Tyulka (Caspian sprat)
Herring - Herring
Clupeonella delicatula - Clupeonella Kessler
length: up to 15 cm; weight: up to 22g; mining season: February-March, October.
Habitat
Tyulka lives in desalinated areas of the Black, Azov and Caspian Seas, lakes Charkhal and Paleostomi, and is found in many reservoirs.
General information
Tyulka or Caspian sprat is a schooling, pelagic fish.
The body is elongated, slightly flattened laterally, covered with thin delicate, easily falling scales. Upper mouth. The lower jaw is raised and enters the notch of the upper jaw. The color of the body is silvery-blue, the back has a greenish tint, the fins are dark. On the abdomen, a keel free from scales. The pharyngeal teeth are double row. It has brackish semi-anadromous and freshwater forms. Reaches sexual maturity in the 2nd year of life. Portion spawning in bays, rivers (Chernoe and Sea of Azov), at a temperature of 5-24°C, peak in May, mostly in the evening. In the Caspian, spawning occurs in the coastal zone and throughout the sea in April - June. Pelagic caviar. Fertility 9.5-60 thousand eggs. It feeds on small crustaceans, larvae of bivalve mollusks, juvenile herring and gobies. In winter, it concentrates in the South Caspian, in April it migrates to the north for spawning and feeding. An important fishery object. They catch with fixed and purse seines, nets, traps. It is also produced in the world.
nutritional value
Water: 66.3g Protein: 18.3g Fat: 11.0g Omega-3: 1.3mg Calories: 172Kcal (per 100g mass).
Culinary use
Tyulka is suitable for food in any form, but since the quality of its meat is relatively low, and its size is small, it is better to use this fish in a salted form. To do this, it is enough to place the sprat for 2-3 days in a salt solution with various seasonings (allspice and black pepper, peas, bay leaf). Eat raw, removed from the brine. Tulka can be dried, smoked, salted without spices.
Add/correct information
Grilled sprat with dill and mustard
400 g fresh peeled sprat, 4 bunches of chopped fresh dill, 6 tbsp. l. soft Swedish mustard, 2 tbsp. l. lemon juice or white wine, 2 cubes of melted butter or margarine, salt and pepper.
Mix dill, mustard and lemon juice or wine, mix thoroughly. Cut the fish along the body and place on a wire rack. Brush the back of each fish with the sauce. Pour the fish with melted butter or margarine. Fry for 5-6 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste before serving. Bon Appetit!
Tulka in rolls
400 g salted sprat, 2 hard-boiled eggs, 8 anchovy fillets, 2 tbsp. l. butter, cayenne pepper, 2 tbsp. l. lemon juice, for garnish: 8 slices of lemon, 4-6 sliced cucumbers, 1 small beetroot, diced, 2 bunches of chopped parsley.
Soak the fish for an hour in water, then remove and remove as many bones as possible. Separate the yolks and whites from the boiled eggs. Fry the anchovy fillet, mix with egg yolks, add oil and pepper. Wrap the whole mass in fish rolls, securing with toothpicks. On the sides of the rolls, add a little more filling. Crushed egg whites to use as decoration. Drizzle with lemon juice, garnish with beets and cucumbers and citrus slices. Bon Appetit!
In the store, near the shelf with canned fish, my eyes fell on a jar with the funny name of tyulka. I understand what sprat is, but sprat is a new word. Five minutes of searching answered all questions. Tulka is a form of sprat. This is where the questions begin. Most sites say that kilka is a freshwater form, but at the same time they report that the fish lives in the Black and Caspian Seas.
Further searches clarified that the most common type of kilka is the Black Sea-Caspian kilka or simply kilka. Latin name Clupeonella cultriventris. small fish family herring fish.
It also happens, the Caspian and Black Sea-Azov forms of tyulka. Abrau kilka is now under the threat of complete extinction.
Body length up to 15 cm, weight up to 22 g. The body is strongly compressed laterally; well-developed ventral keel consists of 24-29 (average 27) scales. The head is elongated and wide. The upper jaw of a small mouth extends beyond the vertical of the anterior margin of the eye. Dorsal fin with 14-17 rays (average 15, first 3-4 rays not branched); anal 17-21 (average 18, first 3 rays not branched); gill rakers 49-62 (average 54); 41-43 vertebrae (average 42), including 23-26 caudal vertebrae (average 25). The coloration of the dorsal surface is from gray-greenish to bluish-green, the ventral surface is silvery-white or golden yellow.
