When I fry fish at home, to make dry fish breading, such as Shore Lunch, stick to the filets, I roll the filets in scrambled egg. Works great. I don't want to drag eggs through Quetico, so I was wondering what you folks do to make your breading stick to the filets better. Just wetting the filets with water doesn't seem to work real well. Any ideas?

Try a thick concentration of powdered milk - work for us.  Also, try mixing the shore lunch w/ cornflake crumbs.  Shore lunch and other fish batters are so fine that they create balls of batter - as I'm sure you've noticed - mixing it with corn flake crumbs can keep it looser for more even coating.

This is what I carry   (You need to Login or Register not that I get to use it in the backcountry but it works great at home with just water.

flp

IMHO, there is no fish breading finer (at home or in the bush) than Knife Lake Pete's fish fry recipe.  I learned this from a friend of mine who used to visit Pete (on Knife Lake) when he was a kid.  I've never found anything finer.

Knife Lake Pete's Recipe

1.5 cups cornmeal (small grain, if possible)
1 heaping tbsp  each of paprika, black pepper, garlic powder, and salt (can reduce salt, if you like).

Mix in zip lock.

Coat moist fillets in this.  Fry in pan with butter flavored Crisco:
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The result:
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sitting at my desk eating an apple and an orange just doesn't seem appealing anymore. man does that look good!

thebutcher

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Aren't those Bass fillets?   ::) (kidding lotalota)

Don't ruin your fillets with oil and breading. Think outside the box. A healthy squirt of lemon and lime juice mixed with squeeze marjorine, plus Zatarains Blackened Fish Seasoning, or Paul Prudhommes Salmon Magic. ;) 8-)

Many, many years ago... An Old Sage of a cook with the same Initials (O-S) Taught a young whipper snapper of a tripper that breading as he knew it was obsolete...  Fish could be transform into delectible fare by merely adding a bit of oil and a bit of butter into a non-stick pan and then gently place the white fillets into the mixture and add the smallest amount of your favorite spice... be it Cajun, lemon-pepper, or just a hint of sea salt and garlic. The flesh of the fish turned a wonderful white and was moist and flavorful beyond belief!  I have since passed on the skill of cooking this way to others to enjoy, and to lighten the load of the food pack by reducing the amount of oil taken and cornmeal as well...  I cook fish at home that way now... Pan seared Mahi Mahi... ahhhh

Bruce

Well OS and Arkansasman that sounds mouth watering  ;). I occasionally make walleye or trout this way or add more seasoning to make blackened trout.


Bloodnguts, what we do to get the breading to stick better if I want a thicker breading is mix the breading with water (beer would be better--sometimes I'll bring a bottle of beer in a plastic container), rinse fillet in water, lightly coat fillet (shake in a bag) with flour or breading, then dip fillet in breading/water or beer mix. Make breading/water mix thin for lightly breaded or thicker depending on taste. You have to bring in a little extra breading or flour and of course the beer if you want beer battered.

Tim

PhantomJug wrote on Apr 10^th, 2007 at 7:05pm:

Aren't those Bass fillets?)

Absolutely not!  It was one of these:
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nice tip PJ.  (thick powdered milk)  would have never thought of it myself.  thanks.

Jan

This is a fine way to use some of that powdered egg crap, too.  On the very rare occasions I've messed with breading at all, I mix up some egg powder with water to dip the fish in before breading them.  It does help the breading stick much better.  Mostly I just bronze my fish (like blackening without the high heat), or else bake 'em (trout).

I thought about powdered eggs, but can't find the stuff anywhere.

Egg Beaters work well as an initial coating.  A neighboring thread offers suggestions on bringing eggs, with little worry about spoilage.  

Cracker crumbs, spiced with pepper, salt, and garlic powder provides a crispy breading.  And it doesn't "ball up."  You'll like it - I guarantee!!

wrote on Apr 11^th, 2007 at 12:58pm:

I thought about powdered eggs, but can't find the stuff anywhere.

Although they aren't Snow_Dog's favorites, I think these eggs are absolutely tasty and wonderful:

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Bloodnguts try this ite for powdered eggs.
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Has anyone tried taking Panko breadcrumbs into the field before?  That's all we use at home to fry up walleye fillets.  Dip the fillets in flour, then egg, and then seasoned Panko bread crumbs.  I like the powdered milk idea and might try that out with Panko crumbs in May.

Cheers,
TT

where are ya going in may Tim?    Jan