# Cooking Pike/Snook



## JohnnyMagpie (Sep 7, 2007)

As there are plenty of snook in PPB and WP at the moment, thought I might give you the best recepie for cooking them.

Place cutlets in a saucepan with a brick and enough water to cover. Bring to the boil and simmer till the brick is tender. Then throw away fish and eat the brick.

Yep they are a shit fish. Ihave tried many ways to cook them and the above recepie is the best


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

yum, i love eating bricks.

its just trying to crap them out that hurts.... :shock:


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## wapstar (Jan 4, 2008)

Davey G - heres a tip for ya

Start fishing some toothy GW haunts..... you will soon be Sh%&ing bricks.


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## redman (Jun 5, 2008)

Bricks are fine if you eat your fibre - doesn't anyone listen to derryn hinch - it keeps you normal :shock:


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## AJD (Jul 10, 2007)

redphoenix said:


> Try sticking them in the oven, wrapped in foil, with a big squirt of BBQ sauce, and a squirt of American mustard.
> Some caramelised onions on the side wouldn't go astray either.
> 
> Another alternative (have to be fresh for this), is to wrap the fillets in bacon (use toothpicks to hold the bacon on), and cook on the barbie. Since they're a reasonably oily fish, the flavours soak in nicely.
> ...


Good call with the onions and bacon Red. At least then there's something decent to eat. I can't even contemplate eating the things because of the smell they give off.


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## JohnnyMagpie (Sep 7, 2007)

Hey Red,

I'm a chef and I wouldn't even go to that much trouble at work, let alone for a pike. Think I'll just let them go in the future.


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## DGax65 (Jun 7, 2006)

The Pacific Barracuda, found off the coast of California, is very similar to the Australian Barracuda. Many California fishermen think that the barracuda is a trash fish. They are fun to catch, but few keep them because of their reputation as poor table fare. Bonito share this reputation. What I have found is that, if properly cared for, barracuda, like bonito, can make a fine meal. The key is to bleed and ice them immediately.  Removing the lateral line also improves the taste. Like other oily fish, they are good candidates for the smoker. I've also had them in stir fry and with sweet and sour sauce. They really are quite tasty when prepared properly. I don't bother keeping them if I don't have ice in my fish bag.


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## JT (May 25, 2006)

I do know that the Barracuda in NZ waters usually carry a parasite within the flesh that makes eating a definate no go. I have caught them and filleted them for bait and you can see the white parasites running through their flesh at about a foot long or longer.

How on God's green earth Bonito developed a reputation for poor eating is beyond me. As sashimi they are excellent, or seared very quickly on the BBQ with some red onion are wonderful with some hot sake.

JT


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## Guest (Oct 30, 2008)

Cheong Liew is the head chef of the Grange restaurant of the Hilton Hotel in Adelaide. He is rated as one of australias top chefs and his signature dish 'Four Dances of the Sea' has been rated by food critic Stephen Downes as one of the Top 100 gastronomic experiences to have before you die.

It is a dish made of four individual islands of seafood and represents a culinary journey as well as specific instances in Cheong Liews development as a chef. The dish consists of calamari, prawn, octopus and snook.

This represents a very interesting choice as culinary wise most people would nominate king george whiting or perhaps bluefin tuna as the epitomy of south australian seafood.

Food for though


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## Guest (Oct 30, 2008)

The Weekend Australian has also nominated 'Four Dances of the Sea' as Australias National dish.

Not bad for the humble snook 

I find them quite good myself and any I catch get bled and iced straight away then cleaned, filleted and skinned as soon as I get home. They are very good when fresh but spoil very quickly if not bled, chilled and cleaned ASAP. Once they get a bit warm the guts and blood taints the flesh.

I suspect most poeple who rate snook poorly have tasted snook which has not been properly cared for.


