# Favorite Ways To Cook Brookies.



## PunyTrout

I’m hoping to chase away the Winter blues and look forward to Spring with a topic that should be interesting. Like the title says; What are your favorite ways to cook Brookies?

What is your favorite cooking method? - Are you a fan of a cast iron pan and an open fire? Or smoked with specific types of wood? Sous-vide in butter perhaps?

Where is your favorite setting? - Right on a riverbank or campsite or back home in a comfortable cabin away from the bugs?

Techniques – Pan seared in oil or bacon fat? Do you cook them whole-gutted, filleted, or stuff the bellies with morels?

Secret tricks of the trade – Do you have a secret trick that often gets overlooked in preparation?

Ingredients – Favorite herbs, spices, oils and side dishes.

Lastly, _what are your favorite memories or stories you have cooking Brookies?_


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## TK81

PunyTrout said:


> I’m hoping to chase away the Winter blues and look forward to Spring with a topic that should be interesting. Like the title says; What are your favorite ways to cook Brookies?
> 
> What is your favorite cooking method? - Are you a fan of a cast iron pan and an open fire? Or smoked with specific types of wood? Sous-vide in butter perhaps?
> 
> Where is your favorite setting? - Right on a riverbank or campsite or back home in a comfortable cabin away from the bugs?
> 
> Techniques – Pan seared in oil or bacon fat? Do you cook them whole-gutted, filleted, or stuff the bellies with morels?
> 
> Secret tricks of the trade – Do you have a secret trick that often gets overlooked in preparation?
> 
> Ingredients – Favorite herbs, spices, oils and side dishes.
> 
> Lastly, _what are your favorite memories or stories you have cooking Brookies?_


Campsite, cast iron, headed and gutted, stuffed with lemon and onion, lightly dusted in flour, garlic salt and pepper, crisped up in a little bacon grease and butter. Been awhile...need to do this again.


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## hommer23

I like mine stuffed with minced red and yellow peppers, mushrooms, salt and pepper. Then add onions, tomatoes with some fresh lemon juice and butter over the skin wrapped in foil and baked at 350. Just like Christmas morning when you unwrap them.


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## cedarlkDJ

TK81 said:


> Campsite, cast iron, headed and gutted, stuffed with lemon and onion, lightly dusted in flour, garlic salt and pepper, crisped up in a little bacon grease and butter.




And fresh picked morel shrooms on the side with a faint smell of fish and night crawlers emanating from the finger tips.


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## TK81

hommer23 said:


> I like mine stuffed with minced red and yellow peppers, mushrooms, salt and pepper. Then add onions, tomatoes with some fresh lemon juice and butter over the skin wrapped in foil and baked at 350. Just like Christmas morning when you unwrap them.


When I started fishing "specks" in Canada, they always had tomatoes to go with the fish. Forgot about that. Awesome. Got to try it your way.


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## mcfish

Can’t hardly improve on those ^^^

As for stories...

Two teenage buddies of mine and myself 30 years ago. We went to the UP in my 81 F 150 throwing a blue tarp over the bed of the truck for a tent. 

We got our brookies all set for dinner and prepared our fire. We were just about to pull them off when we discovered why that spot was relatively clear of brush. 

There was a long ago forgotten about pad of concrete that we had lit our fire on. The explosion blew our fire and fish in a hundred directions. 

Another time, we prepared our brookies for cooking. We also cut the potatoes and onions for frying. 

We were smelling pretty ripe so we decided to go to town and get showers before dinner. 

When we returned, we discovered that a bear had eaten everything we had fixed for dinner. Along with 4 days worth of venison, butter and cooking oil we had brought along. 

The only thing he left was our onions. And it had crapped all over our coolers.


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## neazor91

Put them in foil whole. Put lemon slices in the body cavity. Season with Lawry's seasoning. Put them on the grill.


