Pike is a popular catch in the Northern hemisphere and offers delicious white meat if cooked properly. Like other edible fish, there are various ways to cook pike. You can find hundreds of recipes online, and none is particularly the best. Whether you prefer traditional cooking or fancy ingenious ways to bring out the rich pike flavours, you’ll find enough recipes to go around. We have two Pike recipes for whole and filleted pike below, as well as a few insights you need when preparing and cooking Northern pike. You can always replace the flavours and ingredients to fit your style and preferences.
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Preparing Pike before Cooking
Pike is firm, tasty and filling. However, you must get past its odd appearance and the tiny bones in its body. More importantly, you should determine the cooking style before your start anything. If you are going for fillets, you’ll need to learn how to fillet pike. Whole fish recipes are much simpler but require a keen selection of herbs and spices for flavouring. Once you determine the cooking style, you can proceed to start preparing your pike. Note that you can bake, grill, fry, or boil your fish. First, you’ll need to clean and prepare the pike. Here are some basic considerations:
- Choose Fresh Pike – For best results, Pike should be in your pan or pot less than six hours after it is dead. The tastiest plates are from fresh fish, so make sure you purchase fresh pike and cook them as soon as possible. Fresh pike should have a firm flesh with red gills and bright eyes. It should also have a slightly fishy smell but should not have any foul odour.
- Clean The Pike – Rinse the pike using cold water to remove sand, slimy juices, blood and other contents on the body and gills. Next, use a knife to make an incision on the pike’s belly and empty the gut content away. Gently remove the stomach content to avoid being pricked by bone broken by your knife. Finish by rinsing the perch in warm water. You can proceed to fillet the fish if that’s the cooking style you are going for.
Choosing Pike Flavours
There are various herbs and spices you can use to flavour your pike. Whether you prefer single-origin herbs, or fancy robust flavours featuring spices and sweeteners, you have many choices readily available from the grocery store. Some of the top herbs for flavouring pike include fresh dill, sage, parsley, chives, garlic, rosemary, tarragon, and basil. If you prefer spicy flavourings, you can use smoked paprika, cumin, cardamom, thyme, oregano, ginger, lemon myrtle, coriander, bush tomato, onion, aniseed myrtle, and pumpkin. It all boils down to the meal you want to prepare, and different cultures have their unique recipes, complete with herbs, spices, and flavours.
The spices are mixed with oil and used as a marinade in many fried, baked and grilled pike recipes. You can also serve fresh herbs and spices. You’ll probably serve the pike with other pairings, so it is vital to identify the right flavour combinations, noting the flavours required for all dishes that are part of the meal. There are no strict standards, so you can always use what you have. Chances are you’ve prepared fish before, and most flavours work across different species, including salmon, trout, bass, and perch. We recommend sticking to a recipe, but you can replace some herbs and spices with what’s readily available in your kitchen.
Cooking Pike (With Recipes)
Cooking pike should be effortless once you have a recipe. As aforementioned, you can choose from different styles, including frying, baking, grilling, smoking, and boiling. More importantly, you can cook trout whole or fillet it. Whole trout recipes are simple but limit your options, especially when working with larger pike. On the other hand, filleting requires more work to get the ideal cuts but offer you better cooking options.
Whole Pike Recipe
Pike have an odd appearance but are still delicious when served whole. As the name suggests, this method doesn’t require cutting the pike into smaller pieces. The easier method is to wrap the pike in oil in aluminium foil with your favourite flavours or marinade. Top pairings include garlic, lemon, parsley, ginger and fresh herbs. Next, place it in the oven and let it bake. Remember to slice the fish several times to ensure even cooking and better penetration of the flavours. Here’s a simple roasted whole pike recipe:
Ingredients:
- Whole pike
- Thyme sprigs
- Oregano/marjoram sprigs
- Olive oil
- Lemon cuts
- Salt & pepper
Instructions:
- Pre-heat the oven to about 375 degrees. As the oven heats, wash your pike inside and outside, then dry it using a paper towel. Next, slash both sides two or three times.
- Tuck your herb sprigs into the open cuts you just made and place the pike in a roasting pan or baking dish. Next, sprinkle with olive oil and add salt and pepper.
- Roast the pike for 30 to 40 minutes, turning and brushing regularly with oil until the skin turns brown. It should also be crisp with darker flesh and white eyes. You can check the flesh colour by flaking it using a fork.
- Place your fish on a plate and garnish with lemon wedges. Serve the roasted pike with herb butter. You can make a simple herb butter using watercress, spinach leaves, parsley, chives, cloves, and softened butter.
Pike Fillet Recipe
Filleting is a great option when working with a slightly larger pike. It offers more cooking methods, including pan-frying, seaming, grilling, and poaching. Filleting a pike isn’t particularly difficult, but you’ll need some basic skills to achieve it with ease. Once you have the fillets, you can determine which cooking style suits your dish. Seaming may be a great option for retaining the natural flavours and works best for fish served with fresh herbs and vegetables. You can also marinade the fillets and grill or pan-fry them. Here’s a simple oven-baked fillet recipe for the Northern pike:
Ingredients:
- Pike fillet cuts
- Garlic powder
- Dried thyme
- Dried rosemary
- Butter
- Lemon slices
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. At it heats, clean your fillets and place than on a baking dish. The fillets should be free of any bones.
- Dust the fillets lightly with dry herbs and spices. Be careful not to use too much as this may overpower the natural pike flavours. Add salt and pepper.
- Sprinkle some butter on the stipes of flesh and top with lemon slices. Next, place the fillets in the oven and bake for up to 15 minutes.
- Take off your fillets and place on a plate to finish with fresh herbs and vegetable. You can also sprinkle a bit of lemon juice.
Summary
There are several pike recipes with different herbs, spices, and pairings. Finding one shouldn’t be a daunting task, and there are no strict instructions. You can choose any fish recipe and tweak it to work for pike and various other types of fish. We have two of the simplest fillet and whole pike recipes above, but you aren’t limited. Whether you prefer North American cuisines or fancy Mediterranean dishes, there are many ways to cook your pike. Simply ensure you are working with fresh fish and stick to your recipe. The fish should cook properly without losing its natural flavours.
Read more about Can pike live in ponds?
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