Tullbee

[Urbanflyguy]

Im on my way up to mille tomorrow for a few days. Goin mainly for perch and eelpout but i hear that the tullbees are hitting good now. I've heard many things about them ranging from they are so oily you can use them as candles and they taste no good to they are great smoked or fileted out and baked. just curious if anyone can dispell some myth for me and point me in direction of some recipes for them wether smoked (got a good custom fish smoker) or baked fryed what ever im down to try something new. oh i also pickle fish so i would be happy with a good picklein recipe too

thanks guys

[KEN W]

I smoked some a few days ago.They have a ridge of bones down the fillet similar to a northern so be careful when eating them.Also,at least for me.....they need a little extra time in the smoker or they still taste fishy.

I use a basic recipe of 1 cup salt to 1 gal. water.A few hours is long enough.Then dry them and put in the smoker for a couple hours at 250 degrees.

Fillet them out and leave the skin on.

[westb]

What I do with the tullibees that I catch is to first fillet them out just like you would a walleye taking the skin off. I then put them in a mixture of 3 cups water,1 cup soy sauce,1/3 cup brown sugar 1/3 cup white sugar,1/3 cup non-iodized salt,1/2 teaspoon onion powder,1/2 teaspoon garlic powder,and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and soak them overnight. Take them out of the fridge and rinse with cold water and let them sit for 1 hour. Pat dry with a paper towel and I then smoke them in a big cheif smoker with hickory chips for 2 hours. After that I put them in the oven for 20 minutes at 215 degrees. Take them out let them cool and enjoy.

[Urbanflyguy]

hey thanks guys guess ill be keeping some if mille is in the giving mood this weekend

[Jim Uran]

I like to scale them too, their scales come off so easily and can ruin the enjoyment of pigging out on the finished product. I leave them whole, just cut the head off and split them right down the spine and open them up like a book, gut 'em. brine them and lay them on the smoker rack meat side up.

[dewey1]

Just wondering, what does the 20 minutes in the oven do to them?

[westb]

My smoker only reaches a temp of about 170 and I want to make sure the fillets reach an eternal temp of 165 for a period of time. This will ensure that they are safe to eat. You can also freeze the fillets for 48 hours to achieve the same thing.

[Jim Uran]

You have to consider the brining process also, it doesn't cook them with temp but it does sort of cure them.

[Surface Tension]

Freexing won't hurt the end product and kills parasites.

I'd gut, gill and smoke them.

1 cup non iodized salt, to 1 gallon water, 1 teaspoon sodium nitrate.

Or

1 cup quick cure to 1 gallon water.

Soak over night and rinse. Let air dry.

IMO, ciscoe, herring, whitefish and, tullibe are one of the harder fish to smoke. If the brine, smoke, and temp aren't right you'll get an offensive flavor and not so good texture.

Full smoke, I use alder taken from my yard.

I'll start out at 170-180 vents wide open for a a couple hours then bump up the temp to 200, close the vents till internal temp to 160 for 30 minutes.

If you get an internal temp higher and longer you'll dry them out.

When done perfectly the meat will pull away from the skeleton, oil will have solidified leaving the meat moist but firm.

Over do it and it'll be dry and you'll be picking bones.