Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: bentrod on October 09, 2005, 09:12:43 PM
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I'm in the sharing mood. Here's my recipe for great roe. Not much of a secret, but it works well.
1) Start with fresh, clean roe. Make sure you remove the roe immediately and don't let blood accumulate on or around it.
2) I cut the skeins up into fishable chunks
3) Sprinkle pro cure wizard on it untill completely covered and roe starts milking. (in a cool place, like the garage)
4) After about 20 minutes, I stir it a little and add a touch of Pro Cure monster bite or other scents
5) After about another 40 minutes, most of the juice has been re-absorbed. I drain most of the rest off.
6) I spread it out and let it air dry until I get the right amount of firmness I'm looking for.
7) If I'm going to store it, I'll layer it in a masonry jar with borax. I'll stick a piece of wax paper on top and light it. While it's burning, I'll screw the lid on. Then all the air is gone and the paper goes out. I can then freeze it for a year or more.
8) If I'm going to use it soon, I usually portion it out into small disposable plastic containers with lids. I like to mix it with borax. This gives it a dryer, less messy feel.
Pretty much right off the back of the pro cure jar, but it works. There are a million other ways to do it. What's your favorite and why?
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That's how I usually do it and it has produce fish for me.
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That's how I usually do it and it has produce fish for me.
But how often has it produced fish for you? ;)
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Really smart idea about the burning paper. Does it take all the air out? i thought the fire jsut dosent have enough to keep going so it goes out.
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That's how I usually do it and it has produce fish for me.
But how often has it produced fish for you? ;)
Shhhhhhhhhh Ask me no question and I will tell you no lies ! ;D
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It burns most of the oxygen out. I also recommend topping it off with borax. Less room for air this way.
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How about some lies then Fish Assassin.
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Another roe storage tip; Place roe in a ziplock baggie then remove all of the air then vacuume seal and freeze, it will last for ever ;)
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how do you like pro cure wizard vs the reg pro cure
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Same process
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Another roe storage tip; Place roe in a ziplock baggie then remove all of the air then vacuume seal and freeze, it will last for ever ;)
If you don't have a vaccum packer or don't want to risk getting borax into your vaccum channel you can put the ziploc bags in a sink full of water up to the zip. The water will push the air out.
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I just made up a batch of roe from the 30lb chrome white spirng ;D I caught on the vedder last weekend using the kool aid method Gillie posted awhile back. It turned out a nice color but now my roe smells like kool-aid. I guess I will have to add some scent to it.
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wow!!! i'll take some. uncured cured anything you wanna give up
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I don't understand how roe curing is a secrete.
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The typical roe curing is not a secret, you can read it on the back of any container of roe. However, some people have their own method which can include different ingredients and methods to firm up the roe. I know there's a method out there which calls for a mixture of salt etc. to be dissolved in hot water before adding the roe. Does anyone have this recipe. It's supposed to make a very firm roe.
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I have used CF's roe and it is dynamite. It milks well and it's a bright red colour. Totally awesome
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The typical roe curing is not a secret, you can read it on the back of any container of roe. However, some people have their own method which can include different ingredients and methods to firm up the roe. I know there's a method out there which calls for a mixture of salt etc. to be dissolved in hot water before adding the roe. Does anyone have this recipe. It's supposed to make a very firm roe.
Check this link:
http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/resourcecenter/eggs.htm
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What is considered a good cured roe? What properties should one be looking for?
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The typical roe curing is not a secret, you can read it on the back of any container of roe. However, some people have their own method which can include different ingredients and methods to firm up the roe. I know there's a method out there which calls for a mixture of salt etc. to be dissolved in hot water before adding the roe. Does anyone have this recipe. It's supposed to make a very firm roe.
Check this link:
http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/resourcecenter/eggs.htm
I know a buddy who has tried this recipe. He threw all his eggs away. Says it sucks.
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I knew that was coming ;D
Okay so just to be abit more clear. Colour? Firmness? Smell?
Three it catchs you fish!
C.F
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Fish Assassin, what recipe did he use that he threw away the eggs. If it's the pro cure method, it's gotta be the roe is bad and not the cure. With the monster bite added, I'll put pro cure wizard or pro cure last supper roe up against any other and will continue to outfish any other roe that I know of.
One more thing..Technique also matters. You need to know how to fish it.
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The recipe in that link. His roe turned out hard as a rock.
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he was refering to the recipe listed on piscatorialpursuits.com
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I just stick to the Procure or straight borax cure.
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If his eggs turned out hard as a rock, he over brined them. It is a good cure.
Pro cure wizard is a hot cure; it has a lot of sodium sulfite in it and is better for Chinook (Springs). Coho and steelhead normally prefer a more natural egg. For Coho and some steelhead fishing I use a light curing of Pro Cure Redd Hott Double Stuff. For just steelhead eggs I use plain borax.
If you're a serious egg fisherman keep rubber gloves, paper towels and zip lock bags in your vest. When you catch a fish, bleed it immediately by popping some gills on each side of the fish and placing it back in the water to bleed out. Make sure the heart is still pumping and bleed out completely. If the fish is caught in a river, I don't harvest the eggs until I'm ready to leave because there are no digestive enzymes to worry about and the eggs are safe inside the fish. Just make sure to keep the fish cool. They should be blood free when you remove them and make sure you don't allow them contact with the water. Wrap them in the paper towel, and place them in the plastic bag and keep cool. PS, if you're really hard core, make sure your paper towels are unbleached.
I used to use the jar method. I use wide mouth jars that allow me to vacuum seal them when finished. When you get home, butterfly your eggs. If from a large fish, I cut the skein halves into halves or thirds. I use about half the amount of cure than the bottle recommends when I'm curing eggs for Coho. I add a light sprinkling of cure, then add a piece of the eggs, then another light sprinkle, then more eggs etc, etc, etc. until I've either filled the jar or run out of eggs. Give another light sprinkling on top if there's no cure there already. Then I seal the jars and shake/roll the cure and eggs together to make sure the cure gets into all the nooks and crannies.
After about an hour the eggs should be nice and juiced up. Then I add a couple of drops of pro cure anise+ scent directly to the juice and roll it all in nice and good. Keep the eggs in a cool place for the next day or so making sure you flip the jar every couple of hours. After a day, most of the juice has been re absorbed. Pour the remaining juice into a separate container (its killer for curing prawns, shrimp and sardine fillets. I know you can't use sardines in Canada, but try curing salad shrimp/prawns in the juice ;) ) Now you can either dry the eggs out over a screen until they're how you like them, or vacuum seal and freeze just like they are, or fish immediately. Sometimes, I'll also store them in layers of borax if I want to toughen up the skein for fishing in fast water.
There you have it, eggs that have accounted for several six fish limits when we had them down in Washington. The key is to avoid scent/water contamination of the eggs, keep the blood out, and to tailor your cure to the fish you're trying to catch. But the cure you use isn't as important as the quality of the egg you cure.
For a nice tutorial with lots of pictures on egg curing follow this link:
http://www.ifish.net/amercure1.html
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Thanks for the post Ramstrong. Finally someone who doesn't treat his egg recipe like it's a secret family recipe that's been handed down for generations like the KFC secret recipe.
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Oooooohhhhhhh, you wan't to eat mah chicken!
No, Pro Cure is an OTC cure nothing secret about it. Too bad you guys don't have access to all of the other cures on the market. A lot of guides lately have taken to selling their cures on the open market minus a couple of ingredients. Some even sell their actual cure. I believe Amerman's cure is exactly what Scott and Grant use.
Also you've got to look at after curing additives. You see once you cure the eggs you can add things to them after you cure them, but before you fish them to seperate them from the pack. There are some addatives that when added to eggs will cause fish that are stale to feed. Unfortunately I'm not at liberty to discuss these things. 8)
You may ask yourself: Self, why is this guy divulging so much? Well now that I live in Pennsylvania I don't do any egg fishing anymore. And if you catch a buch of fish, I'll hopefully see some reports in the coming week to excite me for my trip to the Vedder/Harrison on the 23rd/24th.
And remember, your finished product can be no better than the quality of the eggs you start with. Garbage in, Garbage out!
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i like the brine method myself, but i don't bother with the boiling of the ingredients. not necessary.
also like mentioned....do not over brine or your eggs will turn into miniature rubber balls.
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for steelhead i often wanted to try adding some of the left over bug juice into the roe brine.
also i have heard of garlic being used as an ingredient.