I was an angler before I was a hunter, and I’ve been cooking fish and seafood, and developing my own fish recipes since I was a teenager. Seafood is my first culinary obsession.
For a time I worked professionally as a line cook in a seafood restaurant and spent a while earning my rent as a commercial clammer and salmon fisherman.
Below you will find my favorite fish recipes, as well as seafood recipes, some from “easy” fish, such as salmon, striped bass and trout — I call these “easy” because they are not a stretch for most cooks. I specialize in the weird, however (I am sure this shocks you) so you’ll also find more esoteric fish recipes here, too.
Fish for Beginners
Some baseline techniques you will find useful as you come across various fish and seafood. Many of these apply to so many different kinds of seafood it’s worth compiling them here.
Perfect Seared Fish
How to pan-sear fish fillets, skin on or skinless, perfectly every time. It’s not hard, but there are a few tricks to it.
And here is my video on How to Sear Fish.
Simple Grilled Whole Fish
Grilling a whole fish is an important skill to know. It requires a clean, hot grill, some oil, and a little finesse.
Beer Battered Fish and Chips
This is a basic fish and chips recipe you can use with any firm fish. Halibut, cod, haddock, redfish, walleye, perch, catfish, lingcod, shark… you get the picture.
Here is an article I wrote about pairing fish and seafood with beer for Hop Culture.
Fish Recipes By Category
Easy Fish
Typical market fish, such as snapper, halibut, bass, flounder, etc. I catch a lot of halibut and striped bass, so you will see those recipes here.
Salmon Recipes
Recipes that focus on salmon, trout and char. They range from simple salads to fancy, date-night dishes.
Snapper Recipes
Everything you need to know about prepping and cooking both the true snappers, as well as similar fish like groupers, black seabass, Pacific rockfish and freshwater bass.
Sharks, Little Fish and Oddballs
Fish you are less likely to see in a regular market. Shark recipes will be here, along with shad and other bony fish, as well as my recipes for little fish like herring, anchovies and sardines.
Crabs, Shrimp and Other Seafood
This is where you’ll find it if it doesn’t have fins. I do a lot of clamming and crabbing, and I eat a lot of shrimp, octopus and squid. You’ll also find mussel recipes, too.
Read More about Recipes for Shellfish, Squid, Octopi and Crustaceans
Very good looking recipes, I will try them, Thank you for sharing
Would a stove-top smoker require less time for say, a trout, than your usual smoking method?
Mimi: Yes, and it is a very different result. Indoor, stove top smoking is not the same thing as full-on hot smoking.
I have breaded and fried roe from Largemouth Bass and love it. I tried the same with Crappie, not as good. Any other ideas for this ingredient?
Any recipes for carp?
Tuxx: Yes. Use the search function.
Spend a good bit of my life in East Texas, eat lots of catfish supplied by neighbor’s brother. Mostly fried but some grilled and even baked. I have read your ideas on pickling fish, which I love, what do you think about catfish pickle.
T. Neil: It’ll work, although you want a firm fish for a pickle. I have a pickled pike recipe on this site that you can use as a model.
Im smoking some salmon as we speak.I just recently got an electric smoker…cajun injector. I wanna cook some mahi mahi orahi n keep thinking about a fabulous warm spinach salad.
the venison in cumberland sauce was to die for! Thanks Hank! You should come down to godzone (New Zealand) for some hunting & fishing- it’s epic! You won’t want to leave. Arohanui
Louise: I’ve been there. Wonderful place.
When will you make the next cook book? Can I suggest Fish, Fish, Clam?
Oh yes I know you want to!
Hank in your book ” Hunt,Gather, Cook” you talk about skates and rays, do you include the Bat Ray under that category? Nobody I know eats them and they are one of the more common fish caught in the bay near where I live. Are they good to eat , do they require special preparation?
Gordon. Yes. Use the search engine on this site and you will see my recipe for bat ray.
Hi Hank. I catch and eat a lot of striped bass (my favorite), crappie, sand bass, and catfish here in north Texas. But I have always caught and released largemouth bass. Everything I read says they are a sport fish not worth eating. I don’t catch many because I am not looking for them, but I always get one or two when I am on the lake and let them go … Thoughts?
Chad
Chad: In North Texas the water is likely to be warm, which means the meat of the bass might get mushy when cooked. This doesn’t always happen, but it does often enough that if you do keep one, you might put the meat into fish cakes, which takes care of this problem.
