Guest guest Posted October 15, 2004 Report Share Posted October 15, 2004 --- Price <djxprice@...> wrote: > > > Hi All, > > I work on a fishing boat, and have recently > become interested in > salt-curing fish, especially herring. Do any of you > have experience > in dry or brine curing fish? Thanks! > No experience of doing it, but bought some delicious kippers last week. The place I bought them from is: www.kipper.co.uk and their site includes an explanation of how they do it, if it helps at all Jo ___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 15, 2004 Report Share Posted October 15, 2004 >> Hi All, >> >> I work on a fishing boat, and have recently >> become interested in >> salt-curing fish, especially herring. Do any of you >> have experience >> in dry or brine curing fish? Thanks! Yeah, I've done it. It's basically a no-brainer for the salt part ... pack the fish in salt! Or make a brine ( " to float an egg " is the classic recipe) and put the fish in it, under a weight or packed so it doesn't float. The trick is ... how salty to make it. Also the really good stuff is smoked after it is salted, and I don't have a cold-smoker (yet). There are some good books on the process ... I'd check your local library or the Internet. You can also pack the fish in half salt half sugar. I just did this with a roast, adding some Penzy's Venison seasoning too. The hard part is just getting to the idea that you can put meat in salt and just *leave* it. But if you are on a fishing boat you should have some extra fish to experiment with! If you pack a fillet for 1-2 days you get lox ... longer you get a dryer, more transparent type of salted fish. You can also pack the fish in a less-salty brine and a little acid (vinegar) and lacto-ferment the fish. I've had mixed results on that: it tasted nice but smelled horrid. Packing the fish in kimchi though works better, you get a nice kimchi. Heidi Jean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 15, 2004 Report Share Posted October 15, 2004 At 12:16 PM 10/15/2004, you wrote: >You can also pack the fish in half salt half sugar. >I just did this with a roast, adding some Penzy's >Venison seasoning too. i've been thinking about this sort of thing lately, heidi. we still have a lot of city friends (we only moved out of boston 4 years ago), and being as we're left-wing pierced freak types (or whatever the label was ), there are certainly days when we have our " what if bladerunner? " thoughts. our farm could survive pretty much indefinitely - we have multiple springs, a 500 foot well with a backup human-power pump, a river, pasture land, woodland, we save seeds, we don't use AI for our animals (so we can continue to get more), we have pretty varied heritage bloodlines, we grow our own herbs, and our house is large enough to support 12-20 people pretty comfortably, which would provide the labor to work the farm the old fashioned way. this winter we're building a cold room/root cellar, which will mean we'll be refrigerator independent. but the only question left is long term meat storage: salt it? (but then where do you get the salt?) put it in whey? (what would that taste like?) dry it? (that's a pretty good option i think, if it doesn't wreck the nutrients) smoke it? we have plans for a smoke house, so that's ok, but in unrefrigerated times, what did they do after smoking it? today we freeze it. is smoking it enough to just hang it in the cold room at 40degrees? anybody know? anyone tried it? anyone think i'm nuts? that's ok! -katja Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 15, 2004 Report Share Posted October 15, 2004 >i've been thinking about this sort of thing lately, heidi. we still have a >lot of city friends (we only moved out of boston 4 years ago), and being as >we're left-wing pierced freak types (or whatever the label was ), there >are certainly days when we have our " what if bladerunner? " thoughts. Yeah, me too, even without the piercings. Actually my Mom started it during the Cuban Missle Crisis ... she said you have to have at least a month's worth of food in the house at all times, but she kept more like a couple of year's worth. When she grew up, it was just a given that you stored your own food or had it walking around in the yard. > but the only question left is >long term meat storage: salt it? (but then where do you get the salt?) put >it in whey? (what would that taste like?) dry it? (that's a pretty good >option i think, if it doesn't wreck the nutrients) smoke it? we have plans >for a smoke house, so that's ok, but in unrefrigerated times, what did they >do after smoking it? today we freeze it. is smoking it enough to just hang >it in the cold room at 40degrees? I have some old cookbooks, and yeah, they salted it, then smoked it. Then wrapped it in brown paper and hung it from the rafters (or left it packed in salt or brine). If hung, it can get bugs in it so it has to be well-wrapped. And jerky will last forever if it's done right ... it needs to be kept VERY dry and smoking will keep it from getting rancid. But your standard country house had a ham or two and some sausages and maybe a side of bacon hanging from the ceiling. You can also build a " smokehouse " where you keep a low fire going all the time ... you can just store the meat there, the smoke keeps the bugs and mildew away. Salted dried fish was really common ... the fishing boats didn't have refrigeration so they just brought the fish in all salted. Then to cook them you soaked them in several batches of fresh water to get out the extra salt. I was on a Spanish freighter and that kind of fish was a standard meal ... it wasn't bad, actually. I've considered getting 100 lbs or more of rock salt in case we suddenly became without power. Then one could just salt up the freezer, I guess! Make one big batch of brine. 10 pct brine kills most germs (but not lactoferment bacteria, so you get pickled meat), 20 kills more, and 30 kills just about everything. Drying is a good idea if it's hot and sunny, but in a Bladerunner situation you won't have your handy dehydrator! Anyway, my brined and salted meat keeps just fine. The pickled stuff would keep fine in a cold cellar. BTW if you are thinking survival (and even if you are not) I think a greenhouse is a necessity. You can hatch chicks in there, start plants early, grow greens in the winter. Heidi Jean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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