Salt Fish

[mjarrels]

The I remember thread got me thinking... went to the local country store today and bought a couple pounds of salt fish... yea, five gallon plastic buckets setting on the floor, not the 5 gallon wooden kegs I remember as a kid. Currently soaking in water but I can't remember how to cook. I'm thinking corn meal into hot oil in a hot cast iron skillet? Any other ideas?

mark

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Mark,

Had my first salt fish about 15 years ago. Some of the best fish I have ever ate. What we do is soak them over night changing the water several times. Roll in corn meal with maybe just a little flour mixed in the corm meal and fry in a cast iron or electric skillet in oil. We always debone the fish before we fried them. Funny thing is with salt fish we will only eat them with white toast. When we have fish in the outdoor fryer we have all the trimmings. The first time I ate salt fish my FIL and MIL made them and thats the way they ate them growing up. Now when we have them thats the only way I eat them.

Funny thing that you post this since we were talking last week about going to get some this weekend.

If you have never had salt fish you don't know what your missing.

David

 

[Bird]

When you say "salt fish" are you talking about a particular kind of fish, or just fish prepared a certain way? I don't recall every hearing of "salt fish" although I've certainly caught and eaten lots of different kinds of salt water fish as well as fresh water fish.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Bird,

The fish are cured or packed in salt. Meat is dry but not as dry as jerky. It was theold way of preserving fish. Most of the salt fish I've had were hering (sp), thou there are only fish used.

 

[Bird]

OK, I understand. I knew a lot of meat was preserved that way years ago, including fish of different varieties, but I don't recall ever seeing salt fish myself.

 

[mjarrels]

I was just told to eat salt fish with butter bread and apple butter to cut the salt taste!

mark

 

[mjarrels]

Yep, herring. About one pound per fish!

mark

 

[Bird]

I'm one of those who would be perfectly happy to have seafood 3 or 4 times a week. And when my parents lived at Port Aransas and my dad fished 5 or 6 days a week, they kept me supplied with fish and oysters and when I went to visit, I'd buy shrimp by the 50# case at Coastal Freezing. Now I buy fish, and it's gotten rather expensive. And while what we buy is good, it's not as good as what we caught. Night before last, I had some fillets from the fish shown in these pictures and it was the best I've eaten in years. After rinsing the fillets, I patted them dry with a paper towel, put them in a clean ziploc bag, and dumped in the Zatarain's Crispy Southern Style seasoning, shook it to thoroughly coat the fillets, then fried them in olive oil. DELICIOUS! I'll bet the salt fish would be good cooked the same way after you soak them, changing water a few times to get some of the salt out.

 

[Bird]

I was just told to eat salt fish with butter bread and apple butter to cut the salt taste!

mark

Anything is good with bread and butter and apple butter. Well, almost anything.

 

[Egon]

salt fish I've had were hering

After the bones were picked out was anything left?

 

[Bird]

After the bones were picked out was anything left?

Egon, the only herring I ever ate was the canned, kippered herring. About 48-49 years ago, I used to carry my lunch to work and I sometimes carried those and crackers and thought they were pretty good. Then I heard somewhere that kippers and scrambled eggs were a popular English breakfast, so I tried it ONCE! only. As far as I was concerned that ruined the fish and the eggs. And a couple of years ago, I bought one can of kippered herring to try since it had been over 40 years since I ate any. Not too bad, but I think I can do without them.

 

[Egon]

Fortunately, when canned, the bones become soft and chewable.

Now a Smoked Mackerel for Breakfast may be something else again.

 

[Bird]

Egon, I think the only mackeral I've eaten is the canned stuff. A year or two ago, I remembered my mother making mackeral patties (or croquettes, as we called them) because it was cheaper than salmon, but I couldn't remember just what they tasted like. I knew that I liked them when I was a kid, so I bought a can and tried it. All I can say is that I'm glad I can afford salmon now.