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## zzcop302

For me, sometimes simplicity is best.
Hot iron skillet, bacon grease, light dusting of flour seasoned with salt and pepper.
Fried onions and potatoes as a side.
Camp table, stream side, listening to the creek flowing over the rocks while watching the squirrels and jays.
Come on spring!!!!


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## Gordon Casey

neazor91 said:


> Put them in foil whole. Put lemon slices in the body cavity. Season with Lawry's seasoning. Put them on the grill.


Frying pan, gutted and gilled with the head on, nothing over 14 inches, half butter and olive oil, salt and pepper, flour inside and outside of fish. Fry uncovered. Why do you want to mask the unique flavor of a brookie with other bold spices. Another pan, butter and olive oil, onion, salt, pepper, cut bacon and sliced yellow potatoes. Do not flip the potatoes until the bottom potatoes have a crust. Hard to guess how many times I have done this over the years. All started with the bud's after high school. Then my girlfried/wife. Then the kids. Now the grandkids. Last time I did this was with my bud's again. I guess what goes around comes around. Same recipe for the last 50 years. Have to admit I have replaced the brookies with rainbows and browns. I'm too damn old to be scratching around the brush and bugs. Today, when the grandkids come over for fish the trout/frying pan method is the only way they will eat fish. Sometime finding whole trout is a chore. Sometimes when I travel north I'll go to a true fish market and get whole perch. They are still young enough to believe those are bay trout.


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## PunyTrout

I was watching a video on YouTube the other day where a guy was demonstrating various ways of preparing and cooking Bluegills. One of his preferred methods was to slice scoring in the flanks to allow flour and seasonings into the flesh. Then using a cast iron skillet and pan frying the fish in hot oil. The oil penetrates the flesh through the scoring in that way helping the cooking process.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with a canoe livery owner on the Fox river. He said that his favorite dish was frying Brookies dusted with flour in oil until the bones were tender. (I'm not sure if he would remove the spinal column and leave the finer ribs and pin bones or not.) I'm wondering if scoring the flesh would help in that regard for that particular method. I might have to try it out sometime next season.

As far as preserving the delicate taste methods go, cooking them sous vide in butter until the eyes turn white has been really tasty.

A nice memory was traveling to New Hampshire and fishing the rivers of the White Mountains. Since we paid the nonresident license fees we felt justified in getting value for our money. Taking a limit of Brook Trout from a stocked stream and cooking them at the rivers edge for a feast is still a fond memory. There's a lot more to the story but I'll leave it at that for now.


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## B.Jarvinen

average day - Peanut Oil, shake fish in some Drake's mix, a few, just a few, Red Pepper flakes in the oil

special day - crush up a bunch of Hazel nuts real fine, mix with a little Drake's, and sprinkle onto sides of fish in the pan

don't forget to leave the tails on


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## Ranger Ray

zzcop302 said:


> For me, sometimes simplicity is best.
> Hot iron skillet, bacon grease, light dusting of flour seasoned with salt and pepper.
> Fried onions and potatoes as a side.
> Camp table, stream side, listening to the creek flowing over the rocks while watching the squirrels and jays.
> Come on spring!!!!


Bacon grease! Only way to go. Yummy!


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## stickbow shooter

Usually cooked in bacon grease ( wife's favorite way to cook all fish) then smother them with morels and side of fried potatoes and eggs.
One of the first memories I have of fishing for brookies was when my uncle took me, I had to be around 10 years old. We fished over by Hale I believe in a cedar swamp. Still remember sitting on my knees fishing that little creek. Then eating what we caught on a campfire.


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## Martin Looker

I like mine done simple. Build a fire stream side where it is .saf s to do so, clean the fish cook them on a hotdog fork until the skin blisters and turns black peal off the skin sprinkle with just a little salt and enjoy. I like the taste of the trout not a bunch of spices.


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## -Axiom-

I cook small (>12") trout whole (gutted with head off) with a light dusting of flour fried in butter or bacon grease.


