Has Anyone Dried Fish?

[zbery1]

I went to a native fish camp last week to see how they dry fish. Salmon is one of our main staples up here and I wanted to have an alternative to freezing and jarring. I am wondering if anyone has experience at drying fish and if so how do YOU do it?

[CanNerd]

Unless I learned it as an apprentice from an expert, I wouldn't want to attempt it because of the dangers of bacteria and other contamination. I would prefer to freeze or 'can' fresh fish.

[zbery1]

The natives here have been doing it from time immemorial, I feel comfortable with the safety of their methods. I am a bit unsure whether it is really necessary to have your smokehouse oriented with the river and always have the salmon facing upstream while drying, but I am comfortable with the saftey of the method.
I am just looking to find anyone else with experience at drying fish and where they learned to do it and how their methods differ.
I am thinking that freezers can go down and things can happen to make canning impossible. Yet, the forest can always provide you with the means to smoke and dry fish as long as you have the knowledge of how it is done.

[longshot]

my ancestors have been drying fish here for over 500 years. mostly cod but other species as well, for cod we clean and split the fish, fillets with the skin on work as well, get a large tub or pan and sprinkle some salt on the bottom of the pan/tub layer on the fish ( don't have the fish touching each other) then layer on more salt and then fish and so on. leave the fish to cure for a day or so then put out to air dry, either hang on a clothes line type of set up or on flakes, Google this as it is hard to explain try "fish flakes in Newfoundland". do not allow the rain or dew mist etc to get at the fish or it will get maggoty. in a few days the fish will get firm and sort of hard, then store it inside where it wont get wet or too hot and it will keep for some time.

hope this helps.
dean

BTW, dont use table salt, well you can but it isnt great use course canning salt or if you can get it fish salt which is very course looks like road salt in size but it is food grade where as road salt isnt.

[zbery1]

I live near a native Tlinget village and they fillet the fish out, remove the backbone while keeping the skin intact. Then theyhang it on wooden rods over cold smoke. First, skin side up for 24 hours then skin side down for another 24. After that they shave off thin strips, poking a rod through each strip and let them hang, not touching, until completely dry. these are stored in paperbags or in the freezer. They don't use any salt or brine. I would like to add some salt before drying it over the cold smoke. I think that much of the process they go through has more to do with tradition than anything else. The way you salt before drying makes me think it would be just fine to add some salt to the fish before putting it over the cold smoke. I love the dry fish they make but it needs a bit of salt, it seems to me it would also help with the presevation.

[longshot]

ive seen char, much like salmon but with less oil, done like this in the north, fillet the fish leaving the skin on and score the flesh every inch or so to the skin with out cutting the skin hang over a smoke fire on wooden frames till dry and store. the smoke both coats the fish and keeps flies away.


dean

[DM]

ive seen char, much like salmon but with less oil, done like this in the north, fillet the fish leaving the skin on and score the flesh every inch or so to the skin with out cutting the skin hang over a smoke fire on wooden frames till dry and store. the smoke both coats the fish and keeps flies away.


dean


I've seen the natives in the interior of Alaska do it this way too. They build a long "A" frame out of spruce and alder. Then cut the fish the way you described, and build a smokey fire out of alder under the "A" frame.

DM

[Anon001]

As was stated, drying fish has been done for centuries. What did people do back before canning, hot bath processing, jars, refrigerators and freezers? They preserved meats and vegetables in different ways. Even when my 80 year old mother was a child, she can remember that her dad and the men would butcher hogs and beef in the fall. They would salt it down and the side of beef was rolled in a sheet and placed under her parents bed. When my grandmother would need meat, they would slide it out from under the bed, carve off what they needed, and slide it back under... and they weren't poor folk by any means. But, bedrooms back then weren't heated. ... and this was in West Texas.

Even as recent as the 1940's, 50's, and 60's, people in this area would hang the beef in the barn with a sheet draped over it. It would stay there till it was consumed. They would lower it, cut off meat, and hoist it back up.

So, I think people have become such germaphobes that they cringe at the thought of any food preservation that doesn't fit into the "standards" of what we are told to do today......

So, I would like to know if I can catch a lot of catfish out of my pond in the fall and smoke it for winter consumption..... would it work the same as with salmon and cod?

[zbery1]

I don't know, you could always give it a try an see what happens. I love the dry salmon, kinda like fish jerky. The natives also dry Halibut here I believe.

[Catalpa]

I love dried fish too, and after reading this thread I may just attempt it! Catfish flesh is different than salmon or whitefish, I don't know if it would dry the same or not. It might be interesting to try. Our local store has some fresh salmon, I'm thinking I might just try to dry some.

[zbery1]

I think I'm addicted to dried salmon...be careful lol