cooking pike from an open fire

[bushcraftbob]

I ate a 8 pounder about a year or so ago, only cos it was very deep hooked and could not remove hooks without damaging the pike. It was ok, cooked it in foil with butter salt and pepper. A little fiddly with the bones but tasted not bad. Not as nice as perch tho

 

[_scorpio_]

an 8lb pike would likely be a male or juvenile female and not breeding so that doesnt matter, any bigger than that and it would be unfair i think.

 

[Kerne]

Brochet (pike) au beurre blanc - a delicacy on the banks of the Loire (from where the fish are caught) and VERY tasty! Don't know why we don't eat them more often over here.

 

[gsfgaz]

I've never caught or even tasted a pike , but i will some day ....

 

[Toddy]

Pike's easy to debone if you just mind that it has two extra spike bones per vertebrae, set like Y's, tail end out and upwards.

I know the pike as the ged or gade in Scots but brochet (sounds a bit like brushy ) for cooking.
This lassie doesn't do a terribly neat job of deboning it, but, right down to using the fork, this is how I was taught to fillet the ged. Six fillets from it. Two belly, two saddle strips and two from the tail end.
It's good eating is pike, if it's properly prepared.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac_xXnJ6cLo

I do mind seeing one cooked whole wrapped in grass and mud and then the meat was sliced off the biggest bits and the fork used again to get all the meat from the head and around the bones for a kind of kedgeree served in a creamy curry sauce.


cheers,
Toddy

p.s. I like the way this fellow does it too ....bones out 'afterwards' but he really understands how the fish is put together
http://www.redrockstore.com/eat_northern_pike/index.htm

 

[johnnytheboy]

Can i just hasten to add that pike anglers are a wild bunch and have a huge focus on conservation, pike are very fragile and the removal of apex predators can hugely affect the aquatic ecosystem, I would think you would get lynched if you got caught taking a trophy fish.

Fish under 5lb are more than enough.

I ate pike and walleye in a shore lunch on a fly out trip in the canadian wilderness, the walleye was much better, pike is kinda bland.


Has anyone tried Perch?

 

[gsfgaz]

caught plenty , but never ate any .... braw fish tho ...

 

[rommy]

Good methods here, pike about halfway down:

http://www.temagamistewardship.ca/filetting.html

 

[northumbrian]

Can i just hasten to add that pike anglers are a wild bunch and have a huge focus on conservation, pike are very fragile and the removal of apex predators can hugely affect the aquatic ecosystem, I would think you would get lynched if you got caught taking a trophy fish.

Fish under 5lb are more than enough.




I ate pike and walleye in a shore lunch on a fly out trip in the canadian wilderness, the walleye was much better, pike is kinda bland.


Has anyone tried Perch?

aye perch are lovely taste a bit like broon trout and less fidely bones than pike too,and such a bonny fish to look at to.lol

 

[northumbrian]

If you catch a Pike and don't like eating them, pass them on to your local Chinese Takeaway.

Some of those fellas love pike, and being stuck in a sweatbox of a kitchen, may not have had Pike since leaving home in the far east, and may do you a swap.

It works for me.

Edited to add; Cheers Filcon, your recipe made me laugh.

lol somebody once told me and wor kid a similar story about eels so we went of to the local chinese and they just looked at us like we were idiots.lol

 

[johnnytheboy]

I was actually thinking this as well, what pike to they have in china? the river amur has an amur pike that doesnt occur anywhere else in the world but from what i read its does not exist in china as they ate them all, only in the mongolian part of the amur?

lol somebody once told me and wor kid a similar story about eels so we went of to the local chinese and they just looked at us like we were idiots.lol

 

[gsfgaz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP-Y6oQ18AU&feature=related

 

[absw]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP-Y6oQ18AU&feature=related

Thats the way my uncle in Canada cleans the pike he catches, Ive never come across a bone when eating the fish that he has filleted.

 

[Raybennett]

I hooked a pike last year so deep it cut it's gills open. He was soaked in oil, soya sauce, fish oil, chillis and sweet chilli sauce. It was delicious. I prefer it to my usual quarry of trout. Most angling waters that are carp/course orientated welcome the removal of pike.( at least that's my experience). They seem to think they will eat everything till there's no other species. Either way, my favourite fish!

 

[morch]

Great vid Gaz, thanks for posting it. Lovely fish to eat and now i've seen this method of prep, bring em on

Dave

 

[gsfgaz]

I wish i would have kept the one i caught noo Dave ,, it looks a lovely fish to eat ... next time he's getting kept

 

[palace]

I have eaten pike quite a lot, my favourite dish is when it is cooked in a cheese & garlic sauce.
Perch is also good lightly sautéed in butter.

 

[morch]

You're right there Gaz, would have made a canny meal that

Dave

 

[johnnytheboy]

an 8lb pike would likely be a male or juvenile female and not breeding so that doesnt matter, any bigger than that and it would be unfair i think.

8lb pike if it were a male would be a breeding pike for sure, the male fish dont get as big as the females.

The best option here would have been to cut the leader as close as possible and return the fish to the water, they do survive this scenario. This is the reason I encorage people to use bronzed or painted hooks as they rust allot better than tinned hooks whick would never break down in the fishes stomach.

 

[mountainm]

You'll be making no friends if anyone from the PAC (Pike Angling Club) sees you taking them for the pot!! There's enough fish being taken from our waters by our Eastern European friends. Angling Clubs are getting increasingly twitchy.............By the way, I'm not in the PAC.

I second that - please don't take Pike for the pot. Go for Zander - they're a nuisance fish that don't belong in our rivers. American brown catfish too - some very good eating on those.