Golden eagle - sunday - mackerel

[frugalfisherman]

Do you scale all those herring before pickling?

[Del River Rat]

Nice!! I want to see more macks
Smoked mackerel yummy!!

[Leif]

Originally Posted by frugalfisherman

Do you scale all those herring before pickling?

Yes. I scale them first. 90% of the scales get removed in the cooler on the boat. Fill the cooler with salt water and keep rinsing if you can. Makes it easy later.

Leif

[Captain Rich]

Leif- Could you run some macks and herring down here ??

[Grateful Dad]

I'm gonna have to do that- I love those pickled herring!

Could you provide the recipe / process for pickling the herring. Are the herring cooked before or after or do the juices do all the work?

[bulletbob]

simply go to Yahoo and type in How to Pickle fresh herring.. Otherwise, you will get a ton of recipes using salted herring...

The recipes vary greatly, but typically a basic pickling involves white vinegar,onions,, maybe some sugar, pickling spices, bay leaves, maybe some garlic.. The vinegar "cooks" the fish after a while maybe a week or two.. Lots of folks will eat it after only a day or so.. A few people will boil the vinegar/spice/sugar mixture first to incorporate the flavors,and dissolve the sugar, but its not really necessary... Check out the recipes, and pick the one that suits you best.. They are all very easy.. bob

[Leif]

Originally Posted by dakota560

Could you provide the recipe / process for pickling the herring. Are the herring cooked before or after or do the juices do all the work?

Hey Dakota!

The herring is not cooked first. The vinegar "cooks" the fish in the pickling process.

I usually pickle some herring if I catch them while Mackerel fishing. This year we have caught quite a few. Most recipes call for soaking the herring first. This is because they are usually salted when you buy them and you have to soak and rinse them for hours to get the salt out. This recipe is for fresh herring to be pickled.

There are many recipies out there on the net for pickled herring, this one is pretty simple. I like to leave them in the refrigerator a couple of days before I eat them but you can have them after a few hours if you want. They will last a couple of weeks in the refrigerator.

Ingredients:

12-24 herring
2 large spanish onion sliced thinly
2 bay leaves
20 peppercorns
2 cups water
2 1/2 cups white vinegar
1 cup regular sugar

I added thinly sliced carrots to this batch as well.


Directions:

Fillet and skin herrings. Combine bay leaves, peppercorns with water, vinegar and sugar. Bring to boil, simmer for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool. Slice fish into 1-2 inch slices. Place in sterilized pickling jar, layering sliced onions, fish and cooled liquid. Cover. Shake to mix contents. Set in refrigerator for 2-3 days. Check occasionally to shake and push down onions.

[the1jonc]

Nice report.

Leif, My mouth is watering looking at that pickled herring.

[Leif]

Had some mackerel for dinner last night. Delicious.

Leif