This note describes the preparation of sausages, crisps, chips and other products from fish, particularly from the less popular species. Brief comments are also made where appropriate on storage, presentation and use of the products.
The amounts of the main ingredients, such as fish, fat, starch and water, given in the sausage recipes are critical and should be adhered to, but variations in the flavourings and other additives may be made as desired.
All species of white fish, with the exception of dogfish and skate, may be used. The recipes are particularly suitable for some of the less popular species, such as saithe or redfish, either alone or mixed with cod, haddock or whiting for example. Products made from white fish have a good appearance and do not taste strongly of fish. Dyes and flavourings can be used to give the desired colour and taste.
The white fish should either be properly chilled and used not more than 7 days after capture or, if quick-frozen, should be of good quality and properly cold-stored. White fish should not be kept in cold storage at minus 30°C for more than a year. Stale fish will adversely affect the quality of the finished products, and should not be used.
Herring, or other fish with a high fat content, usually have a darker colour which is difficult to disguise in the product, and a stronger taste which is less easily modified. Moreover, fatty fish products keep less well in cold storage than ones made from white fish; the fat begins to go rancid after about 7 months at minus 30°C. Herring for the kipper recipes given here should be kept chilled and used within a day of catching, or should be frozen and kept in cold store for not more than 9 months at minus 30°C.
The amounts of ingredients are sufficient to make 100-kg batches of finished product; the amounts offish, fat, starch and water are critical and should be adhered to. White fish products can be kept in cold storage at minus 30°C for at least a year without detectable change; products from fatty fish should not be kept for longer than 9 months at this temperature.
The equipment for making the sausage products is the same as for meat sausages, namely a bowl chopper and a sausage-filling machine.
The ingredients required are:
|
kg |
|
g |
skinless white fish fillets |
48·5 |
coriander |
200 |
pork fat |
30·0 |
polyphosphate |
300 |
rusk |
10·0 |
pepper salt |
70 |
water |
10·0 |
red 2G dye if required |
20 |
salt |
1·0 |
|
|
The product resembles a British breakfast sausage in appearance and taste; it is perishable and should be kept chilled or frozen. It will keep in good condition for 5 days at 4°C; when frozen and cold stored it will keep for more than a year at minus 30°C.
The sausages must be cooked before being eaten; they can be fried, grilled, or cooked in the same way as meat sausages.
This product resembles a polony sausage. Although it is cooked and ready to eat cold, it can if desired be fried. The garlic seasoning is optional; other flavourings can be used instead.
The ingredients are as follows:
|
kg |
|
g |
skinless white fish fillets |
70·0 |
garlic salt |
300 |
pork fat |
15·0 |
pepper salt |
200 |
water |
6·5 |
cayenne pepper |
30 |
rusk |
5·0 |
|
|
salt |
2·0 |
|
|
powdered cereal filler |
1·0 |
|
|
This is a variation of the preceding recipe in which smoking is used to flavour the product. The sausage becomes wrinkled during smoking, and it then more resembles a smoked meat sausage. The finished product is cooked and ready to eat, but the consumer can heat it again if required.
The ingredients are as follows:
|
kg |
|
g |
skinless white fish fillets |
70·0 |
pepper salt |
200 |
pork fat |
12·0 |
cayenne pepper |
100 |
rusk |
6·0 |
coriander |
100 |
rice |
5·0 |
garlic salt |
100 |
powdered cereal filler |
4·0 |
|
|
salt |
1·5 |
|
|
water |
1·0 |
|
|
This product is similar to a frankfurter made with meat. It is only partly cooked during the process and must be cooked by the consumer before it is eaten; frying or grilling gives the best results.
The ingredients are as follows:
|
kg |
|
g |
skinless white fish fillets |
55·8 |
pepper salt |
200 |
pork fat |
20·0 |
coriander |
200 |
water |
10·0 |
garlic salt |
200 |
rusk |
6·0 |
cayenne pepper |
100 |
powdered cereal filler |
4·0 |
|
|
polyphosphate |
2·0 |
|
|
salt |
1·4 |
|
|
The frankfurters have a shelf life of 7 days when chilled at 4°C, and will keep for more than a year when frozen and stored at minus 30°C. They can also be bottled or canned in brine.
