OK 24 hours in.
Its firmed up a bit I have drained it, turned it.Then I stack the 3 trays on top of each other back in fridge. I will start the press part tomorrow, maybe. I have also given it a gentle rub to get out any air pockets.Its got a lot of feel to making it, I dont want much give to touch in the finished product,bit like salami but not.
I have some terracotta tiles that I will sterilise & adapt to the press part.Balancing act is getting salt all the way in to the centre bit not overloading the salt.So at the moment its coarse rock salt added on the the new upwards facing side.
I figure there are many examples of preserving with salt across cultures. Be it anchovies,baccala ( salt cod), thai fish sauce & shrimp paste(bechan) just to name a few.
It seems this was traded around the Med by various people back in the day,Phoenicians,Venetians ,Spanish. Easy to see why its compact,long shelf life & a lot of bang for your buck (or shekel/lira/drachma ). It gave you high protein to get you by when fishing was poor,or pirates were laying siege. Ultimately it became a delicacy. Mullet need salt river systems & lagoons so its limited to certain places. To the generation of Italians that migrated here it was rich peoples food by the 50s & 60s unless you actually lived in Sardinia.
I accidentally split this guy . You can see the texture now eggs are like pin heads which is why its easy to compress.Lovely colour.
I am at butt end of last years so I will wait to photo this batch to compare finished product.