Well, it's been storming to beat hell here on the Charlottes, so I've been doing some experimenting. Did some salmon candy the other day and just finished my first batch of pickled salmon. Thanks to curly top. I pretty much followed his recipe with a couple minor differences.
Started with one coho from the freezer.
Cut and salted with skin on. Into the fridge for 24 hrs.
I removed the fish from the salt and rinsed and skinned it. It was mostly firm with the exception of some areas that were under the skin. So I resalted the freshly skinned side and left it for another 8 hrs. Rinsed again and then soaked in fresh water overnight, changing the water a few times. I tasted the fish after rinsing and it was too salty. I tasted it again an hour later and it was still to salty, so I left it over night. Next morning I pulled it out of the fresh water. It was still nice and firm and much less salty. Then I cut the fish into bite sized pieces.
Then I made the pickling mixture. I did 2:1 vinegar to sugar. I made 2 batches. One with apple cider vinegar and one with white vinegar, just to see the difference.
3 cups vinegar
1.5 cups white sugar
3 tbsp pickling spice
3 chopped garlic cloves
Heat vinegar and spices while disolving sugar. Cover and bring to a boil and then let cool with the lid on.
Cut some lemons and onion into slices. Layer onion, lemon and salmon into jars.
Pour cooled mixture into jars to cover fish and into the fridge they go.
That's all. One large coho made 10 half pint jars. It needs to stay refridgerated and I'm lead to believe it will last up to 6 months in the fridge. I can't wait to try it. If it turns out to be awful, I'll let you know. If you never see me post again, I did something wrong and it killed me.