What to do with pinks?

Franko Manini

Well-Known Member
Forty,

Been taking my kids out to fish for pinks. We toss most of them back, but the boys like to keep a fish or two now and then. I try to limit retention to the injured fish. So now I have a number of pinks on hand and I don't know what the best way to deal with them is. They are great on the BBQ the same day they are caught, but in the past I haven't had much luck freezing them. I am vacuum packing them this year and hoping that will help.

But I am curious if anyone has a slam dunk approach to preserving pinks. Smoking? Canning? And for those of you that do smoke or can, do you freeze a bunch of fish first and do a big batch when you get some time, or do you just go for it after the fishing day is done?

I have experience with smoking coho and springs but I have never tried it with pinks. Any tricks or recipes?

I have never tried canning so if anyone has any tips or simple approaches to canning, I would be interested in that information.

Mostly, I'm looking to understand what folks do with this abundant little fish.

Thanks folks!


Franko

MILF (Man, I Love Fishing)
 
Forty,

Been taking my kids out to fish for pinks. We toss most of them back, but the boys like to keep a fish or two now and then. I try to limit retention to the injured fish. So now I have a number of pinks on hand and I don't know what the best way to deal with them is. They are great on the BBQ the same day they are caught, but in the past I haven't had much luck freezing them. I am vacuum packing them this year and hoping that will help.

But I am curious if anyone has a slam dunk approach to preserving pinks. Smoking? Canning? And for those of you that do smoke or can, do you freeze a bunch of fish first and do a big batch when you get some time, or do you just go for it after the fishing day is done?

I have experience with smoking coho and springs but I have never tried it with pinks. Any tricks or recipes?

I have never tried canning so if anyone has any tips or simple approaches to canning, I would be interested in that information.

Mostly, I'm looking to understand what folks do with this abundant little fish.

Thanks folks!


Franko

MILF (Man, I Love Fishing)

They make good halibut bait
 
Treat them well, bleed and ice immediately fry up fresh in butter-excellent. If you can freeze them pretty quick-then smoking is an option. People have a poor opinion of them because if not dressed and iced quickly they rapidly become soft. I don't keep them because my trips are usually 3 days long and that is too long to keep a pink on ice--in my opinion. GUys love em-fried up fresh on the boat-nothing better-except-ling, black bass etc. etc.
 
I keep them on ice from catching/transport. I vaccum pack freeze them whole, and then fillet and smoke. By keeping them whole I have noticed it extends shelf life and better product..They dont freeze well once filleted...
 
I keep them on ice from catching/transport. I vaccum pack freeze them whole, and then fillet and smoke. By keeping them whole I have noticed it extends shelf life and better product..They dont freeze well once filleted...

Good tip. The ones we caught were packed in ice immediately and vac packed whole as well. I didn't know that this heed, but now I know I can smoke them once I get a whack of them in the freezer.

What about canning? Freeze then can or just do it the same day they are caught?


Franko

MILF (Man, I Love Fishing)
 
great canned fresh, my buddy did a batch with a drop of liquid smoke for flavour, turned out great.

I also brined them and then froze them to smoke another day. worked good.
 
All of the above... I had BBQed pink tonight. I prefer it to springs AS LONG AS YOU TREAT IT RIGHT WHEN YOU BRING IT ABOARD.... bleed, ice, and vacuum pack immediately as soon as you get home-- smoked with some garlic and liquid smoke , they are GREAT!
 
... in the past I haven't had much luck freezing them. I am vacuum packing them this year and hoping that will help.

But I am curious if anyone has a slam dunk approach to preserving pinks. Smoking? Canning? And for those of you that do smoke or can, do you freeze a bunch of fish first and do a big batch when you get some time, or do you just go for it after the fishing day is done?

I have experience with smoking coho and springs but I have never tried it with pinks. Any tricks or recipes?
I've also found that they dont freeze that well, or at least I havent discovered the secret. However I found that they still smoke up just fine, even when they are mushy enough to be difficult to slice cleanly. The same dry brine I use for coho/sockeye/whatever works great and they firm right up after the water has been drawn out. I use pinks in a smoked salmon alfredo regularly and to be fair, flavour-wise you'll never mistake smoked pinks for sockeye or coho but its not bad at all, to me at least.

Vacuum packing would probably help, but I just freeze them whole and dont filet them until smoking time.
 
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Smoked 20 sides today--some went in the jar and some will disappear rapidly!
T2


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Did a pink smoke with brown sugar, light salt, franks red hot sauce, bit of soya, some ginger for brine. EXCELLENT. Anyone who does not want their pinks... send them my way.
 
Pinks are great for everything. I smoke the fillets, I use the bellies for halibut bait and the heads, spines tails and guts go into the crab trap (with a shot of herring oil). And theirs lots of them.
 
I just canned a bunch the other night. This is what I do.

Once caught -- they go onto ice immediately. I don't fillet them, but instead, clean out the guts and lop off the head and tail (run those hose on high pressure against the grain of their scales and you can remove most of the small outer layer and much of the slime) and vacuum pack them and put them into the freezer whole.

When I have enough, I partially thaw them in the fridge and cut them into "steaks" large enough to fill my jars (with about 1/2" of headroom). Three pinks the other night made 12 small (single serving) and 6 large (double serving) jars of canned salmon.

A basic canning recipe would call for 1/4 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp of vinegar (to dissolve the bones), bit of olive oil and spices to taste (e.g. pepper corns, hot pepper, hot sauce, ketchup etc).

Lately, I've been adding a healthy dollop of Newman's Own Italian dressing. It has the salt, vinegar, oil and spices already in it.

Put it into the pressure cooker for 100 min at 10PSI and it's good for years. Pinks can up very nicely. Their bones are very fine and small and tend to dissolve better than larger fish. When partially frozen the knife easily slices steaks.

Personally, I don't find that they cold smoke as well as Chinook. I find that thick slices of salmon are better suited to cold smoking.

Alternatively, Pink fillets also make an excellent Salmon Jerky recipe. I've not done that in a few years but have several more fish still to prep that may make good candidates.

My Salmon Jerky recipe here: http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/showthread.php?11017-Salmon-Jerky&highlight=salmon+jerky
 
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After the advice on my previous thread http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32445, I canned 5 decent-sized pinks in 1 canner batch (15-500ml jars) a few weeks ago. I had to process in parts due to lack of time. I packed everything into jars and then put them in the fridge (Saran-wrapped) overnight. The next day, I added salt, put them in the oven to warm up, then added lids and then put them in the canner. Worked a treat. Three didn't seal, had one of those in fish cakes the other night and they were very nice. The other two jars are still in the freezer.

I think the two step process turned out ok. The flesh looked a bit crushed in some of the jars after I got them out of the fridge, but after being in the canner for 100 min at 11psi, I doubt it would make a difference to the final texture.


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Pink Gold! Pinks are our favourite for making salmon candy. I personally think you are crazy if you exclude them from your smoker lineup.
 
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