Fish Brine.

[Oldcountryboy]

Anyone soak there fish in a salt brine before frying them?

When I was growing up I had a Uncle who fished a lot and every Independance day he'd put on a fish fry. His fish was salty from where he soaked it in a salt brine solution but it sure was good! So I'm wanting to give it a try but does anyone know just how much salt I should use in the brine to water mix?

[Ed Norman]

The only brine I use is to soak before I smoke steelhead or trout. It has some sugar and other stuff besides salt, so that won't help you much.

[Oldcountryboy]

I tried some this evening and it wasn't bad but I thought it needed a bit more salt. I had about a quart of water with about 1 tablespoon salt in it and I soaked 4 peices of fillets in it for a couple of hours. Then I rinsed the fillets off and let them drain for a few minutes before rolling them in cornmeal and pan fry. So I don't know if I should have rinsed them off or leave as is and just let them drain. But I was afraid of them being too salty if I didn't rinse them first.

[Bearfootfarm]

I don't like soaking fish, but I do like to salt them pretty well at least a couple of hours before cooking

[tryinhard]

I always put down a layer of fish and salt then another layer of fish and salt etc until my bowl is about 2/3 full then fill with COLD water and put a lil more salt in and then put in the fridge overnight. The fillets come out clean and white. I pour the water off roll in my fish fry and fry them.

A cup of salt to a gallon of water if you're not going to soak more than an hour or two. It's OK and generally desirable to rinse the fish before frying. It doesn't have to be salty tasting.

[Oldcountryboy]

One cup salt to one gallon of water. O.K., I guess I was way shy since I only put 1 tablespoon salt to 1 quart water.

Now if I can just catch some more fish. The last two time I went I got skunked bad.