Smoking salmon and trout part i - caring for the catch

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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 Submitted By JIM WELLER On 11-02-95

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