CANNING THE FISH

1.  Remove the fish from the brine where it has been placed in order to draw out all the blood and to harden the texture of the fish.

2.  Drain well.

3.  Cut into can lengths.

4.  Place fish in a piece of cheesecloth or in a wire basket and blanch in boiling water from three to five minutes.  Three minutes for the soft flesh fish, such as suckers, crappies, whitefish.  Fish with a firmer flesh, as pike, muskalonge and sunfish require 5 minutes blanching.  The blanching removes the strong fish flavor and cleans the outside of the fish.

5.  Cold-dip the fish by plunging into cold water immediately.  This makes the flesh firm.

6.  Pack in hot jars or cans to within 1/2 inch from top.  Add 1 teaspoonful salt per quart.  Put on a good rubber and partially seal the jar, completely seal tin cans.

7.  Place jars or cans in canner and process in boiling water for three hours.  Three hours sterilization will insure the keeping of all varieties of fish, providing fresh products are used and the blanching and other work is carefully done.  If canning with a steam-pressure canner or a pressure cooker sterilize for one hour and a half under 10 to 15 lbs. pressure.

8.  At the end of the sterilizing period cool the jars quickly after sealing completely.  The tin cans may be cooled by immersing them in cold water.

9.  Store for future use.

SOFTENING OF BONES IN FISH

This can be done satisfactorily under pressure.  The bones of fish are composed of large quantities of harmless lime, bound by a matrix of collagen, which is insoluble under ordinary conditions.  When subjected to a high temperature under pressure this collagen is converted into gelatin and dissolved, leaving the bones soft and friable and even edible.  Bony fish, such as herring and shad, which are too small to use otherwise are greatly improved when subjected to steam under pressure.

The bones in herring are softened in 37 minutes at a temperature of 240 degrees; shad in 1 hour; flounder 1 hour.  Other fish are fully cooked and the bones softened in times approximately proportionate to the size of the bones.

The following table was made after many experiments and gives the time required to soften the bones in many common species of fish.

The term “softening” means the point in cooking when the small bones, ribs, etc., are soft, but when the large vertebrae are not yet sufficiently soft to be consumed along with the meat.  In some of the larger fishes where the large bones could scarcely be eaten, even if they were softened, it would appear to be a waste of time and fuel to carry them to a point of complete cooking, and in such cases it ought to be sufficient to soften the small bones and sterilize the contents of the can.  For such a purpose, the “softening” rather than the “soft” point, may be used.