Kipper sausages, unlike the white fish sausage products, taste fishy; they taste much like conventional kippers. This product should be made from herring with a fairly high fat content; the quantities given are designed to suit herring containing about 15 per cent fat.
The ingredients are:
|
kg |
|
kg |
skinned fillets of herring |
75·0 |
polyphosphate |
2·0 |
rusk |
8·0 |
salt |
2·0 |
pork fat |
5·0 |
|
g |
powdered cereal filler |
4·0 |
pepper salt |
350 |
water |
4·0 |
coriander |
350 |
The sausages can be eaten without further cooking, but preferably they should be grilled for 5 minutes before serving.
They will keep in good condition for 7 days when chilled at 4°C; when frozen and cold stored they will keep for 9 months at minus 30°C.
These crisps are of the type that the consumer expands by cooking in oil before serving; they do not resemble potato crisps, but are more like some of the savoury crisps, made for example from prawns. The pilot-scale process described here would require some adaptation for factory production. The ingredients for a 100-kg batch are:
|
kg |
|
kg |
skinless white fish fillets |
43·0 |
salt |
3·0 |
amylopectin starch |
43·0 |
sugar |
1·0 |
water |
10·0 |
|
|
The mixture is packed into 450-g cylindrical cans which are seamed and then heated in a steam box for 3 hours at atmospheric pressure. The cans are cooled in running water and left to stand for at least 48 hours. The cooked mass is then removed from the cans and cut into slices 2 mm thick. The slices are dried slowly in a current of warm air at 30-40°C until they are hard and brittle, and are then packed in airtight containers, where they will keep in good condition for 6 months at room temperature.
The crisps are made ready to eat by frying them for 10 seconds in vegetable oil at 200°C; time and temperature are critical; if the crisps are kept in the hot oil too long, they burn. The crisps expand and puff up during frying, but they lose their crispness about an hour afterwards; they should be served within that time. The finished crisps are almost white; they can be darkened by the addition of a suitable brown dye to the mix if required. A variety of flavours, for example onion or bacon, can also be added as essence in the mix if desired.
These look like ordinary potato chips but contain roughly equal amounts of fish and potato. They can be made from white fish or herring; when made from white fish they are pale buff in colour; when made from herring they are grey. Additional flavourings can be added if desired.
The following ingredients are required:
|
kg |
|
kg |
water |
35·0 |
starch |
6·0 |
dried potato powder |
3·0 |
salt |
1·0 |
skinless fillets |
33·0 |
|
g |
|
|
monosodium glutamate |
360 |
The dark flesh of saithe or redfish usually precludes its use for making fish fingers; this product is a variant of the fish finger that makes possible the use of these species. Tomato sauce, or some other suitably coloured ingredient, is used to mask the Slightly darker colour of saithe.
The following ingredients are required:
|
kg |
|
g |
skinless fish fillets |
58·0 |
salt |
600 |
tomato purée |
16·0 |
polyphosphate |
300 |
milk |
16·0 |
pepper |
60 |
rusk |
6·0 |
|
|
Basically these consist of fish, in a suitable sauce, baked in pastry cases; this recipe is no more than a pointer to the range of products that can be made. Skinless white fish fillets are cut into 25-mm squares and boiled in water for 10 minutes. The pieces are drained, mixed with sauce in the ratio of 2 parts fish to 1 part sauce, and the mixture used as a pie filling; good results have been obtained with cheese or curry sauce. The pastry can be in foil cups or folded in the form of a pastie or turnover. The pies may be sold uncooked, or ready baked for subsequent reheating; in either case the pies should be frozen and stored at minus 30°C.
This is a strongly flavoured product which is used as a savoury spread on biscuits or bread.
The following ingredients are required:
|
kg |
|
g |
kipper fillets |
76·0 |
vinegar |
800 |
pork fat |
10·0 |
cinnamon |
160 |
starch |
5·0 |
white pepper |
80 |
tomato purée |
4·0 |
ginger |
80 |
salt |
3·0 |
cloves |
40 |
polyphosphate |
1·0 |
|
|