Pickled Shad

woodmoose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
getting ready for shad season, and couldn't find my pickled fish recipe on here - some may enjoy - I know I like it!


Pickled Shad (works for other fish as well)

ingredients

  • Shad
  • onion
  • water
  • salt
  • vinegar
  • sugar
  • pickling spices

  1. clean and cut shad into 1 inch chunks or so (no need to bone or skin but I do trim off the backbone due to size)
  2. mix up a salt 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
  3. put fish into a non-metallic container (bowl, pail, crock), cover with salt brine, and refrigerate for 24 hrs
  4. pour brine off of fish and rinse
  5. put fish back into the container and cover with vinegar - refrigerate for 48 hrs, stirring occasionally (gently) - this "cooks" the fish like ceviche
  6. pour off vinegar but don't rinse
  7. make pickling juice - mix 4 cups vinegar, 3 cups sugar, and a ¼ cup of pickling spice, heat till sugar dissolves but NOT boiling (some now add wine) then cool all the way down - must be cold before next step or you'll cook your fish again
  8. cut up onion into slices
  9. now pack the jars - do this in layers, fish then onions and so on till you fill the jar. You can pack them down by smacking the bottom of the jar on your hand but I just push (broke a jar once). After you have the jar full of fish and onions you 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.


hope you like it - you can also adjust the pickling juice when you make it -make it to your taste, more sugar or less - add garlic, etc
 

woodmoose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
got a batch making now,,,,,done did the brine and it's now "cooking" in the vinegar,,,,,,,will put into the pickle on Tuesday,,,,,,,,
 

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
it's best savored a few bites at a time,,,,,not as a meal!!
Yeah, I am guessing you don't want to be run slam out of the house. I used to work in the eastern part of the state where pickled fish was king, herring mainly. There was a many a night I wouldn't sign on 10-8 just because I knew my buddy had been eating those things and it was still cold enough that you couldn't keep the windows down. Got my hind in in trouble with the brass for that very thing. Luckily back then we had the sorriest radio system in the state and used the old repeaters half the time depending on where we were you couldn't hit a tower. I used that as an excuse. LOL
 

mudflap

Ten Pointer
I'm sure similar to pickled herring. Tried pickled herring and I probably could eat another bite, but not a whole meal made from it!
 

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
My parents loved salt fish, when I was a kid what was fixed you eat. Well that broke me on anything even close to it. I know pickled isn't salt fish but in my mind it is close enough. It took me 20 years after I was a kid to get where I could eat green beans again, I am back to where I love 'em. I still can't eat the big garden peas without gagging.

Funny what stuff like that does to you. But a belt across your hind end back then was worse. :cool:
 

woodmoose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
The finished product,,,,,,,want some Rick? It'll remind you of the old days patrolling!


DSCN0876.JPG
 

1Oldsarge

Button Buck
I realize I'm reviving a zombie thread, but I live out here in the Columbia River drainage and we have one of the biggest shad runs in the world. I'm really looking forward to catching some but eating can be a challenge. Anyway, pickling sounds like a good beginning. Thanks, guys.
 

1Oldsarge

Button Buck
here to serve,,,,

and ignore the peanut gallery that doesn't like pickled food,,,,

Columbia River Drainage = what part? That behemoth drains the entire NorthWest!!

I'm two blocks up the bank from the Willamette and two blocks south of a boat ramp. I'm told the shad run up to the base of the Willamette Falls.
 

woodmoose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
Y bones dissolve easy
small rib bones do as well
I'd remove larger rib bones and the backbone
 

1Oldsarge

Button Buck
I love shad, what does pickling do to the bones? Sounds like something I need to try.

Because the pickle solution is acid, it dissolves the calcium in the bones making them soft and easy to chew/digest. I believe it also boosts the probiotic bacteria. I know it does in sauerkraut and kimchi.
 

Scrub

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Yeah, I am guessing you don't want to be run slam out of the house. I used to work in the eastern part of the state where pickled fish was king, herring mainly. There was a many a night I wouldn't sign on 10-8 just because I knew my buddy had been eating those things and it was still cold enough that you couldn't keep the windows down. Got my hind in in trouble with the brass for that very thing. Luckily back then we had the sorriest radio system in the state and used the old repeaters half the time depending on where we were you couldn't hit a tower. I used that as an excuse. LOL

Use to eat saltfish is that same thing?
 

Scrub

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Y bones dissolve easy
small rib bones do as well
I'd remove larger rib bones and the backbone

You ever fry them? I do it with river suckers in the spring. Filet them off the bone, skin then score filets about 1/8"-1/4" dredge in milk/egg wash then house autry and into the peanut oil, all the small bones disappear. Good eats
 

1Oldsarge

Button Buck
I've read where that kind of cross-cutting, then dipping in tempura batter and deep frying makes the bones seem to disappear. It's another idea I want to try when the run begins.
 

darkthirty

Old Mossy Horns
My parents loved salt fish, when I was a kid what was fixed you eat. Well that broke me on anything even close to it. I know pickled isn't salt fish but in my mind it is close enough. It took me 20 years after I was a kid to get where I could eat green beans again, I am back to where I love 'em. I still can't eat the big garden peas without gagging.

Funny what stuff like that does to you. But a belt across your hind end back then was worse. :cool:

My dad still has some 5 gallon buckets at his house that my grandparents had that their salt fish came in. My grandpa would order it at a little old country store. My grandma would fix him saltfish and eggs with biscuits for breakfast 2-3 times a week. I never acquired a taste for it. It was always too salty for me. That stuff make country ham seem unsalted. Lol
 
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