Nope, you can harvest up to 5 pacific lamprey per day in all anadromous waters of CA by any method except traps. The runs are greatly reduced in the Sacramento, San Joaquin and tributaries down near you, so limiting your harvest seems like a good, ethical choice. Up here the runs are healthier, with lots of native harvest in the Eel, Klamath and Trinity, by the Weot, Yurok, Hoopa and Karuk, and growing recognition of their ecological, cultural, culinary and dietary importance among non-natives too. They were petitioned for ESA listing, but they weren’t accepted because they are genetically homogeneous throughout their range. There is a pretty interesting history in the Sacramento River of their depredation for “predator control” if you are interested. Hope you get to try some and that the eels return to Central California!
Thanks, Dylan! Did not know that.
Hey Hank,
I just got sent this link for a simple lamprey stir fry recipe:
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/03/12/video-delicious-marriage-between-kale-and-lamprey-eel-163646
Looks good, but I haven’t had the chance to try it, because the eels are just beginning to run up here in Humboldt County (and I am a novice eeler in need of some honing of my harvest skills…).
Have you cooked with lamprey at all? It would be fun to see your take on cooking with such a oily and unusual fish.
be well,
Dylan
Dylan: I thought they were protected if you were not a native? I know they ate them in early Europe, but I’ve never eaten one here in CA.
Last year I caught a salmon in the Sac. It was a beautiful 20lb hen bright and silver. Looked very fresh. Bleed it on the boat and the way home I believe there was no time it wasn’t on ice.
Butchered it at home and cooked a fillet that night and it was terrible. Tasted like river and metal and was hard to mask. Made smoked salmon and even that was pretty bad. Couldn’t mask the flavor at all.
To make things worse the cat and dog seemed to get a bit under the weather after I butchered the fish. I did learn a bit about salmon and dogs and the way a dog can get sick from salmon from the river.
I hate to waste meat but this was a pretty hard fish to use in anything. Do you have any experience with off fish – Or would you just trash it? I just found another fillet and tried another brine and smoked it and threw it all out. Which I hate.
Unless you have a recipe from a recent Ball Blue Book or from a university extension office or the USDA, don’t even think of canning fish eggs! If the pH is too high (and you can’t be sure without rigorous testing and special equipment), then you run the risk of botulism developing…NOT worth it! Instead, dehydrate the fish eggs, pulverize them into a powder if you wish, store them in a jar (NO vacuum sealing…botulism loves low oxygen and pH above 4.6), then add them to your meals. Fish eggs are super high in fat-soluable vitamins and minerals, so make sure you add a generous amount of fat to the meal so your body can utilize the vitamins, and hence, the minerals. Stick with high quality animal fats like pasture-raised butter and bacon grease, olive or coconut oils…stear clear of canola, soybean, and other common vegetable oils, as they are the cause of much of our current health problems today. For an outstanding read on wholesome diets vs our Standard American Diet (SAD), and the immense health benefits of fish eggs and other quality foods, read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, DDS. Thoroughly enlightening and fascinating!
Katrina: Uh… OK. I’ve never had the inclination to can caviar anyway. I eat it fresh only.
My wife’s birthday is coming up, and I wanted to do something really nice for her. She is in love with seafood, so I want to make some for her birthday dinner. That being said, I really appreciate you sharing a few different recipes that I’d be able to try out. She loves fish, so I’m pretty sure I’m going to follow that recipe. Thanks a ton for the help.
Hi Hank, I am new comer to your blog and I have recently found a medieval recipe of shrimp stuffed roasted wild pheasant, which I am tempted to try out but using goose instead. Would you see any problem with this strange mix?
Joao: Yep. Seems odd to me.
Hi, Kevin again: Which type of imitation sausage casing is better?
Hello Hank from the East Coast of Australia,
I have been following your website/blog for many years now and it is defiantly my favorite website. I love you recipes, hunting stories and basic ethos for life and food. Congratulations for all your hard work. I know how hard it is after attempting to create a fishing/seafood/coastal forage blog myself, but simply didn’t have to time to publish my adventures.
I have been scanning through here trying to find your recipe for salted roe, “botargo”. I’m sure I have read it on your publications. If so can you please send the link. Really keen to give it a try, especailly attempt to do it with the much smaller scallop roe.
Keep up the good work.
Regards
Hamish
Joe: I actually don’t know how to can caviar! Now I need to go learn…
Hank, It’s almost salmon season here in the great lakes region of NE Ohio… I have made salmon caviar in the past and then read your post on the same. Now my passion for the stuff is back! How do you can caviar? It’s on good for such a short time… I see it in jars at the market… Regards, JP