Story
Pike is a trophy fish everyone wants to catch. It is also quite tasty when prepared right. However, cleaning and preparation is a bit tricky. First, this fish has a gallbladder. which, if punctured, will spill and make the meat bitter and unpalatable. Such spill will be easily visible as it is vibrant yellow.
Second, it has infamous Y-bones, which are best removed from the meat before cooking. They can be possibly left only in the smallest pikes, but who wants to catch those, and you still have to be careful when eating.
Believe it or not, I did not catch any pike until just a few years ago. I am relatively new to fishing in Canada, especially considering my advanced age, so I am still not fully proficient in cleaning pike. I thought that sharing my learning may be helpful for others, so before the recipe I will describe what I have learned so far.
How to fillet pike
If you have never done this, you should search internet for it. There are several YouTube videos on the subject. You can start with The Secret to Boneless Northern Pike, as it clearly demonstrates where the gallbladder is and how to avoid puncturing it. It also shows how to remove the Y-bones.
The second video: NORTHERN PIKE FILLET Tutorial, has a better explanation of where the Y-bones are and also how to remove them. I must say that the sketch of the Y-bones location was a little bit confusing to me so below is my sketch that hopefully will be more clear.
I must say that even after watching the videos I had varying success with removing the Y-bones, but for the recipe below you do not need to worry too much. On several occasions I had left excessive amount of meat on the bones. I had a second go and recovered most of the meat in small pieces that I combined together and formed additional fingers that were kept together with flour, beaten eggs and bread crumbs. So in the end I lost almost no meat, and all finger pieces looked and tasted the same.
Ingredients
| as many as you can catch | Northern Pike |
| as needed | all purpose flour |
| 1 or 2 or as needed | eggs, whole |
| 1 tbsp per egg | water. Mix with egg(s) and beat with a whisk until uniform |
| to taste | salt |
| to taste | Fish spice |
| as needed | Bread crumbs mixed with sweet Hungarian paprika (ratio:1 tbsp breadcrumbs : 1 tsp paprika) |
| as needed | Virgin olive oil and butter 1:1 |
| 1 lemon | Lemon juice |
Directions
- Clean and fillet the pike. Cut and form into pieces 3/4 – 1 inch diameter and about 6 inches long. If you have small pieces, combine them together into similar size.
- Sprinkle the pieces with lemon juice and let sit for about 5 minutes. Drain excess of the juice.
- Sprinkle salt and spices over the pieces.
- Lightly cover the pieces with flour either by dipping them into flour on the plate or by sprinkling flour from a small sieve. Shake off excess flour.
- Dip the pieces in egg and water mixture and transfer them to a plate with breadcrumbs/paprika mix. Roll them until well covered.
- Preheat oil and butter on a frying pan heated at low heat (3-4 of 10) until butter has melted and starts ti=o sizzle.
- Place the pike fingers onto the pan and fry for about 2 minutes per side until golden brown or until internal temperature reaches 145°F (63°C).
- Serve with dipping sauce.
