Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Eat Yellow perch like a Sardine.

Scott/Bill and others,

Typical of me, this probably won't be a short answer.

The short answer to ESSHUP is NO, certain bones and fins don't break down very well when pickled or canned.

But ...

When crispy fried, those same fins are better than any potato chip you will ever find.

After reading some of the posts above, I'm not sure how I can best suggest preparing/preserving food, whether fish/game, vegetables, grains, spices, etc. For me, learning to do this was just something of my early life, like learning to walk, talk, swim, read, etc.

I don't think I'd try canning or pickling certain fish families without removing external fins/spines -- like the dorsal fins of fish in the perch family, including walleye and sauger. I wouldn't try it with any in the sunfish family, like bluegill and bass. I also wouldn't prepare any of those fish families without removing the scales or the skin. Yet, these fish are fantastic when pickled.

Canned, they make great substitutes in recipes using canned tuna or canned salmon. Parboiled/steamed stunted fish like bluegill and perch make great substitutes in saltwater crab recipes.

If the fish are in the salmonoid (salmon, trout, char, etc.) family, it would depend on their size, and how they would be prepared. If they were to be smoked, I certainly would not do much more than just gut and wash them in clean water.

To know what can be done, I can only compare it to walking outside in a new locality and instinctively knowing which way is north, south, east or west without a compass. It comes natural to some as part of our early years. For others, who may have grown up totally different, it isn't so natural.

Since I was a toddler (and that is a long time ago) I was exposed to various methods of preserving many different kinds of fish (and many other foods) using a variety of techniques.

I've canned, pickled and smoked/dried a lot of different kinds of fish. All are different. I would smoke, pickle or can northern pike exactly the same way I would preserve red-horse suckers. Yet, I couldn't possibly clean, fry and enjoy a sucker. Similarly, I certainly would prepare or process perch/walleye or sunfish/bass, differently from the others.

Fish like lawyers (aka eelpout, burbot -- and many other names) were speared by the dozens through the ice when I was a kid. We had many ways of preparing them that were delicious. Many people thought they were totally disgusting. If we didn't immediately eat the fish fresh, we did prepare their roe and livers fresh, which were true delicacies. As I became a little more worldly, I found that their flesh was much like lobster. They are incredible when smoked. I can't really think of another fish that is somewhat similar to a lawyer.

I will ask some of my cousins and in-laws who grew up in Ojibway (Chippewa) traditions if publications about such food traditions already exist. I'm guessing that they do. If so, I'll post information about them.

My Finnish relatives who used these techniques are now long gone, so I can't ask them. Although, I know a lady in Northern Minnesota who has written a number of Finnish cook books. I'll contact her.

Maybe I need to develop a matrix of how best to prepare and preserve different kinds of North American fish.

Regards,
Ken