Flavouring Luncheon Meat

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Duckett
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Re: Flavouring Luncheon Meat

Post by Duckett »

A couple of thoughts on Turmeric and other spices. Back in the late 1980s, I had the good fortune to be taught to cook Indian food by Sikh lady. Turmeric is largely used for it's bright golden yellow colour. For attracting fish, I would have thought that there are easier food colourings to use. Though, I have to say, some bronze and yellow maggots do look as if Turmeric has been used ...... especially when it refuses to budge from my fingers later.

As to taste, it's bitter and not much else. I've never come across the suggestion that fish are attracted by bitter flavours. Am I in error?

If you intend to use any Indian spices (other than Turmeric) and want maximum flavour and aroma (for you or the fish!), buy them in whole spice form and roast only what you intend to use in a dry frying pan over a medium heat until you can smell the aroma.

You can by whole root Turmeric but it's a swine to grind and gets all over the place. Buy ground and, as someone said above, fry in oil over a medium heat.

I've experimented with several spices in home made paste but they never seem to beat good old ripe Blue Stilton.
From "... the wilds of the Wirral, whose wayward people both God and good men have quite given up on ...".

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Mark
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Re: Flavouring Luncheon Meat

Post by Mark »

Yes cheese paste wise I just stick to my Danish Blue recipe which I am fully confident with. I would just like to experiment with flavouring on luncheon meat to see if it does make any difference.

For me I just cannot get my head around that favourings once chucked into the river make a difference or colourings for that matter.
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The most precious places in the English landscape are those secretive corners,
where you find only elder trees, nettles and dreams. (BB - Denys Watkins-Pitchford).

Paul D

Re: Flavouring Luncheon Meat

Post by Paul D »

Mark wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 2:08 pm
For me I just cannot get my head around that favourings once chucked into the river make a difference or colourings for that matter.
Shaun is probably the best one to answer that one, I have always assumed that fish like us are more likely to eat something if it looks and tastes "nice" .
A few years ago Heinz launched a green tomato sauce, it never sold despite tasting exactly the same as the red stuff simply because people were put off by the colour.
Over to you Shaun....

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Mark
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Re: Flavouring Luncheon Meat

Post by Mark »

Yes it would be nice to hear Shaun's point of view.
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where you find only elder trees, nettles and dreams. (BB - Denys Watkins-Pitchford).

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Shaun Harrison
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Re: Flavouring Luncheon Meat

Post by Shaun Harrison »

There is no straight answer to this and after 40 years I have been experimenting with bait ingredients I would struggle to fit my findings and thoughts into a book let alone a forum post I'm afraid. It does make me smile when people just dismiss the subject as a waste of time because they catch plenty on maggots, sweet corn, luncheon meat and so on.
Different additives are used for different jobs and you need to decide if you are needing something water soluble to spread quickly and leak out in the water to hopefully attract fish or something that will retain a taste to the bait even after 24 plus hours in the water in case you are on a very low stocked venue and it possible that the fish wont be found for days. I have fished carp lakes where a fish a season is what most hope for so when trying to get the fish looking for your food source on that type of venue, it is important that it still actually carries a good taste after a prolonged period in the water.
At a guess, most on this forum probably want quick instant attraction so it is a simple case of making sure you are using ingredients which are water soluble. Oils and fats aren't, so fatty processed meats like bacon grill (my favourite for angling purposes out of the tinned meats), luncheon meat and spam can all be made to spread more attraction under water rather than releasing fatty globules straight to the surface to drift away from where you are angling.
If the fish are sight feeding then it isn't as important as they appear to like the taste of the tinned meats anyway, it is when you are trying to attract in murky water where it can be advantageous to utilise extra add on's, and of course on really pressured stretches it can most definitely help to alter the colour which several spices will help you do.
It is easy to see if your baits are leaking attraction, retaining taste or doing a bit of both which I usually strive for by dropping a bait in a jug of water then later tasting the water and tasting the bait. So as not to get mistaken by the oily taste sat on the surface a syringe or pipette can be used to take a water sample at a lower depth.
Archie really has the spices off to a fine art for many different species. When I took over the spice blends after he retired I was amazed at the complexity of some (over 20 ingredients in some all doing a different job), his experiments over the years were quite mind blowing to see.
Obviously there will always be the doubters and I don't really have the inclination to waste time preaching as many just believe what they want to believe but I always thing a comment from a third party to be quite a useful thing. We sent Keith Arthur (former Daiway rep', magazine, television and radio angling correspondent) 2 different blends. One was the result of Archie's exhaustive experiments on an additive aimed at roach and the other was one aimed at perch.
Keith drew a swim in a match on the Basingstoke canal and won it with roach. The following week by sheer fluke he drew the same swim and again won but this time with perch using the other additive. You couldn't make it up. Keith had no ties whatsoever with the bait.
You are rather limited what you can do with tinned meat due to its high fat content not spreading in water, but paste baits and boiled paste baits give a massive spectrum for making the bait do exactly what you want.
I have ingredients that leak out and crawl along the bottom, flavouring the lake bed. Other ingredients will just spread through the complete column of water and others will simply pop to the surface and drift away. Similarly different ingredients will leak out at different rates. it is a whole minefield and after 40 years of experiments I feel I have learned a bit, but there is so much more to learn. You can make your bait do whatever you want your bait to do and if you are happy just using it as you buy it then that's fine. Fish will always be caught on straight bread, maggots, worms, meat and corn but there are times when you can really give yourself an edge. The problem is a lot will compare different baits attractiveness when the fish are hungry and sight feeding and you wont then see a major difference. But, when the fish aren't properly wanting to feed you can indeed trigger a few to do so. So long of course that you have sorted the correct amount of additives to use.
I will sign of with a warning...
Make yourself a mug of instant coffee with 3 spoon full's of coffee. smell it and it will smell fine. Taste it and you will then realise why some anglers don't think using add on's to their bait improves it. Most use far too much and make their baits less palatable.

Paul D

Re: Flavouring Luncheon Meat

Post by Paul D »

Very interesting Shaun, thanks for taking the time to do that, I've never been one to tinker with my baits in the past but recently I have started to play around.
Your last paragraph in particular is well worth remembering. :cheers:

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Mark
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Re: Flavouring Luncheon Meat

Post by Mark »

Thank you for that detailed reply Shaun. :Hat:

I cannot wait for Archies and Andy Ormes books to arrive. I see this season as a luncheon meat flavouring experiment.
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where you find only elder trees, nettles and dreams. (BB - Denys Watkins-Pitchford).

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Shaun Harrison
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Re: Flavouring Luncheon Meat

Post by Shaun Harrison »

Just noticed several typos. Sorry about that, I was working on a tiny keyboard.

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Mark
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Re: Flavouring Luncheon Meat

Post by Mark »

The Co-Op have luncheon meat on special offer at the moment, a quid a tin. This week I have been building stocks up.

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Mark (Administrator)

The most precious places in the English landscape are those secretive corners,
where you find only elder trees, nettles and dreams. (BB - Denys Watkins-Pitchford).

Paul D

Re: Flavouring Luncheon Meat

Post by Paul D »

Blimey Mark! Do you know something about a shortage that we don't?
Thanks for the heads up about the co-Op, got one about 500 yards from me. Lovely looking garden by the way boss

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