Scale Them? But That Will Take All Day

Fishing is a fun activity to do as a group. When the smelt are running in Lake Superior, it becomes a sort of party for young and old alike. Night time is when the best smelting is and families will pack a lunch, the children, family dog and dip nets to invade the North Shore of the big lake in search of those little tasty morsels. Some years it would only take a few hours to capture tubs full of smelt. Every scoop of the dip net would be almost full. Other years were not so productive.

My first experience with smelt was a long time ago, but I still remember that poor neighbor lady trying to clean smelt. We had been smelting all night and had quite a lot of fish. When we got home my mother and her friend divided the catch in half and the neighbor lady went home. That evening we were waiting for her to come over for a smelt fry. Finally someone went to see what was keeping her. She was crying and still cleaning fish. She had never dealt with smelt before and had spent the entire day trying to scale them. Smelt are not scaled.

Smelt are usually put in a batter and deep fried. Some people cook them with tomato sauce. I like them either way, but I do not care for them after they have been frozen. So I figured out how to make them taste a lot like a sardine in tomato sauce. I pack them in quart canning jars and process them 90-minutes at 10-pounds in the pressure cooker. I can fit 28-32 whole smelt per jar after they are cleaned. I leave the tails on and remove the head and inside with just 2 quick cuts of the scissors.

I just pack the fish, add 1-teaspoon canning salt, 2-tablespoons tomato sauce, 2-tablespoons oil and 2-tablespoons vinegar to each jar. The vinegar softens the bones and they taste like sardines in tomato sauce. They are a tasty treat in mid winter. Eat them right out of the jar or heat them in a casserole dish.

We have casserole dishes at http://www.pothaven.com

Everything I write about is from personal observation and life experiences. I love to cook and prepare foods in different ways. I like sharing my experiences about food and cooking. My website http://www.pothaven.com was created because of my interest in quality cookware and cooking.

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