Cold Pickled Northern ( Or other white Fish )

With the Opener tomorrow I’m looking forward to getting out and getting a supply of some fresh Northern for a batch of fresh pickled fish. Thought I’d share a recipe I have that makes excellent and easy pickled fish. Here it is:

Cold Pickled Fish
(Northern Pike or Other White Fish )

Note – This is a cold fish brine recipe – Do NOT use heat for any of the steps

Ingredients

Northern or other white fish. – As much as you want to make
White vinegar
White Sugar
Onions ( White or Yellow )
Pickling Salt
Pickling spice
Dried Red Pepper flakes
Garlic – optional
Hot Peppers – optional

Step 1 – Filet fish. You can leave the bones in the fillet. The bones will dissolve as it cures. Cut Fish into bite size pieces ( I like mine about 1”X1” )
Step 2 – Loosely pack fish pieces in quart glass ( Mason ) jar. Add 5/8 cup of pickling salt to each quart jar. Fill jar with white vinegar to completely cover the fish. Rotate, spin, and gently shake jar until the salt is fully dissolved. Refrigerate jars for 5 days. Once or twice each day rotate, spin, and gently shake each jar for 1-2 minutes.
Step 3 – At the end of the 5th day, remove fish from the jars. Rinse fish with cold water for 5 minutes and drain. Place fish in large pan with cold water and let stand for 1 Hr. Drain fish again.
Step 4 – Return fish to quart jars laying fish and onions ( If desired ) When jar is ½ full, Add 1 ½ cup white sugar, 2 Table spoons pickling spice ( either loose or in or in tied cheese cloth ) Dash of red pepper flakes, 1 Bay leaf. Continue to layer fish and onions ( if desired) until the jar is almost full. Fill the jar with White vinegar to fully cover the fish. Rotate, spin, gently shake until sugar appears to be all or mostly dissolved.

Note – You can add other ingredients during this stage as well – such as Garlic or peppers.

Step 5 – Return jars to the refrigerator for at least 1 week for best flavor. Each day remove and rotate, spin and gently shake for 1 minute.
Step 6 – After 1 week, eat fish as desired – Excellent with butter or saltine crackers.

Note – Store fish in refrigerator for up to 3 months ( If yours last that long )

I use this recipe all the time and if you can’t handle a lot of salt you may want to soak the brined fish overnight in clear water. They tend to be a bit too salty for my particular taste. Otherwise this is a very good recipe. I make a variation of this with white port wine and a little sugar that is very good too.

I will be trying that reciepe!!! I need to find a reciepe where my fish don’t get soft!!!!!!!

They stay nice and firm this way. Be sure to rinse well with cold water at step 3.

fishthumper wrote:

They stay nice and firm this way. Be sure to rinse well with cold water at step 3.

thing is I use the same excat reciepe my mom uses and for some reason they turn soft. use the exact same products and all. even went and got her water for brining. just pi$$es me off!

My buddy had a batch get mushy / soft once as well. He did leave it in the salt brine a extra day so we assume that was the cause. It was the only batch that either him or I have turn out that way in all the years we have done it.

think it has anything to do with the rinse process? maybe not rinsed good enough????? only thing I can come up with!

That may be as well. I rinse mine real well.

Before cold pickling Pike make darn sure to freeze it first. Cold pickling does not get rid of tape worms or there eggs.

Here is a recipe that I have been using for years. Super easy and I like it. Works well for all fish but I like suckers the best. As stated above make sure you freeze the fish for 48 hers before using.

4 cups white vinegar
4 cups distilled water
2 onions (sliced thin)
3 TBsp pickling spice
1/2 cup pickling salt
1 1/2 cup sugar

Combine in 1 gal. glass jar and fill to top with cubed raw fish. Let stand at room temp. For 48 hrs. Leave enough brine to cover fish and refrigerate. You can add garlic hot pepper etch to taste

fishthumper………. did your reciepe!!!!!!! turned out top notch!!!!! nice and firm!!!!!

almost word for word the recipe I use,except, I use apple cider vinegar for the first step,and I mix the salt and vinegar very well before putting it in the jars.
on the second step,I bring the white vinegar,sugar,and spices to a boil and take it off of the heat immediately and let it cool completely,this really dissolves the sugar,and blends the spices together,all in all a great recipe however you choose to do it,and I have never had mushy fish. for kicks,you can add just a few redhots to bring out the pickle spice a little stronger. and the white wine?
oh yeah!! I usually pickle about twenty pints of fish and hand it out to friends.

