bluefish for people who don't like bluefish

2 quicky ways that might make you think that you can actually eat these things. Blacken them with copious amounts of Paul Prudhomes seasoning, cook them briefly in a hot fry pan, squeeze generiously with lemon. Bluefish cakes. Steam bluefish filets, crumble into flakes and remove any dark meat. Mix with an equal amount of mashed potatoes. Form into patties, coat with bread crumbs or cracker meal and fry in oil. Deep fry is best but a shallow amount of oil works if you are careful turning them as they do fall apart. Serve with pasta and marinara sauce.

One way I have found them (semi) palatable...

place fillets in foil, lubricated with a little butter... top with the following:
Parsley
sliced onions
bacon
lemon slices
and a copious amount of rasins (put the rasins on first, on the flesh of the fish)!

fold foil into a pouch and cook in the oven or on the grill...

The rasins absorb most of the fishy oil so prevalent in bluefish... they will be almost the original grape size when cooking is done...
Oh yeah... [color:"blue"]DON'T EAT THE RASINS[/color]! throw them away! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Sick.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Sick.gif" alt="" /> or give them to the cat...

basically, I find bluefish more suited as Tuna & Shark Bait...

What's the difference between a bluefish and a striped bass? I think down here they're the same thing?

Stripped Bass tastes great...
Bluefish tastes like Poopey! actually really fishy tasting and oily... almost as fishy tasting as Mackrel...

much different fish! bluefish are also known as "choppers"... because of their sharp teeth...

BLUEFISH
STRIPPED BASS

Are blues a freshwater fish? I swear, the people down here call the striped bass they catch in the river bluefish.

No, they only live in saltwater... when they are young (6"-12" or so) we call them "snappers"...
they migrate up and down the East Coast with the seasons...
a BIG Blue can get to around 20#'s, but that size is rare...
usually in the 5-12# range...

Stripped Bass can reach 70+#'s... largest recorded was about 125#'s...

OK, I guess I'm confused... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

However, that might explain when I was trying to buy red snapper and they didn't have any, the guy sold me a bluefish filet. Very fishy and oily, and quite the disappointment when I was trying to recreate the Snapper in Champagne Sauce from La Vie en Rose for our anniversary last year. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" />

AH... Red Snapper is an entirely different fish!
No relation to bluefish at all! especially in taste!
Red Snapper is one of my all time favorite eating fish...

RED SNAPPER


when I was a kid on Eastern LI (late 50's/early 60's) there was a farmer in Mattituck that used ground bluefish for fertalizer in his fields...
You could smell it from a mile away if you were downwind! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" />

OK, I've just realized that I am mistaken..it is rockfish that the people down south call striped bass.

It's the flesh color that is blue, quite different than most other fish. There was an old joke in my town about cooking them. Put then in a pot of water with a brick on top, add spices and cook for an hour. Discard the fish and eat the brick. I wouldnt pay 10 cents for a bluefish that I had not caught but done right they are, well, OK

Yhe young "snapper blues" are good eating. We catch them in late Aug. and Sept. in Barnegat Bay. But bluefish are nasty eating. Very fishy tasting and oily! No way, use them for bait or throw them back.

I like to catch the snappers on an ultralite pole with 2# test line and troll a tiny kastmaster spoon... they do give a good fight!
we get them late August/early September on LI too...

and yes, they are good eating, they have not gotten "oily & fishy" yet...
good for breakfast... little tiny fillets... filleted right and you get no bones at all...
they also make a good fishcake or addition to fish chowder... but you need a lot of them...
we can easily catch 50 or so in an hour though... they are voracious eaters and run in huge schools...
just about every cast will get a fish when you hit a school...
we get them right in front of the house on LI... trolling about 20' off the shore in the deeper (4'-8') channels...

You better have 3 1/3 people when you catch 50, the bag limit in ny and nj is 15pp for bluefish of all sizes.

