Gar fish

L Ross

L Ross

Well-Known Member
My Dad had a way to smoke carp that ended up like fish ham. He would take a wash tub full to work with him at the kraut plant in about 1962 and came home with it empty. He had chunks of smoked carp wrapped waxed paper, 75¢ a chunk.
I was only 8 at the time. I know he used indirect smoke with a fire pit and a stove pipe under ground and used apple wood. I vaguely remember him saying and one hour hot and fast to get the grease running then several hours low and slow to impart the smoke.
 
R

richhodg66

Well-Known Member
I know virtually nothing about smoking meat, but when I started bowfishing, I got a cheap smoker and tried this with carp. Actually turned out good, my boys were little at the time and they'd scarf it fast. I need to try that agai, been years since I did it.

Seems I just made a simple brine, soaked the filets overnight and then hickory or mesquite on the charcoal. I remember I tried some maple from a downed limb we had and it turned out nice too. Pretty easy, actually. It's oily fish, like salmon.
 
L Ross

L Ross

Well-Known Member
Yup, basic brine over night, canning salt, water, and brown sugar. Rinse the next morning, allow to dry for an hour and smoke over sugar maple, or apple, or maybe cherry. I think they use alder in Alaska. Not too strong of smoke to allow the fish to have some flavor. I typically can it in 1/2 pint jars using 1/2 tablespoon each of ketchup, vinegar, and canola oil, at 10 lbs. pressure for 100 minutes. You can check with JW to see if it's any good.
I like any oily fish, all tastes about the same. Salmon, steelhead, red horse, catfish, white bass, sheepshead, carp, all good. I used to eat it with vinegar on crackers until JW sent me his Jamie Mac rain forest pepper hot sauce. Mmmmm, mmm, a hunk of canned smoked fish on a Town House cracker drizzled with Jamie Mac's and commence ta chowin' down!
 
L Ross

L Ross

Well-Known Member
richhodg66 said:
I need to learn how to can.

I wonder if I could catch a few carp and try to smoke them before it gets too cold?
Click to expand...
Canning is essential in our house. I highly recommend Denali lids and stocking up before the next bout of insanity occurs. Also metal canning lids can be reused if removed carefully from the jar. We lay a table knife on the lid to support a church key and slowly apply pressure until the vacuum releases.
Jars are best obtained at rummage sales, from family and friends, or Face Book Market Place. I personally don't pay more than a quarter a piece for them. I find pints to be #1 and large mouth preferred, as we can all of our meat in wide mouth pints. But we have all sizes from 1/2 pint to two quarts. We use lots of regular mouth quarts for tomato juice and maple syrup.
The cost of a decent pressure canner can, (pun), be daunting. We prefer All American and we have two, a 21 1/2 qt. and a 15 1/2 qt. We paid 50¢ for the 21 1/2 and $30 for the 15 1/2. The 21 1/2 came off the ledge of a dank basement window at a Twin Cities Estate sale, the 15 1/2 from an ad in Market Place. Patience can be your friend. Just like guns and bullet casting, knowing what things are worth allows you to make intelligent decisions when an opportunity presents itself. Next best is Presto for new. We also have an old National with wooden handles that works fine, it is just that the All Americans are gasket-less which is nice. Whatever you get equip it with a gauge and a jiggler. We live around 760 ft. of altitude so we can at 10 lbs. of pressure.
Lots of old farm wives canned and you may be surprised to learn a relative has a pressure canner tucked away in a cupboard they have not used in years. When you express and interest they light right up and will shower you with gifts and knowledge.
 
JonB

JonB

Halcyon member
I now have three of the old #7, ..."old National with wooden handles"... So that's what I use for canning.
.
The main one I use (and first one I bought, was a garage sale find 25 yrs ago for $20), is in good functional condition, but is pitted on the inside...Someone must not have cleaned it well after canning tomato?
.
Then I found one in tough shape, but complete, at a garage sale for $5. I bought it for parts, but I did a test run with it after putting a good gasket in it, and the dang thing works, so it was my backup.
.
Then a couple years ago, I stumbled onto one that looked like new, shiny polished, like chrome. It had all the accessories and original paperwork/manual. I knew the guy that had it on a garage sale. He had it marked $35. He is a swapper, and I offered him a few items I wanted to get rid of...for an even swap.
 
JWFilips

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
I sure can vouch for the quality of L Ross's Smoked canned salmon! Best tasting smoked fish I ever had! Just finished my jar tonight! Love it on Toasted French crostini ! Along with his smoked hot sauce! A bit of sour cream on the side
 
fiver

fiver

Well-Known Member
canning is basically boiling water for a period of time.
a pressure canner just cuts the time down, like pressure cooking does.

the rest of it is just preparing stuff to go into the jars.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.