Curing Roe *Edited November 30th

[salmotrutta]

*Added November 30th: This method will likely be best if no salt is added at any stage. Follow the steps but do not add salt. You will not be able to use them as singles.

Have seen a few methods for curing roe discussed on the forum, including a cold water cure, sperm cure, borax cure and commercial cure.

While trying to find the time to cure my most recent batch, I accidentally found another way. The cold water cure is very simple when the rivers are ice cold, but currently I think this way is a little bit easier because there is no need for filling a bowl with ice cubes etc.

I will outline the steps that I took. I am sure they are not all necessary, but just to be safe I will include them all. This method is for loose roe, I am not sure how it would work for skein.

1) Rinse eggs in the creek. *If you rinse them at home, I don't know what effect tap water would have on the final outcome, as I didn't let this batch touch any water other than river water. If you can't rinse them in the creek, try to use distilled or spring water at home for rinsing if you are connected to city water.

2) Dry the eggs thoroughly at home on paper towel. Add sea salt liberally after drying.

3) Put them in a sealed container in the fridge for 24 to 48 h, and put them in the coolest part of the fridge, just slightly above freezing.

4) After 24 to 48h, verify to make sure they are dry. They should also be very rubbery, basically impossible to pop with your fingers. Remove any excess moisture if they are not completely dry using paper towel.

5) Freeze them for a day in the same container.

6) Remove them from the freezer after a day. They will have likely turned white in the middle. Put them in the fridge to defrost for a day or two.

7) Once they are defrosted, again remove any excess moisture if they are not completely dry. You can add more sea salt and give the container a good shake.

8 ) The eggs are now ready to be frozen again. This time, they will not turn white and they will not clump together even when frozen. They will remain rubbery, impossible to pop with pressure.

I like this method because I tend not to tie my roe right after harvesting. I usually bring a small container worth of eggs with me when I go fishing, and tie them the day that I will be using them. With this method, you can tie them in your car without making a mess, because they are rubbery and have lost most of their slime. Although the eggs become very firm, putting a hook through them will pop them.

If you like to leave a lot of slime on your eggs, this is not a good method for you.

These eggs will keep for a very long time in the freezer. If you dried them properly and added a generous amount of sea salt, they won't be able to spoil very easily. I used cheap sea salt, $1 at the dollar store for a big box of it.

They will have a nice colour to them, and since they won't clump together, you can easily take a day's worth out of the freezer at any time.


I don't do much fishing between Nov-Apr, but managed to get out today for a little bit in the lovely Spring like weather. Found a few pools full of silver fish, this one was only around 1.5 lbs but gave a nice tussle nonetheless :-D

 

[LogJam]

sounds like a very good method.. i recently went and got some Pro-cure. pink color.
after reading the how to part, i don't quite understand the point of drying them.. (leave out for few hours)
my place is very dry, i would think the eggs would turn to rocks to fast.....

i sprinkle the pro cure on egg's and leave in fridge for 24 hrs, then freeze. they come out fairly nice, no mushy egg's...
but for some reason they are not that sticky... i have a friend make me some once and they were like tying glue bags.. lol
they milk out for a very long time, and were a very nice orange color...

i have tried the borax and salt, ect... dont like it that much... i hear hard bouncy eggs are not always the best in most situations....

any input on this from anyone...
thanks.

 

[salmotrutta]

My own experience tells me that slimy/milky eggs make little to no difference.

Presentation, drifting the roe bag in the right spot, time of day, all matter, whereas milky eggs have not made a difference to me.

I've used old discarded roe bags that I found on the riverbanks, on days where I either ran out of my own or brought nightcrawlers, and had just as many bites.

