Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Freezing salmon

Heading and gutting - and processing if you can- before they go into rigor; certainly before they go limp- goes a long way toward avoiding fish slime issues. If they're sliming, you've an uphill battle which won't ever regain what has been lost. Fish oils are also part of the reason for fishy taste. To avoid those, target fish headed to smaller (shorter) rivers and species which tend to be less fat (chums).

White or red vinegar, does it matter?

I used white vinegar for whole fish that hadn't been gutted. It doesn't flavor the fish when there's no flesh exposed.

Haverluk, I do not have any particular ratio I usually dump some in a bucket. My process is to bleed and get put on ice ASAP. I usually bring ice with me. I usually freeze my fish cleaned, headed and tailed. Prior to freezing I wash in a vinegar solution, damp dry, freeze and wrap. I get fish bags at the butcher supply. These bags are long and sized for fish size. I get the size that is sized for silvers. I freeze, glaze then put them in these bags. I double the bags. I think vac packing is a very good method except when the seal gets broken.

As to the fat. I find there are two fats in the fish. The exterior sub cutaneous fat and the oil in the meat fibers. For me, the oil is yummy but the fat is not. Calvin brings up the continuing argument about "Best Fish". Of course the discussion is subjective. Take an ocean caught Kenai King and an ocean caught Yukon King, caught and treated as Calvin does, the Yukon king will have a lot more fat and oil. Both are wonderful and which is best will be a personal choice. I agree that ocean caught fish are the best. The discussion we have around my house is: which is better a dipped, at the mouth, Kenai red or a dipped, at Chitina, red. General consensus is the edge goes to the Chitina fish. In my opinion both are great and a big Kenai caught in the salt is the prettiest fish out there.

Interesting thoughts about Kenai vs Yukon kings. I never had the chance to catch or eat Yukon kings but I favored Kenai kings over others caught from the rivers in SC.

The best salmon I have ever eaten were those caught while working on a seiner around Kodiak.

A few days a week, when a nice 15# or so king came over the rail, I'd put a long stringer through his bottom jaw and toss him in the RSW. That night you'd pull up your fish, fillet him, and put the still quivering meat on the bbq.

Nothing has come close, even when it was a red or silver, or god forbid, even a humpy.

Kinda holds true for all the seafood I've eaten right out of the water. Live crab boiled in seawater, halibut, rockfish, ling, steelhead.....It all seems so much better when it is as fresh as can be right out of the salt.


Thanks for the many tips. Can't always have it squirming on the grill, good to know how to get as close as possible though!

I like reds, silvers, chums and even pinks but king is something else again. There is a reason it is called king. Same with tuna there is bigeye, yellowfin and yellowtail. Then way up there is bluefin.

Well, since we are really talking fish...(grin)


Winter kings are full of oil due to the cold water temp. Burn up your BBQ kind of oil. Very good fish. They don't freeze well at all, and are sold to the fresh market. Big bucks for the trollers. but volume is low.

Spring kings eating Krill about the best tasting salmon, IMO. I like winter king, but it's almost "too much" for the oil and prefer my kings when the water warms up a bit.

Early summer feeder kings eating candle fish are very good. That's what we get the most of.

Lastly for kings, kings with a steady diet of big herring are last on my list. I gut everything, so I have a good idea what they are eating. I'll eat them, but they aren't "melt in your mouth" good like a krill fed or candle fish fed king.

And then, you have red, orange, white, and variegated kings. IMO, variegated kings rule the roost. It's a white king, with orange stripes down the flesh. I thought they were a myth until I started catching them. The krill spring kings typically are red in flesh. Very good. Orangish kings are summer kings. A lot of hatchery and bigger kings are white. I like white, but I don't love it like some do.

You can't beat fresh, same day king. My favorite way to do it is to put same day king over charcoal. A chef at a lodge this year showed me how he cuts his fillets to the exact same thickness to BBQ. Best king I ever ate, and it was fresh that day. He had the cooking time down to the science. Cut the fillets to the exact same thickness every time. I'm sure you all know that cooking time is critical to king salmon.

Calvin
With you on white kings... to me they taste a bit muddy. We used to get $.10 a pound for them on the troller back in about '80. Then they learned how to market them and the price went through the ceiling.

We really like the white king done up as sushi/sashimi, haven't had it any other way. It's one of our favorites when eating raw fish.

After hearing all the hype about white king I ate some. For all the hype and price I thought I was missing something, maybe not.

I heard that. Glad we get something for them now. The price is less than red kings though. I'm boat shopping right now. Sold my power troller in late June as I didn't like it, and now I get to get another one.

Fyi, Here is a variegated king..



I also have to give a shout out for ocean June cohos. Really good. They are small, and the scales fall off, but they are about as good as it gets for a coho.

Was a fishy year for us.. Finally found a glass ball too.

Thanks for the tutorial on King salmon. The only kings I've caught were in streams or in the salt headed that direction. I do prefer the red/orange flesh, though.

Calvin knows what he speaks of. I definitely agree to never rinse salmon fillets if you want the best flavor and texture.