[CH] Smoking trout and salmon (long) [7/7]

Jim Weller (Jim.Weller@salata.com)
23 Jul 00 09:11:24 -0800 

 >>> Part 7 of 7...

  Use only pure pickling salt as it has no impurities or additives to
  toughen or discolor fish. Mild salting still requires refrigeration;
  hard salting does not. Salted fish will require freshening before
  eating.
  
  Mild Salting: Clean the fish and ice them if you can't salt right
  away. Fillet them. Cut the fillets into chunks according to
  thickness. Score the skin. Caseharden the fish by soaking in a cold
  deblooding bath of 65 deg sal brine [2 2/3 c salt to 100 oz water]
  for 1 hr. to stop fat fish from oozing oil. [press out any blood in
  this bath with your fingers.] Weigh fish and have ready 1 lb salt for
  every 10 lb fish.
  
  To salt the fish, spread the required salt in a pan or tray. Lay each
  piece of fish, skin side down on the salt and scoop salt over it;
  don't rub it in- just cover it. Pick up the piece with as much salt
  as will adhere to it and place skin side down in the curing
  container. when a layer is completed sprinkle it lightly with salt
  and pack successive layers, skin side down until the top layer- pack
  it skin side up. Fill the packed container with saturated brine- 100
  deg sal[ 4 1/2 cups salt per 100 oz water.] Weight the fish down to
  submerge completely in the brine. Cover. Store at 35 to 40
  deg,-normal refrigerator temp and let cure two weeks. Will keep up to
  one year.
  
  Hard Salting: Follow as above except increase salt to 2 1/2 lb per 10
  lb fish. Will keep one year if kept in a cool place.
  
  Extracted from: Smoking Salmon & Trout by Jack Whelan. Published by:
  Airie Publishing, Deep Bay, B.C. ISBN: 0-919807-00-3 Posted by: Jim
  Weller
 
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      Title: Smoking Salmon and Trout Part Xvi - Caviar
 Categories: Smoked, Info, Caviar, Salmon, Trout
      Yield: 1 text file
 
 
  Salmon caviar is second only to sturgeon in quality.
  
  To make red caviar you need a piece of 1/4" to 1/2" mesh screen at
  least one foot square,depending on the egg size. first choice is
  plastic or stainless steel but plain steel can be coated with
  vegetable oil and galvanized can be coated with resin. Separate the
  eggs from the membrane by gently rubbing the skein of eggs over the
  screen. Discard the membrane and blood vessels remaining on the
  screen after most of the eggs have passed through.
  
  Make an 80 deg sal brine [ 1 cup + 2tbs salt to 1 qt water]. Gently
  stir the eggs in the cooled brine from 15 to 30 min. The uptake of
  salt will depend on the maturity of the eggs; they should become
  opalescent. Do not over salt. drain for 8 hours. Keep cool but above
  40 deg so the eggs do not congeal. Pack into jars. Refrigerate
  between 34 and 36 deg. up to a year. Over 40 deg it will have a very
  short life.
  
  N.B. Once sealed in jars it MUST be kept refrigerated at all times to
  prevent possible BOTULISM. some caviars can be pasteurized with
  minimal loss of flavor and color but not salmon. Rely on good
  refrigeration instead.
  
  Extracted from: Smoking Salmon & Trout by Jack Whelan. Published by:
  Airie Publishing, Deep Bay, B.C. ISBN: 0-919807-00-3 Posted by: Jim
  Weller
 
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      Title: Smoking Salmon and Trout Part Xvii - Freezing Fish
 Categories: Fish, Smoked, Info, Salmon, Trout
      Yield: 1 text file
 
 
  Home freezers are good for storing frozen fish but not _freezing_
  fish. Fish should be quick frozen- in under 2 hours. However freezing
  water throws off a lot of heat which must be removed by the system.
  Home freezers do not generally have circulating fans to carry this
  heat to the refrigeration coils. 5 lbs of wet fish will raise the
  temp of 100 lb of already stored frozen fish by 14 deg. The already
  frozen fish act as a heat sink for the freezing wet fish until the
  system can carry away the excess heat.
  
  Also as water begins to freeze inside the fish at 30 deg the minerals
  and salt in the fish concentrate in the remaining water causing an
  antifreeze effect until the temp drops to 23 deg F. Slow freezing
  allows large ice crystals to develop which damage the connective
  tissues of the fish and there is excessive moisture loss upon thawing.
  
  How to improve home freezing:
  
  ~1- Never freeze more than 5 of capacity at any one time.
  
  ~2- Place wet fish as close as possible to the cooling coils.
  
  ~3- Freeze fish in the freezer compartment of the fridge which does
  have a circulating fan and use the deep freezer only for storing
  already frozen product.
  
  ~4- Make a heat sink of containers of eutectic ice which freezes and
  thaws at 0 deg F. That way the freezing wet fish will drop to 0
  quickly and the other already frozen products will not rise above 0
  as the fresh fish freeze.
  
  ~5- Put the fish to be frozen in poly bags and add both the fish and
  the eutectic containers in a container of brine. The water in the
  brine transfers heat faster than air. Extracted from: Smoking Salmon
  & Trout by Jack Whelan. Published by: Airie Publishing, Deep Bay,
  B.C. ISBN: 0-919807-00-3 Posted by: Jim Weller
 
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                                                Jim in Yellowknife