I caught 2 steelhead on roe bags today, then switched to slimy brown skein and caught nothing on the skein. I was using chartreuse bags which I never really liked, but they worked well today. Both steelhead were caught on perch roe that I tied and froze immediately after harvesting

I think next Spring, I will dedicate a day or two for slaughtering suckers and tying 100+ roe bags, putting about a dozen per container and freezing. This way I won't have to harvest game fish for eggs. I might keep one steelie for eggs, instead of 2 or 3 per year. Perch roe worked very well today, and I bet sucker roe would be just as productive in the rivers.

 

[getin]

I bet sucker roe would be just as productive in the rivers.

Oh yeah, I have heard from several people that it is a killer, specially in spring

 

[Blair]

Oh yeah, I have heard from several people that it is a killer, specially in spring

It is.

Just look at all the FLY GUYS who make the wonderful imitations of Sucker Spawn.
Kinda gives you a hint that something is up.

The only difficulty with REAL SUCKER SPAWN is that its so small.
Almost like a mushy - bubbly - fizz (White ish- Yellow- peach)

The eggs are the smallest I have ever seen.
It is difficult to tie up with the traditional Roe Mess we use for Salmon eggs.
I have found a "Finer Mess" to use.

Last spring during the Sucker spawns (April) you could see the BOWS just cruisin like Stealth Bombers in and amoungst them.
Wonder what they were doing?

*SMILES*

I get real angry when UN -EDUCATED "Trout Fishermen" complain about the suckers and actually want to kill them.
They dont have a CLUE as to how important each fish is too the food chain.

Oh ... so a sucker hit your Bait instead of a Trout.
Grow up!

Without the suckers, there would be less trout ....... less everything.
Its all interdependant on each other.

So .. thats my sucker rant

 

[Fishheads]

Sounds like a good cure. I always do nothing to my eggs. Air dry and freeze. They last for years in the freezer. But for resale eggs I get from the hatchery I use sea salt and borax.

 

[RiverNinja]

^+1
I have never cured my roe. Dry and Freeze, no issues with them being soft or mushy.

 

[salmotrutta]

Discovered today that the final product can indeed be embedded onto a hook as a single egg presentation. Sweet!

Took a jar of these eggs with me fishing today, but did not end up needing to tie them. At the end of the day I was inspecting them, and when I squeezed them I noticed they felt almost like a raisin. Put a hook through one and to my surprise, it did not pop.

Maybe all of the salt made them raisin-like?

The jury is still out on whether this is a good cure - as I am not 100% sure how the eggs change once in use (tied and submerged in water). If they remain raisin-like, that won't be great. I think they become nice and round again, but I haven't been paying attention to which batch I was using for my most recent roe bags.

Will post a definitive update once I figure out how they hold up as tied bags, and also how they hold up being fished as single eggs.

 

[getin]

I have used eggs cured in the exact same way. The indeed become smooth and perfectly round when they hit water. Not sure if the hardened eggs will milk like the un-cured ones becuase I did not notice any change in collor or firmness after half an hour of the use. So, my conclusion is that: if you fish in situaion where you need to attract the fish by smell (like drop shot, or fishing at night), use the un-cured egg. If presentation is more important (drifing in clear water, fast water, etc), then these salted ones work great.

 

[getin]

^+1
I have never cured my roe. Dry and Freeze, no issues with them being soft or mushy.

How do you dry them? I dried some roe, by putting them on paper towel and the shell became so weak that when I tried to scrap them off the paper or when I am tying roe bags, most of them break. Also, when drying on newspaper, they got dark, absorbing ink from the paper!

 

[RiverNinja]

How do you dry them? I dried some roe, by putting them on paper towel and the shell became so weak that when I tried to scrap them off the paper or when I am tying roe bags, most of them break. Also, when drying on newspaper, they got dark, absorbing ink from the paper!

The easiest way is to use a strainer.. I have a fine mesh (metal) strainer that I use specifically for all my roe.
it looks like this..

Simply dump all your eggs into the strainer and let it sit for a couple of minutes before you start to divide it up. I always scoop from the top and work my way down.
-All the excess roe juice will simply drain out, leaving the dry eggs.

