Canning Fish

[sbcman]

Does anyone have any experience canning fish, particularly largemouth bass? We normally just freeze our fish, but we've been giving thought to trying our hand at canning. This would also be our first adventure in canning any meat.

Any tips, tricks, etc?

 

[mrjarrell]

I've never thought of canning fish. Just make sure you're using a pressure canner. Water bath canning won't work with meats. I'm willing to bet there are some resources out there on the net that address fish canning. If not, you might check a few antique stores and see if they have some old USDA canning pamphlets from the 40's or 50's. I'd be willing to bet they might have some info on them.

 

[grunt soldier]

i will find the post for you on another forum. this guy cans everything. it takes a while for meats, i believe 90 minutes or so but let me verify this.

here you go. its got a lot of pages and he really knows what he is doing. give it a read. page 2 is where he cans salmon though if you just want to go to that.

Jars (now with 106% more venison) - AR15.COM

 

[BigMatt]

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_05/alaska_can_fish_qtjars.pdf

 

[jmiller676]

We don't can we freeze and if you do it right it lasts a long, long time.

1. Clean fish
2. put in ziploc bag
3. fill with clean water just above level of fish
4. burp the bag (remove air so all pieces of fish tightly packed and surrounded by water
5. freeze

 

[jmiller676]

or buy sardines.

 

[Ash]

or buy sardines.

I prefer herring.

 

[PistolBob]

Here's a 13 minute video from the State of Alaska on "How to Can Fish in Jars".

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW4Kt5LafGQ"]Fish Canning Video[/ame]

 

[sbcman]

We don't can we freeze and if you do it right it lasts a long, long time.

1. Clean fish
2. put in ziploc bag
3. fill with clean water just above level of fish
4. burp the bag (remove air so all pieces of fish tightly packed and surrounded by water
5. freeze

Right, same exact procedure we do--BUT, I've been putting a lot of fish in the freezer and it dawned on me that if we lost the freezer (power outage or some other failure), then I just lost A LOT of fish. Trying to prep the best we can.

Thanks to all for the links! This is the info I was needing. I think the next mess I bring in we'll give it a shot.

Also, I'm oddly in a sardine mood now as well

 

[mrjarrell]

You could always salt them and air dry them. They'll last for years without refrigeration. All you need to do then is soak them to remove the salt.