Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi All, i'm new to this forum, bit old & forgetful, so with that in mind if i ramble on a bit forgive me, but seeing i'm just starting out growing fish instead of wild catching for last 60 years, heres a tip that may make all your hard work & time raising fish & crawlies more enjoyable when time to eat. please remember these r my tips as i see it, not scientificly proven facts - just my opinions so please feel free to disagree if u have other experiences.
the main difference from my sense of taste between fresh & salt water raised seafood is simply the lack of salt they grew in. sometimes u might buy imported prawns, look good, flesh is clean & firm, but no flavour - u will find these were most likely farmed in fresher rather than saltier water.
i've read a few posts here where some say their produce lacks flavour - when i eat trout, bream, marron, coonacs, gilgies that i've got out of fresh water, i prepare the flesh as per normal, then b4 cooking (regardless of frying, boiling, roasting or poaching) i lightly salt the flesh & leave for say 10 mins b4 proceeding. Now i know too much salts not supposed to be good 4 u ect (my blood pressure pills testify to that ), but i think u may be surprised how the flavour of fresh water produce changes if lightly salted.
for my taste i also salt to some saltwater flesh - eg squid for example - clean tubes, cut rings or strips ( i prefer stips that have been scored one side) add garlic & salt to the water, bring to the boil, drop in flesh & remove after i min after the water re-boils. remember ALWAYS drop any seafood u boil into ice water immeadiately after getting it out of boiling water, that sets the flavour regardless if it was grown in fresh or salt water.
so if u find a lack of flavour in home grown creatures not quite to your taste, try salting some portions b4 cooking & see if u like the flavour better.
cheers ST

Good idea ST when we cook/boil yabbies etc 1 cup of salt and 1/2 cup of sugar goes into the old metters copper just after boil point and just before the critters go in makes for a good taste

Yep, good points guys - I throw all sort of stuff in (garlic, salt, veges....) when boiling yabbies and it essentially leaves a stock that I use later for soups and stuff.

Haven't had my first home grown SP yet (though it's only 2 or 3 weeks away, but am aware they may need to be salted. I'll try it without first as my system generally sits around 2-3ppt salinity anyway.

Salt makes everything taste good

My old man used to purge yabbies and frshwater fish he caught in salted water for a few hours before killing/cooking, i done this with my trout i harvested only for a few hours (2-3ppt salt mix in a 65l tube with 2 airstones running full time) , and they were delectable in flavor. will look into making a Purge tank up for my next harvest where they will go into it for a week before harvest and not be fed....

Also salting is a common practice to remove excess moisture from many foods. Allowing the flesh to sit salted for 15-60 minutes or more will draw out quite a bit of water and firm up the flesh. Also a great tip for crispy salmon skin, is to heavily salt the skin for 60 minutes, scrape off with a knife and dry with paper towels, sear in a skillet and then move to an oven to finish cooking the flesh. Crisp as a cracker every time!

The combination of salt and sugar in water is a typical brine which does a similar thing, but instead of just drawing out the moisture, it will actually move salty water into the cells of the flesh and move "unslated" water out. Many meats here in the U.S. are actually sold in a brine solution and vacuum packed. Butterball turkeys use this trick to make you think their birds are better...they are not...just pre-brined.

I remember reading somewhere that the link between salt and high blood pressure was actually not proven. Personally I do not worry about my salt intake and probably use it more liberally then most. My blood pressure is fine.

Anyway - yes I agree - salt makes everything better!

We usually put freshly butchered meat into a salty ice water solution. Duck, chicken and catfish all generally get this treatment. Not only helps firm the flesh and flavor it a bit but draws blood out too.

You supposed to cook your prawns and crabs in the sea water you caught them in.

The sweet taste of fresh water fish is a nice flavour and texture change, compared to salt water fish.
Enjoy the subtlety.

Sounds good in theory Snags but dragging 30 odd liters of water back 200/300 kms is a PITA.

just add water I hope it comes in Great Barrier Reef Flavour

Hi Southern Trout, what part of the south coast, I am heading to Albany in a couple of weeks, I also like fishing and weather, but about as good at fishing as predicting the weather, I have a weather based site going 10 years now http://www.paulnock.net

Hi Nocky, i'm close enough to Albany to join u in a bit of fishing if u like - i've haven't wet a line for a while - been crook with a bug called "aquaponics" where u spend hours reading about chaps in Narrogin running all sorts of creatures in their backyard & i've just stocked a pond with trout & marron, so also have a problem getting about now - tend to sit on the bank of the pond & catch flys & throw in to see which little trouts fastest to get it - 7 secs is the record. its getting real sad cos i should be doing a bit of other work, but for once Mrs ST has taken too same hobby & strangely not hastling me to get on with jobs. I've got Faye to thank for that, cos i took Mrs ST out to Jandicott & Faye put us in capable care of some very helpful young people & by the time we'd finished Mrs ST had her bankcard out (i don't have one ) she was getting all sorts of material ready for me to build HER AP system
i hope the squid are about still - plenty b4 Xmas - but wouldn't recommend them in AP system - too much ink about......
hope to hear from u sometime - cheers ST

No worries ST, will message you when I get closer to leaving, will just pop in and say hello, absolutely no problem with getting missus involved, mine took over system after about a month, I have to find another hobby

I catch carp in our local river, I take them home and put them in a tub of clean water with an airstone, give them a 1 hour salt bath per day for four days and keep changeing the water each day and they are clean,purged and tasty

Cool what sort of carp are they bobbyd, so you know?