Pickled Pickerel

Pickled Pickerel 
(fish #9 of the quest: Chain Pickerel)

Since pickerel have a Y-bone and ours was too small to try to remove it, we chose a pickling recipe that would render the bones harmless. We selected a sucker recipe from our favorite fishing book "Fishing for Buffalo". 

The recipe requires that the fish be cleaned and cut into bite-sized pieces.  The chunks are then placed in a dish and covered with white vinegar. To the vinegar, we added a healthy amount of salt - about three heaping tablespoons. This mixture needs to be stirred every day, for 5 days. We will switch out the vinegar every other day. Then we will rinse and cover the fish in cold water for 8 hours. While this setting, we will boil a mixture of 3/4 cups water, 3/4 cups dry white wine, 3/4 cups sugar, and 1 tablespoon of pickling spice. Once cooled, we will add thin raw onion rings and 1 1/3 cup of white vinegar.  This mixture will be poured over the drained fish and refrigerated for 48 hours.  Then it is ready for a cracker. Wish us luck!

Pickerel and the lure that caught him.

We cut off his head and skinned him. The trick is to cut off the fins and use pliers to pull the skin.

We cut the body into bite sized chunks.

Added vinegar until the chunks were covered.

Added about 3 tablespoons of salt, then off to the fridge.

We will post a picture in a few days to show the progress.