# pickled northern....mushy...frustrated!!



## Flicka

I have tried pickling fish 3 times now, and each time they end up mushy. I have tried the water/salt mixture for 1 day, 2 days, then the vinegar bath for 2 days. Do you rinse between these soakings? The chunks seem good and firm after the vinegar bath, but something happens after they have been in the jars for a couple of weeks. Any suggestions?? thanks.


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## 9manfan

When you are making the brine are you letting the brine cool off to room temp., thats a mistake I did a few years back, I made the brine and boiled it on the stove, I then put the fish in the jar when the brine was still warm and made the fish mushy, I now set the brine outside to cool it off completely and havn't had any problems , I'll try and get my recipe to ya.


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## Flicka

I made that mistake the first time. I now let it get cold before I put it in the jars. do you do any rinsing after the salt water bath or the vinegar bath? Thanks!


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## 9manfan

I do rinse the fish with cold water after the salt and vinegar steps, what size northern's are you using,the smaller the northern has always worked best for me, if the northern is too big it seems the meat is a little mushier also, seems the 2 and 3 pounders work the best for pickling.


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## Flicka

I only use the smaller Northerns, nothing bigger than 2.5, 3 lbs. It's interesting you rinse, all recipes I have been given says not to rinse. But rinsing makes sense, especially the water/salt bath. How long do you bath the fish in the water/salt??


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## woodpecker

The recipe I have calls for one night in the salt/water then rinse
one night in the vinegar then rinse
third night boil the vinegar and pickling spices, let cool and pour into the jars

I just made some a couple weeks ago that turned out really good!!


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## 9manfan

There seems to be lots of different versions of pickling northern, my recipe says to leave in the salt water from 24 to 48 hours and also the same amount of time for the white vinegar, I usually leave it in for 2 days, my recipe also calls for lemon slices with the onions in the jar along with a white wine, I'll try and remember the recipe for tommarow.


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## Flicka

Do you guys think 'soft' water makes any difference?? Do you use hard water??


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## woodpecker

I was warned to use good quality water so I bought a gallon of Distilled water!


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## 9manfan

Really never gave that much thought, could make a difference.


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## woodpecker

Cleaning and Cooking Fish
by Sylvia Bashline

I bought this book on ebay a while ago. It has a lot of recipes for all different kinds of fish. Smoke, pickled, etc.
It's an older book, but it has some very good looking fish recipes in it!!!!!!!


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## Flicka

9man, any luck finding that recipe?!


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## 9manfan

Pickled Pike

1 cup white vinegar 
3/4 cup white sugar 
3 bay leaves 
4 whole cloves 
1/2 tsp. whole allspice 
1 tsp. whole mustard seed 
1/2 tsp. whole black peppercorns 
1/2 cup sweet white wine 
1 cup pickling salt 
2 qt. cold water 
1 lb. skinless pike, bones removed, cut into 1 inch chunks 
1 1/2 - 2 cups additional white vinegar 
1 medium onion, thinly sliced 
1/2 lemon, thinly sliced 
First step
Combine 1 cup vinegar, sugar, bay leaves, cloves allspice, mustard seed and peppercorns in a saucepan. Bring ingredients to a boil and reduce heat. Simmer for 5 minutes. Cool. Add wine. Pour into a plastic or glass container. Let pickling syrup sit at room temperature for 4 days.

Second step
Mix pickling salt with cold water; stir thoroughly to dissolve salt. Pour over cutup skinless fish and refrigerate 48 hours.

Third step
Rinse fish with cold water and cover fish chunks with vinegar. Refrigerate for 48 hours.

Fourth step
Drain fish and discard vinegar. Loosely layer fish, onion and lemon in glass or plastic containers. Completely cover with pickling syrup and cover tightly. Refrigerate for five days, stirring once or twice during that time.

Last step
Pickling is done. Pickled pike may be stored covered with the pickling syrup in a closed container in refrigerator for up to 5 weeks. Makes approximately 2 qt.

This is the recipe I use,I usually use about 2 to 3 smaller northerns for this recipe, instead of using all the individual spices that the recipe calls for i just buy a jar of Pickling Spices, everything is already in there and I just add that to the brine, I also use a whole lemon and about twice the wine they call for, hope this helps, I just started a batch this last weekend.


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