Curing frozen salmon eggs update

[Grant Scheele]

I cured some frozen Chinook eggs in Amermans cure last week and they seem to be turning out great.

I think that the secret was two fold.

Number 1, I froze our eggs within hours of killing the fish.

Number 2, I cured them before they were 100% thawed. The center of them still had ice crystals.

I think that it would be wise to NOT freeze these eggs again so I will be using them this week.

I will try to report how the eggs work later this week if anyone cares.

Grant

[Joe]

O Mykiss,
A friend of mine swears by freezing before curing. I was skeptical until I took him bobber fishing last month. His eggs got bit! And they looked fine. A little mushy but not bad.

I have been real happy with my eggs cured normally with Amerman cure but have been considering trying the same. I will be interested to hear what you think of them.

How long would you recomend keeping egg's cured with Amerman cure in the fridge? It does not say on the directions. I always freeze mine after curing and don't like the idea of freezing them twice either.

[Firedog]

Grant a good friend of mine does this when he doesnt have time to get eggs cured right away. What he does is vac. pack the whole skiens then freeze them. Works pretty well, not as good as fesh cured but not bad either. So it is an option.

[Grant Scheele]

Joe, after seeing how these frozen eggs have turned out I am not surprised your friends eggs got bit. In fact, it makes sense that a pre frozen egg(fractured egg shell) would milk more therefore getting more bites.

I have cured some eggs in the past that turned out REALLY soft. They looked terrible smooshy, not a round egg in the batch, so I gave them away to friends to try. They all came back and raved at how well they got bit. I don't think that a fish looks real close to them before biting, they just smell real close.

I am not so sure that freezing an egg before curing is not the best kept secret in all of Salmon/Steelhead fishing. They will never look as good but I don't think the fish care.

I will keep fresh cured Amerman eggs in the refrigerator for the entire season without a problem. If you don't think that you are going to use them within 2 months I would freeze them whether they have been thawed before or not. Pre thawed, they will come out softer the second time but if you think that is a problem reread the above sentiment. Frozen they will last at least 3 years.

Firedog, I would rather cure an egg that has been frozen the day it came out of the fish than to wait 2 or 3 days to cure unfrozen eggs.

When I did the GI Joes seminar last week I left fresh caught eggs in the frig overnight so I could cure them the next day for the seminar and I could tell a difference. They had definately got softer overnight.

[excuse me]

I've heard that you need to freeze egg skeins on wax paper before vac packing them so they don't get crushed in the bag suction. If you vac pack them unfrozen, freeze them, and then cure them after thawing I would think you'd have some real fast milkers for sure.! :shocked: Could be good for the more colored type tidewater such as in the Trask or for anywhere on rivers when it's murky water. But they won't last long and will just have to change them more often and or use them with sand shrimp for a combo.

Another thing I've heard for frozen uncured salmon eggs is to do a combination of thawing and curing at the same time by putting them into a fridge chilled egg cure brine (salt based, with sugar, borax, and coloring). Lot of good brine cure recipes for that. Good luck with them.