That's not a consideration for us...
We usually do "catch & release"... We rarely keep any... usually only if dad want's some for breakfast...
We just like to catch them... same with bluefish... we usually just release them, unless we need a few for bait...
I'll use bluefish chunks in crab & eel traps... eels love that! better than clams or killies...
we have a local guy in Southold that will give us one smoked eel for every three live ones we bring him...
considering smoked eel is upwards of $12-$15 per lb...
it's a good deal for us, I just put a couple traps out in the evening off the dock, and have a bunch by morning...
smoked eel on a Triscut with some Cream Cheese & chives is an excellent appetizer!

The only fish we really keep are Stripers, Flounder, Fluke, Weakfish, Kingfish(rare find these days), Blackfish, and my favorite, Blowfish...
I will also keep any skate, they have really tasty "wings"...
Porgies (tasty, but way too many pin bones, only keep a really big one that can be filleted), blues, sand sharks, etc. all get thrown back...

We really love weakfish too... and they have been very plentiful in the Peconic Bays in the last 10 years or so...

A good day of weakfishing:

See if your smoker will do some bluefish filets. They make excellent pate/fish spread. I know a guy who smoked various fish and sold his products in the nyc green markets and the bluefish spread was outstanding, don't know his receipe but its a cream cheese base. If you have a couple of grand to spare you can by a commercial electric smoker, set it and forget it, it self fed the wood pellets and had a temp probe to make perfect products. He had 2 and made some great stuff but he wouldnt give up the brine formula either. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/cloud.gif" alt="" />

Ya know, I have smoked Turkeys, Pork, Ham, Chicken, Beef, jerkey (my smoker makes excellent LI duck jerkey!)...
but I have never had good luck with fish or cheese! (it's probably running too hot)...
I have a charcoal smoker with a water bath pan...
Never been able to smoke any fish other than Trout... and that was only once...
I think I smoke the fish too long, it's usually way too dry...
Cheese, just melts into a BLOB!
an electric smoker would probably work better for fish...
but I like my smoker for meats...
if I want fish smoked, I go to my local guy in Southold...
he'll smoke anything for me... he has a smokehouse underground...
about 40' square... the smokehouse has been there for over 100 years... his grandfather built it... and he's in his late 70's now...

Rockfish, striper, stripped bass, all the same fish and great eating and even more fun to catch.

World record Striped Bass (on tackle) cauget in Atlantic City, NJ in 1982... 78#, 8 oz... that record still stands...
Caught at the end of Vermont Ave... the same one that is on your Monopoly Board!
http://www.stripers247.com/world-record-striped-bass.php

Did you catch that one Peconic? I haven't caught anything that big but I was the striper queen last fall in the bay here, my husband hates that fact as he did not have much luck.

http://fishermansview.com/saltwater_world_records_for_fish.htm a 32 lb bluefish? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Blush.gif" alt="" /> holy c%&p!!!!!!!!

I have put something on bluefish for years and every person who eats it has told me it is the best way they have ever had it as the vinegar cuts right through the gaminess

I marinate overnight in this vinegar based marinade and then grill it

1 cup white wine vinegar (or any strong one)
1/2 each diced red and green pepper
1/2 diced red onion
1 bu chopped scallions
4T chopped parsley fresh
1T chiffonade of basil fresh
1T chopped tarragon fresh
1 T chopped chervil dry
1 T chopped oregano fresh
1 T fresh rosemary
2T fresh squezzed lemon juice
1 cup of olive oil

marinate and grill. serve with ancho chile grilled corn on the cob
melt a stick of butter add 1T chili powder. Boil your corn, shock in cold water and then baste with this chili butter mix. Grill and baste again[b][/b]

The corn sounds wonderful <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" />...
but I doubt I'll ever cook or eat bluefish again, not in this lifetime anyway! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Sick.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Sick.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Sick.gif" alt="" />
way too many varieties of fish out there that taste good without having to do something to mask/overcome the nasty flavor...