Preparing Porgies

[TurboDan]

How do most of you guys prepare porgies? Do you fillet them or go with the panfish method of scaling/dressing them and then cooking? Basically, I caught a mess of them today and filleting them was kind of annoying since the fillets seemed pretty small.

I don't fish for porgies that often and when I have, it's been on a party boat. This was out in my personal boat at the Axel Carlson Reef and they were pretty much all over the place. I know the regs say 9-inches, but do you usually set a "personal limit" of sorts? Seems you need to catch a jumbo one to get a nice fillet out of it.

[snafu313]

This may sound kind of obvious, but honestly if a porgy looks small enough to fit in a frying pan (but still legal!), I won't bother filleting it. If its bigger that that, I go ahead and fillet it (or have it filleted). I don't measure them, I just eyeball the size. System works for me.

[frugalfisherman]

Gut them, oil them and throw on a hot grill or under the broiler until skin is crispy. The skin peels right off and you can pull out the bones.

[Leif]

How about like this??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YC7EoPO1wg

[AJFISH13]

I take them, fillet them big or small, coat them with breadcrumbs and fry
until golden brown. for all you carnivores out there (including me:) ), porgies
have a firm texture with a meaty flavor, kind of like drum. enjoy

[the1jonc]

Sick video. I was in a sushi bar in San Diego and I saw something similar. They pulled the fish out of a tank, cut out the fillets and served them as sashimi with the still twitching rack on the platter.

[jmurr711]

scale gut fry philly method

[RussH]

Wow... that video was pretty awful. Everyone was saying it was just reflexes, but I looked pretty close, the heart, lungs, kidney, etc all seemed to still be intact. That fish could very much have still been alive. That's just some Hannibal lector shit right there. Put the thing out of its misery.

That said, I had the BEST Sushi at a wedding at Seasons last night, I even liked the Octopus which I usually can't stand. :D

Oh yeah, The way I prepare Porgies, is to gut them on the boat, put in a plastic bag on ice, and then give them to my best friend who loves oily fish.

[AJFISH13]

You could try the D method, gut them and stick them in a toaster oven. Ask Ryan W about that:p .

[Ryan W]

You could try the D method, gut them and stick them in a toaster oven. Ask Ryan W about that:p .


What do you mean gut and stick in toaster oven? Just throw your illegal 8 incher into the toaster whole :p.

"You aint nevah seen toaster pogies befor' ?"

[tautog]

I had to clean and eventually confiscate that toaster.

[Ryan W]

It's not even up in the wheelhouse anymore- we had to get if off the boat completely lmao. Just microwave now- and we have enough trouble getting people to not nuke sandwiches in aluminum foil.

[Jerseydix]

Deep south method. Gut, scale, halve, season, dust, then pan fry hard till you can almost eat the bones.

[tautog]

Too bad. It was nice to be able to toast a roll or a bagel but not so nice with scales and porgy juice on it.

[Ryan W]

Can still majorly F**k up the microwave and get a lecture from monty about not nuking in aluminum foil though :D.

[tautog]

Monty pull a knife on anyone for nuking with aluminum foil lately?

[Ryan W]

Monty pull a knife on anyone for nuking with aluminum foil lately?
Nah, once when someone tried to mug him while fishing but I diffused the incident hahaha.

[the1jonc]

Thanks for the tips (an entertainment).

I did them 3 ways.

1) Fish fingers (filltes)
2) On the grill with Basil Pesto (FYI the Reynolds No Stick Foil works well)
3) Fried Hard

Will try the toaster oven method next time :p

[tautog]

I don't eat them often but will take the larger ones over 12" fillet them cutting the fillet into upper and lower portions to avoid the bones and then fry them with panko coating.

[njfisherman1975]

Make sure you take out that line of red meat...makes the fillet taste better...and then u got two pieces of meat to deep fry.