Balyk (from Turkic balïq) is the
salted and
dried soft parts of
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...
, usually coming from large valuable species: ''
acipenseridae'' (e.g.,
sturgeon) or ''
salmonidae
Salmonidae is a family of ray-finned fish that constitutes the only currently extant family in the order Salmoniformes . It includes salmon (both Atlantic and Pacific species), trout (both ocean-going and landlocked), chars, freshwater whitefis ...
'' (
salmon
Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...
). The word means "fish" in
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia ( Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic l ...
(written ''
balık'' in Turkish).
History
Over time, the term was applied to
smoked fish
Smoked fish is fish that has been cured by smoking. Foods have been smoked by humans throughout history. Originally this was done as a preservative. In more recent times fish is readily preserved by refrigeration and freezing and the smoking of ...
of this kind, and one may see, e.g., "
cold smoked
Smoking is the process of flavoring, browning, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to smoke from burning or smoldering material, most often wood. Meat, fish, and '' lapsang souchong'' tea are often smoked.
In Europe, alder is the trad ...
hucho
''Hucho'' is a genus of large piscivorous salmonid fish known as taimens (from Finnish through Russian ), and is closely related to Pacific trout and lenoks (all belonging to the same tribe in the subfamily Salmoninae). Native to the cold ...
balyk." As a curiosity, recently a number of
cold smoked
Smoking is the process of flavoring, browning, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to smoke from burning or smoldering material, most often wood. Meat, fish, and '' lapsang souchong'' tea are often smoked.
In Europe, alder is the trad ...
meat products branded "balyk" appeared in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
. Traditionally,
sturgeon balyk has been considered the most fine and tender one, sought and praised by
gourmet
Gourmet (, ) is a cultural idea associated with the culinary arts of fine food and drink, or haute cuisine, which is characterized by refined, even elaborate preparations and presentations of aesthetically balanced meals of several contrasting, of ...
s. At the same time, the tender flesh of sturgeon is more susceptible to growth of ''
Clostridium botulinum
''Clostridium botulinum'' is a Gram-positive, rod-shaped, anaerobic, spore-forming, motile bacterium with the ability to produce the neurotoxin botulinum.
The botulinum toxin can cause botulism, a severe flaccid paralytic disease in humans ...
'' bacteria.
See also
*
List of dried foods
This is a list of dried foods. Food drying is a method of food preservation that works by removing water from the food, which inhibits the growth of bacteria and has been practiced worldwide since ancient times to preserve food. Where or when d ...
References
Balyk
Dried fish
Soviet cuisine
Russian cuisine
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