The Lake Lyle     Pickled Northern   Page

This page is to show ya all how to jar up a batch of pickled Northerns.  This is a easy recipe to use & follow as its based on 'quart' quantities of fish, so you can put it to use if you come home with 1, 2, er even 10 northerns...  In the photos below, I stopped at about 1.5 gallon of fish and saved the remainder for another batch.

Step 01 - Filet your fish and trim out the rib bones.  ( those are 1/2.5 gal jars in the back ground )

Step 02 - Cut filets into bite size pieces, approx 1" x 1".

I stopped at 1 gal o fish pieces and still had a few filets left over.

Step 03 - Mix up a salt water brine.  I use 1lb of pickling salt per gal of water.

Step 04 - Place fish pieces into a plastic or glass container and cover with salt brine. 

Since I had 1 gal of fish, I mixed up 1 gals of salt brine.

Step 05 - Refrigerate for 5 days - stirring each day.  I placed some plastic wrap over the top and let it lay right on the liquid, this helps keep the air off the fish and also holds back any fish smell.

Step 06 is to rinse the heck out o the fish and then cover fish one mo time with white vinegar and soak in refirig for 2 days.

Step07 - Rinse fish well and begin the final brine - start by heating up a mixture of 1 cup white vinegar, 1 cup of sugar, 1 tbsp of pickling spices, and 1 crushed red pepper for each quart of fish ya got - I used 4 cups of vinegar and 4 cups o sugar but if you couldn't catch many fish, its ok to back arf ta 2 er 3 cups of brine - I'll understand.

Step08 - I kind of stepped out here a lill and tried a bag of OldBay seafood seasoning.  It has all the flavorful stuff like mustard seed, red pepper, black pepper and whatever coriander is - I'm sure its all good fer ya.

Step09 - Cut up a couple o onions and a lemon.  I cut em about 1/4" thick and just 1/4'ed and 1/2'ved em. I diced up the end pieces of each onion because the ends are usually kind of compacted and do not break apart very easy.

Step10 - Add 1 TBSP of pickling seasoning per quart of liquid.

Step11 - As the brine is heating up, start stuffin the jars. Loosely pack the jars with fish pieces to about 1/3-1/2 full and then throw in a lemon slice, some onions, and ....

ahhhhh.... a broken red pepper.

Top em arf with more fish.  Now thats starting to look like a master peace, man.

Step12 -By now the brine has nearly reached its boiling point, you must let it cool to room temperature and when that majic moment arrives, start filling the jars.   Feel free to sneak a little taste - wow!  The Old Bay seasoning turned the brine a little brownish but with a flavor like this, who cares.

5 quart jars and 8 pints.  Check out the colors, white fish, yeller lemon, red peppers, onions, a few pickling beads...

Step13 - To make sure ya get a good seal, wipe the jars down with a damp cloth.

Step14 - Seal em up.

Last Step - Refrigerate for at least 4 days....

Then just say... "Abby, get me a jar o nordern"!   Hurry!

Oh, by the way.... I lost my original pickled northern recipe and made this one up from memory and bits & pieces from about 6-7 recipes I found on a internet search. I added the Old Bay seafood thing on my own and glad I did....

  Just eat  it