Interested to know how you all deal with the various commercial powdered cures (in distinct contrast to those cures in which the skeins are dipped in to a bath of cure).

Just like in dry-brining salmon for the smoker, these cures will cause lots of juice to exude from the eggs. A lot of the cures will tell you to let the eggs juice up for 30 minutes to an hour then have you pour off the juice.

Why would you want to do this? It seems counter-productive to throw out the very stuff that will allow the eggs to milk out when they are being fished. Not to mention that the berries are shrunken like soft raisins.

I have found that if you leave the eggs in the juice over the next 24-48 hrs, virtually all of the juice will reabsorb back into the eggs, leaving you with firm large round berries. These eggs can't be beat when fished fresh.

My question is does the egg with maximum turgor suffer in terms of storage life in the freezer? Compared to eggs cured with the juice poured out after an hour, are they more prone to rupture when they are subsequently thawed out?


Parker, Keith (stlhdr1).... any words of wisdom?