Sprats in tomato sauce

Often, with some degree of irony, people refer to sprats in tomato sauce as "students' food. " Somehow it happened by itself that people's student years are associated not only with studies or vacations, but also with a constant lack of money, so canned fish will remain a universal food for students for all times.

In the USSR, sprats in tomato sauce were considered truly folk fish, which hostesses often used to prepare various dishes. Nowadays, store shelves are bursting with a variety of goods, including canned food, we have a choice.

Modern hostesses do not need to invent a thousand first dishes of canned sprats in tomato sauce to please or surprise guests. However, do not underestimate the sprat, from which you can make many really delicious dishes. For example, fish soup with tomatoes, sprat salad in tomato sauce, filling for fish pie or kulebyak, etc.

Sprat fish belongs to the herring family and combines several types of fish under its name. Everyone knows the noble sprat fish, which belongs to the genus Kilek. True, sprats are not a simple sprat fish, but one that lives in the Baltic region. The genus kilek includes: European sprat, Baltic tracing paper, Black Sea sprat, Tulka, Anchovy sprat, Big-eyed sprat, Arab short sprat, Abrau sprat. Sprat fish has a special place in the industrial extraction and processing of fish.

Sprats are harvested in the form of canned food, as well as smoked, fresh or frozen fish can be purchased in fish stores. People began to make canned food during the Great Geographical Discoveries. Long sea expeditions were forced to stock up on provisions for a long time, fish or canned meat are stored for a long time and do not lose their useful substances.

Back in the 19th century, the Russian Empire began to produce the first canned fish from fish such as sterlet, pour or sevryuga. The sprat in tomato sauce owes its appearance to the Secretary General of the USSR N. S. Khrushchev, who personally approved the recipe for the new canned food. The Kerch fish processing plant was the first enterprise to launch sprat production in tomato sauce.

Interestingly, although the sprat recipe in tomato sauce is approved by GOST RF, canned food from different manufacturers differs in taste and appearance. It's all about the sauce. There are a sufficient number of recipes for tomato sauce (about 30), in which sprats are preserved. Usually, sprats in tomato sauce include ingredients such as sprat fish, sugar, pepper, salt, coriander, nutmeg or nut, cardamom, cloves, tomato paste or mash, onions, peppers and flour.