Best Way to Preserve Salmon (buy, place to live, price)

[spleenificus]

As the title says, what is your preferred method.
From these forums I see that people smoke and jar them mostly.
Any favorite ways (am particularly interested in jarring/canning them...) will be appreciated.

I plan on fishing when I can and preserving the catch.
Please let me know what you prefer to do with your salmon to keep them for later use.

Thanks!

[ASpilot2be]

Both canning and smoking fish are very good. I like canned salmon for making sandwiches, and smoking just for snacking.

[User 2]

Best option on care after they've been landed is to filet them immediately, and get them on ice as soon as you can after catching them. Always put your clean and dry filets in sealed bags first, preferably in single sized bags, don't let them soak in the slush of the icechest.

(I know commercial fishermen slush ice their catch, but those fish haven't been cut and it's only the best practice they can accomplish without on-board processing capabilities, if they could process on board, immediate cleaning, and freezing would be a preference. That's the primary reason a Southeast troller with a freeze dip tank command such a premium price, they cut, gut and freeze those fish as they come on board.)

Removing all blood, gills and guts minimizes bacteria. Cut flesh, blood, gills and guts breeds bacteria like you wouldn't imagine, and cooling the flesh slows down remaining bacterial growth, plus it inhibits the naturally occurring enzyme degradation after death.

(A note on enzyme degradation, some fish like pinks have much more vigorous enzymes than say a sockeye, that explains why a pink will go 'soft' so much faster than a red. Other fish have similar differences, halibut have a slow degradation from enzymes in the cells, and ling cod, much, much faster.)

Don't expose them to hanging on a chain or stringer off the side of the boat, contrary to popular belief, that's not good practice, and don't let the butchered meat soak in water, especially a tub of bloody water. It's ok to wash off your filets, or gutted fish, but pat them dry as soon as you can to inhibit bacterial growth.

(I saw that picture of fish soaking in that bloody water in a tub elsewhere here, bad practice if you want the best quality)

I vacuum pack and freeze mine as soon as they come out of the ice, the quicker you can do this the better. I also freeze the individual filets at minus 25, before storing them long term in a seperate freezer at minus 15.

(yep, I have an extra freezer with refrigerant coils in every shelf that is reserved just for flash freezing fish, berries, meat in what's called IFQ style. You want to freeze food at real low temperatures, real quickly. So resist the urge to toss all those packages into a box and stuff them in a freezer.)

Then if I want to smoke some later on, it's no problem to thaw them out and start the brining.

Since freezing is an option for me, I don't prefer to can any salmon because you have to overcook them in the canning process. I'd rather not overcook such good meat, I'd rather freeze them.

If I found I had to can some reason, say to send as a gift to someone without the ability to store it frozen, I'd simply take some out of the freezer and can a little bit of it for them at my leisure.

If you have further questions, I'm happy to respond, I've had years of experience in that kind of business.

[dreamdriven78]

Thanks user2. But how about preparing the fish in the wilderness through out the year, where ther's no refridgeration. Things would be easier in the winter of course. But what I'm really asking is - if I live in a cabin what am I to do?

[Metlakatla]

But what I'm really asking is - if I live in a cabin what am I to do?

Can it.......

[Alaskan454]

Jars......

[spleenificus]

User 2,

Hey, thanks for the great information!
Now all I have to do is get there, find a place to live, get a freezer and go fishing...

[warptman]

No more salmon until next May/June here on the Kuskokwim, thats when the King/Chinook Salmon start returning.

[Dusty Rhodes]

Dang,... sometimes I think I am the only person on planet Earth to go to Alaska, get a guide, go fishing and not catch a single thing, not even the mosquitos bit, came back to N. Carolina and caught a 2.5 lb largemouth Bass on the same flyrod, Bass are nowhere near as tasty as Salmon, a large Trout down here is almost 10 inches long, our water just is not cold enough for real Trout, the state tries, but, their efforts go against the nature of the beast, yeah, it is cold water for N. Carolina, but that doesn't really make it cold, it is the old "perspective" thing.

[drew4008]

How come you want to preserve it? Buy it/catch it fresh each time, much better.