canning salmon - fill with water or no??

[AKFishfight]

We've been up here for a little while now, but this will be our first time canning salmon and I came up with a few questions after watching a how to video by the UAF co-op extension. In the video, they gut, scale, and chop the salmon into jar sized portions. They don't put any liquid in the jar... just whatever seasonings they prefer and or salt. In the end there is a lot of juice and oil from the salmon.

However, with ours, we took the skin off, and are just canning the bony section (where the spine bones run down the middle) and freezing the other section so we don't have bones in it. (didn't want to pull bones with pliers). Then, we also took and cut the spine vertebrates out once we were done filleting, as my kids love them the most and so do I Those sections will get stuck in the jar with the bony fillet section.

We got this idea from someone who gave us some canned salmon, and there was no skin on, so didn't know about canning the whole thing until recently getting our canner checked.

So my final question... With the way we're doing this, will there be enough juice in the jar? Do you put olive oil or salt water in your jars, or do you leave it out? If so, how far do you fill the jars up? Any extra info I may not be thinking of is really appreciated! Thanks a bunch, AKFishFight.

 

[iofthetaiga]

canning salmon - fill with water or no??

No, don't add liquid. Pack the jars firmly so there's no excess voids, leave about 3/4 inch of headspace at the top of your jars, and can according to instructions (time/temp/pressure) for fish.

 

[Brian M]

Agreed. No water, oil, or other liquids need to be added. Some water and fat will leach out of the fish during the canning process.

 

[kasilofchrisn]

We just did a few cases and all we added was a little salt.
The salt is just for flavoring and isn't completly neccessary.
An easy way to do them is to head and gut them and remove fins. Then using pliers grip the skin and pull it off. Cut the fish into steaks and add to your jars. The bones should dissolve in the jars you may find an occasional tiny bony bit in the jars but I doubt you'll be bothered by it.
Leave 3/4 to 1" of head space and you'll be fine.

 

[AKFishfight]

Thanks a bunch everyone.
-kasilofchrisn... I'll have to try that plier method, it's just like we did catfish but we smoked them instead.