Monday, December 5, 2016

Fish fillets as art

The perfect pike
When you have cleaned thousands upon thousands of fish as I have, you get kind of finicky about the end product. I'm always striving for the perfect fillet whether it be northern pike or walleye.
Northern pike, in particular, offer the most challenge. There are those infamous Y bones to remove and another small set which I call the Z bones. I always try to do this process with as little meat wastage as possible while still producing a single, boneless fillet.
I also look for perfection when skinning. If the fillet is removed close enough to the actual skin, a beautiful red pattern is visible on the skin side of the fillet. In fact, if this colour isn't on the finished product it means meat has been wasted; it was still attached to the skin and went into the scrap bucket.
It struck me last fall that this pair of pike fillets was absolutely perfect. So, I ran into the lodge and got my camera. Maybe it just seems that way to someone who has cleaned thousands upon thousands of fish!
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3 comments:

joe overman said...

Tasty too!

Unknown said...

Dan,many of the people we talk to in Illinois say they don't like to eat pike because they are too "boney". In all the years we've been coming to Bow Narrows, we've never encountered a single bone in a fillet you've prepared, and the pike are every bit as tasty as the walleye. In fact, some of us prefer pike over walleye.

We are all looking forward to spring when we can enjoy a few perfect fillets again.

Unknown said...

Dan, many people tell us they don't like to eat pike because they are too "boney". In all the years we've come to Bow Narrows we have never encountered a single bone in any fillet prepared by you or your stafF, and the pike are every bit as tasty as the walleye.

Looking forward to spring when we can enjoy a few perfect fillets again.