Curing Your Own Sardines

[Chris Amirault]

Craigie on Main in Boston is serving house-cured sardines. Does anyone do this? What method do you use? I'm eager to learn.

[brandonscott]

pack in salt and let sit for a few hours in fridge, clean them off and toss with vinegar and let sit for a few mins...after that as long as they are submerged in fat you are good to go. I like olive oil, not extra virgin, and you can add anything you want for flavor...citrus, mustard,garlic & herbs etc. That is pretty basic, and I am not sure how long they keep- we make the three times a week or so. It's really just a confit, so I imagin it keeps for a while....oh, and make sure you clean and scale the fish before hand

[Chris Amirault]

So no aromatics at all? Just the salt?

[djyee100]

Funny, last night I was looking at a recipe for Fresh Cured Sardines in Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food, wondering if I wanted to deal with all those little fish bones. Waters' recipe cures the sardines with garlic, lemon, vinegar, fresh herbs, olive oil, S&P.

[lesliec]

Do you have to do anything with the bones? Wouldn't they soften to edibility (that may be a new word I've just invented) through the curing process and rest in oil?

[djyee100]

It would depend on the type of cure and the length of the curing process. Waters' recipe is a short cure, almost like a marinade, and the recipe calls for fillets of sardines. Waters suggests that you ask your fishmonger to fillet the sardines for you. (Good luck.) My fishmongers will scale the sardines, and after that, forget it. I've done my time slitting and gutting sardines in the sink. I love the taste of sardines, but they are very bony little fish.

[weinoo]

And i would want to make sure that whatever sardines I used were impeccably fresh.

[helenjp]

This is a recipe from Noriko Sato's 1990 Japanese book of preserves, including many western pickles and preserves that were exotic during her girlhood - she was born just 100 years ago this year. It's a semi-cooked style, and one 've made it numerous times.

About 10 "smallish" fresh whole sardines

1-2 t coarse salt

pepper, both ground and whole, to taste

water, brought to the boil with:

small bundle of parsley stems

1-3 bay leaves, depending on size and freshness

Dressing, made with:

1 lemon - cut a few slices, squeeze juice from the rest

1/4 c olive or your preferred oil

1/8 - 1/4 c vinegar

1-2 cloves garlic

1 t salt

lemon juce from above

pepper

1/2 onion, sliced thinly

parsley

Remove heads of sardines, gut them, remove tails and fins if large, and remove bones using Marcella Hazan's "unzip" method (place fish bone side down, press firmly along length of fish, then turn over and pull off backbone). Trim small bones away from stomach opening, and tidy up the fillets. Pull off thin outer membrane of skin if necessary.

Lay on a plate and salt and pepper, allow to sit for about 30 minutes. This firms the flesh, and the salting makes the flesh sweeter.

Transfer fish neatly to a colander or similar, in one layer.

Bring water to boil with a few peppercorns, parsley stems, a little onion and bayleaves. Plunge colander into the boiling water for 3-4 minutes, and drain.

Heat the garlic in the oil, allow to cool, then stir in lemon juice, vinegar, salt, and pepper, seasoning to taste.

Line up the fillets head to tail in a flat container, layering with onion and spices. Pour over the cooled dressing, weight lightly, and keep in the refrigerator at least one night before eating.

The same book has a recipe for a "quick" version of Scandinavian milk-fermented herring that can be made with herring or small yellowtail. I don't remember trying it with oil fish like sardine or saury.

Essentially, the fish are cleaned and filleted, salted and left to stand, then arranged in a dish, and 1/2 cup of milk is poured over them (lift fillets to make sure the milk touches all surfaces).

The fish is left to stand another half hour, then lemon slices, onion, and parsley are scattered over, and a cup of vinegar (heated with 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp sugar plus pickling spices of your choice) is poured hot over the fish, lifting fillets to ensure that the vinegar touches all surfaces.

Cover and refrigerate, and depending on the thickness of the fillets, the preserved fish will be ready in 1-3 days.

[helenjp]

I made both of these before the weekend, just to refresh my memory, and found that even the oil/vinegar recipe is much lighter and fresher tasting than oil-packed sardines, while the vinegar/milk recipe was exceptionally good midsummer eating.