-Rn

 

[hightechdecks]

i like to dry eggs on parchment paper also i rinse off my batch with spring water collected from my home creek. for cure i simply brine eggs in spring water and pickling salt LOTS of salt, when they start to float they are ready.

 

[Blair]

The easiest way is to use a strainer.. I have a fine mesh (metal) strainer that I use specifically for all my roe.
it looks like this..
Simply dump all your eggs into the strainer and let it sit for a couple of minutes before you start to divide it up. I always scoop from the top and work my way down.
-All the excess roe juice will simply drain out, leaving the dry eggs.

-Rn

AWESOME SOLUTION!

I (me... cause i LOVE SCENT) will also keep the JUICE that is strained or Oozes out. Nothing like having STINKY JARS/BOTTLES of saved up ROE GOO!
I either add it too some of my "RAISIN ROE" or I add it too my TIED BAG containers the day I am going fishing.

For my NIGHT FISHIING - ROE ... I let it BATH in the STUFF!
I even tie bags with SKEIN and any crap from the original roe. Since presentation (Appearance) is not the prioity ... who cares: SCENT SCENT SCENT (Stinky SCENT)

*SMILES*

Great suggestions on many of these threads for roe.
I bet we have CONFUSED THE HELL out of many guys just trying to figure out one simple solution.

NO SUCH THING! so many options.....

 

[salmotrutta]

How do you dry them? I dried some roe, by putting them on paper towel and the shell became so weak that when I tried to scrap them off the paper or when I am tying roe bags, most of them break. Also, when drying on newspaper, they got dark, absorbing ink from the paper!

First step would be to give them a good rinse, preferably in the creek right after harvesting. Next step would be to refrigerate for a day or two at a fairly low temp. At this point they are rubbery and won't pop. I just lay out paper towel on a plate, pour the eggs on the plate and repeat if necessary.

If the water in the creek is ultra cold, rinsing them in the creek for a minute or two will harden them in addition to clean them.

Today we used roe from the cure in my original post and indeed the eggs regain their shape immediately upon entering the water. They worked well. They can also be put straight onto a hook while dry. I'm sure there are times when such a presentation would be good, but I usually stick to good old roe bags.

We also had chinook skein that had been pro cured today. We were all pretty frustrated with how gooey it made our hands and subsequently our rods, reels, clothing, etc., whereas the brown skein we were using, that was creek rinsed and straight frozen, did not make such a mess. It stayed on our hooks better too.

 

[salmotrutta]

Was tying roe today with 2 different batches.

First batch were water cured chinook eggs, cured in a bowel filled with ice cubes for 5 to 10 minutes (my best attempt at getting the water as cold as possible). They did not turn out as consistent as my rainbow eggs that I water cured in the creek last April. Some pop, but overall it's a good cure.

Second batch were the ones cured by the method in this thread. Turns out that these ones were still very wet when taken out of the freezer. I think that the salt continues to draw moisture from the center of the eggs, even after you think you have "successfully dried them". Unless they are literally completely dried and have had all of the moisture sucked out, the salt will pull water and you will have a jar of relatively wet and salty raisin-like eggs. Not the messiest in the world, but not perfectly clean as my other batch from this method.

In conclusion, I will most likely stick to water curing with zero salt. Properly water cured eggs will not harden and clump together in the freezer, and they will not need salt. This method consists of leaving the eggs in ice cold water for around 5 minutes. You only need about 2 minutes if the creeks are freezing cold. If the creeks are on the warmer side, more time is needed, and you may need to fill a large bowl with half water half ice at home and do it at home. Remove from ice cold water, place on paper towel to dry, and freeze. No need to add borax but some people will before freezing.

The cure in my original post will likely be best if duplicated but with *no salt added at any stage*. Avoid the salt, and you will avoid having to keep drying and resalting until they are "dry once and for all".

Will edit my original method to reflect this.