Chum Salmon?

The Yukon also has the best Kings in the world! Better than Copper River. In fact I place Copper Kings as only the third best salmon in the world.

So what's the other one that makes your top 3?

-Allen

The Yukon also has the best Kings in the world! Better than Copper River. In fact I place Copper Kings as only the third best salmon in the world.

So what's the other one that makes your top 3?

-Allen

Columbia Springers

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The Ikura recipe Allen posted is very typical of the ones we use.  Here's something interesting.  Any liquid with a certain amount of salinity will get abosorbed into the roe.  For the silvers (which tend to be the most bitter) and reds, a thing we do is to soak the loose eggs in white wine and add a bit of salt to it so the roe abosrbs the liquid. Looks great and is a nice little color on food but tastes really like white wine.   White wine was great.  Coffee not so good...

Not sure if it was posted but you can either rub the skeins on something like a tennis racket to separate the eggs or you can run them under tap water as hot as your hands wil handle over a bowl and if you carefully massage the roe out, they will fall of the skin.  Eggs may seem white and almost cooked but let them drain a few hours covered in the refrigerator and they wil turn back to a natural color.

I'm an Alaska fish snob but I will have to say +1 for the columbia springers.  Very fatty fish!

Not sure if it was posted but you can either rub the skeins on something like a tennis racket to separate the eggs or you can run them under tap water as hot as your hands wil handle over a bowl and if you carefully massage the roe out, they will fall of the skin.  Eggs may seem white and almost cooked but let them drain a few hours covered in the refrigerator and they wil turn back to a natural color.

Interesting.  I'll have to try that.  The way I was taught was cold water and salt.  It works ok.

-Allen

We NEVER let green eggs touch fresh water! The entire line up to the brine tanks uses a lightly salted wash water.

Fresh water burns the eggs and makes the shells harder.

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We NEVER let green eggs touch fresh water! The entire line up to the brine tanks uses a lightly salted wash water.

Fresh water burns the eggs and makes the shells harder.

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Generally and as a rule commercially I agree. It is best not to hit them with freshwater like you say.  Just like I rather pat dry my fish fillets instead of hitting them fresh water.

For simple home preparations it doesn't hurt them noticeably.  The freshwater tends to decolor the roe in skeins much more and affect sujiko quality.  I was a salmon roe tech for 10 years during high school and college and my mom is the lead roe tech for Marubeni in Alaska.  I will say she is old school and rubs them on a tennis racket. 

It's a heck of a lot easier than rubbing the roe over a racquet and the clean up is obviously easier.

I was re-reading this thread and my response and it seems to come across a bit wrong.  I apologize to funngunnin if I sounded like I was saying I knew more or something like that.  My point was that both my mom and I were/are in the business and do it differently.  She would vote with funngunnin.  I was just saying for my personal use, I can't really tell the difference and its super easy especially with more mature roe.

It was bothering me so I just wanted to clarify.


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Hmmm.  Would a squash racquet work in a pinch?    

Hmmm.  Would a squash racquet work in a pinch?   

Lol.  Sure.  Make sure it's clean and disinfected.  I've used badminton racquets but they don't hold up well.

Gently open up the roe sac to expose the single eggs. Skin side up and rub fairly firmly across the mesh in a circular motion. If the roe isn't mature enough the recovery is lower they break easier.  It feels like you are going to squish them but you will quickly get a decent feel for it.  If the roe is super mature and almost loose, the shell is thicker and it noticeably gets left behind after the "pop" In your mouth.  Not considered good.

For caviar, the blushed salmon are better than the chromers.  Thats always the problem for me. The more body fat that gets converted to roe, the better the roe...but poorer the flesh quality.  But blushed salmon smoke and can decently...but it's never as good as the good stuff smoked and canned it seems.


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Evidently I'm a fish snob of sorts... Lol

You just haven't had good chum yet ....

And yes Chum Ikura is considered the best. The highest grade roe actually comes from the ugly fish but not super ugly. You want the largest eggs before they become loose.
Last season we installed a roe processing line and produced about 70k of Ikura. It is an incredibly detailed process!


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Mmmm....mouth watering...

Dino Abulencia
HOW-NWest