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## Gordon Casey

stickbow shooter said:


> Usually cooked in bacon grease ( wife's favorite way to cook all fish) then smother them with morels and side of fried potatoes and eggs.
> Sorry, I just have to make a comment!!! There is an old adage " To each his/her own" BUT.
> I like fish tasting brookies not applewood/maple/hickory bacon flavored brookies. Just saying.


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## michiganmaniac

mcfish said:


> Can’t hardly improve on those ^^^
> 
> As for stories...
> 
> Two teenage buddies of mine and myself 30 years ago. We went to the UP in my 81 F 150 throwing a blue tarp over the bed of the truck for a tent.
> 
> We got our brookies all set for dinner and prepared our fire. We were just about to pull them off when we discovered why that spot was relatively clear of brush.
> 
> There was a long ago forgotten about pad of concrete that we had lit our fire on. The explosion blew our fire and fish in a hundred directions.
> 
> Another time, we prepared our brookies for cooking. We also cut the potatoes and onions for frying.
> 
> We were smelling pretty ripe so we decided to go to town and get showers before dinner.
> 
> When we returned, we discovered that a bear had eaten everything we had fixed for dinner. Along with 4 days worth of venison, butter and cooking oil we had brought along.
> 
> The only thing he left was our onions. And it had crapped all over our coolers.


I know this thread is about cooking brookies but I wanna know more about this! Explosion? Was there some sort of flammable gas under the concrete? Elaborate if you dont mind I'm curious.


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## PunyTrout

I was hoping for more stories personally.  

I think @Trout King and I might have a stream side cook off next season.


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## JimP

Gilled and gutted, lightly seasoned flour dusted, fried in butter with sliced almonds. Splash of lemon to plate.


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## wadin' forever

10 or 11, early May, not real cold but not warm. Fingers still waterlogged. Tinfoil slabbed with butter, onions all over, splash of beer and onto embers of campfire. Salt and pepper. That's it. Did it in years since, but best then and melting beer bottles in campfire.


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## mcfish

michiganmaniac said:


> I know this thread is about cooking brookies but I wanna know more about this! Explosion? Was there some sort of flammable gas under the concrete? Elaborate if you dont mind I'm curious.


I was told at the time that it was moisture in the concrete. It expands and can release violently in some cases. 

It is forever etched in my memory and it was a loong time ago. Scary as heck.


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## Lightfoot

I haven't eaten a brookie in almost 30 years. Gut them, leave the head and tail on. Add a little salt, pepper, butter and a frying pan. Eat them like corn on the cob.


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## TK81

PunyTrout said:


> I was hoping for more stories personally.
> 
> I think @Trout King and I might have a stream side cook off next season.


My cousin's son got one yesterday that is a little too big for the pan.








Supposedly 5 1/2 lbs.


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## PunyTrout

TK81 said:


> My cousin's son got one yesterday that is a little too big for the pan. ...Supposedly 5 1/2 lbs.


Now that's a _puny trout! _

_Nice!_


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## Martin Looker

That is a really nice fish but I think you will need two pans.


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## jrose

TK81 said:


> My cousin's son got one yesterday that is a little too big for the pan.
> View attachment 372533
> 
> Supposedly 5 1/2 lbs.


Just need a bigger pan!!!


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## Trout King

Pan fried in butter. Filleted and deep fried. Filleted, skinned, seasoned (pan friend in butter/oil) and put in alfredo pasta sauce. Boiled and dipped in butter, add onions, garlic, seasoning to the water as desired. Stick over a fire. 

I can pretty much eat a brook trout raw fresh out of the stream, by far the best tasting fish available in MI, imo.


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## Trout King

TK81 said:


> My cousin's son got one yesterday that is a little too big for the pan.
> View attachment 372533
> 
> Supposedly 5 1/2 lbs.


