Drying Bluegill

After reading Ban Nock's diary on trout jerky yesterday on the Daily Kos I've decided to try my hand at drying fish. I'm using bluegill since I have tons of it in the freezer from various fishing expeditions with my boy. Grandma and grandpa have also supplied us with some of their own catch.

The point is, I have a lot of bluegill in the freezer.

So far what I've done is:

1. Soak the fish in a salt and water solution for a half hour. 1 gallon of water to 1 cup of salt.

2. Dredged the fish in pickling salt

3. Placed them outside in a non-reactive container. I'm using plastic racks from a food dehydrator I have.

I've left them outside for most of the day in 80+ degree weather so far, and they still smell edible at least. Put enough salt on something and nothing's going to touch it, looks like.

I've brought them inside to keep the fish from attracting racoons or another hungry beast. And to hasten the process I've put them on the electric dehydrator over night.

I'll keep people posted on how it turns out.