Caring for yur herring, or, The Blind Robins Thread
30 herring made 5 lbs of dressed bodies. I will be more ready time-wise next year to smoke a larger batch and pickle some too.
Scaled, gutted, heads & fins removed. When you run yur thumb as shown from anal are forward with a little pressure it kinda butterflies the fish and allows one to get the blood surrounding the backbone out.
Made a paste of the following ingredients, and they now will brine and take on flavor for 1 week in the fridge, then I am gonna cold smoke them.
5 c brown sugar
2.5 lbs coarse salt
3 Tbls cloves, crushed
5 Tbls onions, minced
5 Tbls garlic, minced
3 Tbls bay leaves, crushed
Once brined I'll rinse and hang em out to dry until they are thoroughly dry and then cold smoke em at about 80* for a week and they'll be done.
IBNFSHN, coming this way when they are done for a generous portion may make for the perfect excuse for us to crawl in a floating gutwagon named The Onion and catch some fish if you can see clear and feel like it.
Got a little restless, pulled one out early for smoking.
Like always when jumping the gun, it was hard to keep lit and the skin kept clogging the screen in my pipe. Finally got a few hits in, harsh, but man, euphoria. Sweet part is, after a few hits have taken effect you can eat the remainder.