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## DGax65 (Jun 7, 2006)

JT said:


> How on God's green earth Bonito developed a reputation for poor eating is beyond me. As sashimi they are excellent, or seared very quickly on the BBQ with some red onion are wonderful with some hot sake.
> 
> JT


I think the bad rep that bonito got in California was caused by poor handling and storage. The 1/2 and 3/4-day boats in the sportfishing fleet, for the most part, don't have refrigeration available. Your catch goes into a wet hessian sack (gunny sack) that sits in a trough around the base of the bait tank. Overflow from the tank keeps the bags wet (sometimes). This system works for hearty fish like calico bass, but it just doesn't cut it with bonito and barracuda. Although some of the 3/4-day boats now have refrigerated sea water systems, it isn't common practice throughout the local fleet. Many old boat designs also lacked adequate kill boxes, so private boaters had no way to chill their catch. Over the years, bonito and barracuda got a reputation as trash fish simply because people didn't handle them properly. By the time they got their catch home it really wasn't fit for anything but cat food. After a while it just became accepted fact that it was not good table fare.

Fortunately, a couple of things have happened that have helped to resurrect the reputation of these fish. The growth in popularity of sushi restaurants has exposed many to culinary possibilities of fish like bonito, barracuda and mackerel. Also, the large Asian population in Southern California has led to wider exposure to cooking with what was once considered trash fish.


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## JT (May 25, 2006)

Thanks Ken...that certainly explains a bit.

JT


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## DGax65 (Jun 7, 2006)

kraley said:


> JT - the pacific Bonito is a much redder version than the australian one - a bit more like the flesh of a frigate mackeral. While I agree that it can be cooked and eaten (and is decent sushi), it is nowhere near as palatable as what you are used to down here. Much stronger, oilier and bloodier....


What? Do you have something against slimy, oily fish? ;-)

OT: When I first started kayak fishing I used to keep my catch in a diver's mesh bag that I stored behind the seat. One day I landed with a bag full of log barracuda. As I was stowing my gear I realized that the entire seatback was covered in barrie slime.  I had to use the high-pressure sprayer at the car wash to get that mess off.


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## blaggon (Jan 14, 2008)

JT said:


> wonderful with some hot sake.
> 
> sake ? eek


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## JohnnyMagpie (Sep 7, 2007)

Sake, scotch whatever, now you're talking my language. If you drink enough of it, anything tastes good.


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## varp (Sep 12, 2005)

I so completely don't understand WTF you don't think snook are good on the fang JohnnyM. :? :? :?

Got me beat.

A fat fillet pan fried skin down till it's golden crispy, then a quick flip over with maybe a drizzle of a Thai style dipping sauce or a bit of dill or just nothing at all.....

Fuggin delicious!!! Given a choice between a skinny fillet of poofy, bland, over rated KG whiting and the above....Snook hands down!!! Every time !!!


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## JohnnyMagpie (Sep 7, 2007)

Maybe I'm spoilt eating the best fish in the ocean. The humble Flattie, lightly panfried, add salt and lemon just can't go past it. But maybe I'll have one more go at the pike, using some of the tips from fellow yakkers


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## varp (Sep 12, 2005)

It's worth it mate. Just make sure it is fresh not frozen and a snook not a pike. ;-)

Shoot me if I'm wrong!!!


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## GoneFishn (May 17, 2007)

Pretty much right there Ross but make sure you bleed and ice straight away.


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## angryseal (Jul 27, 2009)

JohnnyMagpie said:


> As there are plenty of snook in PPB and WP at the moment, thought I might give you the best recepie for cooking them.
> 
> Place cutlets in a saucepan with a brick and enough water to cover. Bring to the boil and simmer till the brick is tender. Then throw away fish and eat the brick.
> 
> Yep they are a shit fish. Ihave tried many ways to cook them and the above recepie is the best


I had one cooked straight on the BBQ it was awesome,have found though some fish taste better if left inthe fridge for afew days first.i always try to clean them asap then cool.My x can cook a awesome T bone ,i cant do them as good as her?


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## oldandbent (Feb 11, 2008)

The way I cook Snook is to place fillets on a piece of foil.

Coat lightly with butter or margarine.

Salt and pepper (ground). A smear of Jellied mint sauce.

Fold/wrap the foil to enclose (waterproof) and poach in boiling water or place on a hot plate for a couple of minutes.

Do not overcook.

Tastes great


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