{"id":2495,"date":"2017-06-30T23:47:46","date_gmt":"2017-06-30T23:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/?p=2495"},"modified":"2017-07-18T19:08:56","modified_gmt":"2017-07-18T19:08:56","slug":"pickerel-patties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/2017\/06\/30\/pickerel-patties\/","title":{"rendered":"Pickerel Patties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pickerel is a common fresh water fish in the pike family found in murky waters. In <a href=\"http:\/\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/2016\/10\/20\/oral-history-yankeetown-pond\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interviewing people<\/a> who grew up around Yankeetown Pond, I heard this fish mentioned more than a few times. So when I encountered this man and his buddy ice-fishing on the pond one January afternoon, I was thrilled that I would get to see pickerels at last.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Pickerel-Patties-e1500403134753.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"2540\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/2017\/06\/30\/pickerel-patties\/pickerel-patties-3\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Pickerel-Patties-e1500403134753.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1280,720\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Pickerel Patties\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Pickerel-Patties-e1500403134753.jpg?fit=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Pickerel-Patties-e1500403134753.jpg?fit=700%2C394&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2540\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Pickerel-Patties-300x169.jpg?resize=300%2C169\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>He was very informative and told me all about pickerel fishing, both in winter and summer. He seemed very pleased when I showed interest in the fish, and told me I could take both of them. He even told me how to prepare them.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hjNxg1LmZSc?rel=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I was grateful, but as I was staring down at them on the cutting board, I wondered if he was glad to get rid of them. The fish were covered in brownish slime and smelled of mud. Filleting them was a real pain, as they were skinny and thin-fleshed.<\/p>\n<p>After putting the fillets in the processor along with garlic, parsley, and bread crumbs, I was sure all the work wasn&#8217;t going to be worth it and hoped it would be the last time I would ever do it.<\/p>\n<p>But.<\/p>\n<p>By the time the patties were half browned, I was already sold on the aroma and color of crispy crust that was forming. I had forgotten how nicely fresh fish fries in butter, as opposed to most store-bought fillets that disintegrate to mush. I didn&#8217;t bother to sit down. I just passed the plate around to my family, which was empty in a few minutes. I didn&#8217;t detect the muddy smell at all. The texture transported me to my childhood Japan when sardines were a common ingredient, often made into patties or balls with their bones ground up. I never thought about how important bones were for the texture\u2014until I tasted the pickerel patty.<\/p>\n<p>I have not seen this man at the pond since, but if I ever do, he may wish he never met me; I won&#8217;t be able to resist hanging around until I see the skinny fish reeled out from the hole in the ice.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"post-excerpt\">Pickerel is a common fresh water fish in the pike family found in murky waters. In interviewing people who grew&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Pickerel-Patties.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8ZCrz-Ef","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2495"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2542,"href":"https:\/\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495\/revisions\/2542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catskillwaters.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}