Pickling Bluegills?

[czechsonofagun]

What can you do with Bluegills?

Every year I have to fish out a substantial number (30+) of bluegills out of the pond. Usually I boil and strain them to make fish broth for the great Bouillabaisse my wife cooks for me when I behave, but there may be some other ways to use them.

This year I am thinking pickle fish, anybody done it? Or if you have a better suggestion how to use the harvest?

 

[captaincrab55]

What can you do with Bluegills?

Every year I have to fish out a substantial number (30+) of bluegills out of the pond. Usually I boil and strain them to make fish broth for the great Bouillabaisse my wife cooks for me when I behave, but there may be some other ways to use them.

This year I am thinking pickle fish, anybody done it? Or if you have a better suggestion how to use the harvest?

Loads of information on the net about pickling Herring.. Should work on Bluegills too..

Good Luck

 

[rus_geek]

Bluegill makes great fish fry. Little light breading and fried in hot oil just until cooked.

Also some of these:

Baked Panfish
2 Slice(s) day old (or toasted) bread
4 Tablespoon(s) grated cheese - parmesan
2 Tablespoon(s) parsley
1 Pound(s) fillets fish
4 Tablespoon(s) yogurt
4 Tablespoon(s) mayonaisse, low-fat
2 Teaspoon(s) dijon mustard

In a blender or food processor, crumble bread into crumbs. Stir in cheese and parsley. Arrange fish in a single layer on a greased baking sheet with a rim. Stir yogurt, mayo, and mustard together. Spread over fish. Sprinkle evenly with crumb mixture. Bake at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes or just until fish flakes easily with tested with a fork. Broil for 1-2 minutes or until crumbs are crisp.

Crappie Bake (substitute bluegills)
8-10 fillets
1/2 Cup(s) butter
1/4 Cup(s) mayonaisse, low-fat
1/4 Cup(s) sour cream
1 Teaspoon(s) ranch salad dressing mix
1 (to taste) lowry's
1 (to taste) lemon pepper
1 (to taste) garlic powder
1 (to taste) onion powder
1 (to taste) pepper, black

Take 8-10 dry crappie fillets and put them on a foil lined cookie sheet. Melt 1/2 cup butter an pour it over fillets. Then mix together 1/4 cup real mayonaise, 1/4 cup sour cream, and 1-tsp. hidden valley salad dressing (powder). Spread evenly over fish. Now add spices.....Lawrys season salt....lemon peper....garlic powder...onion powder & pepper, sprinkle spices on fish and bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

 

[brin]

What can you do with Bluegills?

Every year I have to fish out a substantial number (30+) of bluegills out of the pond. Usually I boil and strain them to make fish broth for the great Bouillabaisse my wife cooks for me when I behave, but there may be some other ways to use them.

This year I am thinking pickle fish, anybody done it? Or if you have a better suggestion how to use the harvest?

We have always gutted and scaled them and dip them in some beaten egg wash and dredge them in flour and put them in the deep fryer and have a fish fry....really good with french fries and cole slaw..

 

[polo1665]

We used to ice fish for Blue Gill all the time. Filleted and pan fried is the way we would eat them........delicious:licking:

Mark

 

[MossRoad]

What can you do with Bluegills?

Every year I have to fish out a substantial number (30+) of bluegills out of the pond. Usually I boil and strain them to make fish broth for the great Bouillabaisse my wife cooks for me when I behave, but there may be some other ways to use them.

This year I am thinking pickle fish, anybody done it? Or if you have a better suggestion how to use the harvest?

Fillet them and put the fillets in a zip lock freezer bag with salt water. I mix up 1tsp to a 1/2 pint of water. The salt water tends to firm them up a bit before they freeze. Be sure to cover them with the water completely. If any meat is sticking out after freezing, pour a little more water over it. Frozen like that encased completely in ice, they will keep for YEARS! I often eat 2,3 and even 4 year old bluegills with no difference in taste.

