Salting Salmon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Split the salmon down the back, keeping the sides together by the belly.
Remove the roe, gills, and entrails.
Wash the fish.
Salt the fish for pickling.
Cure in tanks
Place the fish in large tanks for seven days until thoroughly cured.
Pack the barrels
Pack the fish in barrels, flesh side up, except for the top two layers which should be skin side up.
Salt and pile
Split the fish up the belly.
Remove the gills and entrails.
Fill the belly with salt.
Place the fish in rows on matting.
Cover the fish with salt.
Stack additional rows on top until 8 to 10 feet high.
Cover the entire pile with matting.
Leave the pile for seven days.
Re-lay the pile and cover again with salt.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Salmon
- The main food being preserved; its flesh firms and dries as the salt draws out moisture.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and inhibits spoilage bacteria, which preserves the fish through curing.
The step that matters
Salting the fish evenly. Salt must reach all flesh, including the belly cavity and thick areas. Uneven salting lets moisture and bacteria persist in spots, so the fish may spoil or cure unevenly.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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