Recipe
for Pickled Shad
First, scale the fish with a water hose (a messy chore so do it outside or you will have scales everywhere). Second, gut and cut off the fish's head, and then fillet it by cutting through the ribcage. At this point, I remove the ribcage bones. Leave the skin on and cut into about 2-inch cubes. Don't worry about the bones as the brine will dissolve them all.
Pre-Brine the Fish: Place up to six fish in brine of 3/4 cup of non-iodized salt per quart of water and refrigerate for 48 hours. Pour off this brine and cover with regular white vinegar and refrigerate for another 48 hours. As with other brining tasks, please use plastic or a glass container, but not an aluminum container. After this, pour off the vinegar and pack in jars with onion slices, carrot slices, etc. and cover with the following marinade.
Pickled Fish Marinade
1 cup White Vinegar1 cup Pineapple Juice
2 Tbsp Pickling Spice
3/4 cup White Sugar
Boil spice in vinegar-pineapple juice mixture for 10 minutes. Strain out spice and add sugar, cool, then pour over fish. Make sure there is enough marinade to cover the fish completely, if not double the marinate. For best results, allow fish and marinade to sit for 5 days berfore eating. NO CHEATING!