Bottled Mullet

Here's a way to process all those mullet you're hauling out of Oamaru harbour and the Kakanui River estuary. This is a recipe tried and true by Wayne Hollows.

3 mullet
1 dessertspoon vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tablespoon olive oil (optional) per half agee jar


To scale mullet, hold fish in your `off' hand and cut through back of head till the spine is severed, then rip off the head. This will pull out most of gut. Then clear out rest of gut and blood line with your finger and remove tail.

Take a 1/2 agee jar, measure against fish and cut heavy end to depth of jar.
Insert tail end inside cavity, place vertically in jar, to fit three good-sized fish per jar or four small.

Add 1 dessert sp vinegar and 1/2 tsp salt ( I find a spoon of olive oil added is nice, but there's some concern about it being de-natured with the length of heating required.)
Lightly boil for four-and-half hours' time to soften bones.

Beware of bouncing jars which tend to break. Keep them off the bottom of the pot with wire.
I have a big pot in two layers of seven jars with newspaper placed between jars.

This is a staple for my lunches, nice used as you would tuna or salmon, with cucumber and pepper in sandwiches. I love it with salad and a balsamic-based dressing.