Salt Cured Anchovies
Many years ago, before the development of modern fishing equipment, fishermen always had the problem of how to preserve particularly large catches of shoals of fish. Shoals of sardines, pilchards, anchovies and the like, common in Greek waters, tend to be generous to the extreme, with the result that they led the human mind to invent methods for preserving, for times when fishing yielded poor catches. The most ancient method for preserving small fish such as anchovies was salting, which is still practiced today.On Euvoia there existed, and still do, a number of large salting facilities, as well as canning ones, since the islands waters are rich in fish.Below follows the traditional method in which fish can be salt cured.
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EmailIngredients:
- 2 kg of anchovies
- ½ kg of rock salt
Procedure:
Wash the anchovies and, if desired, remove the heads.
Sprinkle the bottom of a wide container with salt.
Arrange a layer of anchovies, side by side, on top of the salt.
Add another layer of salt and follow with anchovies again.
For each layer of anchovies, change the direction in which they are arranged.
Continue until all the anchovies have been layered.
Once the final layer of fish has been arranged, cover with plenty of salt and place a wooden board on top of the fish.
Atop the board, place something relatively heavy, such as a rock, in order to compress the combination of fish and salt.
Leave the container in a dark place for approximately 60 days.
At the end of this period of time, the salted anchovies are ready for eating.
