How To Cook Northern Pike

Baked Northern Pike:

Baked Northern Pike is one of the healthy ways of eating fish if you go easy on the butter. The only other way, which is more healthy, is poached Northern Pike. Most fisherpersons would consider that a waste of Northern Pike. Cooking Northern Pike with vegetables or stuffing is excellent and a very enjoyable change to fried or deep fried Northern Pike and has a lot more flavor than poached.

Baked Northern Pike #1 (Butter, Lemon, Mushrooms, Onions & Sweet Peppers):

· Get a big piece of heavy-duty tin foil and smear butter over the middle.

· Put chopped onions, mushrooms and green peppers on the tin foil. (half of what you have)

· Place your Northern Pike fillets on the vegetables and with a knife, smear a generous helping of butter on the fillets.

· Sprinkle salt, pepper and lemon juice on the fillets and the vegetables.

· Put more vegetables on top and sprinkle more salt, pepper and lemon juice.

· Place a few blobs of butter on top.

· Rap the tin foil up and cook at low to medium heat for about 10 to 15 minutes. If you hear the butter boiling, you have the right temperature.

Baked Northern Pike #2 (Turkey Stuffing):

· Get a big piece of heavy-duty tin foil and smear butter in the middle of the foil and then sprinkle poultry seasoning, salt and pepper onto the butter.

· Put one Northern Pike fillet down on the butter.

· Cover the fillet with Stove Top Stuffing. Use the regular stuffing for Turkey or Chicken.

· Then put the second Northern Pike fillet on the stuffing and roll it all up in the tin foil.

· Wrap up the foil and cook for 8 minutes on each side on medium heat.

Flour & Oil:

Many people just roll the Northern Pike fillet in flour and deep-fry in oil or lard until the fillet is golden brown. This is a quick and easy way but it gets boring if you are cooking it this way every day for your shore lunch. Better have tartar sauce and lemon with this method.

Eggs & Cracker Crumbs:

A very popular way of cooking fish, which was extremely popular in the 50s and 60s, yet is making a major comeback in popularity is to roll the fillet in flour, then dip in beaten eggs, then roll in cracker crumbs and fry in butter until golden brown.

Tempura Batter:

If you go to the seafood section of your supermarket, you will find Clubhouse Tempura Batter, which is the batter you get in Japanese restaurants. Just follow the instructions when making the mix, except add a level teaspoon of salt. Then dip the Northern Pike fillet in the batter and deep fry until golden brown. You might want to make the batter a little bit thicker than they say in the instructions.

Shake 'n Bake:

Shake 'n Bake is great for deep-frying. Just clean the Northern Pike fillets off and make sure they are damp, shake the fish in the mix and deep-fry in oil or lard. For a thicker batter coating, dip the fillet in beaten eggs and then roll in Shake 'n Bake. You can also slow fry in butter. My favorites are original, crispy buffalo, Italian herb and lemon pepper.

Beer Batter:

There are a million different recipes for Beer Batter. Below are a couple methods that are popular with fisherman and people that are camping.

Beer Batter Recipe #1:

· 1 cup of pancake flour

· 3/4 cup of beer

· 1 beaten egg

· 1 teaspoon of salt

· Dash of pepper

· Mix and dip fillets in batter. Then drop into hot deep fat (380 degrees). Cook for 2 minutes or until browned.

Beer Batter Recipe #2:

· 2 eggs, separate yoke and the egg white

· 1 tablespoon of oil or butter

· 1 teaspoon of salt

· 1/4 teaspoon of pepper

· 1-1/3 cups of all purpose flour

· 3/4 cup of flat beer

· Beat egg yolks with oil, salt, and pepper. Add flour and beer to mix. Beat well and refrigerate for 3 1/2 hours. When you are ready to use, fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.

· Dip fillets in batter. Then drop into hot deep fat (380 degrees). Cook for 2 minutes or until browned.

CANOLA OIL: I never use CANOLA Oil or eat anything deep fried that I don't make myself. When CANOLA oil first became an industrial standard for use in fast food restaurants and used in processed food it was also the start of the allergy epidemic and obesity epidemic in North America. CANOL is not an ancient Indian word. It's an acronym for "Canadian Oil Low in Acidity". It's a genetically engineered plant derived from the Fax Seed Plant. It was developed at the University of Saskatchewan. I really believe it is a huge health problem.

Fresh Northern Pike that has never been frozen taste awesome, especially when you catch them in the cool crystal clean lakes of Northern Ontario. I won't eat pike that has been frozen as it gets all grainy and does not taste near as nice as fresh pike.