 

[Chuck52]

The only salt cured fish I can remember ever eating was salt cod. And that was in Puerto Rico of all places! They make codfish fritters using salt cod, in Spanish they're bacalaitos fritos. Basically, you boil the dried fish briefly in water and then drain and bone it and add it to a loose batter which is then deep fried into fritters. That was one of the Puerto Rican dishes I really liked, along with Pina Colladas. You could often find stands along the road to the beach or the rain forest where you could get bacalaitos and pichos (pork shishkebabs) and various other fried or grilled things your momma wouldn't want you to eat. They are amazingly good, and I bet you could substitute salt herring for the cod.

Chuck

 

[Egon]

substitute salt herring for the cod.

After boning there is not much left.

Smoked mackerel is a little different than canned Mackerel.

Fresh caught Cod and Haddock take one into a different world of fish.

 

[Oldtrout]

Understanding Salt Cod

Just thought someone would be interested,the last trip I made on a fish dragger we landed over 250,000 lbs of cod,now thats a lot of fish cakes.....

 

[mjarrels]

I just changed the water for the third time... hope to have salt fist for dinner tomorrow night!

mark

 

[biggerten]

I just changed the water for the third time... hope to have salt fist for dinner tomorrow night!

mark

I think you're describing what we in Minnesota call lutefisk.

 

[rox]

I just changed the water for the third time... hope to have salt fist for dinner tomorrow night!

mark

Mark- It would be great if you would post a picture of the fish. If it is salted cod over here in Provence it is a fish that has festivals built around it. Here we make aioli with it and there are aioli competitions and aioli is served at festivals etc. We ahve the olive oil locally in the south of France and that is the main ingrediant that goes into the sauce served with the salted cod.

Basically you have to soak the cod changing the water as you are doing. Then you prepare the following all boiled and then cooled down and served at room temperatur- Everything fresh not frozen - potatos, carrots, whole beets, hard boiled egg (if you put salt in the water when boiling eggs they won't crack) green beans. Beets and green beans are optional but around here most people serve it that way. Then you need to add sea snails.

You boil the cod and serve it warm with all the room temperature other ingredients. Usually everything is served on huge platters and people help themselves to what they want of each ingredient. Then you take a big blob of aioli and put it on your plate and you dip all the ingredients in the aioli sauce. The key of course is the aioli sauce. make a great one and it is a fantastic meal. make a so so one and everything is jsut kind of bland. This meal is typically served because the ingredients don't require refridgeration. You can bring this to a picnic no problem and it is okay also to serve the cooked salted cod room temperature, we usually serve it warm but it doens't have to be.

Here is a link Aioli - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia the main thing bout making the sauce is that you have to whisk in the olive oil and your arm gets real tired when preparing for a big group. My husband makes this for our annual outing of our local olive fanciers and he has volunteers who take turns at the whick. if you don't get it right your sauce seperates and it is yucky. There is someone who brings fresh local garlic and it is an event everyone really enjoys. Aioli is really delicious and I would recomend it to anyone. it is not that hard to do except for soaking the cod and peaaling allt he vegetable. Since we eat everything fresh all the time we are used to peeling fresh vegetables. The potatos are served with their skin on using real thin skinned potatos.

There was a big aioli festival in conjunction wiht a market of olive oil producers. One woman went around and tried allt he olive oils and she bought ours. Hey she won first prize for her aioli using our oil. A good fruity olive oil is going to make all the difference in the aioli. You don't want to use an olive oil that is peppery or has a bite to it, you are looking for a strong fruity flavored oil that is mild. Olive oil afficiandos will knwo what i mean. Our 2007/08 AOC olive oil would be perfect for aioli. Our 2007/8 Aglandau not so much.

 

[masscity]

We ate salt fish, but we didn't cook it, the salting cures it.

I'm Finnish American and when I was young on the farm for lunch we ate salt fish

and homemade yogurt.

Later when I visited my Dad, he made his own salt fish. He put a layer of course salt,

then a layer of fish, then salt etc. When the bowl was full he put a plate on top with

a weight and after a few days in the fridge it was ready to eat.