Air Drying Fish in warm climates
 

Hi All.

Years ago I worked on Japanese and Korean boats in the Bering Sea.
Most everyone had a personal "stash" of air dried cod, squid, and other
sea monsters hanging like wind chimes in out of the way corners. I was
a bit apprehensive to eat the stuff at first but a few sakes or soju
bolstered my courage. After a few months, chewing on a three week air
dried squid was actually pretty good. the problem is I never got to the
How - To details.

So here is the qustion: Anybody ever string a bunch of dead fish in
your rig while cruising? My concern is that the warmer weather might
encouage bad bacteria growth. Any ideas?
Bob

Air Drying Fish in warm climates
 

Mys Terry wrote:

The dried fish I'm familiar with was also salted.
Mys Terry

Hi, Salted then air dried?
What I saw with the Koreans was a simple head and gut, rinse with sea
water, split, then hang.

The lack of salting PLUS warm weather is what has me spooked.
Suggestions?
Bob

Air Drying Fish in warm climates
 

We marinate in vinegar and spice (to taste). We make small bits (since
they are usually the parts we peel off the bone after filleting they
come that way) put 'em in a tupper with vinegar and make sure that that
all the surfaces have contact with the marinade. Then we dry them on a
bit of old SS plate when it looks like we'll have at least half a day
without rain. They keep a good long while in the marinade so you can
wait. Makes great snacks and hasn't killed us yet -- but I suspect the
FDA wouldn't go for it...

-- Tom.

Air Drying Fish in warm climates
 

On Fri, 17 Feb 2006 23:25:26 GMT, Mys Terry
wrote:

The technique is as follows:

* Gut and bone the fish.
* Discard the heads, but leave the skins and tails on.
* Place the fish in a sal****er brine for three weeks,
-------snip----------
Do you use (clean) seawater or drinkingwater with salt added?
Do you refresh the brine every x days?
Tia, Len.

Air Drying Fish in warm climates
 

Down in the Spanish Main, when we aren't raping and pillaging, we like our
cod dried and pickled. For a special treat, take a long leak on the dried
fish before eating. Then roll them in tung.

As you swallow; say AH AH ,,,, Arrh. This is Pirate speech for "this is
good dried, ****ed on , rolled in dung, fish".

If you see our ship "The Jolly Listerine" give us a holla. When we get done
raping and pillaging we will share some cod.


================================================== ===============================
"Bob" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi All.

Years ago I worked on Japanese and Korean boats in the Bering Sea.
Most everyone had a personal "stash" of air dried cod, squid, and other
sea monsters hanging like wind chimes in out of the way corners. I was
a bit apprehensive to eat the stuff at first but a few sakes or soju
bolstered my courage. After a few months, chewing on a three week air
dried squid was actually pretty good. the problem is I never got to the
How - To details.

So here is the qustion: Anybody ever string a bunch of dead fish in
your rig while cruising? My concern is that the warmer weather might
encouage bad bacteria growth. Any ideas?
Bob

Air Drying Fish in warm climates
 

Lars Johansson wrote:
In the Nordic countries (at least Sweden and Norway), we have a long
tradition of airdrying fish. Mostly white fish like cod. The fish is gutted
and boned like Len describes but not salted. Is is held open and flat with
sliver of wood and dried on wooden racks on the cliffs. (Nowadays indoors.)
But is is not consumed dried. It is soaked in lye for several weeks, then
rinsed many times and finally boiled.
Nowadays a Christmas dish, earlier a a part of the everyday diet. Earlier
the dried fish was exported to the rest of Europe.
/Lars J

Hi Lars:

Thanks for the suggestions. H&G butterfly, skin on, tail on, pin in.
So it sounds like either salt or lye. What does the lye do? Kill
everything?Remove moisture? Clean your pipes?!?!

As far as Thomas' idea reagarding Leaks.............. I think green
onions or scallions wojld work also.

In Cod We Trust
Bob

Air Drying Fish in warm climates
 

Thanks for the suggestions. H&G butterfly, skin on, tail on, pin in.
So it sounds like either salt or lye. What does the lye do? Kill
everything?Remove moisture? Clean your pipes?!?!

As far as Thomas' idea reagarding Leaks.............. I think green
onions or scallions wojld work also.

In Cod We Trust

i bet it would be ok, drying the fish and eating them. i wouldn't use
the salt or lye because i don't like salty food or alkaline tastes, but
if you didn't think drying was enough then vinegar might be ok, i like
acid tastes more and they are easier to cook with in my opinion. but
then i'm from the mountains and i really like pickled beat eggs too.
haha. but i would just dry the fish, myself, and not put them in
anything else. we in the states act like this is some forgotten magic
and buy special dehydrators even to make venison jerky, but it's pretty
low tech and simple to do that kind of thing. here are problems i
imagine in my own mind ... sea birds near land swooping down to take
the fish from your rigging ... and having to take all those fish out of
the rigging when a squall comes up. but other than that, seems like a
great idea to me! :) the sea birds especially though i bet a little
group of birds could empty your rigging before you even had a chance to
figure out what was going on! lol

how do you catch them to begin with, drag a net in your wake ?

if it was some big fish you got lucky enough to catch i would think it
would have to be cut pretty thin to dry in any reasonable amount of
time.