The fish lives up to 4-6 years, reaching a length of 9-15 cm and a weight of up to 22 grams, the Abrau kilka lives for 2 years, reaches 9 cm and 10 grams, respectively. Females are usually larger than males.
The fish reaches puberty per year, the usual length at this age is 5 centimeters, the fish live up to 4-5 years.
Tyulka usually spawns in May-June, in the estuaries of the Black Sea in April-May. Fertility 9.5-60 thousand eggs (average 31.2 thousand). Spawning is portioned, there are several spawnings with an interval of several days. Spawning in the Caspian from April to June. At a water temperature of 10°C, the development of eggs lasts 98 hours, at 14°C - 62 hours, at 18°C - 35 hours and at 22°C - 25 hours. The length of the larvae at hatching is 1.3-1.6 mm, the yolk sac disappears at a mm. Larvae and fry stay in shallow waters. Feeding in larvae begins even when the yolk sac is not completely resolved; the basis of food for larvae up to 7.3 mm long is larvae of mollusks, copepod nauplii and rotifers. In autumn, juveniles migrate to the south.
Once this fish was not found in the Volga above Volgograd. Despite this, freshwater forms of kilka were observed in the flooded lakes of the delta and in the Saratov backwaters. Over the past fifty years, the Caspian kilka has mastered the Volga-Don canal, penetrated into the Tsimlyansk reservoir and climbed up the Volga. In 1964, it was noted in the Kuibyshev reservoir (and since 1968 it has completely populated it), in 1971 - in Votkinsky, in 1975 - in Kamsky, in 1984 - in Gorky, in 1994 - in Rybinsk, in 1999 - in Uglich, in 2000 in Ivankovsky and in 2001 along the entire length of the Sheksna reservoir up to Lake Beloe. It has become a mass species in almost all reservoirs.
Tyulka is a heat-loving fish, and this slows down the increase in its numbers. V frosty winters the fish almost completely dies. At warm winters there is a sharp increase in the number of fish. The kulka feeds mainly on zooplankton, copepods, exclusively in the daytime.
Fish are caught on an industrial scale. It is valuable for a large (18%) amount of fat in the body. Sold in stores fresh, salted, smoked. They make canned food from it, with which my acquaintance with sprat began. Tulka is an excellent food base for predatory fish, it feeds, in particular, pike perch, burbot, pike.
Tulks are representatives small fish belonging to the herring family. They live in the waters of the Caspian, Azov and Black Seas. Their body weight reaches 10.0 g, and their length is 9.0 cm. Tyulki reach sexual maturity at the age of two years, and their total life span is 5-6 years. They feed on small plankton.
In Russia, kilka is considered one of the cheapest types of fish, but abroad, on the contrary, it is a delicacy. Currently, shops sell fresh, frozen, canned and salted kilka. It can be boiled, fried. V industrial environment very tasty canned food is prepared from tyulka, and fish meal is also obtained from it.
The beneficial properties of sprat for the human body are primarily due to the huge content of calcium in this fish. This element is necessary for the formation of bone tissue, healthy hair and nails, in addition, it regulates blood clotting processes.
For the absorption of calcium, phosphorus is needed, which is also rich in sprat. These minerals are mainly concentrated not in its meat, but in the tail, bones, ridge and skin. Therefore, the tyulka should be cooked as a whole and consumed as a whole, without trying to get a small amount of fillet out of it.
In addition to minerals, tyulka is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which have pronounced antioxidant properties. Also, sprat meat contains polyunsaturated fatty acids, which lower the level of triglycerides in the blood and thus have an anti-atherosclerotic effect. Therefore, nutritionists recommend including sprat in the diet of people suffering from atherosclerosis, diseases of cardio-vascular system and joints.
100.0 g of sprat contains:
The calorie content of tyulka is 136.8 kcal per 100.0 g of product. In this case, it should be borne in mind that the calorie content of the tyulka also depends on the method of its preparation. Boiled, baked or salted sprat has the least amount of calories, and fried sprat has the most. 
Despite all its useful qualities, it is difficult to name a salted sprat useful product nutrition. This is due to the fact that 100.0 g of well-salted fish contains at least 1.5 g of table salt, which is 30% of the daily requirement. Therefore, salted sprat should be eaten in small quantities and not every day. This food product should be completely excluded from the diet of people suffering from kidney and cardiovascular diseases. It is best for them to eat boiled or baked sprat, which has valuable beneficial properties and does not contribute to the development of edema, an increase in blood pressure.
