It's well known to the fishermen and women of Southern Saskatchewan that the Tullibee is the unwelcome fish of the sea. For every ten men I talk to, nine feed the fish to the dogs and one unlikely person is brave enough to have eaten this bottom feeding white fish. So after throwing them back for years at the thought of skinning a fish full of worms, I decided to experiment, and find out for myself what sort of table fare these fish made. Rather than just regurgitating the age old hate for the poor boy, I would now have an informed opinion. Now white fish are infamous for being delicious when smoked, the tullibee is a cousin of the white fish. I have a smoker. The answer was clear. So i cut off the head, scooped out the guts, chopped off the fins and plunked er into a brine. I used about a cup of sea salt and a cup of brown sugar and filled the bowl with water until it covered the fish. I subsequently left to go clear my mind at the local Sunday evening karaoke bar and 2 and a half hours later i arrived back home to take the fish out of the brine and let it dry off a touch before taking it out to the smoke house. i believ i kept a small fire of hardwoods going in the old washing machine basin for roughly 4 hours. It was not just finished yet before it was time to get some shut eye so i left it smoke a tad til morning. As night grew into dawn i brought the fish inside and the skin pulled off like a glove, lunch time came and I could not wait. Fucking candy in my mouth. really really really tasty. Just like smoked salmon, only the texture of the meat was a tad different. I will no longer throw away another one of these delectable treats. If there is one thing I can take away from this aside from a non empty stomach, its that it sometimes pays not to go with the flow. EAT A TULIBE!
Currently listening to blue rodeo. The concert this past weekend was amazing.
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