So how many of you have actually eaten and enjoyed blue runner?
Heading down again soon and want to "taste" so less-desirable species. Might even try remora???
Thanks,
Toby
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So how many of you have actually eaten and enjoyed blue runner?
Heading down again soon and want to "taste" so less-desirable species. Might even try remora???
Thanks,
Toby
remora will eat.
I've been eating blue runner ("hardtails") for over 40 years.
They do have a wide strip of red meat that needs trimming, so there's not a big yield for the most common 3/4 pounders,
but at a pound and up they are good table fare IMHO.
I like to dredge the fillets (each fish makes 4 pieces) through a little olive oil and sprinkle with a dash of salt & pepper or Cavenders's Greek Seasonings and panfry til golden brown (the edges will just be a little crispy).
I like them. It's firm and there's no bad aftertaste. Like with most saltwater fish, you want to cut out the dark lateral line completely. I just fry 'em in either corn meal or a prepared breading. I fried up remora fillets with speckled trout and Spanish mackerel and served them to my friends. They liked the remora best, the speckled trout next and Spanish mackerel the least. Remora was firm, white meat, very tasty! You just need to catch pretty big ones, because they don't have very much meat relative to their size. I also enjoy sailcats and bluefish, but again -- you have to remove every speck of dark lateral line. With sailcats, there's a noticeable aftertaste, otherwise.Quote:
Originally Posted by tmgrimm3
Hardtail is pretty good. Sounds like Mr. Pier pounder and I clean them the same. I usually just coat them in lemon juice and olive oil then add a little Tony's before putting them on the grill
I filet them and just save the back strip and trim off the dark mid strip. Good baked or battered and fried. Belly strip too small to fool with.
I grilled some and thought they were fine. Cleaned and cooked properly, there arent many fish out there that arent worth trying.
Last time down, our blind taste test went - shark, whiting, pompano, jack, flounder, sailcat. None was left afterwards.
My wife does volunteer work two half days a week and often eats in town. I get excited when she comes home and says wouldn't you like to have fish for dinner because she is taking the night off from the kitchen. I have two freezers in the garage, one for fish and one for everything else. It is always a joy to open the fish freezer and struggle with the decision to choose which fish for dinner. I keep a wide variety of fish because there are so many different ways to prepare them that I never get bored. Most weeks I end up eating fish 3 or 4 times until I get to the beach every fall. Then for the month I spend there I eat fish every day and often twice a day. Just to change up I eat shrimp or crab once or twice a week that month.
So far I have tried about every kind of fish you can get from the pier. I tend to like the fish that are less desirable to other fishermen. For instance Small Jack's, Remora, Bluefish and Sail Cats are my targeted species when I am there. But I have to say that croaker is my favorite.
I e eaten hardtails (bluerunner) more than once. First task is catch them big enough to fillet. Next step, when you do fillet them, cut out the red meat. Then Fry them up for fish tacos. I do the same with blues.
I've tried a lot of the so-called undesirables, most are okay, some are pretty good and a few are great.
Some really depend on cooking method and seasoning as to their eating quality, can be poor one way and good another.
Hardhead, poor, no thank you.
Hardtail, okay, but I don't keep them.
Sailcat, good, my family loves them.
Pinfish, good, but hard to find one big enough to worthwhile.
BoBo, good, makes an acceptable sashimi or ruby rare
Blues, very good, I keep all I can, prefer them 10"+.
Gar, very good, break out the tin snips for easy cleaning.
Lookdown, excellent, at least 12" to be worthwhile.
Spades, excellent, comparable to Flounder.
I like those fish, but struggle to freeze the oily fish without them tasting like tuna fish later. Blues and Spanish especially. To the point that I will only eat them same day. Any tips or suggestions?
I vacuum pack Spanish (all fish for that matter).
I've taken 1 year old vacuum packed Spanish and blues out of the freezer and they tasted almost as good, if not as good, as fresh.
How are you preparing them?
Check out my recipes on the Recipe page.
Try this: We used to catch big bluefish during the summer and freeze the fillets to eat over the winter. The trick was to rinse the fillets in sea water, blot them dry, and then dip them for 20-30 seconds in an ascorbic acid (vitamin C) solution. If I recall, we would use 2 tablespoons of ascorbic acid powder per quart of cold water. It worked very well. Ascorbic acid is an anti-oxidant. It prevents the fats in oily fish from becoming rancid during storage. That prevents the fishy flavor from developing. Rinsing the fillets in water before cooking removes the ascorbic acid.Quote:
Originally Posted by bamafig
You can make "sea water" by dissolving a 1/4 cup of non-iodized salt in a quart of water. Rinsing any kind of fillet in either clean sea water or this brine solution will reduce water loss upon thawing. That's why you don't want to rinse fish in fresh water before freezing. The fresh water swells up the cells and lets out a lot of moisture when you defrost the fish.
I have done this with Spanish and it works great.
Thanks for all of the info!
Don't look at me like I'm crazy when I'm filling the cooler with "trash" fish next month! LOL! Hopefully there will be some desirable fish mixed in. ��
Thanks again!
Toby
The only blue runners we eat around here are the ones that come out the can.Quote:
Originally Posted by tmgrimm3
For those who didn't get it: Blue Runner Beans.
Howabout this?
From Trash Fish to $100 Sushi - Blue Runner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh8KCwSXhzI
http://www.gulfshorespierfishing.com...tid=6596&stc=1
I had trouble with your link David. I'm hoping this one works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh8KCwSXhzI
Wow, gotta try that!! Never thought about using them for sushi.
Would you need to flash freeze the meat or would the ones near shore be okay fresh?
I'm wondering the same thing. Also wondering about the taste of all that red meat.Quote:
Originally Posted by tmgrimm3
I never flash freeze any of our local fish when I use it for sushi.