WOWOWOWOW


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## PunyTrout

Trout King said:


> Pan fried in butter. Filleted and deep fried. Filleted, skinned, seasoned (pan friend in butter/oil) and put in alfredo pasta sauce. Boiled and dipped in butter, add onions, garlic, seasoning to the water as desired. Stick over a fire.
> 
> I can pretty much eat a brook trout raw fresh out of the stream, by far the best tasting fish available in MI, imo.


Alfredo Sauce? 

OK, maybe with some chanterelles and some kind of vegetable. I could see that maybe.

You better not be talking about some alfredo sauce from a jar. You need to make it from scratch or don't even bother IMO.


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## Trout King

PunyTrout said:


> Alfredo Sauce?
> 
> OK, maybe with some chanterelles and some kind of vegetable. I could see that maybe.
> 
> You better not be talking about some alfredo sauce from a jar. You need to make it from scratch or don't even bother IMO.


I have 3 kids, I am lucky to even have time to fish.

Yes, always mushrooms i alfredo.


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## JAA

Trout King said:


> Pan fried in butter. Filleted and deep fried. Filleted, skinned, seasoned (pan friend in butter/oil) and put in alfredo pasta sauce. Boiled and dipped in butter, add onions, garlic, seasoning to the water as desired. Stick over a fire.


 ---------------- I agree with stick over fire! With egg's and Tater's. A delicacy. But Alfredo sauce??? Nope! wonton Waste!!! Use Carp or Creek chubs with your Alfredo


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## zig

We caught a bunch on a trip to the UP a few years back, so toward the end of the trip I wanted to try something different than my usual techniques, all which have already been mentioned. Anyway, decided to fillet and skin them, which I never really do. So, filleted and skinned, dusting of flour, salt, pepper, fried in pan, remove from pan, add lemon juice, butter, capers and a bit of white wine. Reduce sauce a bit, pour over fish. It was really good.


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## Zkovach1175

View attachment 373489









I haven’t cooked them yet but I’m packing up a shore lunch kit for this year’s trip. Either way here’s some pics of what our outfitter makes. The trout salad sandwiches are to die for. Good thread puny, learning some good stuff here.


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## hommer23

Couple snacks from last spring, they were cooked over the campfire laying on a hotdog fork.


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## Dora the Explorer

Start with the perfect size trout--about 10". Field dressed, head and fins removed, and then thoroughly scraped to remove as much slime and scales as possible. Dip in eggs, then breading [cracker crumbs are best, seasoned flour will work]. Fried in a cast iron pan with bacon grease if available, or canola oil. Am I the only one who likes the eat the crispy skin?


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## PunyTrout

Dora the Explorer said:


> Am I the only one who likes the eat the crispy skin?


Eating the crispy skin is one of my distinct memories from the first Brookie I caught way back when my father first taught me to fish. That and taking an age to tiptoe and creep up to the creek. My first cast resulted in an 11 inch Brookie and I was hooked for life.


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## TK81

Dora the Explorer said:


> Start with the perfect size trout--about 10". Field dressed, head and fins removed, and then thoroughly scraped to remove as much slime and scales as possible. Dip in eggs, then breading [cracker crumbs are best, seasoned flour will work]. Fried in a cast iron pan with bacon grease if available, or canola oil. Am I the only one who likes the eat the crispy skin?


Skin and tails.


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## Quig7557

They tend to be the best right on the river bank, they won’t lay flat in the pan they are so fresh.

My wife and I were eating our catch on the bank in a nice grassy area, a bright sunny day without a cloud. Out of nowhere a gust of wind, just one, blows and flips the canoe that was pulled up on the bank with the motor still on the side. Freak thing to happen.

Generally we like to fry them in olive oil with drakes. We almost always fillet them, and each of us gets 1/2 of each fish, even Steven, they all taste a bit different. I grill them for the wife and occasionally if I’ve got some that are frozen.

If I fish a lot in a year, I take the ones I’ve frozen and put a light smoke on them and can them in olive oil, that, brightens the worst winter day.


