Our Brine Recipe
Listed below is the recipe we currently use. There are many different recipes out there. Given the amounts listed, this recipe will handle roughly 24 herring. Feel free to add scents if you like.
Ingredients Needed
Canning & Pickling Salt, Powdered Milk, Mrs Stewart's Liquid Bluing, Distilled Water
Step 1
Fillet herring. For the A-side strip (w/tail), fillet down towards the tail. As you reach the tail, cut through the spine of the fish (Fig A, Fig B, Fig C). For the B-side (w/o tail), fillet down the other side (Fig D)
Fig A Fig B
Fig C Fig D
Step 2
Trim and clean fillets. It is important to clean out remnants from the gut cavity as well as trim the strips to fit the head (see Fig E)
Fig E
Step 3
Assemble the recipe. Given the shape of our container, we can brine roughly 24 herring worth of strips. To do this, our recipe is as follows:
500-600 mL of distilled water (just enough with ingredients to cover all strips in container)
1-1.5 cups of canning/pickling salt (removes water from herring)
1/8 to 1/4 cup of powdered milk (adds firmness, reduces chance of freezer burn)
1/2 teaspoon of Mrs Stewart's Liquid Bluing (adds shine to scales)
Stir well and pour into container with herring. Stir herring in brine.
Keep in refrigerator for 5-7 days, stirring every day or so.
After roughly a week of soaking, vacuum pack and freeze for use at your discretion.