CURING AND SMOKING MULLET

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9153, 7 September 1888, Page 3

CURING AND SMOKING MULLET

A respected correspondent from Whangarei gives the following interesting information :—"A correspondent wanted information how to care mullet, both by pickling and smoking. This is a fish that in easily cured by either of these methods. The fisn should be slit down the back, the scales should not be removed, but otherwise well cleaned, and left in soak for several hoars, which draws the blood and other impurities and improves the quality of the fish. A water-tight cask will be required for the salting, and Liverpool salt should be used. The salt would be better in some wide dish, say, a milk-pan, and the fish laid in the salt) so all parts of it will be cured. Every layer of fish requires one or two handfuls of salt besides what sticks to the fish; this followed on every layer to the top. No brine or pickle will require to be made. This is formed with the water in the fish with the salt, and in a short time the fish will be floating in its own pickle. Weights should be placed on it, so that the pickle would cover the top. In five or six days it will require to be repacked —that, is merely lifting it and again packing with sufficient salt to keep the fish from sticking to each other. As to the quantity of salt to be used, a person must be guided _by judgment. Any surplus after the fish is used can be applied for the same purpose, therefore there need be no waste. The same pickle is to be used again. It is the best, and care should be taken that none is lost by leaky casks or otherwise. If the cask of fish is for export, it requires to be well filled, and the top layers turned skin side up, so the head of the cask will not injure the quality ; then filled up with pickle through a bung hole. For smoking the fish, it wants very little salt, just as much as will adhere to it, or laying it over night in strong pickle and the same time with the salting. It is better being dried in the sun before placing it in the smoke. It is also better to have one or two spikes in its back to spread it out. The smoking may be done in an outhouse or any simple weather-tight structure, but must be ventilated for the smoke to escape, otherwise the fish will become slimy and unfit for use. A simple way of smoking fish is in a cask, with the two ends out, and placed over a covered trench to lead the smoke, there beingsome covering on the top of the cask and auger holes in the aides for ventilation. The fish should be hung up and spaced sufficient for the smoke to go round. As the fire will be at the outer end of the trench, the longer the distance it will be cooler and smokes the fish very well. Further details could be given, but the curer will require to exercise good judgment in the process.