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Northern Pike are excellent eating.
Some people will sniff at this. First thing they will say is that pike are full of “Y” bones. And they are right about the bones. However, there is an easy way to get the bones out.
Fillet the northern pike in the normal manner, making sure that there are no rib bones left on the fillet. Lay the fillet down and slice it into steaks about three inches wide, cross-ways. This makes it easier to get the knife alongside the “Y” bones.
In the drawing, which is a side view of a steak, it shows where the cuts are made to slice out the section with the “Y” bones. It is quite easy to remove this section from each three-inch steak. If you look at the fillet very closely or feel along the tip with your finger, you can detect the upper points of the bones. Slip the knife in next to them and slide the pieces out. The knife should be very sharp and the cut must be made in a curving manner to follow the curve of the bones. If the cut is made slowly at first, it is possible to feel the bones with the edge of the knife. Care must be taken not to cut through them or pieces of bones will be left in the meat.
After a few tries, the fisherman will find that the knife just slices down and follows the curve of the bonestowardtheback.Thiswillremovethebackstrip. The second cut is made just below the lateral line, curving the same way. This takes out the bones with a “V” shaped strip of meat. This piece is discarded. The fisherman then winds up with two boneless pieces of meat from each three-inch steak. Done right, there are just about no bones at all in the steaks. The tail section does not have the “Y” bones and can be left intact.
It is easier to do this with larger pike than with small ones. If the pike are four pounds and up, the steaks will be of ample size.
The steaks can be fried, baked, made into mojakka (fish stew) or pickled with excellent results. All we can say is…if you ain’t tried it, you’re missing some fine eating.
