This recipe is not my own but came from Marcella Hazan’s More Classic Italian Cooking, published by Knopf in 1978. In fact, they will greet you with open arms and thank you profusely, especially if you convince them to prepare the bounty you have provided in the following manner, using what I call the world’s best bluefish recipe. If you follow my instructions, you will have a fine, generous gift for friends and neighbors, who will no longer hide when they see you coming with “fresh” fish. I then gut the fish as soon as possible, usually while still at sea. Evaporation from the wet sack will keep the fish cool for as long as the sack remains damp. As soon as it is bled out, I put the fish on ice or in a wet burlap sack, if ice is not available. (The name “priest” for the chosen bludgeon is apt, for it applies the “last rites” to the fish.) I keep a bucket half-filled with water into which I put the fish after cutting its throat, to keep most of the blood off of the boat. Large blues over 6 pounds should be dispatched with a “priest” or club of some sort applied vigorously to the top of the head before you make the bleeding incision. Do this carefully, for the sharp teeth and strong jaws and pugnacity of a bluefish will make short work of the flesh on a finger or thumb! I speak from experience. This is simply, though dangerously, accomplished by making an incision just behind the point where the gill covers come together on the underside of the fish. Some people ignore this fish until they reach the dock, where they unload the spoiled fish to generously give it to their friends and neighbors, who soon learn to dislike the noble fish.Įvery summer I write to exhort my readers to bleed each bluefish as it comes aboard. Then the fishermen must talk over the action before finally getting to the now-dead fish cooking in the boxes or festering in the sun. Fishermen often catch blues quickly and in large numbers when the beasts are surface feeding, and in the excitement of the moment, the fish are thrown to the deck or put in boxes and forgotten until the commotion of the blitz is over, the tangled lines are straightened out and the gear is overhauled. These negative reactions are always about fish that were poorly handled when caught. The bluefish is disliked by many for being oily or “fishy-tasting” and even repellent when cooked. Respected by all as a magnificent fighter, it’s a dangerous fish to handle, and when properly dealt with, delicious to eat.
Well, I know one creature that is never boring, either to catch or to eat, and that’s the much-maligned bluefish. It is difficult to write column after column without getting both repetitive and boring for the reader, to say nothing of boring for me, but why should you care about my boredom?
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