Bream Patties

Ok, I know this is crappieville, but there's no bream-cooking place. Here's a little family secret recipe idea my mother came up with in the fifties. It's great. You know all those bait-stealing little bream you throw back? The really little ones. Save up a bunch in gal milk carton until you have enough (takes a lot). Run them through a hand meat grinder twice, bones and all. Now, use this as the filling for your favorite recipe for salmon patties. The bones essentially dissolve when you fry them. Leaves only pure bream taste.

my dh will love hearing this! acutally, someone else put a similar recipe on the board, but to know that others use it too! we bought an old hand cranked meat grinder at a yard sale a month or so ago just for trying this out! my husband has said for years that there has to be a way to eat those buggers!

thanks!

did your mom gut the fish before placing in the milk carton? did you have to scale them? did she freeze them before grinding (i'm thinking that it may have taken a trip or two to get enough for making the fish meal)

Yep, sorry. Ya gotta clean, gut and scale them--scale them first or you won't be able to unless you like using tweezers to yank out the scales, especially around where the head was--may have to anyway, just think of it as preparing a gourmet meal. Afterwards, just put them in the bottom of a gallon milk jug and cover with an inch or two of water and freeze. Next trip out just add what you get to the jug and keep on going 'til the jug's full or you have enough. Takes a little more than you think. One thing you may or may not know, ice evaporates. If you see the ice getting close to the frizzed fish, add water a very little at a time 'til you get an inch or so of ice built up again. FWIW, we had best luck with the pattie recipes that used a cream sauce, but they are a little more trouble. By the way, leave the tails on. And make sure these fish are LITTLE.

Wow I thought I was the only one to do this glad someone else is now I dont feel crazy anymore. I do mine as follows. As stated, they must be very small bream as in the 3 inchers etc.. this is due to the softness and ease of breaking down the bone texture. I scale and behead them, and gut them. I freeze mine in a jug or gallon bag covering them completely with H2O. When I have enough, about 30 I boil them in small amounts of water with a tad of olive oil an a rapid boil for about a minute or two. Let cool on stove. This is important because they grind better when not hot. I actually dont make patties but rather use for stuffing variuos things. I grind them well and sometimes give them a 1 or 2 sec pulse with the food processor( very very little DONT use the PUREE button) In a frying pan with some real butter a tad of olive oil, juice from about a 1/4 of a fresh lemon some fresh garlic( 2 or 3 cloves) or more to suite your taste. Some white wine ( very dry about 1/4 cup) some chopped spring onions 1 or 2 with the green as well. Salt and Coursly ground black pepper and some freshly chopped parsley. cook over medium heat for about a min or two then lower. Cook, stirring sonstantly. Remember this is going to cook with the item you stuff so it shouldnt be done only blend the flavors. Take a fairly large steak of salmon and butterfly it and stuff with the mixture and cook as you normally would. This is also great as a stuffing for twice baked potatoes, baked potatoes and even beef and pork. Or as said earlier just fry em up. Good luck

I've gotta try this... usually if we don't feel like throwing em back, we'll just fry them hard and eat bones and all... but knowing how much my wife loves Salmon patties, I may be able to talk her into trying this.

you can also clean and pack brim in quard jars, and cook em in a pressure cooker and the bones get soft, like sardines and canned salmon. all you do then is open a can and make your patties like you do canned salmon. i bought me a big pressure cooker just for this purpose cause a friend of mine told me about doing it but so far i havent got around to it.

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Originally Posted by Primes

I've gotta try this... usually if we don't feel like throwing em back, we'll just fry them hard and eat bones and all... but knowing how much my wife loves Salmon patties, I may be able to talk her into trying this.

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If you could talk her into cleaning all those little ones, you will be in business. :)

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Originally Posted by rango

you can also clean and pack brim in quard jars, and cook em in a pressure cooker and the bones get soft, like sardines and canned salmon. all you do then is open a can and make your patties like you do canned salmon. i bought me a big pressure cooker just for this purpose cause a friend of mine told me about doing it but so far i havent got around to it.

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I know a feller that does drum that a way. I had some of their "salmon" patties and I swear I couldn't tell the differance.

beenfishin....I remember the drum thing, sort of. What cook did was kinda bend the fish and score the bones with a knife, then fry them. He did the same thing with gar and buffalo. He fried them. They were good, but all the bones didn't didn't always dissolve which occasionally called for tweezers to yank a bone out of my gums. Haven't tried this myself, probably won't. Cooked some buffalo ribs not long ago for the first time in years. I had had a "few" beers one night and ate a bunch of buffalo ribs with a ton of fat on them. You get the picture, I'm sure.