White fish good eating?

[elkoholik]

Looking for some advice on whitefish. Are they worth eating and if so how do you prepare it. Just got into ice fishing and have caught a number of whites but do not want to keep them and waste them as I am not familiar with cooking them. I did try the search but I personally am not a fan as everything under the sun comes up even with refine search. Any how sitting out here at gull and have released 5 good looking whites and figured I better find out if they are worth keeping and figuring out how to prepare them. Thanks in advance.

Cheers, Dave

[pikergolf]

I always filleted and deep fried mine, not as good as perch or walleye but not terrible either. They can be made boneless the same way as walleye, if you fillet them, try and get rid of the brown fat along the lateral line. This brown fat tastes very fishy, if you can cut it out the meat is quite nice.

[yoteblaster]

I am out at brownlows right now, are you out here as well?

[skidderman]

My mom used to make fish cakes and fry them. seemed to turn out pretty good but that was a long time ago.

[elkoholik]

Y am at brownlows. Second bay north by tin shack

[Andrzej]

I think that they are best smoked. You don't waste any meat and bones are coming out easy.
This year I've bought 10 from commercial fisherman and boneless filleted them taking belly fat and brown lateral fat out. Did not try them yet.
One fish I scaled and filleted only and my wife fried those steaks... too fishy for me.

Andrew

[jungleboy]

I think that they are best smoked. You don't waste any meat and bones are coming out easy.
This year I've bought 10 from commercial fisherman and boneless filleted them taking belly fat and brown lateral fat out. Did not try them yet.
One fish I scaled and filleted only and my wife fried those steaks... too fishy for me.

Andrew

That's odd I was about to say they are one fish that I find to be really good and not fishy . Anytime we have had them we do them whole in foil with some some butter and lemon. Either on the BBQ or in the oven.
I suppose it depends where they come from.

[Gslice]

:scared0015:

They are one of the best tasting fish! Boneless fillet with pesto spread across. Preheat oven to 400degF, and bake for 15 min.

Light fry is also good. The pin bones get crispy and you can even eat them. Saves you the trouble of having to pick them out while getting all kinds of Ca action.

[Don K]

Blahhhhhh!
I wouldn't eat one of those wormy things...

[Rafter1]

I agree with with Andrzej the best way to to eat whites is smoked

[tight line]

De bone/skin fry in Beer Batter with some tarter, or dip in hot sauce and cajun fish crisp. Delish!! If you dont know how to fillet you may want to watch a few vids on youtube before you try. You can wreck a fish if you arent trained up! IMO dont eat the pin bones.. Carefully cut a strip along the fillet on each side of the bones, wasting as little meat as possible, way more enjoyable than having to pick them out

[Isopod]

Smoked is good, but obviously you need a smoker and the motivation to do the whole smoking thing.

Fillets is probably my first choice, removing the brown fat as others have noted. Problem is that whites are so skinny that if you aren't a pro at filleting then you only have to be off by a bit on either the skin side or the rib side to end up with very little meat. If you are catching 5-8 lb whites this probably isn't an issue, but if you are catching 2 lb whites it is.

Anyway, once filleted, prepare as any other lean white fish -- pan-fried, battered and deep fried, used for chowder, etc

[BlackHeart]

Smoked they rival salmon. Bit of cream cheese on a plain cracker with smoked white and a whole fish is gone in minutes.

They make great fish cakes......with a chipotle garlic lemon creamy dip...supperb.(intentional spell)

Very quick supper......(we boneless fillet and vaccum pack ours)....mix up cayenne pepper, black pepper, thyme and bit of white pepper n garlic powder and experiment with adding others.........takes like 15 minutes for the vaccum packed fish to thaw in a bowl of hot water..........toss the fillets w spices, fry in butter which is quick......onto a bun with mayo, or above dip, havarti, tomato.....or avocado or cucumber, etc. Nice quick supper that takes 30 minutes or less from start to finish. And it's healthy for you without a ton of saturated fat or salt.

Deep fryed in beer batter they are nice.....not as good as halibut...but just as good as most others.

Going to try them baked in a cream sauce in place of sole....but as a family, we seem to stick with the above liked dishes.

On second thought........you don't really want to eat those things.....throw them back alive. ;)

[Red Bullets]

Whitefish have been a winter staple for many years for many people.

Great smoked, fried, stuffed and baked, broiled, candied, chowdered, dried.

[Speckle55]

Wow you threw some back:confused0024:

you missed out on a great meal and lots of Omega 3 oil in them because of what they eat :reading:

here is some info and video's for all Angler's :test:

Lake Whitefish are one of the most sold fish of North American:thinking-017:

also Wikipedia is wrong the biggest Lake Whitefish caught on rod and reel is 15#6oz Clear lake Ontario in the World Record Books and I think I read 18 # in nets some where

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_whitefish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mnJgxZXaB0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2TZ8Q-X8pQ

David:)

[iliketrout]

I've only tried pan frying once and baking once and was not too happy with either result. I found that when the fish was fully cooked it was very soft, almost mushy meat, and not a nice firm texture like with walleye or pike. I found the taste to be good, just couldn't get past the soft texture.

I know the same species of fish can vary from lake to lake and time of the year etc., so to those of you who pan fry or deep fry, is the flesh typically softer than walleye/pike? I'd definitely like to try them again if maybe I just had a bad "batch".

[Isopod]

You are correct, they do have a softer flesh, kind of like sole.

[pikeslayer22]

Catch and release for me unless I want one for the smoker

[aulrich]

Baked they are nice, fried OK but candy when smoked.

[STURKO OUTDOORS]

filet and debone.. then season with garlic and pepper and seasoning salt... roll in bread crumbs and fry in butter till brown... AMAZING!!

[Kim473]

Lots on Utube about filleting and cooking.