Any one have a favorite recipe to pickle the slabs? I'm a fan of just about anything pickled (from okra to sausage) so figured I'd see if anybody pickled some slabs and whatcha thought of it. Thanks!
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Any one have a favorite recipe to pickle the slabs? I'm a fan of just about anything pickled (from okra to sausage) so figured I'd see if anybody pickled some slabs and whatcha thought of it. Thanks!
Do a search in search box, think I remember someone talking about it before.
Alright thanks. Seemed a bit out of the ordinary from what I could see in the other topics on the page. Will go ahead and check now! Have a good one
I got to thinking about this method of eating them and decided to give it a go. I had done some many years ago but I wasn't thrilled with the result and my wife didn't care for it at all so I never tried it again.
A bit of research led me to a recipe that looked do-able and seemed to have good reviews so with some fillets from the freezer I put some together. A bit more reading indicates that it's important to use fish that's been frozen for 3-5 days to kill any parasites that you may miss during cleaning. This is not my recipe but I re-wrote it with exactly what I did. I used a combination of crappie and bluegill.
Recipe:
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Salt (non-iodized).....I used canning salt
White Vinegar
White Sugar
White Onions......I used sweet onions cut small enough to fit between the fish pieces
A White Port wine, .......I used Pinot Grigio
Pickling spice
OPTIONAL: Jalepeno peppers
Jars, Quart or Pint
1. Mix brine, Use ½ cup salt per quart of water, mix until dissolved. (This amount will differ depending on how many fish you plan to pickle.) Note: you must cover fish in brine so make more rather than less.
2. Cut your fillets into bite sized pieces; I cut them so the thickest part is no more than 3/8" thick for speedy brine and vinegar penetration and place them in Brine, ensuring they are completely covered by the Brine. Put them in fridge to soak for 24 hours.
3. After the fish have soaked for 24 hrs, drain completely, and cover with white vinegar, again making sure fish are completely covered in vinegar. Back into the fridge. After 12 hours drain off vinegar. I got delayed and mine stayed in the vinegar for 24 hours.
4. Now you will need to mix your Pickling Solution, this consists of 4 cups vinegar, 3 cups sugar, 1 cup white port wine, as many onions as you would like and a ¼ cup of pickling spice. In a large pot, over med/low heat dissolve the sugar in the vinegar DO NOT BOIL, just heat until sugar is dissolved. Next add the wine, sliced onions and pickling spice. Now bring to a slow boil, then let cool completely.
5. Now you can stuff your jars, I do this in layers, fish then onions and so on till I fill the jar. You can pack them down by smacking the bottom of the jar on your hand. After you have the jar full of fish and onions you can fill it up with your cool pickling solution. I fill all the jars then wait awhile to let it fill all the nooks and crannies then I top them off and put the lids on. They do not need to be sealed and last for several months in the fridge.
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I diced up 1/2 a jalepeno (no seeds) in each pint jar that I did ( I did 2 as a test). I really liked the zing it added. It did not go in the heated brine but direct into the jar while layering in. I could have cut the pickling brine in half for my 2 pint jars as I had a lot left over that I'll be tossing out. Those pickled onion pieces are delicious, too, by the way. So were the pepper pieces; I might dice them a bit larger next time just so I can eat those, too!
Put the jars in the fridge and forget about them completely for at least 2 weeks. I started sampling them at 10 days and found the thickest pieces still has some raw fish flavor that I didn't care for. At 16-17 days the were pretty much fully flavored throughout. 3 weeks seemed fully ready to go. They have a texture similar to cocktail shrimp, at least mine did.
I took the remnants of the 1st jar to our little Friday afternoon club yesterday and it got 2 thumbs up from the others there. My wife still doesn't care for them but I think they're much better than the recipe I tried years ago. I do think they are better cold than room temperature, though.
In re-reading my instructions, I should mention that as I layered the fish/onions, I added a bit of the pickle brine to be sure the spices were present throughout the jar, top to bottom. Total onion used was roughly 1/3 of a small to medium size sweet onion between the 2 jars.
Attachment 168628
Apologies for the additional post but the time to edit had expired.
Thanks for your recipe, I'm goin to try it
Sounds good. I do so like pickled okra and beets. I guess one would have to play with it but i wonder if you could make them have a hint of flavor similar to bread and butter pickles? Just a thought.