I have to ask this though,if vinegar can dissolve bones,and you dont clean out the grubs or freeze them,can they really withstand all of that acid and salt???
I would think it would choke them to death or at least kill them somehow.

a teaspoon of alum (Spice section of the grocery store) while the fish is soaking will ensure they are not soft. I used to do the onions and fish seperate so that the onions didn’t get crunchy and then mix it all together at the end.

I just made my first batch of this northern, excellent stuff! Next time, I think I will cut my pieces a little smaller, but it turned out great

I was able to get out and get some nice pike the last couple days and want to try pickling them for the first time. By the looks of it this recipe seems to be a pretty good one to try! I’ve got one question: during step 3 do you rinse out the jars as well and start with a fresh clean jar for step 4?

fishthumper wrote:

Step 3 – At the end of the 5th day, remove fish from the jars. Rinse fish with cold water for 5 minutes and drain. Place fish in large pan with cold water and let stand for 1 Hr. Drain fish again.
Step 4 – Return fish to quart jars

I’ve never eaten pickled pike so this will be should be a nice experience. LOL. Anyone care to share some photos of their jars of pickled pike? Also how do you guys eat it plain out of the jar like a pickle? with crackers? Let me know!

Chance R. wrote:

I was able to get out and get some nice pike the last couple days and want to try pickling them for the first time. By the looks of it this recipe seems to be a pretty good one to try! I’ve got one question: during step 3 do you rinse out the jars as well and start with a fresh clean jar for step 4?

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>fishthumper wrote:</div>
Step 3 – At the end of the 5th day, remove fish from the jars. Rinse fish with cold water for 5 minutes and drain. Place fish in large pan with cold water and let stand for 1 Hr. Drain fish again.
Step 4 – Return fish to quart jars

I’ve never eaten pickled pike so this will be should be a nice experience. LOL. Anyone care to share some photos of their jars of pickled pike? Also how do you guys eat it plain out of the jar like a pickle? with crackers? Let me know!

I normally just do a quick rinse on the Jars. I do not do a full wash or start with fresh jars. I eat them plain right out of the jar. We do sometimes out crackers out to eat them on as well. Mine mostly gets eaten while we are sitting around playing cards and drinking a few cold ones

Thanks for the info fishthumper, i’ll report back on how it turns out!

On a side note, filleted a couple 8 pound channel cats chunked them up and pickeled them, no more pike for me. A taste treat for sure. DK.

So this year, I tried a couple different additions to the standard recipe. I did 1 northern standard as shown, another with 1 heaping tablespoon of minced garlic and another with a few pepperoncini peppers

All 3 have distinct flavors, but all are excellent

bigstorm wrote:

So this year, I tried a couple different additions to the standard recipe. I did 1 northern standard as shown, another with 1 heaping tablespoon of minced garlic and another with a few pepperoncini peppers

All 3 have distinct flavors, but all are excellent

That’s the nice thing with this receipe – You can alter it a little here and there to suite you own taste. Like you I have also made several batches with both fresh Garlic and Various peppers. They provide some nice variations for sure

I want it to taste like the pickled herring from the store.
Which recipe is close to it?

I could not tell you if this taste like Pickled Herring or not. I only tasted that stuff once and will never try it again.Yuck !!!!! I will eat the crap out of pickled northern done using this recipe though.

would it work with a little freezer burned fish???

fishthumper wrote:

With the Opener tomorrow I’m looking forward to getting out and getting a supply of some fresh Northern for a batch of fresh pickled fish. Thought I’d share a recipe I have that makes excellent and easy pickled fish. Here it is:

Cold Pickled Fish
(Northern Pike or Other White Fish )

Note – This is a cold fish brine recipe – Do NOT use heat for any of the steps

Ingredients

Northern or other white fish. – As much as you want to make
White vinegar
White Sugar
Onions ( White or Yellow )
Pickling Salt
Pickling spice
Dried Red Pepper flakes
Garlic – optional
Hot Peppers – optional