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## MuddybootsGB

Gutted, salt, pepper, wrap in foil, stuff in coals of a fire next to the stream.


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## Sportingman1954

Rolled in flour or yellow corn
meal in a iron pan with
bacon fat, along with wild 
blueberries in the pancakes
Broiled- rolled in yellow
corn meal with 2 pieces
of Volworth’s thick cut smoked
honey curred bacon rolled 
around them beauties( brookies)
yummy, red small potatoes
with parsley and garlic powder
baised with EVO.and a salid.
and home made Dutch Cherry
crisp pie .


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## Martin Looker

I remember that breakfast with my brother when we were camping in the refuge way back when we were kids. Go down to the creek catch half a dozen brookies clean them then cook the bacon for some grease eat the bacon while waiting for the fish to get done. save the grease for trout lunch and supper. Those were the good old days. Sure wish he was still here.


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## Trout King

Martin Looker said:


> I remember that breakfast with my brother when we were camping in the refuge way back when we were kids. Go down to the creek catch half a dozen brookies clean them then cook the bacon for some grease eat the bacon while waiting for the fish to get done. save the grease for trout lunch and supper. Those were the good old days. Sure wish he was still here.


Nothing better while camping than fresh brookies. You are making me want to fast forward to UP trout camp!


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## Martin Looker

About a month


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## TK81

While I put in a new vinyl plank floor, my wife's cousin spent a few days at his shack near Hawk Junction. True to form, he dropped off 5 nice specks for the FIL. After a few fillets in the cast iron, I have these going in the smoker tomorrow. Just threw them in the brine:










This will be trout candy!


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## Martin Looker

I like smoked fish, but my Brook Trout all go into the frying pan.


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## TK81

Martin Looker said:


> I like smoked fish, but my Brook Trout all go into the frying pan.


Agreed on the little guys...but the smallest of this bunch was probably 15 or 16 inches. I like the bigger guys in the smoker.


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## Martin Looker

I will say I've not had many that size.


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## laserstraight

Martin Looker said:


> I will say I've not had many that size.


Me either, I feel your pain!


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## Gordon Casey

TK81 said:


> While I put in a new vinyl plank floor, my wife's cousin spent a few days at his shack near Hawk Junction. True to form, he dropped off 5 nice specks for the FIL. After a few fillets in the cast iron, I have these going in the smoker tomorrow. Just threw them in the brine:
> 
> View attachment 411425
> 
> 
> This will be trout candy!


Why would waste an ultimate tasting fish by smoking it?? It's a sin, pan frying should be the only method. There should be an outdoor law against smoking the best tasting trout species in MI. Salmon. Lakers, browns should only be smoked. Although I have a few good recipes for baking salmon and lakers.


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## TK81

Gordon Casey said:


> Why would waste an ultimate tasting fish by smoking it?? It's a sin, pan frying should be the only method. There should be an outdoor law against smoking the best tasting trout species in MI. Salmon. Lakers, browns should only be smoked. Although I have a few good recipes for baking salmon and lakers.


To be honest with you, Gordon, I prefer to eat gills and perch. I've eaten enough trout to last me a lifetime. I still thoroughly enjoy a pan-fried brookie or brown a couple times a year, but honestly would rather eat them smoked. I'll take a brown over a rainbow any day. Smoked specks, splake, or small lakers are the bomb for me.

When I'm up in Canada, I eat smallmouth before I eat specks. I tend to eat one meal of trout, and then just eat pickerel, pike, and smallies.

I had a chunk of smoked speck for breakfast. Awesome.


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## Trout King

I grilled a few nice sized brookies the other day....yum. Pan fried is good, but season up inside and outside, put some butter inside the fish and go to town. For grilling purposes and real buter I lay the fish on foil to avoid flare ups as the butter melts. 

Next time I may inject a bit of seasoned butter right into the flesh. First order is to go catch more brookies. Imo, it should be against the law to freeze brook trout.


