Fish...specifically SMELTS

Rob Keeble

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Messages
12,633
Location
GTA Ontario Canada
Ok so i love fish. BUt.......i need help with this one.

Was over at our relatively new fresh fish and been seeing these SMELTS . Sorry i should have taken pictures of the things, here are a couple of pics i pinched to show you what they look like if you aint seen em before.
Before spring-and-great-lakes-smelt.jpg after being fried in egg and flower batter Smelts.jpg

So my questions to those of you that know them ......whats the attraction and where is the taste apart from the batter and oil .

I had overheard my fishmonger saying to someone you can always have smelts for breakfast with eggs. I thought cool i am up for anything. So last week i asked him about the comment he had made previously.

Yeah he says some do, not exactly a healthy option. Well i figured ...."when in Rome do as Romans do" have tried all sorts in the name of being Canadian.

Well I dont get this one. Someone tell me what the attraction is because frankly they taste like nothing. The bone which really you could eat if you like that kind of thing, does come out if you eat them while hot and quick before the gelatin solidifys.

But they pretty bland. Now i like an anchovy on toast, i eat loads of sardines and love roll mops (herrings for those not familiar) but this is a fish i dont see the point in. Its best left for being bate for the bigger boys.

Anyone eaten them got a different view and perhaps recommendation on how to cook em?


Strike another off the breakfast list experiment. :(
 
I still remember when I was about 7 years old camping on one of our northern beaches Mom was about to cook dinner when a guy came along a gave us a bucket of smelt--cooked over the open smoky fire they were great. I've had them many times cooked as you describe with a little pepper. Say have you ever had pickled herring?
 
Absolutely . Love it.

But try this pickled herring with akvavit. I never ever thought the two things would be so complementary as they are. Learnt to eat/drink the two in Danmark.

20120210akvavitwillgordon.jpg
 
Step one catch smelt step two fry and eat. my best guess that smelt in the market are farm raised thus have no flavor.:thumb::thumb:
And no I don't eat fish any more used to but have lost the taste for a good brook trout. ;)
 
Smelt are about the only fish I like. Probably because they don't taste like fish.
I used to catch them with my Dad 50 years ago. Either dip for them with a net or on a line with about 30 hooks.
Fry up with flour and salt and pepper. Eat the bones and all on the small ones.
 
Never had FARM RAISED smelt.

I have eaten my fair share of smelt I caught that came out of the ocean.

When I saw the picture of fried smelt - I have to admit my mouth began to water.

I have not had any fried smelt in a long long time -- definitely need to have some this year.

I grew up in the fishing city of New Bedford, Mass.

I have always eaten the most freshest and tastyist fish that can be put on a plate -- yum yum
 
Never had FARM RAISED smelt.

I have eaten my fair share of smelt I caught that came out of the ocean.

When I saw the picture of fried smelt - I have to admit my mouth began to water.

I have not had any fried smelt in a long long time -- definitely need to have some this year.

I grew up in the fishing city of New Bedford, Mass.

I have always eaten the most freshest and tastyist fish that can be put on a plate -- yum yum
Like I always say if you can't see where that fish lived from the dinner table it is not fresh enough to eat.:thumb::thumb::rofl::rofl::rofl:
Or with Lobsta it's kin should be able to hear it scream when it goes in the pot.:thumb::thumb::thumb:
 
Growing up in Monterey I'm spoiled. Stopped by Phil's in Moss Landing early one morning for some shark steaks. While the gal is cutting them, a 6" prawn jumped off the ice table behind me. "I'll take two pounds of those please" was my immediate response. Salmon, halibut, rock fish, Cabazon...we had fish fries almost weekly.
 
When I was a kid our friends in Portland, Ore. would call when the Smelt started running in the Sandy River. We just in the car and head there (230 miles away). You could wade out in the water and get them a bucket full at a time. Just tip them out. It was a blast. Nothing better, fish-wize, then a big batch of fried fresh Smelt! Ummmm Ummmm Good!
 
Only had smelt once, after going to the Lake Erie smelt run with a friend's family. Took them home, beheaded them and gutted them until I got tired, buried the remainder, and cooked up the several dozen I had finished. I found I could behead them and gut them in one motion, sort of a tearing motion with the scissors, that pulled the guts out attached to the head. They did taste good.

Once I went fishing for perch and caught five. By the time I got home I had five perch and two smelt.
 
In Michigan a lot of people call them schmelt, with an sh at the front and without the s on the end.

A lot of the bars there have fresh fried schmelt with the beer.

You can get a lot of frogs legs in Michigan too, if that's your thing.
 
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