing such as shelving or hanging systems. To smoke large volumes of products, you will need a lot of sawdust, preferably fruit trees, which are sometimes not so easy to get in the required volume.

A prerequisite is the ability to connect to the mains, as industrial smokehouses are equipped with an electric heating element.

There are models in which this function is performed by a gas burner, but their operation requires the creation of additional conditions and is much more expensive.

Approvals and permissions

But the main difficulty is not even in this. Smoking fish as a business is one of the most difficult types of production., since the entrepreneur is required to comply with a large number of standards and conditions that are put forward by various supervisory organizations. First of all, it is a sanitary and epidemiological station that monitors compliance with sanitary standards. You will also need to obtain permission from organizations such as Rospotrebnadzor, Rosprirodnadzor and Rostekhnadzor. Given the peculiarities of the modern Russian bureaucracy, this will not be easy at all.

Separate conversation - the relationship with the fire service. The production of smoked fish is associated with high temperatures, as well as the use of open fire, therefore, it is necessary to strictly observe the basic requirements of fire safety.

Purchase of raw materials

Ensuring the production of smoked fish with raw materials is the most difficult and responsible stage. There are two important aspects in this matter - the formation of an assortment and the search for suitable suppliers.

The assortment largely depends on the culinary preferences of the inhabitants of the area in which it is planned to develop smoking fish as a business. Buying power should also be taken into account. target audience, but it depends on the level social development region. Simply put, it is foolish to focus on expensive marine fish if you plan to sell your products to people with an average income, in whose traditions the emphasis is on the use of river species.

As for suppliers, here it is better to give preference to local producers. These can be special fish farms or fishing artels. Such recommendations are explained by the fact that the delivery of raw materials from afar requires, firstly, additional costs, and secondly, freezing, and this already affects the quality and taste of the products.

It is also important to correctly calculate the volume of deliveries and their regularity. On the one hand, it is not desirable to allow equipment downtime and service personnel, but at the same time, the accumulation of excess raw materials in warehouses entails additional costs, as well as the risk of partial loss of products due to spoilage.

Sales of products

Of great importance proper organization sales of finished products. The main risk is associated with the formation of a large amount of surplus in warehouses, which, if it is impossible to provide the necessary storage conditions, entails significant financial losses.

Moreover, it often happens that wholesale customers after some time, they return expired products, which they could not sell.

This is especially true for large retail chains, where retail prices are sometimes a bit high compared to smaller outlets.

In this regard, experts strongly recommend marketing smoked fish through small shops that specialize in selling specific products, for example, various smoked meats for beer. Practice shows that in such cases the volume of return of unsold goods is much lower than in cooperation with network hypermarkets.

Thus, fish smoking as a business has a lot of features that leave their mark on the production process, as well as the issues of selling finished products. All this adds a headache to the entrepreneur, but with a competent approach to organizing the process, these difficulties can be overcome.