As for cooking, I like Golden Dipt Beer Batter Mix. Pour the mix in a pan. Open one 12 Oz. can of your favorite beer. Take two sips of the beer and pour 10 Oz. of beer into the mix. Stir it up. Dip your fresh or thawed fillets in the mix and deep fry in a Fry Baby or Fry Daddy. They puff up really nice. Oh, my are they good this way. Serve with hush puppies, cole slaw and beer! :licking: :licking: :licking:

Also, bluegills tend to taste better when caught through the ice in winter then they do when caught during the summer. The meat is always much cleaner and firmer. If you have ice fishing available, try it and note the difference between winter and summer fillets. It really is noticeable.

 

[MossRoad]

Try finding a recipe for fish patties. I have one somewhere at home.

In a nutshell, you grind up the bluegill meat, add a bunch of stuff and form it into a patty like a hamburger. You fry it in vegetable oil and eat it with a slice of cheese and tartar sauce on a bun. That is also very good! :licking:

 

[clemsonfor]

What can you do with Bluegills?

Every year I have to fish out a substantial number (30+) of bluegills out of the pond. Usually I boil and strain them to make fish broth for the great Bouillabaisse my wife cooks for me when I behave, but there may be some other ways to use them.

This year I am thinking pickle fish, anybody done it? Or if you have a better suggestion how to use the harvest?

Euuhhhhhh.. Shudder, shudder!!

 

[clemsonfor]

Bluegill makes great fish fry. Little light breading and fried in hot oil just until cooked.

Also some of these:

Baked Panfish
2 Slice(s) day old (or toasted) bread
4 Tablespoon(s) grated cheese - parmesan
2 Tablespoon(s) parsley
1 Pound(s) fillets fish
4 Tablespoon(s) yogurt
4 Tablespoon(s) mayonaisse, low-fat
2 Teaspoon(s) dijon mustard

In a blender or food processor, crumble bread into crumbs. Stir in cheese and parsley. Arrange fish in a single layer on a greased baking sheet with a rim. Stir yogurt, mayo, and mustard together. Spread over fish. Sprinkle evenly with crumb mixture. Bake at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes or just until fish flakes easily with tested with a fork. Broil for 1-2 minutes or until crumbs are crisp.

Crappie Bake (substitute bluegills)
8-10 fillets
1/2 Cup(s) butter
1/4 Cup(s) mayonaisse, low-fat
1/4 Cup(s) sour cream
1 Teaspoon(s) ranch salad dressing mix
1 (to taste) lowry's
1 (to taste) lemon pepper
1 (to taste) garlic powder
1 (to taste) onion powder
1 (to taste) pepper, black

Take 8-10 dry crappie fillets and put them on a foil lined cookie sheet. Melt 1/2 cup butter an pour it over fillets. Then mix together 1/4 cup real mayonaise, 1/4 cup sour cream, and 1-tsp. hidden valley salad dressing (powder). Spread evenly over fish. Now add spices.....Lawrys season salt....lemon peper....garlic powder...onion powder & pepper, sprinkle spices on fish and bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

I was thinking just fry them and then throw the rest on a mulch pile or under your favorite oak tree in the woods for fertilizer, (of course it will probably be stolled by a coon or such). After all this is wildlife management, you would not beleive some of the things i have heard done in the word of wildlife management. Geese destroyed, gators destroyed, flying squirrels, deer left in ditches after depradation permists issued (state law). 20 brim on your mulch pile is not wasting them if you cant give them away.

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

you can easily freeze them.

Simply fill a cut out milk jug with water and put fully dressed fish in. It'll freeze solid and the fish will last indefinitely without burn.

 

[grnspot110]

The small ones make good fertilizer (ask the Indians)! :laughing:

For the over 8", I prefer to fillet them, dip the fillets in beaten egg, then potato flakes (as in "instant" mashed potatoes), them fry in bacon grease. This also works very well for Crappie! ~~ grnspot110

 

[/pine]

fried...

