A fishing buddy of mine, Brad Titus, is from Hawaii. Besides being an angler, Brad is a foodie as well. Being an islander, he has a special connection to the ocean and the food it provides. Something that Brad was telling me about is how brining improves the quality of his catch for the table.
I’m only familiar with brining as a precursor to smoking fish. However, Brad uses it as a means to enhance the fish prior to using it for raw dishes like sashimi and sushi.
I asked Brad to give us a quick How-To. Here it is…
Brining Your Catch
I first started brining my fish after moving to the Island of Kauai back in 1987. It really improves the quality of your fish, firms up the meat and gives it a rich color. All you need is a large cooler or a fish bag. After landing your fish you bleed it out…easiest way is cut the gills and put in a bucket head first. then gut it and if you have a saltwater wash down hose to spray it off to remove all the protective slime covering the fish.Then place it in the brine, which is 50/50 combination of ice and saltwater. You want it to look slushy. You can also make your own salt water by simply adding 1/2 pound of rock salt with 5 gallons of fresh water. 8 hour soak is sufficient for fish under 100 lbs…any fish bigger should soak for 24 hours.
If the fish doesn’t get used in 2 days, I will put it in a marinade for 48 hours and then smoke it.
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- Slushy saltwater brine
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- Ahi tuna post brining
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- And served
And here’s a video about the Ike Jime method of killing your fish. Another step you can take to further improve the table quality of your catch. Thanks to my buddy John Lepien for bringing it to my attention.
at 7:30 am
Thanks Salty! We catch alot of Bonito at the IB Pier gonna have to give this a try.
at 7:37 am
Also try cutting out the bloodline and frying it up right away. One of the galley cooks made me a sandwich on the boat the other day like that and it was amazing!