Air Drying Fish in warm climates
 

"Lars Johansson"

wrote in message news:dtc5g6
In the Nordic countries (at least Sweden and Norway), we have a
long
tradition of airdrying fish. Mostly white fish like cod. The
fish is gutted
and boned like Len describes but not salted. Is is held open and
flat with
sliver of wood and dried on wooden racks on the cliffs.
(Nowadays indoors.)
But is is not consumed dried. It is soaked in lye for several
weeks, then
rinsed many times and finally boiled.

What chemical is lye?

JimB

Air Drying Fish in warm climates
 

News f2s wrote:
It is soaked in lye for several weeks, then rinsed many
times and finally boiled.

What chemical is lye?

i don't know, but it's a base/alkaline. it might be sodium hydroxide.
same principle as soaking something in acid, except as a base ... the
goal being to make an unhealthy environment for bacteria to grow in,
one that they don't like. bacteria don't like dryness (drying or
smoking), alkaline/acids (pickling), too much salt (salting),
radiation, too much heat (cooking/canning), cold (freezing), too much
sugar (candying), etc.

Air Drying Fish in warm climates
 

"ps" == purple stars writes:

ps News f2s wrote:
It is soaked in lye for several weeks, then rinsed many
times and finally boiled.

What chemical is lye?

ps i don't know, but it's a base/alkaline. it might be sodium hydroxide.
ps same principle as soaking something in acid, except as a base ... the
ps goal being to make an unhealthy environment for bacteria to grow in,
ps one that they don't like. bacteria don't like dryness (drying or
ps smoking), alkaline/acids (pickling), too much salt (salting),
ps radiation, too much heat (cooking/canning), cold (freezing), too much
ps sugar (candying), etc.

But the purpose in this case is not preservation, the drying has
already taken care of that. The purpose is to aid in the rehydration,
at the same time transmogrifying the fish into something which I
refuse to eat.

--
C++: The power, elegance and simplicity of a hand grenade.

Air Drying Fish in warm climates
 

"Ole-Hjalmar Kristensen"


wrote in message ...
But is is not consumed dried. It is soaked in lye for
several
weeks, then
rinsed many times and finally boiled.

Nf What chemical is lye?

Nf JimB

Lye is NaOH. But you don't soak it for several weeks. One week
is more
typical.

Jeez. This is the stuff I clear out my drains with!

JimB

Air Drying Fish in warm climates
 

On 20 Feb 2006 10:50:17 -0800, "Bob" wrote:


Lars Johansson wrote:
In the Nordic countries (at least Sweden and Norway), we have a long
tradition of airdrying fish. Mostly white fish like cod. The fish is gutted
and boned like Len describes but not salted. Is is held open and flat with
sliver of wood and dried on wooden racks on the cliffs. (Nowadays indoors.)
But is is not consumed dried. It is soaked in lye for several weeks, then
rinsed many times and finally boiled.
Nowadays a Christmas dish, earlier a a part of the everyday diet. Earlier
the dried fish was exported to the rest of Europe.
/Lars J

Hi Lars:

Thanks for the suggestions. H&G butterfly, skin on, tail on, pin in.
So it sounds like either salt or lye. What does the lye do? Kill
everything?Remove moisture? Clean your pipes?!?!

As far as Thomas' idea reagarding Leaks.............. I think green
onions or scallions wojld work also.

In Cod We Trust
Bob


Here's my guess: lye saponifies the fats, so they don't go rancid.
The rinses washes the fatty soaps out.
Hmmm....yummy!

Brian Whatcott Altus OK

Air Drying Fish in warm climates
 

"Bob" wrote in message
oups.com...

Lars Johansson wrote:
In the Nordic countries (at least Sweden and Norway), we have a long
tradition of airdrying fish. Mostly white fish like cod. The fish is
gutted
and boned like Len describes but not salted. Is is held open and flat
with
sliver of wood and dried on wooden racks on the cliffs. (Nowadays
indoors.)
But is is not consumed dried. It is soaked in lye for several weeks,
then
rinsed many times and finally boiled.
Nowadays a Christmas dish, earlier a a part of the everyday diet.
Earlier
the dried fish was exported to the rest of Europe.
/Lars J

Hi Lars:

Thanks for the suggestions. H&G butterfly, skin on, tail on, pin in.
So it sounds like either salt or lye. What does the lye do? Kill
everything?Remove moisture? Clean your pipes?!?!

The drying is enough to preserve, the lye is not used until you are
preparing the fish, a few weeks before eating it. It is part of the
rehydration (is there such a word?) process. It is so effective that the
fish ends up about 3 time the original volume. After the lye you rinse the
fish many times before you boil it, so there is no lye taste, in fact, there
no taste at all. Imagine eating poorly set tasteless gelatine with boiled
potatoes and white tasteless gravy.
/Lars J