# Best pickled fish recipe I've found



## tinknal

It must be good, the recipe calls for "Silver Satin" wine. Last year when I made it I knew I couldn't find that particular wine so I just bought a bottle of dry white wine. Today I went to the liquor store to buy more wine for another batch. I told them I needed a dry white for a recipe. They asked "what for?" I said Pickled Northerns. They said "Oh, you want Silver Satin". I thought it was pretty funny. Anyway, here is the recipe.

*Ingredients* 

4 1/2 pounds of pike fillets cut into bite-sized pieces
7 cups water
1 cup coarse salt
1 bottle white vinegar
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup white Silver Satin wine
1 onion
 thinly sliced
 *Directions* Fill gallon jar with 7 cups water and 1 cup coarse salt. Stir until dissolved. Add cut-up pike fillets to jar. Refrigerate 48 hours. Drain and empty jar and rinse well. Return fish to empty jar and cover with white vinegar. Refrigerate 24 hours. Remove fish from jar, but save vinegar. Boil 4 cups vinegar for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add 2 1/2 cups sugar. Stir until dissolved and let cool. Add 1/4 cup pickling spices and 1 cup white Silver Satin win. Layer fish in jar, alternating with thin slices of onion. Completely cover with liquid. Let stand in refrigerator for 3 weeks. 

Note that you also need pickling spice, for some reason excluded from the ingredient list. Make sure the spice has cardimum in it.

http://www.landbigfish.com/recipes/showcase.cfm?recipe=55&ShowRating=yes

I've shared this with many people and they all say it's the best pickled fish they have ever had. The recipe says wait 3 weeks but the first batch was ready in 10 days.


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## Nimrod

When I was younger a friend's dad pickled northerns. It was wonderful. Like pickled herring but not so oily. 

There is a problem with pickeling northerns though. The DNR says,

*Broad Fish Tapeworm, Diphyllobothrium latum*
_Adult broad fish tapeworms are found in the small intestine of fish-eating mammals such as bears, cats, and otters. They are huge worms, often more than several yards long. Several species of fish, primarily northern pike, carry these tapeworm larvae. If you eat improperly cooked fish infected with these larvae, they are likely to grow in your intestines too._
_*Life Cycle: 1* The eggs pass in the droppings of the host mammal to water, where they hatch into free-swimming forms called coracidia._
_*2* Coracidia are eaten by microscopic crustaceans called copepods. Inside the copepods, they develop into larvae called procercoids._
_*3* When a fish eats an infected copepod, the procercoids move into the fish tissues. They develop into wormlike forms called plerocercoids._
_*4* When a mammal eats an infected fish, the plerocercoid attaches to the wall of its intestine and grows into a mature tapeworm._
_*Effects on Fish:* A broad fish tapeworm does not weaken a fish or stunt its growth. If a healthy northern pike, for example, eats an infected fish, the plerocercoid will migrate into the pike's flesh and encyst again. The plerocercoid will not develop into an adult tapeworm until a mammal eats the fish._
_*Effects on People:* Warningâif you eat an infected fish, tapeworms are likely to grow in your digestive tract. They are not only gross, but they also can cause a nutrient deficiency, especially a vitamin deficiency. People have died after getting this type of tapeworm from sources such as inadequately cooked or cold-processed pickled northern pike._
_To avoid this tapeworm, only eat thoroughly cooked fish. Cold-process pickling does not kill tapeworms or cysts! If you pickle fish, be sure to use heat in the processing._

I probably have massive tape worms from eating the pickeled morthern as a kid. 

Does anyone have a recipe that includes heating the fillets to kill the tapeworms? I would really like to make pickled northern, especially with the price of pickeled herring.


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## tinknal

Wind in Her Hair said:


> sounds delicious, tinknal. You are quite the northern gourmet!
> 
> were you always interested in fine up north cuisine?


Ya, youbetcha!


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## tinknal

Nimrod, weeks in salt and vinegar won't kill them? Methinks the DNR is being a little overcautious. Frankly, a tapeworm would prolly do me good............


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