We prefer to fillet them when cleaning, then cut into bite sized pieces before first soaking in the recipe's salt portions for 24 hours, drained then soaked in the vinegar 24 hours. The brine of sugar and vinegar is first boiled, cooled, and has white port wine added lastly before adding to fish, onion & spices in the jars as stated in above recipe.

Got this recipe 50yrs ago from elderly Norsky lady. There the same basic method and ingredients. Sounds easy but to make it perfect your missing some info. During the 5 day brining you need to turn over the fish in your pickle pail every 12 hours. This insures proper absorption of the brine into the fish. Also its 5/8 cup of salt per qt of cut up fish. No water salt water. As referred in your recipes. Also when packing pint jars use a pinch of spices per jar. This a cold process no heat needed. Measure up a large container with your sugar vinegar solution ahead of time. Also ring your onions all at one time. Don’t dilly dally around get to packing and refrigerate for 15 days. My recipe uses a 5 gallon food grade pail and 4 gallons of cut up fish. Makes at least 40 pints. Make sure your onions are good. When the boys find out I have a batch in the pickle pail there’s about 50 of them asking me when are they ready. Best to keep it to yourself unless you want torment them. Enjoy.