Skin on or off?
Wisconsin Fishing Discussion
Eating bluegill
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If I may expound on my post of a couple back--as every serious eating bluegill fisherman knows, your 7 inch, and even 6 inch gills, are the best eating. Not only are the scales looser (compared to your 8 and above inchers) but most of the time you don't have to worry about cutting out the pin bones because you can't feel them along the inside of the fillet. Either they're too small or they're not as developed as the bigger fish. Plus the 7 inch gill is an easier size to fillet. Those I will always leave the skin on so scale and fillet. On large gills (8 and 9 inchers) and large crappies (11 and 12 inchers) I will fillet and then skin. Especially the bigger crappies which tend not to get real crispy if you leave the skin on--they can stay somewhat "mealy", for lack of a better word--I will use a fork after filleting to hold the tail down and strip the meat off from tail towards wide part of fillet.
On scaling, if you don't like scales flying everywhere just get a 5 gallon bucket, put in some water, and hold your fish under water as you scale.
On frying, I save the liner bags from cereal boxes to flour my fish. They're like extra tough wax paper bags and you can add your flour and seasonings (salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, Lawry's, Old Bay, etc.) and throw the fillets in and shake. Then scramble an egg or two, dip in the fillet and then in the Panko bread crumbs. (I like the Japanese-style that come in boxes) Heat your oil ( I just use canola oil, more for health reasons, rather than peanut oil) and make sure it gets "almost-smoking" hot. I'm not deep frying them. Just enough oil to cover the bottom of the Cast iron skillet. Maybe 1/4 inch at most. I fry the skin side down, first, and then flip and do the meat side. I drain on a cooling rack which I have set on a paper grocery bag--never on paper towels as you'll lose a lot of the crispness that you're trying to attain.
If you like tartar sauce on your fish make your own. So much better than the prepared commercial stuff. Miracle Whip, some sweet pickle relish, some onion salt and pepper, and voila, you've got tartar sauce.
So that's my way of doing a fish fry. My wife loves it as do my 2 grandkids.
Jim
I grew up loping the heads off and scaling them with a stick and three beer caps nailed to it like someone else posted. My mother liked filets so then filet them and skin them. My cousin turned me on to this scaler , it came in a 2 pack.
No flying scales done faster than skinning them. My wife still likes them skined so I do most that way. But for a few bucks if you like the skin try it.
I don't sell these things I got them off Amazon.
Oh fried in oil in my wife's batter.
Ice fishing--scale and fillet
Hot summer fishing--Put on ice immediately after catching, get home, scale, and fillet.
I personally think the flavor is in the skin and after filleting I always cut out the pin bones. A little "V" cut will do nicely.
Incidently for those of you who mentioned that you hate scaling I have a little trick that I use in the hot summer days. I turn my garden hose on and turn the adjustment nozzle so it is the most forceful spray pattern--one solid stream of water. Then I hold the crappie or bluegill in my left hand with the head pointing away from me. Starting at the tail work the hose right up the side of the fish towards the head (against the scales in other words). It works like a charm on crappies especially and the smaller bluegills. The big (8 or 9 inch) gills are tighter scaled. Sure the scales fly all over the yard but they dry up and shrivel away by the next day. It also keeps you cool while cleaning and takes any fish slime away. Try it sometime. Doesn't work on perch though--too tightly scaled.
Tp prepare: flour, egg, panko bread crumbs and fry in cast iron skillet that has about 1/4 inch of oil. Season the flour however you want.
Jim
I've tried different commercial scalers but my favorite is this homemade one. I remember my grandfather nailing bottle caps to a board when I was a kid, a long time ago. The guys would sit around a table with a hole in the middle for the gut pail. (I made one of those too). Drinking beer while cleaning fish kept them supplied with bottle caps.
All you need is a spoon to remove the scales on fish. I prefer to have the skin off but mostly because it's a lot of work for what you get off the fillet. Only some fish are Ok with the skin on, bluegill being one of them. I do not like bones though! The tail is alright but nothing special. I don't fry fish that often anymore and when I do it's usually just bread crumbs or cracker crumbs cooked in butter.
I was raised back in the 50's when gills were just scaled, gutted and fried. I started scaling, filleting them in the 70's with skin on. By the 80's got to be quicker to just fillet and peel skin off, not that much difference in taste. Forty years later still the same way, sometimes I pan fry other times I deep fry, pan is somewhat better but takes longer. I use JR Madd's special breading which I get from a small town in Indiana. Nothing better than fresh caught gills.
Both. Smaller fish around 7" get gutted, scaled, headed (whole fryers). Anything over 7" mostly filleted with skin off. Love em both ways. Flavor of whole fryers better, and some delicious crunchy tails. The convenience of fillets awesome. I'll sometimes cook fillets on the grill in foil with lemon, butter, salt and pepper. Devoured 15 fillets 2 days ago like this. Love gills!!
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