 

[gauthier]

I've ate a lot of fried bluegills,never pickled,now pickled ramps are good.

 

[SPIKER]

wash well scale & clean (under 6 or 7 " long) simply cut off head and gut them after scaling them, rinse well.

early spring or winter caught soak for a little while in a light salt water like others said.

I leave the top bottom and tail fins intact. rinse off the salt water & let dry for a few min while you get a little egg mixed up (you can add a small amount of milk or beer to the egg.)

use some of your fav. fish fry, or crushed corn flakes & flour mixed up. corn meal and or bread crumbs can substitute as well.

dip the cleaned fish into the egg mix and roll /coat the fish with the flour fish fry mix.

fry em up in a deep pan with ~ 1/2" hot cooking oil, vegetable or canola oil works best others like peanut oil but that gets expensive if you cook them a lot as the flour mix will come off & float up in the oil. heat on high ~425F

Fry them for 2~3 min per side until nice & browned, most people tend to over cook fish.

Set out for a few min to eat, pull top & bottom fins straight out this pulls the bones out with the fins take a fork run it down the top fin HOLE across top of the rib cage, down to the tail do same under side open up rest of the tail section to the belly. Grab the tail fin & slide the fork into the side lift it while holding tail down. the side of the fish meat will pull away from the rib cage & back bone clean leaving a dang tasty hunk of meat with next to no bones left in there. I fit does not pull away easily cooking may not have gotten to temp or long enough.

this same way I cook all my fish, though some walleye is better deep fried if you have a good thick fillet... though I dont cook the walleye hole as most of the time they wont fit into the biggest pan I have I get 3 or 4 nice hunks out of each side of my walleye catches... yummy i have a frozen bag of walleye in the fridge from 2 weeks ago still waiting it was pretty good the next day after catching them...

Mark

 

[MDM]

I'm almost afraid to say this, but I catch hundreds of bluegill each year and they never make it to the skillet. I use them for Flathead bait.

 

[MossRoad]

I'm almost afraid to say this, but I catch hundreds of bluegill each year and they never make it to the skillet. I use them for Flathead bait.

You shouldn't be ashamed of that. Bluegill are prolific breeders and need to be controlled. Here's why...

A given body of water can support X pounds of fish life based on the nutrients and food available in said watershed. So let's say you have a pond that can support 1000 pounds of fish. That can be:
1000 one pound fish.
10,000 one tenth pound fish.
100,000 one hundredth pound fish.
That is why you see some lakes and ponds with thousands of small fish and very few large ones. There are not enough predators to keep the small ones in check, and eventually all of them are small.

 

[czechsonofagun]

As always, lot of great information. Thank you all, gentlemen.

 

[Paddy]

Czech,

When I was a kid, we used to fish in the boundry water up North. The Northern Pike is a boney fish. My mom would pickle them. She would cube them to about 3/4" - 1". (no cooking required) Loosely pack in quart canning jars. Then, using standard pickling liquid and spices fill to top. With in a few days, all the bones "melted" due to the vinager.

She did not can these in the traditional way to keep on a shelf. They went direct to frig. They did not last long because they were very taisty!

 

[mostly_gas]

I was wondering why you did not fry up some of the bluegill I have been known to use bacon fat for frying along with your favorite fish coating :thumbsup:

 

[Bird]

I like fried fish, smoked fish, broiled fish, grilled fish, canned fish, fish chowder, but I can't recall ever eating any pickled fish. Blue gill, as with most "perch" or "sunfish" varieties tend to be pretty small, but for fried fish flavor, no better exists in the world, as far as I'm concerned. Crappie, aka "white perch", come in second as being the nearest in flavor and a bit larger.

The small ones make good fertilizer (ask the Indians)!

Yep, they put a small fish for fertilizer, and 5 kernels of seed corn to a hill; one for the worm, one for the crow, one to rot, and two to grow.:laughing: