Pond Boss
Posted By: Mike Almond Canning Bluegill = Awesome! - 06/25/12 12:09 AM
Hey folks, I just wanted to share my new discovery. I have been wanting to try canning bluegill for a long time. I started canning about a year ago and had canned everything from pickles to peaches to venison. And then my wife and I bought our first property about a month ago with a 1.5 acre pond. (my favorite part). Well yesterday I caught a mess of bluegill and cleaned them as usual. I soaked the whole fish overnite in a weak brine. Today I packed them into wide mouth pint jars, and pressure canned them at 11 psi for 100 minutes. I already opened a jar to see how I liked them and they are great! Just like my own home grown version of sardines.
Thanks for reading.


Posted By: catmandoo Re: Canning Bluegill = Awesome! - 06/25/12 12:30 AM
Hey Mike,

Great Suggestion! They look great.

I've got three pressure cookers, and I use them a lot, for all kinds of cooking and preserving.

Another great way of preserving bluegill -- well, actually, most any fish, is to pickle it. No cooking involved, yet very safe, and they will be delicious for a very long time.

Like you did, start out brining cracker-size pieces of filets in salt and vinegar, then pickling them in some cheap sweet white wine, after packing them alternately with thin slices of onions between each row of pieces in the jar or crock.

There are lots of good fish pickling recipes on the Internet, especially from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Upper Michigan, where this is a serious delicacy. Nothing better when served on a rye-crisp or other tasty cracker.

The biggest problem with pickling fish is that it takes a couple of weeks to reach perfection, and the anticipation will drive you crazy.

Good eatn'
Ken
Posted By: Mike Almond Re: Canning Bluegill = Awesome! - 06/25/12 01:12 AM
Next time I intend to pack a lot more fish into each jar. This was just a trial run. What do folks think about cast netting to catch a bunch of small bluegill quickly? Is this likely to turn fish off of feed if you net them in the feeding area? I dont have time to thin enough bluegill out with hook and line.
Posted By: Bluegillerkiller Re: Canning Bluegill = Awesome! - 06/25/12 01:55 AM
Build a trap.. There's some good plans in the forum..
Posted By: catmandoo Re: Canning Bluegill = Awesome! - 06/25/12 02:04 AM
I agree with Bluegillkiller. From experience, I know that the chance of getting bluegill in a throw net are slim. They are very wary of shadows, and they are fast.

I've caught a lot of mullet, minnows, and other baitfish in cast nets, but I've resorted to traps for anything of edible size.

Regards,
Ken

Second thoughts: If your ponds can be seined, you might be able to do well with one. 20-foot seines are relatively inexpensive.

Posted By: Cecil Baird1 Re: Canning Bluegill = Awesome! - 06/25/12 03:28 AM
This reminds me of something interesting.

I took a trip to a coldwater conference and Wisconsin with a couple of guys in Ohio. One owns and runs a trout farm and other manages a trout farm for a club right next to him. The manager of the trout farm says they have an excess of trout fingerlings and have found they are as delicious as smelt. He says they are a big hit with the trout club.

BTW I has some pickled fish from a guy I knew back when I was in the National Guard. It was addictive! Couldn't stop eating it!
Posted By: catmandoo Re: Canning Bluegill = Awesome! - 06/27/12 01:35 AM
There just ain't nuthin' better than pressure canned bluegill!

Mike -- thanks for the reminder!

Ken
Posted By: n8ly Re: Canning Bluegill = Awesome! - 06/27/12 03:27 AM
Ok, the very moment life slows down a bit, I will be canning and pickling fish like crazy!! looks absolutely awesome! About 5 years and I will be a canning and pickling fool. Probably in 3 years I will just be a fool canning and pickling. Right now just a fool dreaming about canning and pickling.

In the meantime Mike and Ken, just PM me when you have an extra jar of perfection ready and I will send you my address to send it or deliver it to...
Posted By: MRHELLO Re: Canning Bluegill = Awesome! - 06/27/12 02:39 PM
I hope to try this out as well.

Thanks
Posted By: rmedgar Re: Canning Bluegill = Awesome! - 06/27/12 03:19 PM
Mike mentioned "pressure canned at 11 psi for 100 minutes" and Ken mentioned "pickling". Can y'all go into a little (or a lot) more detail. This sounds very interesting.
Thanks...
Posted By: sprkplug Re: Canning Bluegill = Awesome! - 06/27/12 03:35 PM
I don't ever see myself tiring of fried BG fillets long enough to try any other method of preparing them! laugh

That's what all of the "other" species are for..... wink
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