Back in the 1980s I used to fish Deep Lake in Nolte State Park, north of Enumclaw, Washington. Because I lived only a mile away, it was an almost daily activity. It is a nice small, closed-basin, “no gas engines” lake with depths to 90 feet. Rainbow, silver and cutthroat were easily caught with popgear, needlefish or flies. A regular on the lake was a neighboring 80 year old man who would row his small boat dragging lures and occasionally throwing a fly. When the fish were rising, he would stand in his boat and, with amazing regularity, catch cutts to 16”.
One day we met at the beach after limiting and, like all good fishermen, swapped stories. He was a local who had been fishing Deep Lake since childhood and shared a lifetime of tips and secrets about the lake. Before parting, he asked me if I ever canned my fish and I told him no. Well, he gave me his canning technique which I wrote down on my paper lunch bag and have committed to memory. He has long since passed away, but his recipe lives on.
When you get your catch home, cut heads and tails off, gut and clean well. Either freeze one layer thick on a cookie sheet and put them in a zip-lock after frozen (you don’t want them freezing together in a lump), or wrap each fish in waxed paper, and then put them in a bag, so they can be popped apart later while still frozen.
When you have enough to can a batch, run your wide-mouth (so you can easily dump the fish out) canning jars (pints and half-pints) through the dishwasher. While the jars are washing, bring out the frozen fish and separate the bodies. Do the following two steps one fish at a time; do not soften them all at once: With a medium trickle of warm (not hot) water from the faucet, run water over the skin for about 5 seconds. With a plier, grab the corner of the skin where the gills were and pull downward like you are husking corn. The softened skin pulls right off the still-frozen body. Rinse and continue until all are skinned.
Set out your jars, lids and rings. Add about a half inch of your favorite sauce/marinade or bottled salad dressing and a tablespoon of olive or veggie oil to each jar. Sometimes we would use just salted water in some jars for great trout casseroles. Use your imagination.
Next, cut the fish to length – ½ inch less than the jar depth. Take two bodies with the bellies facing each other and put the one side of one fish into the cavity of the other and vice-a versa. This helps eliminate dead space in the jar and stacks them in like sardines. Stand the joined bodies up in the jar until full, snug but not too tight. Fill any odd spaces with cut-off pieces. After all jars are filled with fish, add more sauce/marinade, if needed, to within ½ inch of the rim. Wipe edge of jar rim to remove any spill and put lids and rings on.
Follow pressure cooker manufacturer’s instructions for canning. You must have the rack in the bottom or the bottom jars will break! After the pressure cooker has started blowing steam out the regulator hole, put the regulator on and start the timer (80 minutes). When the time is up, turn the heat off and LEAVE THE REGULATOR IN PLACE. Let the cooker cool naturally. If you relieve the pressure too soon the jars will instantly boil and explode. Imagine a volcanic eruption of fish spraying all over your kitchen through that little vent hole or blowing the lid off the cooker! After about an hour, we would check the regulator by gently lifting it with a fork. Once the pressure in gone, place jars on a towel to cool until the lids “pop”. Store in a cupboard until needed, no refrigeration required unless opened.
They are ready to eat right now if you want. You won’t even notice bones. We would dump a jar into a bowl and place a fish in a buttered slice of bread like a hotdog. Dip it in the sauce (we did most in jarred spaghetti/pizza sauce) and wash down with your favorite beverage.
PS: If you have any questions, please PM or e-mail me. http://www.lousmith7@gmail.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
How To Can Fish
Re: How To Can Fish
Ive cut and pasted this to a sticky note on my laptop i cant wait to give this a go, thanks for a great post as i know nothing on canning fish. 