I love bluefish. These super violent fish are a blast to catch on light tackle, though they are often maligned because of their ability to shred your lures and cut your leaders with their piranha-like teeth. For me, nothing screams summer fun more than spotting birds and running wide open towards a boil of bluefish marauding bait on the surface.
Bluefish are also super tasty. Many people will be shaking their heads at this statement. These folks will say that bluefish are oily, fishy, and are only suitable for the smoker. And while I agree that smoked bluefish is delicious, I’d argue that when properly handled and eaten fresh, bluefish are one of the tastiest fish you can catch. I’d put my bluefish sashimi up against anything else that comes out of the Chesapeake Bay.
What gives bluefish a bad rap as table fare is their high fat content. Fish with high oil content spoil quickly. They take on a more intense “fishy” taste and the meat tends to get mushy. They also don’t freeze well. Thawed bluefish is soft and fishy, lacking all the sweetness and delicate texture of fresh fish.
These bluefish cakes came to be because of two factors. First, when we get into them, we get into them. If we find the blues, it isn’t usually an issue for everyone on the boat to catch a limit. The only problem with catching limits of blues is having more bluefish than you can eat while they are at their best. We smoke a bunch of bluefish, but there is only so much smoked bluefish you need. Finding another method to preserve bluefish that I enjoy has been a priority every summer.
Secondly, one of our friends mentioned to us that his grandmother used to make bluefish cakes, and went on and on about how much he loved eating them when he was a kid. This got me thinking- bluefish don’t freeze well raw, but they freeze fine once they are cooked (I freeze all the smoked bluefish I make and they hold up beautifully).
Bluefish cakes are a perfectly tasty way to preserve some bluefish in a near-fresh quality. I make these cakes the same way I make my crab cakes. Just enough binder to hold it together, some citrus, light on the spices to allow the protein to take center stage, and shallots and panko to give it a little texture.
There are two key steps to making these bluefish cakes, or any delicate seafood cakes for that matter. One, work gently. Whether it’s fish or crab, overworking the mixture will destroy the texture. You want the flakes to remain intact, and the cakes should be light and airy on the inside. Mixing the hell out of it will result in a paste-like mixture that will cook up with more of a hot dog texture. Two, you still need to handle bluefish with a little more care than most fish. Tossing them in the cooler on top of ice is not enough. I recommend bleeding the fish and burying them in an ice slurry. You want as much blood out of them as possible and to get them as cold as you can as fast as you can. They also need to be filleted and cooked asap. Once you have the bluefish filleted, season and bake them at 350F for 10-15 minutes, the cook time will vary depending on the size of the fish. I cook them until they can be flaked easily with a fork. Once cooked, cool them down in the fridge before making the cakes.
Once the cakes are assembled, you can freeze them or sear them and serve them up. I usually put all the cakes I’m not going to eat immediately on a parchment lined sheet pan with some space between the cakes and freeze them, before putting them in vacuum bags and sealing them. This helps them keep their shape and prevents them all getting frozen together.
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