Yummy Fresh Smelt
May 25th, 2008 | By Hank | Category: Fish | Comments | 9 Comments |
Have I mentioned how much I love eating little fish? Oh yeah, I did — a few months ago when I found fresh anchovies at the Davis Farmer’s Market. Well that same vendor had gobs of fresh whitebait smelt yesterday, and I was immediately seduced by their beauty.
Fresh smelt let everyone around them know how wonderful they are, much the same way beauty queens do. For starters, they come with their own perfume: A truly fresh smelt smells like cucumbers. Smelt are delicate, slender, a little soft and they always have eyes that seem too large for their bodies. And it’s those eyes that lure you in: When a smelt is dead-on fresh, their eyes are sharp as crystal and the pupil is as black as deep space. But when they start their journey from food to bait, those eyes sink and cloud over.
Another wonderful thing about smelt is how easy they are to eat. Whole. Yes, guts, head and tail and everything — everything but the wiggle, as the saying goes. Smelt have such small gut cavities that eating the innards of a 6-inch smelt is no biggie; it’s hard to even notice. The head is a crunchy morsel and the tail, well, the tail is my favorite part. Fish tails when grilled or fried become nutty and crisp. Absolutely irresistable.
I remember eating buckets of smelt at a seafood restaurant in Boston when I was a boy. I used to catch them with cast nets on Long Island. I bought bags and bags of frozen smelt as a graduate student in Wisconsin — they’re cheap, you know — but had forgotten about them when I moved here. Who knew smelt ran in California?
Apparently there are tremendous runs of several different varieties in NorCal: Night smelt, which is what these are, and surf smelt are the most abundant. Farther north is a colossal smelt run of a species so deliciously oily they’re known as candlefish. They have a cult following on the Columbia River.
How to cook smelt? Fried, of course. A smelt fry is an ancient American tradition and I see no reason to break from that tradition. I have a classic recipe for fried smelt here. You could of course grill them on skewers, but make certain your grill is clean and well oiled — they are delicate little beauty queens, after all.
Smelt offer a few advantages over fresh anchovies: They smell like cucumbers, which is pretty cool; they are delicately flavored, which makes them attractive to those who don’t want their fish tasting “fishy”; and unlike anchovies, smelt freeze well. Either freeze them surrounded in water like “smelt cubes” (put one in someone’s gin and tonic for a fun party trick!), or vacuum-seal them.
They are great to have hanging around in the freezer. Just thaw them, fry ‘em up and eat them as finger food in front of the TV. Think of smelt as a sort of fishy French fry — with a head.
Mmm. I love fried whole fish, and those look delicious.
Are you familiar with Japanese dried fish snacks? They’re made from some variety of anchovy, I believe. They’re dried and seasoned and they go crunch – like fishy potato chips. (Sadly, I don’t get many takers when I offer them to people. They get rather put off by the eyes.)
Hank, I eat’em much like fried anchovies or fries…bone and all, crunch-crunch!
I remember eating the fried smelts that my mother made when I was a kid! We did eat all of them whole and they were crunchy!
I hear Spain is a good place to eat little fish…’tho I’m not sure if that’s b/c they like little plates over there or b/c all the big fish are gone. Sigh.
How about a Columbia River smelt-dipping adventure? Can you dip the Sac?
I’m up for a Columbia River smelt dip — when would it be? And no, the smelt do not run up the Sacramento, although shad are here now and you can dip net them…
Hank, as you know, we Greeks are fans of eating small fish whole…
That said, I had an opportunity to go up to the Manitoulin for the smelt run this season and could not get away, so I am green with envy!
I love smelt! When I was in college I cooked at a seafood restaurant in Austin, Texas called Harpoon Henry’s. What an experience that was! We would dredge smelt in an egg wash and cornmeal, then fry them and serve as appetizers at happy hour. They were extremely popular.
atherina is what we call little fish in greece – they are my husband’s favorite – we eat them fried, it’s like eating fishy french fries
Gorgeous photo Hank, love the back lighting and the dark plating and background.
Fried whole smelt sound pretty darn tasty too!