# Corned spot recipe



## sand flea

After hearing for years from my Grandad about how great corned spot were, I decided to break down and give it a try. The recipe below is a mixture of a few different ones I found around the web.

*Supplies*
Cleaned spot
Container or crock
Kosher salt

Take a mess of cleaned spot with the head and tail removed. Make sure all the guts and membranes are removed.










Butterfly the spot starting from the gut cavity and heaving toward the dorsal, but leave a small flap along the top intact that holds the two pieces together.










Sprinkle a heavy layer of kosher salt on the bottom of your container. Also sprinkle the inside and outside of each butterflied fish. Put down a layer of fish with the skin side down. Put a heavy coating of salt down, then keep layering fish and salt until you run out of fish or your container is full.










At this point, you can either keep them in a cool spot or, if you want to play it safe, put them in the fridge for four or five days until the salt has pulled most of the moisture from the fish. They will be leathery and stiff and there will be quite a bit of yellowish briny liquid in the bottom.



















Next, add more brine to the container to completely cover the fish. Stick it in a cool, dark place and let them sit until you're ready to eat them. When you want some, put them in two different changes of fresh water before you eat. Fry like normal spot.


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## sand flea

Unfortunately, the whole experiment fell apart about a week after I put them in the final brine. Mold covered the top and I tossed the whole thing. Any ideas what went wrong?


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## Finger_Mullet

*Corned Spot*

I have never tried this but I do brine chicken, turkey and duck for the smoker. 
I wonder if you put the fish with the brine in a gallon ziploc bag and pushed all the air out if it would have molded? 

I would guess no.

Darin


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## Outrigger

From what I can gather, it seems as though you tried to combine the dry-curing method and the brining/pickling together. 

On the first step, I think you should have let your moisture-shedding salted fillets weep out their juices over a wire cooling rack (like those used for cakes and cookies) atop a paper towel-lined sheet pan - swapping out the paper towels as needed. This is sure to stink up your fridge.

The handful of curing/brining fish websites I stumbled across were recipes in preparation for a smoker, but I guess you could fry them up too. 

I ran across this bit of info.
*Uncooked* corned beef is bought in sealed pouches in the brine/pickling spices. It will have a sell by date and may be stored for up to *7 days *in the fridge after purchase, unopened.


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## Wilber

Flea, Not sure of your exact procedure from the pics, but when we corned Spot we always had the brine completely covering the fish in a tightly sealed container. In the first salting, the salt completely covers the Spot with at least 1 inch of solid salt on top. Might have something to do with it.

I haven't had them in years, but I may just have to "put up a Tin" this year.


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## TimKan7719

You need lots and lots of Salt to suck the Moisture from the fish, lots and lots of salt. Moisture/water promotes bacteria/mold growth. So I would say you didnt use enough salt. I use salt to take the moisture from deer hides till I am ready to tan them, I use 6lbs of salt for the hide then let it suck the moisture out then shake the salt out and then put 6 more lbs of salt on it. it take 2 days to dry the hide out stiff as a board. You can also use just normal Nonionized salt instead of Course salt, more surface contact to suck moisture out.
Hope all this helps
Tight Lines,
Tim


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## Wilber

I talked to a friend who still Corns Spot, here are his thoughts.
Layer of salt a half inch thick, a layer of fillets, not overlapping
Repeat until container is full,
the fish should not be in contact with other fish, should be separated by salt.
Keep changing and resalting until the juice runs clear.


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## wdbrand

*Let's see Wilber.*

If I read this right, you never drain off brine, simply dump out and then start process over and never allow air to get to fish. Seems to be in keeping with most brining. I know if water doesn't cover your kraut, then the mold will take over. There's always some to skim off but it doesn't get to the kraut as bad.


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