salt cured eggs

[designated netter]

I just received a large amount of eggs shipped to me from Alaska. They were neatly packed and salt cured (never frozen). all I have ever cured are fresh eggs.Should these eggs be cured again as I normally do or just try to add color to them?

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[RW]

A friend of mine up (Alaska) here with me now uses salt, borax and color. I would think you could just add the other two and call it good. I would consider these eggs fresh eggs still, and treat them the same as any other eggs you cure.

DN - It depends on how much salt was used. The salting toughens the egg sack membranes which can make it more difficult to take a cure. I suggest trying the following. If they were heavily salted, put them in a red colored borax as RW said, with some sugar added . If only moderately salted either cure them in a good OTC such as Quick Cure (red), but use only half the amount of cure as usual (about 3/4 T. per pound of eggs instead of 1 1/2). Or brine cure them in a less salty brine. The brine would be more guesswork because you probably don't know how much salt was used. I think you would be alright trying 1 gallon of distilled water and adding 1 cup non-iodized salt (instead of 2), 1 cup of sugar, 1/4 cup sodium sulfite, 1/4 cup of MSG, and about 3/4 cup of Pro-Glo red coloring powder (not the cure). The brine has the best chance of putting a good cure into the eggs because it will open up the tiny membrane pours a little better in this situation. Any of those should give you good fishable eggs though. Good luck with it. BTW, when getting uncured frozen blocks of salmon eggs, the best thing to do with them is to combo thaw/cure them in the above brine (but with the 2 cups of salt & sugar & 1/2 cup SS). - RT



[This message has been edited by RT (edited 07-28-2000).]