Slammin' Salmon

Or how I spent the hottest day of the summer. After Mr. FishTaxi filletted the reds for me I cut them up to size. I know how to fillet salmon but Mr. FishTaxi does such a beautiful, fast job, I let him do it.

I measure the can and line out the cutting board for exact cutting size. Once I get a few cut up I stop and fill the cans. Thats how I learned to can salmon was by helping Ol' Bob by filling the cans for him.

Once the cans are full they are put in a 180 degree oven to exhaust. Thats when I add the jalapeno or ginger, garlic or whatever pack I'm doing.

After an hour or so when the cans are up to temperature I seal the cans with pre-marked lids with my electric can sealer. From there they go directly into the pressure cooker.

Thats when the fun begins.

I pressure cook the cans at 15#s of pressure for 90 minutes. While the pack is pressure cooking I get ready for the next pack. My pressure cooker has a rocker arm that makes a racket if the pressure goes over 15#s. Then I adjust the heat to get it back down. I like pressure cooking because that is when the work is about done.

After 90 minutes I pop off the rocker arm to release the pressure. Then I open the cooker and with gloves I take the cans out and put them in cold water. Once cooled, I place them in the dish drainer, dry them off and put them back in the case.




15 salmon gave me 33 cans of Copper River Reds with jalapeno and 34 cans with ginger. Roxy got the cooked up tidbits. Got another call for fish tonight and went out and picked up 12 more reds. I'll be canning them tomorrow night after work. I'm thinking a tequila pack. Lemon leaves from my tree and salt.