Eating fish 101

[Nitro 640]

So I fish but dont eat them. Well my own. So what I looking in for is how to prep, cook and so on. Links, videos and anything else would be great.
Oh, prop be eating gills and perch. Thanks

[bamabassman]

fillet my friend. learn to fille first. no bones at all. then either soak the meat in any of these before frying, buttermilk, milk, or lemon juice. to grill there ar SOOO many ways to prepare it. more will post on this i promise.

[Nitro 640]

Ok, I need a 101 on how to fillet then too.
Help I have no idea how to do this and dont know anyone who does.
Also deep frying them yes, no, how.?

[JB]

take the fillet off the fish and skin, then soak in water with salt in it for at least an hour, then take breading for fish or chicken or flour or cornmeal breading and place the fish in the breading and press down and cover the meat with the breading/flour...have a skillet with olive oil or cornoil or grease that has about half an inch of the oil in it, heat it up and drop the fillets in. Takes about four to eight minutes to cook, just look for golden brown. If you have a fry daddy the fillets will float to the top when done, if the meat is in small fillets or chunks
After that I take the meat and put it on a plate with a paper towel on it to soak up the grease, You can salt it if you want.

[bamabassman]

the meat will turn white ifn it's crappie. real white. too done it turns almost black. jb's right on cook time.

[pawpaw]

Down south here, my preferred frying oil is "peanut oil". It doesn't leave the meat greasy and is reusable if you filter
the solids out. It also has a higher burning temperature. I do however love food fried in olive oil! Have never
used it to fry fish though.

[woody]

There are some good fileting methods shown on Youtube. search for filet crappie. Sorry, I'm just to lazy right now to provide a link for ya. Oh yea make sure your filet knife is extremely sharp too.



~Woody

[Tennessee]

once the fish is ready to cook...get either spicy or regular mustard cover fish in light coating and then cover in meal fry fish up sever and boom bada bing your CAJUN

[bamabassman]

ooooooooooohhhhhhh tenn, you just reminded me of the cajun blackening spices, MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

[BassBandit]

Don't fillet. Keep releasing them! Sheeeesh I'm starting to sound like a PETA

Seriously, yeah it not that hard. If you google, there are lot of info. It is fun only when they look you in the eye when they meet blade.

[Nitro 640]

Keep the info coming guys, also tell us your fave way to cook um.

[woody]

The fileting technique I use, I dont have to gut the fish, less mess, I picked it up off of Youtube. Yea, this time I'm just to tired to find it. lol



~Woody

[WTL]

Listen to Bama. He and the Ms. know how to cook their fish I can say from experience.

[weezymagic]

Cuts - there are many ways to cut. i myself fillet and just tear up for bite sized pieces.
whole - i have done in the past, mainly with smaller fish or if im tired and hungry
fillet - use google, it is your friend. it's different to each fish (each group atleast)(round, flat, etc)
steak - only bigger fish. unless its deep sea or you found a great spot, dont worry about making fish steaks.

Prep - lots of people prepare their fish the way they like it. you just have to experiment and find your method.
my methods - 1. I usually will put the fish piece in eggwash (egg + milk) and bread it with some fish breading. i forget the name honestly. its a small orange/red package from schnucks. i will then fry it in frying oil in a skillet.
my methods - 2. I will heat up olive oil and butter (the mix makes good taste and little browning) and then saute the fillet in the skillet.

The second is very nice if your making a nice meal or the family, girlfriend, etc. The first is great served with anything and works well over a fire.


There are many ways to eat fish. if you have any questions on my post, feel free to ask. i have heard and read many great ways to accomplish eating fish. you'll learn a lot of fun and tasty ways to do it but you have to experiment.

im tired so im putting this at the end. fish is done when it becomes 'crumbly'. translucent/white in color (most fish i cook). idk if you are a cook or have common sense but if you don't know...the higher the temperature you are cooking at, the faster it'll be done. you can get good at guesstimating if you pay attention with time. like, i can saute a bass and cat perfectly without looking at it or just distracted.


its like 3:30 am and i am underaged (...good party) and i hope this all makes sense

[pig_n_jig]

I highly recommend the Kershaw 7 in 1 fillet knife.The blade adjusts from 5 1/2 " to 9 " and you can find them for under $20.00 if you look around.

I believe in the catch and release but I also do believe in taking a few fish to eat, I'm not going to starve to death anytime soon so there is no need of keeping alot of fish.

Pike and pickerel are my favorite fish to eat.I usually pressure cook them to soften the bones up since they have alot of bones that can't be easily removed.

I normally like to bake fish with preheating oven at 400 degrees.

You can coat your fillets with a beaten egg and roll them in bread crumbs with pepper and salt .I pour melted butter over the fillets one they're in the baking dishI also like basting the fillet as it cooks with the butter so it absorbs more of the butter.

As mentioned before I marinate the fillets in italian dressing, use the process stated above ,adding crushed italian seasoned croutons with the bread crumb mix and bake.

I also like putting strips of bacon in the bottom of the dish.Add your fillet and add more bacon strips over the fillets.Sautee onion , crushed garlic,a pinch of paprika, pepper,salt into the butter. Pour the butter mix over the fillet and bake.

I like sprinkeling brown sugar pepper, lemon juice and melted butter over fillets and baking as well.Limit the brown sugar until you've done a few, then you know how to adjust accordingly.

I don't deep fry alot but when I do I like cole slaw and french fries served with my fried fish. I also like the beer batter mix for deep frying. P N J

[bamabassman]

i'll get the mrs. bamabassman to tell you IN DETAIL how she fries her fillets. but i also love to blackn fish in a frying pan, MMMMMMMM. making me hungry again for fish....and i AIN'T GOT NONE!!! weather has GOT get warmer, need to go fishing.

[REDBULLCUBAN]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG_zCKfpV-w

volume is kinda low but it should help

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG_zCKfpV-w

how to pan fry

[bamabassman]

looks like i am gona have to make a video cause when i fillet....i NEVER do it like these guys. i use an electric knife and only have meat left. throw away the rest...in one piece. hard to describe, but when i catch some bass or crappie, i'll try to make a video for ya pal.

[bamabassman]

looked again. the video "how to fillet perch" is how i do it with an electric knife. WATCH THIS VIDEO, works on ANY type of fish buddy. no bones at all. the way most people like it. i grew up scaling, gutting, and leaving in the bones. taste great either way to me.

[woody]

Here is the clip that I was talking about ealier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQXIbS5Y-Qs



~Woody

[bamabassman]

i go faster woody, cut through the bones and all with electric knife, then cut out the rib cage.....nuthin but meat. i know that is video and he is going slow to make sure you see it real good. really the same way though. i just go faster,lol.

[woody]

I've never tried using an electric knive, I'll have to give it a try.



~Woody

[bamabassman]

works GREAT for me, get the electric pal. makes filleting a breeze!

[woody]

I might just do that.



~Woody

[quenston]

I agree with Bama with the Electric Fillet knives, IMO I would get a 12v and a standard 110v nice to have both.

As far as cooking, I will soak the fillets in salt water for at the very least a hour, I use peanut oil for frying in, and as far as the batter I will use about a half can of beer with a egg mixed in and then take my cornmeal with about a cup of flour for every 3 cups of cornmeal, then I add garlic and cajun seasoing or Cayenne pepper. Turns out great.