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| Smelts | |
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| Topic Started: Apr 20 2012, 11:48 AM (64 Views) | |
| campy | Apr 20 2012, 11:48 AM Post #1 |
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Handyman Extraordinaire
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The smelts are running (well they are swimming) and I haven't had a feed for years. A friend gave me some (uncleaned of course) and I had them floured and fried. Excellent. if anyone is interested I have an easy way of cleaning them. Taught to me by an Finlander. Edited by campy, Apr 20 2012, 11:49 AM.
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| Durgan | Apr 20 2012, 12:49 PM Post #2 |
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Veteran Member
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Let us hear the easy way of cleaning. I buy a feed of smelts each year and cook and eat right from the frying pan. One should only have one feed if taken from Lake Erie due to the contamination, particularly mercury from Dow Chemical dumping for years near Sarnia (St Clare River). I have caught them near Kingston. It was sort of fun. Cleaning was chopping the head and slitting and running the finger alone the belly. Slow tedious work, but no bad for doing a 100 or so.. |
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| Dialtone | Apr 20 2012, 01:11 PM Post #3 |
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Gold Star Member
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As kids we used to catch smelts by the bucket full and our freezer used to be half full of smelts, I haven't had any for years but use them for bait to catch Pike when I go ice fishing. I've still got a scar on my right palm from a double headed smelt spear that stuck in a buried log on one end but continued on through my hand with the other, one of life's lessons. One time I went to a small hole in the wall restaurant on Dupont Rd in Toronto, the special was smelts and boiled potatoes. I ordered the special, it came with all smelts whole, uncleaned, and still half frozen. Being hungry and naive I tried to cut one, error, the potatoes weren't bad once you got past the plate swimming in white smelt sperm that gushed out of the back of the frozen smelts. Sandeep and Bruhinder didn't get a tip that day, I stuck to Harvey's on Bloor St after that. |
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| wildie | Apr 20 2012, 05:32 PM Post #4 |
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Veteran Member
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Back in the 50s and 60s we used to use dip nets to catch smelt when the were on a spawn run. We came home with buckets full, also. We used scissors to clean them. Snip the head, snip the tail, snip the belly and squeeze out the entrails. We used a batter when we fried them in a frying pan. Since fish like the Pacific coast salmon were introduced, the number of smelt produced by the Great Lakes has been greatly reduced, if not totally depleted. |
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| campy | Apr 20 2012, 07:14 PM Post #5 |
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Handyman Extraordinaire
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Here's the method for cleaning. With a thin knife like a fillet knife or similar fine point knife. Insert the knife in the vent hole and slit up to the head. Then turn the smelt over and just back of the head cut down but not right through. With the knife still holding the head pick up the body close to the head and lift up. The intestines etc. are attached to the head and will come out easily. Put the smelts in cold running water and then clean out any remaining matter that might be missed with the thumb. It takes a little bit of practice getting it right but once you get the idea it is easy. Also to lessen the mess with the eggs you can also put the smelts in the freezer for about half an hour to solidify the egg mass which will also come out with the method shown above. I found it a lot less messy than the old way. |
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