My favorite part of salmon season is curing fresh roe. In the late summer/early fall I can usually find whole skeins from wild King salmon at the farmers’ market or at a great local fish shop.
I picked up almost 2 pounds today at about $14/lb.
First step is to rinse and remove the membrane, which I find easiest by pushing the eggs through a wire rack into the bowl below. It goes into an icey brine for about 10 minutes.
There’s another method using water of about 100F, but I tried it before and it was harder for me to clean all the membrane off.
Will post next steps and finished product as I work on this.
Done brining. Have to rinse the eggs off until the water runs clear and remove the popped egg membranes.
After rinsing, the roe go into a marinade of homemade dashi broth simmered with sake, mirin, and soy sauce. This goes in the fridge overnight and the last step is to strain it and put it in a jar tomorrow.
I’m pretty slow at prepping/cooking in general so it takes me roughly 30 min. This recipe, which I follow roughly, says 10 min: Homemade Ikura | Japanese Salmon Caviar
The maturity of the eggs make a difference. Younger, smaller skeins from early in the season pop much more easily.
Here are the eggs after brining overnight. The initial salt brining made them opaque, but the overnight brining made them translucent again.
All that’s left is to strain in the fridge for a little while, then put it in jars.
This is so awesome. Salmon roe is one of my absolute favorite foods and my kids love it too (2 year old thinks they are salty peas). I have to try this. Thanks for posting.