Canned Smoked Whitefish

Canned Smoked Whitefish

Canned Smoked Whitefish is a spectacular way to preserve this seasons catch.

This is a topic close to my heart that started in an effort to preserve the biggest harvest I ever had from my garden. It was the summer of 2001 and I had a 4000 square foot garden over flowing with fruits and vegetables.

Learning How To Preserve Food

It was the results of working my way through the hardest struggle of my life. Months before I lost my youngest son. I was desperate to find something good in the world. Something to busy my mind. My hands. To have purpose. So I started some seeds under a set of florescent lights that winter.

From those dark days grew a passion that gives me tremendous joy and is where I go to think, or not. And the results is an amazing wealth of fresh produce that I preserve to last the entire year.

Along my preserving journey I have made pickles, jams, jellies, pickles eggs and sausage and my latest experiments have been with smoked fish.

smoked whitefish

 

 

Childhood Memories

Smoked fish is a flavour of my childhood that takes me back immediately to the kitchen table of my childhood home. It was like Christmas when my Gido would arrive bearing bags of whole smoked whitefish. Truly, it was one of the things I most looked forward to, better then any other gift he could have bought.

 They were whole fish, cut down the belly, laid flat then smoked until they were dried yet still had a touch of tenderness to them.  I would gently peel the bones back from the fish and break it apart into flakes, popping the pieces into my mouth and slowly enjoyed the salty smokiness of each bite.

That was 35 years ago yet I can picture it as if it was only last week.

Canning Smoked Whitefish

Blessed with friends who had just gone fishing it was easy to get as many as I needed. Everyone who knows me knows I love to smoke fish whenever given the chance. Looking for a better way to handle the fish once smoked I looked into canning it. All you need is a pressure cooker. And hey, that is a fantastic reason to pick up an new kitchen toy! I bought a 22 quart Mirro pressure cooker at Canadian Tire.

pressure cooker

The first step in the process is to prep the fish for the brine. It must be scaled but keep the skin on and all the bones need to be removed.

whitefish filets

Canned Smoked Whitefish

Canned Smoked Whitefish – Brine
Author: Redawna
Recipe type: Preserving
Cuisine: Fish
Ingredients
  • 3½ quarts of water
  • 1½ cups of brown sugar
  • 1½ cups of coarse salt
  • 2 tablespoons of onion powder
  • ½ cup of white sugar
  • 8 cloves of garlic, minced
Instructions
  1. Combine all of the brine ingredients in a large pot over medium heat.
  2. Simmer and stir until all sugar and salt is dissolved.
  3. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

 

 

brining whitefish

Once cool add the whitefish and refrigerate for 12 hours.

Remove the fish from the brine and rinse under cool running water. Pat dry.

Smoking Whitefish

Spray the rack from the smoker well with non stick spray. Place the fish on the rack, skin side down leaving a bit of space between the pieces. .

Place the rack on the top setting in the smoker and smoke for one hour.

Have all jars clean and sterlized and in hot water. All lids and rings should be in a pot of water, slightly simmering on low/medium heat.

Fill the canner with the proper amount of water for your model. I used 4 quarts for this application.

Remove the whitefish from the smoker and allow to cool for a few moments.

filling jars with smoked whitefish

 

Gently fill the jars with warm whitefish, leaving 1/4 headspace in each jar. Drizzle with a touch of canola oil. I then topped each jar with 2 heaping tablespoons of hot sauce.

adding a touch of hot sauce

Clean the rims of the jars with a hot clean cloth, add the lids and rings until finger tight. Place on the racks of the pressure cooker.

loading up the pressure cooker

 

Place and secure the lid on the cooker. Now crank up the heat!

Pressure Canning Smoked Whitefish

You want the pressure cooker to get fully pressurized. Once that happens and the cooker begins to let off a steady stream of steam,  start timing for 10 minutes. This is a very important step, do not skip.

Once the 10 minutes has passed add the 10 pound weight and maintain the cooker just under 10 psi for 110 minutes.

After 110 minutes remove the canner off the heat and allow to cool for 1 hour before removing the lid of the pressure cooker.

Remove all jars and allow to cool completely.

You can open a jar and enjoy it immediately.

canned smoked whitefish

I am sure my Gido would have enjoyed this version of preserving Smoked Whitefish.

I don’t know where he got the smoked fish, whoever it was had some amazing skills.

dad & gido

(my dad about age 22 and my Gido, first & second-generation Auctioneers)

gido in the pineapple fields of Hawaii

It is not surprising when I look back at how many of my memories of him are food related. Though first and foremost he was a businessman it was his garden and the crab apple picking adventures with him I cherish the most.

Published by Redawna

Garden & Food Writer/Educator/Photographer. NFT artist. Management Professional. Community Builder. Entrepreneurial spirit.

3 Replies on “Canned Smoked Whitefish

  1. Did you remove the skin after the smoker, before placing in jar? It looks like it from the pic, but can’t tell for sure.

    Thanks!

    1. It is hard to tell but the skin was left on most of the fish. To fit better in the jars we ended up folding the fish in half, skin side in, more for esthetics than anything. It is up to you if you want to keep the skin on. We chose to keep it on to help keep the fish in as large of pieces possible.

      Thanks for stopping by!

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