INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Fish begins to spoil the minute you land it. Enzymes and bacteria go to
work immediately especially in the slime, gills and intestines. To reduce
spoilage and maintain flavor you must bleed, clean and cool fish quickly.
~1- Remove the slime and scale [if applicable] as soon as possible. ~2- Cut
the throat and remove the gills. The intestines can wait a
few hours. -3- Remove the intestines. Save the liver, roe and milt.
Remove the
kidney, that dark streak along the backbone by cutting away the
covering membrane on either side of the kidney,  where it is
attached to the flesh. Then scrape out the kidney. -4- The head may stay
on but remove the head now if you have to save
cooler space. Leave the lug bone, that bony plate behind the
head if you are going to smoke the fish as the lug will support
the handling cord. -5- Cool the fish to close to freezing with chipped
ice. Make sure
that there is a layer of ice between every layer of fish in the
cooler.
Careless handling can bruise fish. Use a net if possible; if gaffing, gaff
the least valuable part- the stomach if possible. If using a fish club to
kill quickly and prevent threshing, one sharp blow to the head is enough.
Rigor Mortis: a dead fish will stiffen but in time will relax again unless
it goes into accelerated rigor form being too warm. If you try to
straighten out a fish in Rigor or the fish goes into heat induced Rigor,
you will tear the flesh disturbing the appearance and allowing succulent
juices to escape. Prevent Rigor damage with prompt cooling and filleting
before or after the fish has passed through rigor but not during it.
Cooling: Ice has a terrific ability to absorb heat when it melts as it took
a tremendous amount of heat removal to freeze the water in the first place.
2 lb of ice melting will do the same job of cooling as 37 lb of block ice
or extremely cold water. Chipped ice will melt faster and therefore chill
fish quicker than block ice. Pack the belly cavity of cleaned fish and make
sure there is a layer of ice between every layer of fish.
To transport frozen fish you need dry ice or Eutectic ice, as melting ice
would thaw frozen fish. Eutectic ice is a solution of 23% salt by weight
and 77% water by weight, which freezes at 0 deg F. [-18 deg C.], in a break
proof plastic container. You can buy these or make your own.
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
Posted to MM-Recipes Digest  by "Rfm" <Robert-Miles@usa.net> on Sep 08, 98

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