Of Sardines and Smelt.....

[Mind_your_head]

I USED to eat smelt (and remember enjoying it) some 25-30 years ago. But I don't remember anymore how to handle/cook/eat it....

Sardines....I NEVER, thus far, knew how to handle/cook/enjoy eating it.

I mention it, b/c eating sardines & smelt is probably very good for us humans. Sardines & smelt are small fish that don't have as much time to pick up mercury and other toxins. I just don't know how to prepare/enjoy them.

Do any DU'ers have any thoughts/suggestions/recipes?

[Warpy]

1. The best way I know to cook smelt

is to decapitate and clean them and bake them whole in milk.

They're a very oily little fish and the milk seems to cut the oiliness nicely. Serve with salad and a side of spuds and they're great.

Sardines are great out of the can and on a cracker.

[AlecBGreen]

5. yup

"Sardines are great out of the can and on a cracker."

scrumptious. plain oil or mustard. both are good

[Tesha]

2. My dad used to cook smelt for us...

... after he went fishing and had to stop and buy fish on the way home.


Open them flat and lift out the bones - some lift easily, others need a paring knife to loosen them first.

Dredge in flour, cornmeal, salt, and pepper - fry in a mild oil then drain on paper.

Oh, yummy.. they get salty greasy crispy - and I'm sure they aren't good for you at all like this....

but its a wonderful memory. Thanks you for reminding me.

[Gormy Cuss]

15. That's the way my father made them too..

I'll make them once a year or so just for the memories.

I cooked fresh sardines last week and simply coated the outside of the dressed fish with seasoned flour, fried them in a little oil, drained them and let them marinade overnight in a Spanish-style escabeche (lots of minced onions, sherry, vinegar, and a few spices)

[hippywife]

3. I'm with Tesha on the memories.

Altho I've never even eaten one. I have memories of my Italian gran and great aunts making smelt during lent, or whenever it just sounded good. I don't remember all the prep because at that age, I was pretty squeamish about such things, but I do seem to recall that they seemed to just dredge them in a seasoned flour and fry them whole. I don't recall any filleting or anything like that but it was so very long ago.

Not sure if I would try them even now but if my gran or her SIL, Aunt Lucy, would come back to fix them and ask me to, I could deny them nothing for a few more minutes in their presence.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Sardines .......right out of the can and onto rye bread .....

...... with mustard and a slice of sweet raw onion. I've eaten them this way for years and years. Very healthy, too.



Smelts ...... clean them (unless already cleaned and frozen). Pat them fairly dry. Dredge in flour, salt and pepper. Deep fry in a bland oil. ....... Crispy goodness, and if fried hot enough, very healthy, too.

[hippywife]

6. There ya go.

The other Dago in the house has chimed in for frying. :rofl:

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

7. Fried smelts always made an appearance at my MIL's Christmas Eve

Italian fish festival.

[Mind_your_head]

8. Thanks everyone for your input....

:hi:

I also found this thread on Chowhound.com to be very helpful regarding the smelt:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/632619

I think I'm going to give smelt a try some time soon. :-)

As far as sardines, I dunno if I'm gonna try that. I was hoping that there was some "other way" than just on a cracker or rye bread with mustard & onion. I was thinking/hoping for something along the lines of anchovy in Ceasar Salad. I can't eat the anchovy fillets in a ceasar salad, but if I puree them (or use anchovy paste) in my ceasar dressing, I'm fine with that and it really adds a wonderful flavor dimension - just can't do the 'whole fillet' though - there's just something about it that creeps me out/is unattractive.

Thanks again.

[Stinky The Clown]

9. Sardines are as mild and benign as canned tuna.

Many people imagine them to be similar to anchovies. They most definitely are not.

[Mind_your_head]

13. Hmmmmmm.......mild as tuna, you say, eh.....

I definitely was thinking of them like anchovies, as you obviously could tell from my post above. Maybe I *will* give sardines a try (but first the smelt).

Hey, if I try the sardines and don't like them, could I give the remainder my cats? (Like most of us here, I don't like to waste). Speaking of cats, fish, and food, I just realized something a few months ago. When I open a can of tuna (I buy the packed in water tuna) I USED TO pour the tuna water down the drain. What I do now is drain it into a little dish for my kitty girls to drink (I put a little bit of the tuna in the water as well....oh boy, do my kitties LOVE that. Some days I could swear that they are looking at me HOPING/WISHING that I'm jonesing for a tuna salad sandwich that day. :rofl:

[Stinky The Clown]

14. Yes, the cats can eat the sardines if you don't.

Sardines are about a buck a can. My advice is to buy the most expensive kind with the least flavoring (lots of sardines are packed in mustard or "Mediterranean" or other flavor. Start with plain old olive oil pack and then, if like the basic, you can try the variants.

[eleny]

10. I like to bread and fry smelt using bread crumbs

Dip in an egg wash then roll in the crumbs and pan fry in a shallow amount of corn oil. I find them sold in bags and they're without bones. But I've had them with the bones left in and they're very soft so we've just eaten the fried smelts bones and all.

The only way I have sardines is to get the canned ones. They have lots of flavors to choose from like olive oil, tomato sauce, mustard, chili peppers. I like the ones in olive oil with some sliced onion, rye bread and sliced tomato on the side.

[pengillian101]

11. I also used to eat smelt and loved it!

I kind of googled around about this and you may enjoy the links below.

But from my recollection, going smelting was a big old party up north in early spring where folks from Wisconsin and Minnesota in late 1970's just might have almost fished them out. Seining was legal at the time in streams, but not legal at the mouth of the stream. River banks were lined with fisher-folks. The fish ran at night. It was a hoot.

Everyone took home bucket gallons and gallons of smelt. We'd sit in the backyard all the next day cleaning them all.

One video below shows how to clean - snip head with a scissors, gut with a scissors and hand off to the guy who cleans out the guts under water.

Freeze or eat. Eat - pat dry, dip in a beer batter and deep fry for just a minute or so. Yum!

http://www.upfishing.com/smelt_run.html

http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/mn/425smelt.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIsEY_qhhWs&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2Fvideosearch%3Fpz%3D1%26ned%3Dus%26hl%3Den%26q%3D%2522smelt%2520run%2522%26um%3D1%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwv&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ_FSzW37jY

[pengillian101]

12. Sardines....I NEVER, thus far, knew how to handle/cook/enjoy eating it.

Sardines on Soda/Saltine crackers is all I know and love.