Flavouring Luncheon Meat & Keeping It Fresh

[peakoverload]

On Monday I'm off to a local lake that stock some quality Tench as well as some nice Carp and nice Bream.

In the past there I've had good success using Dynamite Frenzied Spicy Luncheon Meat which seems to work better than just plain luncheon meat but at over £3 a can I would like to experiment with flavouring my own luncheon meat for a fraction of the price.

I know that spices like tumeric, mixed spice, curry spice etc are all good flavours to add but one of the things I really liked about the Dynamite bait was the oily liquid it comes in as this served two purposes. Not only did it make a great slick on the water but it also stopped the meat from drying out on the bank.

I was thinking of trying to create a similar effect by keeping the meat in some chilli oil but I wondered what people thought of that as an idea and also what effect the oil would have on the spices, i.e. if I add the oil after I've flavoured the meat with the spices will it just wash the flavour out or should I add the spices to the oil making it into a very, very wet paste and let the meat sit in that on the bank?

[PikeHunter]

I reckon if you flavoured it first then put it in the oil, it would hold the flavour alright mate! I'm not expert though, I've never used it before. But tell me this, do bream go for luncheon meat/spam?

[peakoverload]

Yeah I've caught loads of Bream on luncheon meat. In particular they seem to go mad for Garlic flavoured meat!

[BoldBear]

If I want to add a Spicey (or other) flavour to my meat I cut it into cubes (or rough pieces) and put it together with some spice powder in a plastic bag then give the bag a good shake to coat the meat and put it into the freezer.

As it defrosts ready for use the flavour is infused right into the meat.
It is usually fine but just to make sure I refreeze and defrost it again just to make sure.

[peakoverload]

Does freezing make the flavour stronger then? I would have thought that freezing it would make the meat softer when it defrosts and more likely to come off?

[covlad1987]

al depends on the place your fishing with Luncheon Meat iv fished a place and used cheap Luncheon Meat and not had a sniff so switched to spamm and then started getting carp now that was a hard days fishing i always carry a few tins of spam now lol all so the size of meat works from 3mm to 10mm cubes and if there are big fish id go with a 15m to 20mm

[BoldBear]

Originally Posted by peakoverload

Does freezing make the flavour stronger then? I would have thought that freezing it would make the meat softer when it defrosts and more likely to come off?

No it doesn't make the flavour stronger, but as it defrosts it draws the flavour deeper inside the meat instead of just on the outer edge so that the flavour doesn't just stick to the outside and start to wash off once in the water. Making it effective for much longer.

[NICK R]

I always fry mine in a flavour after cubeing , then freeze

[Lman]

add some icing sugar as well as your flavouring this brings out the oils within the meat.

[welshicon]

HI

I have another question but related to spicing up bait

i have got some squid head and tails for sea fishing, which are just plain- as me skipper said he rather we use calamari as its got blood and scent etc. is there anything that other fishermen use to marinade or spice up!!!!!