Big Fish School.com Fish Cooking Lessons

Big Fish School.com
If you want Big Fish, you have to find the Big Fish School™

SPECIES LESSONS
(Click link below)
Bass
Stripers
Trout
Bluegill
Catfish
Crappie

FISH STOCKING INFO and NEWS

OTHER LESSONS
(Click link below)
Equipment Lessons
Sun, Moon, Weather
Cooking Lessons
Family Fun Ideas

SCHOOL CAMPUS (HOME)
(Click above & scroll)
Guest Teachers
Guest Book
Fishing Forum
Fishing Links
Photo Album

Click here for cool products you've seen on TV at terrific prices!

Click here to learn how to Speed Read!

Click here to learn how to Golf like a Pro!

Click here to learn incredible math techniques!

Click here to improve your memory!

Click here and learn to spell words perfectly in just 5 MINUTES A DAY!

If you click here, you can learn to shoot a Golf Ball as STRAIGHT AS YOU CAN POINT!

Why buy a calculator when you can BE a Human Calculator with the Mega Math Program?

Click here to learn how to release your super memory in just 30 minutes a day!

FISH COOKING LESSONS

Most anglers eat fish, whether fish they have caught or fish purchased at a market. Here are some cooking secrets, with a Guest Cooking Secrets section below to read additional ideas or share a recipe.

MILK DOES A FISHY GOOD: If you prefer your fish to be mild and as non-fishy as possible, soak it in milk for at least 1/2 hour. The milk removes most of the fishy taste and helps frozen and re-thawed fish to taste fresher. Consider placing frozen fish in a sealed container with milk (alone or with seasonings) to soak and thaw in the refrigerator overnight. The fish should be rinsed before soaking in the milk, as it is best to take the fish straight out of the milk and prepare it for cooking without re-rinsing. However, fish rinsed after soaking in milk will still be slightly milder and fresher tasting than fish that has not been soaked in milk.

LEMON PEPPER vs. LEMON: Many people like to sprinkle a little lemon juice on their fish after it is cooked or while it is cooking. Consider using Lemon Pepper instead. This versatile seasoning provides a lot of zest and can be used on broiled, pan-fried or sautéed fish, or mixed into a batter for deep-fried fish. Bluegill fillets lightly pan-fried in butter or margarine with nothing but a sprinkle of Lemon Pepper provides a particularly light, zesty and delicious meal.

THE VEGGIE FACTOR: Do you like vegetables? How about onions or peppers? There are numerous ways to use these delicious vegetables to create a wonderful fish dish. Consider sautéing onions, peppers or other favorites in a pan, then adding fish fillets and cooking them in the resulting spicy oils, spooning the onions and peppers on top of the fish during cooking to let the flavor soak in. Veggies can also be chopped and cooked with fillets or inside whole, cleaned fish. For example, some people like to cook freshly caught and cleaned trout on hot coals, wrapped in foil, with chopped onions, peppers, potatoes and seasonings inside the body cavity. Sautéed or steamed vegetables can also be added as a topping or garnish with fish cooked almost any style.

GET SAUCY: Do you like marinated beef or chicken? Have you tried marinated fish? There is a growing trend to marinate fish in a wide variety of sauces, from teriyaki to barbecue sauce. Sauce manufacturers have developed a wide (and constantly expanding) variety of sauces that taste good on fish, including sweet and sour, Hawaiian, honey-mustard, citrus and too many other types to list. Many cooks are preparing fish and serving it covered with pineapple salsa. Pick out a sauce that sounds good and try it. Many people prefer to use the more flavorful sauces on stronger-flavored fish, like barracuda, but strong sauces can be good on milder fish as well. Remember that fish soaked in a sauce will absorb the flavor, often faster and more thoroughly than beef or chicken would absorb the same sauce. Sauce or salsa applied to fish after it is cooked will not soak through as fast, instead acting as a flavorful topping. Marinated fish can be barbecued, sautéed, broiled or even battered and deep-fried. Flaky fish is not easy to barbecue, but large fish steaks often work well and grilling cages are available for barbecuing whole fish. Remember that barbecued fish does not have to mean barbecue sauce. Try something new!

BAKIN' WITH BACON: Bacon is wonderful when baked over fish. Try laying some fish fillets in a greased baking dish, covering them with strips of bacon, pouring a little barbecue sauce over the top and baking it in the oven until the bacon is cooked. The bacon will not be crisp like fried bacon, but it should be cooked. The result is absolutely delicious!

BE CREATIVE: Except for guided trips, most fishing trips produce very inexpensive fish, especially when the cost of fishing is compared to the number of pounds of fish caught. Why not try something new? Use those cheap, self-caught fish to experiment in the kitchen. Try new recipes, new seasonings, new sauces or toppings, and new methods to cook your fish. You may surprise yourself. If an experiment doesn't turn out that good, you haven't lost a lot of money.

GUEST COOKING SECRETS:

If you have a delicious recipe, please submit it to this site using the "SHARE A RECIPE" link below. Be sure to include whatever information you want us to use to give you credit for the tip (name, business name, city, state, favorite fishing hole, etc.). If you have a fishing-related website or a website that includes fish recipes, please provide your URL (website address) and we'll add it to the Fishing Links page, as long as you leave us a good tip or recipe. Professional Fishing Guides can also provide a telephone number, address and e-mail address, which will be posted with the tip or recipe. Watch for your tip to be posted (try the "Tell me when this page is updated" link on the home page) and tell your friends and family to come see your tip posted on the Internet!

Guest Recipe from Anthony Pham: Steamed Fish with Ginger, Green Onions with fish sauce or soy sauce. Scale and clean a 1-2 lb bass (it's okay to leave the head on). Cut 2-3 slits along the body on each side. Sprinkle salt to taste. Slice thin (angel-hair) ginger then place them within the fish cavity and slits. Steam the fish for 11 minutes. In the meantime, prepare your sauce and condiments. Heat up a 1/4 cup of oil in a pot. Cut thin angel-hair slices of the white section of a green onion. Once the fish has been steamed for 11 minutes, immediately take it out of the pot to keep it from cooking further. Place fish on a dish, then place slices of green onion (white part) onto the fish. Add hot oil onto the fish, there may or may not be a sizzling sound. Add Soy sauce onto to the dish, maybe a couple of tea spoons or so.

Guest Tip from Mark DeMucha, Lancaster, CA: Try soaking fish in 7-up instead of milk. It draws out oils and makes the stinkiest fish bearable. Also, I like to keep marinade and plastic bags with my ice chest. When I catch a fish, I clean it right away, put it in a bag with some marinade and bury it under the ice. The last couple of times I have fished I have done this and the fish seemed a whole lot less fishy and a heck of a lot more fresh. I even ate some and it was a partially enjoyable experience, even for someone who does not like to eat fish. (Teacher's note: many people feel that milk is best for removing fishiness and 7-up is best for removing muddiness. However, more and more people are using 7-up to pre-soak all their fish just because they like the taste.)

SHARE A RECIPE

Please visit our sponsors by clicking on the banners below and in the side columns to help keep BigFishSchool.com bringing you the best fishing information on the web!