Canned food "Tulka in oil" is also not a healthy food product, because. they contain excess of both oil and salt. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that for the manufacture of canned food, most manufacturers use the cheapest varieties of vegetable oil, which practically do not contain vitamins and fatty acids, and, therefore, do not give anything to a person except extra calories. For example calorie content of sprat in its own juice is about 200 kcal per 100.0 g of product, and the calorie content of the same amount of canned food "Tulka in oil" is already 320 kcal.
Domain: eukaryotes
Kingdom: Animals
A type: chordates
Class: ray-finned fish
Squad: herring
Family: herring
Genus: Tulki
View: Black Sea-Caspian kilka
Black Sea-Caspian kilka, or simply kilka, or Black Sea-Azov kilka, or Caspian sprat (lat. Clupeonella cultriventris) - small commercial sea fish herring family (Clupeidae).
Body length up to 15 cm, weight up to 22 g. Sexual maturity is reached when they grow up to five centimeters, live up to 4-5 years. They feed on small zooplankton.
It has two subspecies - the common or Caspian sprat and the Azov-Black Sea kilka. The first lives in the Caspian Sea, the second - mainly in the Azov and in the northern, more desalinated part of the Black Sea. Spawns mainly in May, and in the Black Sea and its estuaries mainly in April - June.
Once this fish was not found above the city of Volgograd. Despite this, freshwater forms of kilka were observed in the flooded lakes of the delta and in the Saratov backwaters. Over the past fifty years, the Caspian kilka has mastered the Volga-Don canal, penetrated into the Tsimlyansk reservoir and climbed up the Volga.
Tyulka fish: habitats
By 1968, kilka had completely populated the Kuibyshev reservoir, and in 1975 it was observed in the Votkinsk reservoir. In 1975, kilka first appeared in the Kama reservoir. Currently, it is a common fish in the Kama reservoirs. Further, kilka appeared in the Gorky reservoir (1984), in the Rybinsk reservoir (1994), in the Uglich (1999), Ivankovsky (2000) reservoirs and, finally, in 2001 in the Sheksninsky reservoir. In fact, in these reservoirs, it has become the most numerous species.
Especially a lot of it accumulates in front of the dam of the Cheboksary hydroelectric power station, through which it is very difficult for it to climb up. Such expansion and population growth is facilitated by an excellent food base, small number competitors in nutrition, a small number of predators. A positive moment for this small fish was also the fact that spawning and maturation of eggs occurs in the middle layers of water and practically does not depend on changes in the water level in reservoirs.
What does a tulka eat
Tyulka is a heat-loving fish, and this slows down the increase in its numbers. In frosty winters, the fish almost completely dies. During warm winters, there is a sharp increase in the number of fish. The kulka feeds mainly on zooplankton, copepods, exclusively in the daytime. Food stops at night. This principle is based on night fishing for light.
The sprat itself serves as food for predators such as zander, pike, bursh and burbot. In artificial reservoirs, the kilka is huddled into large shoals in upper layers water, close to the shore is not suitable. In the reservoirs of the upper and middle Volga, it grows rapidly, reaching an average length of 90 mm to 130 mm.
Tyulka fish: description
The average lifespan of this fish in reservoirs is up to three years. It becomes sexually mature in the second year of its life. Spawning begins in May. On spawning it moves to large bays, to stretches closed from the wind and to the mouths of large rivers.
Spawning occurs in spring at the end of May when the water warms up to a temperature of eighteen degrees. Spawning is portioned, the interval between spawning is several days. Each female spawns up to 110 thousand eggs. Caviar is small, up to one millimeter in size, floating in the water column. The length of the larvae is one and a half millimeters, the yolk sac is absorbed when the length of the larvae is three millimeters. Larvae and fry live in shallow waters. The larvae begin to feed even when the yolk sac has not completely disappeared.
The fish has a short head. The body of the fish is low and strongly compressed on the sides. The eyes are small relative to the body. The mouth is upper, the lower jaw protrudes forward. Large scales fall off easily. On the abdomen, a keel, consisting of scales, is clearly distinguished. The anal fin has two elongated rays. The back and upper part of the head, dark with a bluish-greenish tinge, belly and sides white color with a silver tint. The eyes are black. Females, like other fish species, grow faster than males and are slightly larger in size.
Due to the small size of the fish, amateur fishermen are not interested in sprat, but in vain. This is a very oily fish. They use sprat as a bait when catching predators. On the middle Volga, kilka is an object of commercial fishing. Tulka is caught in autumn period from the end of September to November, when it huddles and goes out to shallow places.
