There is a myth surrounding Northern Pikes, and it is all about how they are not meant to be eaten. The fish’s biology upholds this myth.
One major fact in its biological makeup that has many people passing up the opportunity to make a tasty meal out of this fish is that it is chock full of bones.
There are other reasons why unbelievers would preach against eating this fish. Still, you’ll soon find out none of them are enough reason not to put a Northern Pike on your dinner plans.
When choosing to harvest a pike for dinner or any other meal of the day, there are a series of things to put into consideration.
Firstly, you should consider picking the fish out of cold water because it makes the flesh of the skin firm for some scientifically explainable reason. Read on to discover more about the Northern Pike and the steps you can take to prepare one.
How to Pickle Northern Pike
Ingredients and Supplies
It can be pretty intense to get rid of a northern pike’s bones, which is where this pickling recipe comes to the rescue.
It helps weaken the structure of the pike’s bone, making it easy to get rid of them, or if any is missed before cooking, it would be easier to gnaw at it.
Pickling a pike ensures its meat comes out firmer than you could predict, and in terms of what it tastes like, you would not notice a fishy flavor.
Add some onions and a cracker, and you wouldn’t be able to get enough of this appetizer.
Here is a list of ingredients by which you can pickle a pike:
- Sugar
- White Vinegar
- Canning Salt
- White Onions
- White Wine
- Pickling spice (preferably one tied in a cheesecloth bag)
Instructions
The first step is to fillet the pike and remove its skin. Pikes have a line of y-bones running through their spine section that you should leave in when you fillet them.
These bones will dissolve during the pickling process. After getting rid of its bones, cut the fillets into chunks of about one inch in size. Cutting the fillet into chunks will make the next step, which is freezing them, more effective.
The fillets are frozen for 48 hours as a precaution to rid them of any parasites as they are known harbingers of parasites.
Ensure you freeze them for this duration to avoid causing yourself and others any health hazard.
After the 48 hours is complete and the fillet is completely frozen, it is time to soak it in salt-brine solution. Find a large bowl that can take all of the pikes and make a salt brine solution using cold water and canning salt.
If you’ve ever made a salt-brine solution, you might find this one a little strange or exorbitant because it needs to have so much salt that if you threw in an egg, it would float.
In fact, a good way to know if you’ve added enough salt is to put in a few eggs and keep adding salt till they float.
Once that happens, add the frozen fillet chunks and refrigerate for 48 hours.
After that has been done, remove the pike fillet from the salt brine and rinse with cold water, return it into a bowl and soak it in white vinegar before refrigerating it for 48 hours.
Once that time is over, the fish should be removed from the vinegar solution and rinsed off completely. Make the pickling brine.
That is done by adding a ½ cup of white wine, 1 ½ cups of sugar before topping it off with 2 cups of white vinegar. Heat the mixture and let it simmer till the sugar dissolves. Turn off the heat when that happens.
While the pickling brine cools, use that opportunity to make your spice packets. A small quantity of pickling spice wrapped in cheesecloth should do the trick.
When the pickling brine has cooled down, add a layer of thinly sliced onions and several layers of pike until a third-quarter of the jar is full.
Throw in the pickling spice packet and top it off with more pike and onions. Seal the jar and refrigerate it for seven days. After, bust it out and enjoy it with the crackers.
Bottom Line
When one goes through the process of getting northern pikes ready to eat, one might get discouraged because it is a pretty lengthy one.
The easiest of the steps to getting it pickled and edible seems to be catching the pikes in the first place. This is why there is a lot of discouraging opinions about choosing to eat pikes.
As tedious as these steps look, you shouldn’t skip any when pickling a pike. All steps are now the standard because they’ve been tested and tried.
Pikes are not one of those fish meals you make instantly and serve up to eat. Making it is a long process, so you may want to pickle your pikes in large batches. Doing so means you will have enough to last you for a while before the next is done.
The bigger the batch, the more ingredients you should use. There is room for creativity; add a little more spice if that is what suits you. Visit the OutdoorWorld Reviews homepage for more expert reviews and information.
