Curing Free But Frozen Salmon Eggs!

SKP · 10-22-2002, 10:30 AM

I was given about 5 pounds of frozen coho salmon eggs, of which most skeins are about 2/3 developed. Of course, they were frozen before being cured by my friend. I'm thawing them right now.

Anyone have any tips on curing, do I cure as normal, or do I need to treat them differently? I don't want them to turn out mushy, but I might have to be satisfied with mush, since they were frozen before cured.

Any tips, before I try to cure them tonight would be appreciated!

Thanks,
SKP

Jooky · 10-22-2002, 10:35 AM

sorry to tell you but the damage has been done. the eggs will all milk out...i would imagine they are only good for scent now

excuse me · 10-22-2002, 04:07 PM

A good way to cure frozen eggs is to put the frozen skeins into a brine cure right out of the freezer. That way the heavily salted water that is the brine base starts to immediately toughen the outer egg sack membranes so the thawing is less damaging to the eggs. As the outer most eggs thaw the brine then gets into the inner eggs before they thaw and toughens the eggs, and so on. This minimizes their tendancy to mush up as much. After they have all thawed and soaked in the brine for a while, which also has other ingredients like sugar and coloring, then drain them real well and let them dry longer and harder than usual. Then pack them in borax to toughen them some more.

You can find a good egg curing brine recipe and directions in the tips section of www.piscatorialpursuits.com

excuse me · 10-22-2002, 04:11 PM

I forgot to say that you should use really cold water for the brine instead of room temperature as with fresh eggs. Put a big container of the brine in the refridgerator for a while first. Then put some crushed ice into it, then add the completely frozen egg skeins. That slows the thawing and gives the salt more time to toughen the egg sacks before they fully thaw.

crabbait · 10-22-2002, 08:13 PM

I am certain that you have already passed this point by now, but slow thawing is a key. You will have fewer broken eggs by thawing in the fridge than by just taking them straight to room temperature. Also true for thawing cured eggs.

Same thing applies for fish or other food from the freezer, plan ahead and thaw in the fridge for best results on the table.

Joe · 10-22-2002, 08:24 PM

A friend just told me the other day that his secret is to freeze all eggs before curing. He feels they milk out better that fresh cured. He catches fish!

Steelheader69 · 10-22-2002, 09:54 PM

I've never had a problem freezing eggs w/o cure/borax then unfreezing/curing. But as said above, slow thaw. Then cure immediately. I hooked some nice kings using eggs I had thawed uncured and cured after thawing. Didn't have one problem. Since I had been using only eggs in one hole, I knew the eggs were good.

KingFisher85 · 10-22-2002, 11:23 PM

Let them sit over night in the cure with all the juices. I have also had frozen eggs given to me and I cured them up and they worked just fine. The steelhead thought that they were just fine eggs.

10-22-2002, 11:27 PM

Same here! I let them thaw and used a brine cure on them. Then packed them in borax! They work just fine for steelhead!

SKP · 10-23-2002, 07:36 AM

Thanks all!

I did thaw them in the fridge, it took two days. Yesterday evening, they were completely thawed, so I put the regular amount of cure on them. I only butterflied the bigger skeins, and left the smaller skeins whole. Then I put them immediately into a freezer bag to juice. I will flip the bag about every 6 hours or so, until the eggs hopefully will suck back up the juice, in 48 or so hours. Then I will dry them with my secret drying method. I'll post how they turn out. These eggs have excessive juicing, so we'll see. They don't look the best right now.

Here's my secret drying method, so it's not secret now. It works great for fresh cured eggs, but we'll see how it works for frozen eggs.

I don't dry them on borax or a screen. I dry them on disposable baby diapers, or Depends. They are super absorbent, and I think they pull moisture better then borax or a screen, and less mess. If you are careful, you can roll them up in the diapers, and they turn out great. Drying time varies. I wouldn't try used baby diapers though!

SKP

Lepper · 10-23-2002, 05:02 PM

you'd really want to make sure you grabbed the right "diaper" wouldn't ya?? :smile:

SKP · 10-28-2002, 11:39 PM

Well, the verdict is in, the frozen eggs I tried to cure are mushy, as expected. I dried them for two days in the garage. Many single eggs throughout the skeins are flat, meaning the freezing broke thier membranes. :depressed:

I'll try fishing them next year for springers, but I think I will have to use mesh to keep the mush on the hook. The eggs are not top quality.

I wish my friend knew that you should ALWAYS cure salmon eggs before freezing. Oh well, he knows now. Maybe they will milk out well on the river, who knows.

SKP