Preserve Fish Meat in Hot Climates?

[NornaBiron]

We caught a 9kg tuna a few months ago (I know that's not huge but it was way more than we could eat in two or three days and we don't have a freezer).
I cut the tuna into 1 inch thick pieces and packed it tightly into a pan, poured olive oil over to cover it and simmered it for 15 minutes. It was then packed into jars and topped with the oil. In the fridge this lasted for 2 weeks easily.

I'd love a pressure canner so that I wouldn't have to rely on the fridge but, sadly, they are not commonly found on this side of the pond

[savoir]

You don't need a pressure canner - just a big pot and a set of jars

[NornaBiron]

Originally Posted by savoir

You don't need a pressure canner - just a big pot and a set of jars

Homemade Canned Tuna Recipe | SAVEUR

Every website I've looked at has recommended a pressure canner for tuna as it is a low acid food. Personally I'd rather not use the water bath method and risk spoilage of all the work I've just done, not to mention food poisoning!

[captain58sailin]

We strip salmon into thin slices and hang it from the rigging makes good jerky. I've eaten dried fish in Hawaii, they used soy sauce as a brine. As long as you keep the rain off and get good air circulation you can dry fish even in the tropics, it will help to brine it first to remove the excess moisture. Use a layer of salt, layer of fish and cover with a pretty thick layer of salt. If it gets slushy, that's okay, check the texture of the fish flesh to tell you when it's done. Eventually it will get hard, which isn't much good for eating but makes great bait. Pickling fish is one of my favorites, or smoking. With salmon we usually brine for about 8 hours with a soy sauce/teriyaki brown sugar/salt brine add ginger and garlic to taste, after brining, lay out until the glaze is apparent then slide into the smoker for about 4 hours / 6 hours depending on how hard you want your fish. Oily fish is much easier to smoke than non oily fish. It will be a trial and error process until you get it the way you like it. There are some good recipes out there. The only fish that worries me about spoilage is when it is kept in an air tight container.

[a64pilot]

We used to preserve Mullet in Ball Mason jars by packing it with ice cream salt, this was done for bait, it didn't rot. For some really strange reason as a small child I used to sneak and eat it, I guess I was craving salt? Never made me sick, but it upset my Mother, she thought I would get worms or something.
It's the way everyone preserved their bait back in the 60's in the Panhandle of Fl.
I don't know how you would get the salt out to eat it though.

[captain58sailin]

For bait we salt cut herring into a large aluminum tote with a plug at the bottom. After 3 weeks it was right for good bait, we would pull the plug and let the brine drain off, then kept the tote on deck and used out of it, never refrigerated, never rotted. Of course the weather was between 32 and 40 degrees F.

[roverhi]

FWIW, If you don't have a Joy of Cooking, buy one. Not only recipes for every exotic food we encountered but instructions on preserving food. It's an amazing compendium of cooking knowledge.

[roverhi]

Find it hard to believe anyone would go cruising without a pressure cooker. They have so many uses beyond fuel saving pressure cooking and they are pretty cheap.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by roverhi

Find it hard to believe anyone would go cruising without a pressure cooker. They have so many uses beyond fuel saving pressure cooking and they are pretty cheap.

Some of us are afraid of the things, We had one blow up when I was a kid and made one heck of a mess, luckily no one was hurt.

Down South here in the 60's all modern houses used a pressure cooker to cook with

[jolly jack tar]

dice equal amounts of fresh fish fillets, add them to an equal weight of sugar into a saucepan over a low heat, simmer for 1 hour slowly stirring occasionally.
let it cool and put it into clean glass, airtight jars....

Fish Jam

cheers,
JJT

[chubby]

sushi for right now
ceviche
steaks for the 3-4 meals in fridge (i can eat a lot..so usually nothing left after couple days)

maybe in bizzaro world where leftovers dont get immediately eaten...maybe i'd give the extras away or something

[Blue Crab]

How about something relatively healthy, no salt, with taste?

[roverhi]

Originally Posted by Blue Crab

How about something relatively healthy, no salt, with taste?

Believe that is an oxymoron.

[Cheechako]

sugar/salt brine and dry it out.

[liveaboardL]

Keep the knowledge coming. Great suggestions. Loving the new info. The tip about "buccaneer"s was quite fascinating, esp. considering that pirates seems to be some people's way of life "Arrr". LOL, but I'd warn anyone of going that direction, cause chances are you have no idea what you're getting into, but yeah, I smoking meat on the boat might be possible. Who knew it would really make the meat last that much longer? I thought it was mostly for flavour. I'll have to look into bucans also. Maybe I'll keep a little metal bucket & some good smoking wood for the task.