# Toughening soft already-cured eggs



## piscatorial warrior (Sep 14, 2011)

Had a rough salmon season last couple of years so I've had to get eggs from friends who've already cured them. So I'm sitting here on this rainy day trying to tie up some bags and they are bursting when I try to close up the bags. It's very frustrating and also very messy. I tried putting some eggs in ice water for an hour but it only made them more fragile. I also let some of them soak in Fire Brine. That didn't help much either. They plumped up and look great but still break. Does anyone have a method for toughening already-cured eggs?


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## o_mykiss (May 21, 2013)

try some hydrochloric (also called muriatic) acid

1 tablespoons of acid in 1 cup of water, stir around (plastic bowl and stirrer, obviously) for 5 mins and see if that does anything

works great for uncured eggs, but not sure that i've ever used it on cured eggs


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## AdamBradley (Mar 13, 2008)

Very curious on this answer myself! Just gave up on a jar I had scraped and cured with borax o fire, then tried to save with forebrine. My problem wasn't that they were soft, but once tied up in bags the juice slowly leaked out overnight, and came back to shrunken bags with juice in the bottom. Was a first for me, but then again, I hardly ever use scraped.


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## Clum (May 11, 2015)

AdamBradley said:


> Very curious on this answer myself! Just gave up on a jar I had scraped and cured with borax o fire, then tried to save with forebrine. My problem wasn't that they were soft, but once tied up in bags the juice slowly leaked out overnight, and came back to shrunken bags with juice in the bottom. Was a first for me, but then again, I hardly ever use scraped.


That juice makes for a nice glaze on boraxed only or fresh eggs. Drizzle it over your bags the night before you go out.


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## ajhallfr (Jan 1, 2014)

I've had luck boiling them. I'll get a good rapid bowl going, put the cured eggs in for a minute to a minute and a half, and then immediately put them in ice water as long as they were in the boiling water. Dry on paper towel and you're good to go.

If you boil to long the eggs will be way to hard, 30 seconds may even be good enough


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## piscatorial warrior (Sep 14, 2011)

Thanks, I will try that.


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## nichola8 (Oct 7, 2013)

I've had the same thing in the past with trying to harden up already cured spawn. I put them in a new baby jar container and put enough ice cold water in there to submerge them, let them sit for an hour or more and they will plump and harden right up, now I do this method all the time with my cured stock. I use either borax/salt or fire cure for my cures.


Sent from my iPhone using Ohub Campfire


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## piscatorial warrior (Sep 14, 2011)

Well, I tried boiling them for 90 seconds then ice water for 3 min to cool them down. They toughened up enough to tie a few bags. They turned a bit opaque. We'll see how they work tomorrow.


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## eye-sore (Jan 7, 2012)

I'm about to try the same thing with mine.anybody try koolaid for coloring???


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## piscatorial warrior (Sep 14, 2011)

I just saw on another thread to freeze your loose eggs before tying up bags. SMH. What a great idea!


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## GRUNDY (Jun 18, 2005)

The more you mess with it, the worse it will get. That's my experience.

Freeze, thaw, tie. Its just that easy.

I always break a few eggs when wrapping up a spawn bag nice and tight. Its just part of it.


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## Robert Holmes (Oct 13, 2008)

I have tried all different ways to preserve eggs and just freezing them works the best right in the skein. To save what is already preserved I would just air dry them on paper towels for a couple of hours.


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## iceman321 (Jan 10, 2011)

Can you re-freeze leftover spawn that was already cured, froze and thawed out?


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## Clum (May 11, 2015)

iceman321 said:


> Can you re-freeze leftover spawn that was already cured, froze and thawed out?


Depends on how it was cured. I typically dont refreeze unless I use something like an Atlas shake and cure. The more you mess with them, the worse they will be. If your eggs go mooshy, youre best off juicing them out, and using that for scent on other baits. 

It doesnt hurt to do a test batch in the freezer, put a small amount of whatever you want to freeze in the freezer, thaw it out, if they come out ok, then freeze the rest.


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## iceman321 (Jan 10, 2011)

Good idea, thanks clum.


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