Pickerel

[BrianF]

I'd assume most pike recipes will work with pickerel but wondering if anyone has any suggestions? A friend cooks them by removing the center spine then steaking them. Then soaks them in milk for some time before deep frying them. He uses a high temp that denigrates all the small bones. Tasted awesome and never thought I would ever like picks.

Interested if anyone has any other neat tips on cooking them. Thanks.

[dave b.]

Pickerel are good eating. The bones are the issue. I have filleted the m and ground up the fillets and made fish cakes out of them. I think I used a fish cake recipe I found here on the shanty. Do a search on here and you can find some recipes and advice for dealing with the bones.

[RAU]

If you like pickled fish pickle em, the vinegar completelly disolves the bones.

[RNsurfnturf]

grinder works well for anything like that....smallest die possible...ive done it with pike , pickerel , smaller panfish if i had alot of them ...the bones hang up in the die......grind them a couple times then mix up with breadcrumbs as filler and egg an any seasonig you want ....ive deep fried them and baked them......

[Doitnow]

Smoke'em if you Got'em   They smoke good, cut them 1 1/2 inches, brine them 12 hrs. smoke 3 hrs. 1 1/2 cups hickory

[Whopper Stopper]

All the little snakes we get go into the pickel barrel. Pretty dang good! 

                       WS

[RIVERRAT2]

All the little snakes we get go into the pickel barrel. Pretty dang good! 

                       WS

i pickle all the ones i get,i think they are better then herring
 
RAT

[Fire~n~Ice]

Foe years I listened to everyone tell me how pickerel are trash fish and not worth anything. Then one day I saw a recipe on here for pickling em........ Now I purposely fish for them early in the season so I have jars of spicy pickled pickerel to snack on while I'm fishing!! I love them - I pickle mine with lots of onions and hot peppers........Only problem now is finding the buggers! Like anything - once I decide thats what I want I can't catch em!

[perchnut]

I'll 3rd or 4th the motion on pickling them. Very tasty.  Just had company over this weekend, and almost cleaned my jar out.  Hopefully I can get out and catch a few more of those buggers.