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Roe bags

58 (29.6%)

Chunks

138 (70.4%)

Total Members Voted: 192

[Weatherby]

Will anyone be using sockeye roe this fall?or is it a waste of time since the eggs are smaller?

[Fish Assassin]

They are all good.

[hue-nut]

fresh roe is fresh roe.....i've got about 12 pounds of sock and spring roe curing

[BCfisherman97]

No problem with it. Worked fine on the Thompson and should be alright in the fall.

Cheers

[Weatherby]

awsome...just tied up a few sacks for coho season :)first time ive tried curing eggs......they came out a little soft.To get a stronger egg do I let it air dry longer?

[Weatherby]

Does anyone use BorXoFire by Pautzke?Is it supposed to make the eggs juice up like pro cure?Im new to the whole egg curing...so i'm curious

[Weatherby]

Hey all,I tried curing my roe,then put it in a jar with borax and then put it in the freezer.I checked it today...and the roe is shriveled up,dry and brittle.Does anyone have an idea of what the problem could be to cause this?

[NiceFish]

i'm not too fancy into roe i just cure it 1  to 1 to 1 between borax, salt and sugar, let it brine for 30 min to a hour depending on the size of the eggs then let is air dry (usually inside my bbq) for 24 hours, then i check to see how gooey it is, seems to turn out very nice natural colour i suppose you could add food colouring to change the colours around. I am no expert though. i also wrap each skein by itself in plastic wrap for the freezer

[gman]

I'll add my tips as well.

Most years I just keep roe from the fish I catch and cure it as I go. I rarely fished htis summer,so I just bought some sockeye roe off the dock in Steveston. You had to ask at the dock as they did not have it out when I was there. $5 got me enough to fill 3 big jars, and I cured it all at once instead of a little batch after each fishing trip. I know the cured roe will keep well through the end of the fall salmon season. Just followed the directions on the cure.

I used to use the Proc-cure, but have recently switched to Pautzke Fire Cure. They seem to work equally well, but the Pautzke is easier to use, and does not stain - a big advantage after staining kitchen counters and having my wife say "keep those roe stained hands away from me!" 

[gman]

Oh and one mor tip.

I used to cut the roe into several inch chunks before curing, as described on the cure box. Works ok, but then you have to cut the cured roe as you use it - a bit messy.

Lately I have started cutting the roe into fishing size chunks before I cure it.  Seems to work well for me, and much easier to fish.

[dennyman]

Weatherby, what process did you use to cure your eggs?  It can be as simple as adding some procure to the eggs. Cover the eggs but not too much because you do not want to burn them with too much cure. Then a simple no fuss approach is to put the curing eggs in a glass jar with a lid in the fridge. Every three to four hours you can slosh this mixture around by lightly shaking the glass jar. Having a sealed lid on top makes it mess free. You will see the juices leach out of the eggs, but keep on doing this for at least a day or two. What you will see is that as the eggs cure, the juices will be reabsorbed into the eggs. At the point, you are happy with the cured product you could air dry them but I either lightly coat them with borax , or  just freeze them up in strips that I can cut up for upcoming fishing trips. The eggs should not be too tough, or brittle but allow you to handle them and they should milk in the water to attract the salmon. Hope this helps.

[Weatherby]

Weatherby, what process did you use to cure your eggs?  It can be as simple as adding some procure to the eggs. Cover the eggs but not too much because you do not want to burn them with too much cure. Then a simple no fuss approach is to put the curing eggs in a glass jar with a lid in the fridge. Every three to four hours you can slosh this mixture around by lightly shaking the glass jar. Having a sealed lid on top makes it mess free. You will see the juices leach out of the eggs, but keep on doing this for at least a day or two. What you will see is that as the eggs cure, the juices will be reabsorbed into the eggs. At the point, you are happy with the cured product you could air dry them but I either lightly coat them with borax , or  just freeze them up in strips that I can cut up for upcoming fishing trips. The eggs should not be too tough, or brittle but allow you to handle them and they should milk in the water to attract the salmon. Hope this helps.

Hey Dennyman,I used some pro cure,and I did some in Pautzke borXoFire.I let them sit in the fridge for about 24 hours,turning them every every couple of hours.I havent even been able to fish the eggs yet,And probably wont be able to. Once I coated them with borax and put them in the freezer(about 2 weeks ago),they dried right up,and are brittle.

[Matt]

Hey Dennyman,I used some pro cure,and I did some in Pautzke borXoFire.I let them sit in the fridge for about 24 hours,turning them every every couple of hours.I havent even been able to fish the eggs yet,And probably wont be able to. Once I coated them with borax and put them in the freezer(about 2 weeks ago),they dried right up,and are brittle.

I'd still consider myself a novice curing roe, but I've experimented a bit and here's some of what I learned...




The Roe
Fresh roe out of a chrome doe caught out of a river or mouth gives the best roe.  I can't offer much on which species is best, but springs give large, pale orange eggs, chum- darker  orange and coho give what appeared to me to be the brightest roe by a hair (only saw one pair of coho skeins though).  Pinks had the smallest roe and its colour was medium bright orange-ish.  If you try to take roe out of a coloured up spawner, the skeins will have already fallen apart and the eggs will be all loose.

Once the fish is caught, bleed it.  Take the roe out of the fish and directly place them into a 1 gal Ziploc bag you are carrying for this purpose.  DO NOT let the eggs sit in water, as they will cloud.

Some people cut the roe into bite size bits, but they always seemed too small when I got to the river.  I found it best to butterfly the skein, then cut into card-deck I cut these down the night before fishing, carefully cutting between the folds on the egg-side of the skein.

Curing with dry cures (ie: Pro Cure, Pautzke's, home made)
The best way I found to use use dry cure was to put say 1/4 cu Pro Cure in a jar, then drop one card deck in, close the lid, shake until every nook and cranny is covered in dry cure.  Toss this in a 1 gal Ziploc and do the next one.  Once the bag is maybe a 1/3 full, seal it up leaving some air in, and put it in your garage (slightly colder than room temp).  The colder it is, the slowing the curing process due to the speed of diffusion/osmosis (wikipedia this if you don't understand).  This method uses about the right amount of cure.

What will happen is that fluid will leak out of the eggs due to osmosis, mix with the cure and form a juice.  The eggs will appear shriveled and you'll think you've ruined your roe, but after a day or two, the fluid will be reabsorbed back into the eggs.  The dye/cure will diffuse in as well and you'll be left with cured and dyed roe.  This process takes 2-4 days in your garage.  Once the eggs have re-absorbed the juice, prepare to dry them.  Cover a table top in newspaper, then cover with borax and let it sit until the skeins feel firm like a medium rare steak.  Drying took me between 10 hrs- 24hrs, depending on the humidity, temperature etc.

Once dry, put them in mason jar 3/4 full and fill all the air spaces with borax (shake to get the borax to settle into all the voids).  Label with the date, the cure and store in freezer.

Store bought cures
Pautzke's Fire Cure smells like krill, and dyes the eggs a red/ purple colour.  The more you use, the more purple it gets.  Goes easy on cure.  Similar colour to ProCure Double Re Hot.  Procure Steelie Pink gives a pale pink tinge to the eggs- the dye is not very potent.  Pautzke's gives softer roe that doesn't seem to last too long.  Procure was ok, but has no added scent.  Tillamook Blend (ProCure) looks like it gives a BC Orange colour which I want to try, but no one carries it near my house.  Pacific Angler does AFAIK.

Making your own cure
They all seem to use some variation on sugar, salt and Mule Team Borax (pale green box, laundry isle).  Knox Gelatin (near jello section in Safeway) also gives a firmness to the eggs and seems to help toughen the skeins as well.  Roe looks better to me dyed, but I never got a chance to fish un-dyed roe.  You can also use flavoured jello to colour the roe, but I found the dye to be not-so-potent.

Questions I still have
Brining ?
 
I'm about to try that tmr night with some chum roe.  Might use No Longer Sticky and Tricky Roe recipe found here: http://www.fishingwithrod.com/articles/2004/1004_01.html ... I wonder if its as tough as the Gelatin roe.

Roe for salmon, vs roe for steelhead ?
I hear salmon prefer chem cure (which are...?) and steellies prefer more natural cures (dyed borax?).    I've scented the roe I've set aside for steelies with anise oil (so they imitate the naturally occuring Jensen egg )

NOTE: for sturgeon, you don't need to do anything with the roe, cure-wise- just tie roe bags the size of a golf ball dry until the balls are dry to the touch and freeze in a Ziploc.  The only reason I dry a bit first is so I can separate the number I figure I need.  Sturgeon will bite on cured roe though, but I've never used it for sturg.

[vancook]

Looking for some feedback as to what my problem may have been.
I cured up 2 skeins of chum roe using a jar method. Chunks shaken up with procure in the care, let it sit 2 hours and pour off excess juice. Leave the roe in the jar to re-absorb remaining juice, sat in fridge 2 days. Roe looked good and good texture, stored in borax and frozen.
Now I took it out today on the river and found the eggs to be very loose and came off the skein easily, would not last more than two casts. What could have been the cause of this and a remedy? Used the same basic method for some sockeye roe I had and it's perfect, thankfully I brought some along as well.

[Spoonman]

Problem....sounds like the fish / roe was too mature / ripe. Remedy.......use it to make roe bags / stay away from chums..