Canning Shad

Shad is my favorite fish, and my favorite springtime food.  An ocean fish that spawns in rivers, like salmon, it is a seasonal delicacy.  Its main drawback is that it is a very bony fish, so bony that it is difficult to debone even a small piece to feed to a small child.  The other day I had an inspiration: why not try canning it?  Of course, the internet provided a recipe.  It involved simply brining pieces of fish for one hour in a solution of one cup salt to one gallon water, then raw packing with the skin-side towards the glass, and pressure canning pints or half-pints (with one inch headspace) for one hour and 40 minutes. 

I had one jar fail to seal, so we had shad cakes for breakfast the next day.  My son loved the "fish burgers".  I expected it to be like canned salmon, with bones that are not dangerous but still present.  We could not find a single bone in the whole pint, and I assure you there were a lot of them in there!  They completely dissolved.  Of course I used the liquid from the jar so no nutrients were lost.  I also cooked the fins and backbones and fed those to my chickens, who left no trace behind!  (If I didn't have chickens, I could have buried them under a vegetable plant.)  So other than the scales and the head, which were cut off before I bought them, nothing of those fish went in the garbage.  And, we benefited from all the calcium in their bones.  Both high-quality protein and calcium sources are a weakness in my long-term food storage, so I will be canning another batch this week.  This time I won't bother to remove the backbone.

I purchased 3 fish and ended up with 8 and a half pints.  It cost me $13.43 at the locally-owned seafood store across the street from my house (for the fish, not counting 15 cents or so for salt, and not counting the electricity to run the pressure canner for nearly 2 hours).  If shad is a local food in your area, I encourage you to try canning some!