Girls With Fish

What Is Pan Fish And How Do I Fry Them?

The first time I heard the word "pan fish, " I was about 10 years old. My family had been spending our summer up at a lake resort in the mountains above San Bernardino, California and my sis and I spent nearly every afternoon drowning worms from one of the docks. One lazy afternoon, one of us caught a small 7 inch trout and was fixing to throw it back when another fisherman stopped us. "Don't do that kids, you've got a real nice pan fish there. Ketch a coupla more and you got dinner for tonight."

Of course, we had no idea we he was talking about and later that evening, we asked some our friends "Hey, what's a pan fish?" They laughed for quite a while until one of the kids finally said, "You dumb girls. Pan fish is fish that you kin fry up in a pan."

Ah yes, of course. So there you have it. Pan fish is not a breed of fish, it's any type of fish that measures between 6 to 10 inches and can be fried up in a skillet..."pan fish."

Trout of course makes the best tasting pan fish, though small mouth bass, crappie and blue gill are also very tasty. The advantage of eating pan fish as opposed to the jumbo record winning monster fish is that you really don't have to worry about the bones, nor chopping off the fins or the heads. For a lazy fisher type person such as myself, cooking up a mess of pan fish is about as easy as making flapjacks.

Cleaning a pan fish

Cleaning a fish starts with removing the insides. This is done by inserting the tip of knife into the fish's vent and making a shallow slice by moving upward to the area by the gills. After making the cut, open up the fish and remove the entrails with your fingers. Rinse the inside of the fish with clean water.

To scale the fish means to remove the scales. While there are special tools used for scaling, we always used a knife to scrape away the scales. This is done by placing the fish on the counter, holding it by the head and scraping the scales working away from you. Once the scales are removed, the fish must be rinsed again. Don't chop off the heads though. Pan fish is generally prepared with the heads intact for a nicer looking presentation.

Frying pan fish

Old time recipes call for Lard (or Crisco) but butter actually tastes much better. To fry pan fish, follow these simple directions:

Let the butter melt in a large skillet, and then set the pan fish directly into the pan with head facing all the same direction.

When the undersides are brown and ready to turn, place a plate over the skillet and flip the fish onto the plate. Return the melted butter back into the pan and when hot, gently slide the fish off the plate and back into the skillet. When the second side is crispy and brown, the fish can be slid onto a warm platter and served.