the doe i whacked looked pretty clean when i killed it and was a big fattie so i figured... meat for the smoker and some juicy roe for the coho. Problem is when i cut her open, all the eggs had singled out already and where loose. I figured i'd keep em for a little experiment in water hardening.
I don't have pics of the whole process but you will clearly see the end result
you will need.... about 4 cups of course salt
1 large clean margarine or yogurt container
a 1 gallon clean milk jug
a metal strainer
procure powder
and clean fresh water, distilled if you have it but my results were with river water, then tap water.
This recipe is for the quantity of eggs from 1, 6 lbs pink salmon. WILL ONLY WORK FOR LOOSE EGGS, NOT SKEINED EGGS .. ALSO does not require procure or anything else other than the water and salt. I simply use the procure as a colouring agent, I'm sure it benefits the cure in other ways but is by no means necessary.
STEP 1 : empty the loose eggs from the fish into a large ziploc (always have these for roe anyways) and fill with river water and drain as neccesary to remove any blood. water inziploc should appear near gin clear with the eggs inside. leave as much water as ou can in the bag and close. carefully take it home with you.
STEP 2 : Allow the eggs to it in the river water in the fridge for 12 hours (24 is recommended for chum/spring eggs)
STEP 3 : pour eggs out into metal stainer... handle them carefully at this point they will be soft.
STEP 4 : place eggs into a margarine container and add 2 to 3 teaspoons of your desired color of procure powder... i used red hot double stuff.... and 1/4 cup coarse salt, then very gently stir till thoroughly disolved/mixed... add a bit of fresh cold water if need be to help it mix up nice.
STEP 5: pour 2 cups coarse salt into the 1 gallon milk jug and fill 3/4 full with cold water. put on lid and shake like crazy, disolving as much salt as you can.... there will be a lot of undisolved salt.... this is good.
STEP 6: back to the eggs.... they should only soak in the procure for up to 2 hours.... I only waited 1 hour to achieve the juicy pink colour i got in the pics...... pour the eggs into the metal strainer and rinse well under the tap with cold water. Once rinsed they need to go into the milk jug full of salt water. Once the eggs are in the jug, top it off with cold water and give a gentle shake to mix the contents well. put it in the fridge over night... 12 hours is good. 24 hours for larger eggs such as chum/spring
STEP 7: after storing in the salt water over night they are essentially done at this point and ready to use. I generally drain them out of the milk jug and refill it with the remaining salt ( 1 3/4 cups) and fill it 1/2 full of water and just leave the eggs in there... for 6 months if need be.
here is the pics... sorry i didn't take any during the process... mostly just the end result .. BUT CHECK OUT the pics with the glass of water sitting on top of the eggs on the counter..... you get a nicew water hardened colored egg .... perfect for juicy roe bags.
ENJOY
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Topic: So i killed a pink yesterday and here's what i did with the roe (Read 10823 times)