DB,

I used to can salmon every season for a number of years. Done well, it is absolutely superior to any store-bought product. I favored half-pint jars, as the perfect personal serving size. For half-pints, add 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon liquid smoke (or put fish in smoker for 1/2 hour before canning, which is a lot more work), and process 60 minutes at 15 pounds pressure. For pint jars, double the salt and liquid smoke, and increase processing time to 90 minutes.

If you put fish in the smoker first, it's easy to skin it before putting it in the jars. When I switched to liquid smoke, I decided to keep the skin on. No big deal either way. I filleted the salmon and don't can the bones. Canned bones are very nutritious, but I like to use the absolute minimum processing time - canning by definition overcooks fish - and the 60 minute processing leaves crunchy bones in the jar, which I don't care for. Longer processing times overcooks the fish even more, but then you won't notice the bones. So I guess it depends on how overcooked you like your fish and whether or not you enjoy chewing crunchy fish bones. Take your choice.

Now, I should confess to being an absolute fish snob, so the following is just this fish connoisseur's highly biased opinion. I only can sockeye and kings - preferably early running fish that ascend long rivers. These salmon have the highest lipid content and yield the best flavor. Canning these fish using the directions above will attract beautiful women and have them swooning over you and your wonderful fish. Or, you could can coho or steelhead and maybe get a date at a third rate bar. And pink or chum, well, we won't go there. And flamers, please re-read the part where I said this is my highly biased opinion; you can eat whatever you want.

Good fish is the food of the gods. Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Salmo g.