Name: Brine for Boiling Fish
Ingredients: four ounces to the gallon of water will be sufficient; 4 ounces of salt to a gallon of water; a gallon of water; eight ounces; 8 ozs

Brine for Boiling Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brine

Mix salt with water to make brine.
Fine common salt is used; if using Maldon salt, use a smaller quantity.
Use about four ounces of salt per gallon of water for small fish.
Use 5 to 6 ounces of salt per gallon of water for cod fish, lobsters, crabs, prawns, and shrimps.
Use eight ounces of salt per gallon of water for salmon.

Skim

Skim the water from the moment scum begins to form on the surface.

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Salt: Draws moisture out of and seasons the fish, firming its flesh as it brines.
Water: Carries the dissolved salt so it penetrates the fish evenly.

“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.