There are types of fish that everyone knows about, even a person who is not experienced in fishing. A fish kilka of such. She, and even the no less famous hamsa (kamsa) at one time were very popular with compatriots and allowed them to survive in periods of despair and lack of money.
Tyulka is a small marine fish. Belongs to the herring family.
The fish grows up to 15 cm long, gaining 22 g of weight (its average size is 11 cm and weight is 9 g). She has a body strongly compressed from the sides, on which a well-developed keel is visible from below. The head relative to the body is large, wide, elongated. The location of the upper jaw is somewhat elongated in relation to the anterior margin of the eye. The lower jaw is advanced far from the upper.
The color of the back of the kilka can be bluish-green, gray-green and other shades that are in the specified range. The sides and belly of the fish are golden yellow or silvery white.
The kilka lives 4-5 years, becoming able to produce offspring when it reaches 5 cm in length. It feeds on zooplankton. Lives in flocks in the water column. Comes periodically to fresh water. The spawning period is April-August, but massively - May; spawning place - sea shallow bays, estuaries near the mouths of rivers.
This fish has several types. The most famous of them is the Black Sea-Caspian sprat, which is also called the Caspian sprat. In addition, it is known:
Abrau kilka: differs in smaller size (9 cm, 10 g), life expectancy (2 years), spawning time (May-October); lives near Novorossiysk in Lake Abrau; there is a subspecies of it that lives in the Turkish lake Abuliond;
Anchovy kilka: fish, mainly from the southern and middle Caspian, the most numerous in it; spawning period May-December; the usual depths of its habitat are 10 ... 20 m, in winter 90 ... 110 m; in the features of the species - daily vertical migration;
Big-eyed kilka: This is a special kind of Caspian kilka that lives under the thermocline; its usual depths are 80 ... 100 m (fry 400 m), it does not occur above 20 meters deep; spawns all year round with a peak in January-March.
Fish from the Azov and Black Seas. Lives in desalinated waters. In spring, the Black Sea, Azov kilka migrates in large numbers to the mouths of rivers and estuaries near them. Sometimes it enters rivers at a distance of 60-70 km. Found in reservoirs.
Fish are caught on an industrial scale. It is valuable for a large (18%) amount of fat in the body. Sold in stores fresh, salted, smoked. They make canned food out of it. It is a food base for predatory fish, it feeds, in particular, pike perch. The Black Sea sprat and its other species are used in animal husbandry for fattening pigs. The latter leads to a peculiar taste of meat.
Fish are almost never caught by the piece, more often industrial or semi-industrial methods of its extraction are used.
In principle, tackle for catching sprat can be both in summer and in winter a float rod. The fish responds well to the bait-groats. The best option is the flavoring of the last vanilla or anise. You need to look for it in places with slow flow; depth about 3 m.
On a semi-industrial scale, it is better to catch sprat at night. They use a spider with a fine mesh and a lantern, which is installed in the middle of the tackle. The latter is lowered into the water column from a boat, from ice and through a short time quickly taken out. Attracted by the light, the fish remain inside the spider.
Tulka is used by many fishermen as live bait when hunting for a variety of fish, at different times of the year. They use the one just caught, which is immediately put on the hook; are prepared ahead of time. In the latter case, the caught fish are placed in plastic bags (usually one for the number of fish that will be needed for one fishing trip) and frozen. If necessary, a separate bag is taken out of the freezer, the fish are thawed and used as bait for fishing.
With this method of fishing, standard baits are used, but they are supplied not with live bait fish, but with dead fish - sprat. For pike fishing, this option is of little interest, since the toothy is caught in places where there is no or weak current, therefore the nozzle in the water looks unnatural and rarely attracts pike.
More in this way they hunt zander, bersh. To catch such fish, vents are set at great (15 ... 20 m) depths, in places where there is a noticeable current. It is these areas that are promising for fishing on these fish.
Fishing for pike perch on a sprat, bersha involves equipping the vents with heavy (up to 40g) loads that can quickly deliver the bait to the desired depth, do not allow the current to carry the tackle far from the chosen place, strongly “sail” the fishing line.
In such gear for a bersh in winter, the main line itself is more important for a sprat - it is quite long, since you need to lower the bait by 20 m, therefore, after playing the prey, it can twist and form a “beard”. Therefore, it must be placed on vents with a minimum size of 0.3 mm.