Step 1 – Filet fish. You can leave the bones in the fillet. The bones will dissolve as it cures. Cut Fish into bite size pieces ( I like mine about 1”X1” )
Step 2 – Loosely pack fish pieces in quart glass ( Mason ) jar. Add 5/8 cup of pickling salt to each quart jar. Fill jar with white vinegar to completely cover the fish. Rotate, spin, and gently shake jar until the salt is fully dissolved. Refrigerate jars for 5 days. Once or twice each day rotate, spin, and gently shake each jar for 1-2 minutes.
Step 3 – At the end of the 5th day, remove fish from the jars. Rinse fish with cold water for 5 minutes and drain. Place fish in large pan with cold water and let stand for 1 Hr. Drain fish again.
Step 4 – Return fish to quart jars laying fish and onions ( If desired ) When jar is ½ full, Add 1 ½ cup white sugar, 2 Table spoons pickling spice ( either loose or in or in tied cheese cloth ) Dash of red pepper flakes, 1 Bay leaf. Continue to layer fish and onions ( if desired) until the jar is almost full. Fill the jar with White vinegar to fully cover the fish. Rotate, spin, gently shake until sugar appears to be all or mostly dissolved.

Note – You can add other ingredients during this stage as well – such as Garlic or peppers.

Step 5 – Return jars to the refrigerator for at least 1 week for best flavor. Each day remove and rotate, spin and gently shake for 1 minute.
Step 6 – After 1 week, eat fish as desired – Excellent with butter or saltine crackers.

Note – Store fish in refrigerator for up to 3 months ( If yours last that long )

fishthumper wrote:

With the Opener tomorrow I’m looking forward to getting out and getting a supply of some fresh Northern for a batch of fresh pickled fish. Thought I’d share a recipe I have that makes excellent and easy pickled fish. Here it is:

Cold Pickled Fish
(Northern Pike or Other White Fish )

Note – This is a cold fish brine recipe – Do NOT use heat for any of the steps

Ingredients

Northern or other white fish. – As much as you want to make
White vinegar
White Sugar
Onions ( White or Yellow )
Pickling Salt
Pickling spice
Dried Red Pepper flakes
Garlic – optional
Hot Peppers – optional

Step 1 – Filet fish. You can leave the bones in the fillet. The bones will dissolve as it cures. Cut Fish into bite size pieces ( I like mine about 1”X1” )
Step 2 – Loosely pack fish pieces in quart glass ( Mason ) jar. Add 5/8 cup of pickling salt to each quart jar. Fill jar with white vinegar to completely cover the fish. Rotate, spin, and gently shake jar until the salt is fully dissolved. Refrigerate jars for 5 days. Once or twice each day rotate, spin, and gently shake each jar for 1-2 minutes.
Step 3 – At the end of the 5th day, remove fish from the jars. Rinse fish with cold water for 5 minutes and drain. Place fish in large pan with cold water and let stand for 1 Hr. Drain fish again.
Step 4 – Return fish to quart jars laying fish and onions ( If desired ) When jar is ½ full, Add 1 ½ cup white sugar, 2 Table spoons pickling spice ( either loose or in or in tied cheese cloth ) Dash of red pepper flakes, 1 Bay leaf. Continue to layer fish and onions ( if desired) until the jar is almost full. Fill the jar with White vinegar to fully cover the fish. Rotate, spin, gently shake until sugar appears to be all or mostly dissolved.

Note – You can add other ingredients during this stage as well – such as Garlic or peppers.

Step 5 – Return jars to the refrigerator for at least 1 week for best flavor. Each day remove and rotate, spin and gently shake for 1 minute.
Step 6 – After 1 week, eat fish as desired – Excellent with butter or saltine crackers.

Note – Store fish in refrigerator for up to 3 months ( If yours last that long )

This is to reply to pickled pike thread. Fishthumper’s recipe is the best one I’ve tried. You can adjust the sugar to taste. It works out to be 1.5 cups vinegar per quart so 1:1 ratio of sugar to vinegar.

I only use 1 cup sugar and works great!!!!!!!!!