The first full day of fall was our signal to put up some fish to enjoy later on in the winter.

The process is age old and somewhat of a dinosour with the modern supercenter just down the road. Practiced by diehards like ourselves who get comfort working in the kitchen doing what our grand parents had to do to preserve food for the long winter ahead. We do it for fun... they did it to add variety to their diet and bide their time until spring and fresh food was once again available.

The Native Americans in our area catch and sell fall run Coho salmon and likewise tribes do the same with sturgeon on the lower Columbia river. The price is right and the satisfaction we get is priceless.

Fish, meat, and non-acidic vegetables must be cooked at temperatures above 212 degrees if they are to be canned and eaten safely. A pressure cooker is able to process canned foods at 245 degrees... high enough heat to kill all the harmfull bacteria and their spores.

To can smoked fish we use this method and follow the manufacturers instuctions for using our pressure cooker. Follow their instuctions to test the valve and seal.

Get fresh fish! The canning and smoking will not take an inferior product and turn it into a gourmet treat... no matter how good the recipe.



Use clean sterilized jars and new lids, which are also sterilized... make sure your jars are free of any nicks or chips on the rims or cracks in the jars themselves.

This is what we did for a 5 lb. Silver salmon.

Scale and remove any traces of blood, rinse under cold running water.

Cut fish to fit your size jar, make sure you leave a 1 inch head space in the jar. Don't put the fish in yet... just use the jar as a size guide. We used 1/2 pint wide mouth, the jars not me.

Mix 1 cup of sea salt with 2 qts. cold water and place cut fish in a 1 gal. zip type bag and add as much salt water as possible and seal the bag. Place in the fridge for 2 hrs. turning once.

Take the cut fish out and rinse with cold water, pat dry with paper towels and put on a rack to futher dry for an hour or until a shinny glaze forms on the surface of the fish.

Place the fish in a smoker being carefull to leave space so the fish is not touching.

Smoke for two hours with a wood flavor of your choice. (We used oak wine cask and cherry.) Any more smoke than that will overpower the canned fish. This smoker is over 20 years old and has smoked its' share of fish. This is the only smoker I use for fish, though I might break down and get a new box for it...maybe next year.



Take the fish out to cool to room temperature and pack into your cleaned jars. Wipe rim of jars to remove any traces of fish and seal with your two part lids.

Process at 11 lbs. for 100 minutes... follow the manufactures instuctions to open your canner when the fish is done.

We yielded 18 half pints... sure to make some mighty fine salmon cakes this winter or a festive spread with red onions and capers on crackers around Super Bowl.