In gear, it is mandatory to use working equipment from a thinner (0.2 ... 0.24 mm) fishing line. This is important, because both zander and bersh are cautious fish and are sensitive to rough gear. Two types of working equipment can be used for catching bersh, pike perch on a sprat:
Like the Moscow jig, where there is a branch on which the load is placed, and a 1.5 ... 2-meter piece of fishing line, at the end of which a hook is attached; this option is good with a strong undercurrent, when both the hook and the spear impaled on it are away from the sinker and the tackle is not confused;
A load is tied to the end of the main lung, and above it 1 ... 2 floods with hooks; this version of sprat fishing is suitable for both strong currents and weak ones; it is also catchy, like the previous one.
The effectiveness of catching pike perch, bersh on vents when fishing for sprat in winter is explained by the fact that in this process it is not at all necessary to play with bait. For predators, a sprat dangling under the influence of the current is enough.
In vents, which are used for catching winter pike perch on sprat, double or tee hooks are used. They hook the fish on them in different ways: more often they do it behind the back, behind the head; some fishermen prefer to cut the sprat in half and put it on two hooks at once.
This small fish is widely used in cooking. It is useful for its relatively small calories(88 kcal), the presence in it a large number polyunsaturated fats Omega-3, amino acids, vitamins (in particular PP), iodine, fluorine, phosphorus, chlorine, calcium.
Thanks to everything, tyulka meat is useful for those who have heart problems, who suffer from atherosclerosis. Fish will help to keep healthy code, nails, bones, hair for a long time. It helps to normalize blood cholesterol.
Tulka is prepared in different ways. It is fried, stewed, boiled, dried, salted; they also prepare canned sprats at home. Of the latter, those made with the addition of tomato are especially good.
They eat tyulka, as a rule, whole. This allows you to get more calcium, which is in her skin, tail, bones. The latter, when frying, stewing, soften so much that their eating is simply not noticed.
There are no contraindications for the use of tulka. Only those people who are allergic to everything that is extracted from the sea cannot eat it.
This dish is easy to prepare. The sprat is thawed (if one was bought), washed, cleaned (the entrails and heads are removed. The rest is left. Then the carcasses are passed through a meat grinder.
A long loaf is added to the resulting minced fish (pre-soaked in milk), spices, eggs, salt. Finely chopped does not hurt onion. Everything is mixed, beaten off.
After that, they take part of the minced meat, form cutlets and fry. The latter can be done. Immediately laying the blanks on a hot frying pan. Most housewives pre-roll them in flour, breadcrumbs.
This recipe is more complicated than the previous one, and additional ingredients will be needed more. Among the latter, except, of course, the tyulka itself, which, for example, take a kilogram, prepare: 6 tablespoons of vegetable oil, an onion, small carrots (2 pcs.), Garlic (3 cloves), half a glass of 9% table vinegar, half a glass of water , laurel (1 leaf). You will need pepper, salt for cooking tyulki.
Pickle sprat in the following sequence:
Prepare the marinade:
Peel garlic, onions; cut them into large pieces;
Peel carrots, cut them into circles;
A large bowl is filled with vinegar, oil; add chopped onion, carrot, garlic; pour in water; salt with two pinches of salt; throw laurel, pepper; everything is mixed;
Put the bowl on the fire, heat to a boil;
They clean the seals, take out the insides, separate the heads; salt and leave for 2 hours. salt;
After the fish are rinsed with water, laid out in a form of glass, porcelain;
Pour the laid out sprats with the marinade prepared earlier and brought to a boil;
In a day, the sprat will be pickled.
To prepare such a tyulka, you will need the fish itself and salt, but not iodized.
If you bought a frozen sprat (which, by the way, is guaranteed to be fresh, as the fish is frozen immediately after being caught), then it must be thawed. You don't need to put it under water. It is better to put it in a bowl and put it in the refrigerator, on the top shelf. The fish will take a long time to defrost, but it will turn out the way it should be.
After the fish becomes somewhat softer and even begins to fall off the common briquette with little effort, it is taken out and salted.
First, all the fish are separated. Broken, damaged - koshe, if any. Leave only whole carcasses. Then sprinkle salt on top (it's hard to say how much; everything comes with experience, so experiment) and mix.
After a bowl of fish put in the refrigerator. After 7 hours. they take out one fish, wash it and try it. If you do not like it, leave it for another hour and repeat the verification procedure. So until the sprat becomes the desired salinity.