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## Martin Looker

Cook them on a forked stick until the skin bubbles up peal off the skin sprinkle with just a pinch of salt. Best shore lunch ever.


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## Curt

This is my favorite way.


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## Martin Looker

Best way I know of


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## 6Speed

Once I had a nice pile of brook trout and cooked too many over the fire so I had leftovers. I try to never do that with trout because they're best fresh but I did that day. I was heading home the next day so I thought about the best way to finish them off while I was driving.

The solution I came up with was brookie tacos. I used a regular fish taco recipe I had and it was awesome! Best fish taco I've ever had and that includes salt water. Just an idea if someone runs into the same situation one day...good stuff.


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## PunyTrout

6Speed said:


> The solution I came up with was brookie tacos.


Just don't call them 'pink tacos'. You might confuse some guys...


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## Martin Looker

I never seem to have too many Brook Trout, but then my teenage Grandson is my fishing buddy and I have to fight for my share.


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## PunyTrout

Quig7557 said:


> If I fish a lot in a year, I take the ones I’ve frozen and put a light smoke on them and can them in olive oil, that, brightens the worst winter day.


I realize that you posted this awhile ago but I would be interested in learning more about pressure canning trout and other fish. If you would share any tips or recipes that you've learned I would appreciate it. 

Thanks


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## Zkovach1175

PunyTrout said:


> I realize that you posted this awhile ago but I would be interested in learning more about pressure canning trout and other fish. If you would share any tips or recipes that you've learned I would appreciate it.
> 
> Thanks


This should be a sticky thread. Thanks for bring it back up. I vote sticky!!!!


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## Benzie Rover

PunyTrout said:


> I’m hoping to chase away the Winter blues and look forward to Spring with a topic that should be interesting. Like the title says; What are your favorite ways to cook Brookies?
> 
> What is your favorite cooking method? - Are you a fan of a cast iron pan and an open fire? Or smoked with specific types of wood? Sous-vide in butter perhaps?
> 
> Where is your favorite setting? - Right on a riverbank or campsite or back home in a comfortable cabin away from the bugs?
> 
> Techniques – Pan seared in oil or bacon fat? Do you cook them whole-gutted, filleted, or stuff the bellies with morels?
> 
> Secret tricks of the trade – Do you have a secret trick that often gets overlooked in preparation?
> 
> Ingredients – Favorite herbs, spices, oils and side dishes.







  








IMG_6965 (1)




__
Benzie Rover


__
Jul 22, 2020


__
1







Eating brook trout is a special thing for me. I choose to release 99% of Lower Peninsula trout of all species, but I cherish my UP and Ontario brookie meals. I have found that I vastly prefer to eat hold-over brookies from stocked lakes. They almost always have bright orange flesh if they have been in the lake over at least 1 winter. Not sure if it's a diet of minnows, scuds, both or something else. I have noticed a similar trait from wild beaver pond brookies (normally orange flesh, although not quite the sockeye red as the stocked lake holdover fish in the pic). Most wild or stocked river fish will have white or pale pink flesh that will turn white or very light orange upon cooking. The white/light orange flesh is fine and all, but to me, nowhere near as tasty as the sockeye orange flesh from holdover lake fish. Anyway, just an interesting observation I wanted to share. A bonus of this approach is that I normally only harvest from put-n-take stocked lake fisheries.

As for technique, I generally pan fry with skin on. If it's over 14", I fillet them so middle cooks good, smaller I fry it whole. If I am feeling 'fancy' - meaning I'm in my kitchen and not camp site, I will often pull off the cooked skin, then pan fry the inside to make both sides brown and crispy. It's then like a big potato chip with fins. The crispy skin is very tasty on it's own as a crispy side with the fish, or you can kick it up a notch and spread garlic cream cheese, chives, few diced capers and even some caviar (if you have some around) and enjoy a small plate that'd cost you $75 or more in a big city.


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## Stand By

Same here. Wipe the scales off. Pan fried in a cast iron skillet with butter.


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