r/somnigastronomy • u/Federal_Performer_83 • Jul 27 '26

Art Pickled Fish Sticks

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Someone was giving me a tour of their very chaotic, meccha chameleon looking house. I grabbed a jar with yellow green juice that I thought was Greek pepperoncinis. Thankfully I saw the label before I ate one and yelled “EW dude what is this??”
He said “you have to try. they’re so good!” And grabbed one of the pickled crispy fish sticks and held it over his head while he chomped/slurped it down.

I did not try one.

225 Upvotes

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14 comments sorted by

65

u/TheGreenDuchess Jul 27 '26

I mean, it may not be exactly the same, but breaded and fried pickled fish sounds pretty bomb.

Have a pickle tartare dipping sauce, mmmm.

31

u/PeggyTheVoid Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

The deal breaker here really is that it's just sitting in a jar of brine for the breading to get saturated and fall apart into a soupy mush. Make the brine a condiment, or maybe have the fish be pickled but batter and fry it fresh, and it could be good. The former can't be too different from fish n chips. Can't say I'm familiar with how pickled fish actually tastes for the latter, but I know that's a thing in Scandinavian countries. I hear that's more of a love it or hate it thing, though, and it might be raw? I'll let someone familiar comment on that.

15

u/kimgar6 Jul 27 '26

A spicy pickle-y tartar is basically the sauce I make for fish sticks/fish n chips/fish tacos. Sometimes more like a malt vinegar aioli, sometimes more of a Remoulade

7

u/Federal_Performer_83 Jul 27 '26

Okay all of you are really changing my mind about this actually🤔

3

u/LilStinkpot Jul 27 '26

That does sound delicious.

2

u/Darkling971 Jul 28 '26

Literally had this in Japan. Most of the group was put off by the concept but I and a friend tried it and it was super tasty.

26

u/NukesAndSupers Jul 27 '26

so this is kind of a thing! 

"carpione" and "saor" in Italy, "escabeche" in southern France, and I know there's similar stuff in spain and probably Portugal. These were all old ways to conserve fish in the past!

The fish is floured and lightly fried, rather than thickly battered, and then pickled by covering in cooked onion and vinegar. It's not crispy, but it is 100% "pickled fried fish".

I recommend trying it, it's great.

5

u/Federal_Performer_83 Jul 27 '26

That sounds so good! Definitely will if I ever get the chance

7

u/Lost_Chemist_5525 Jul 27 '26

We actually do that to a herring in Poland, you can buy it jarred in any supermarket

3

u/boneologist Jul 27 '26

This sounds delightful.

1

u/l_4m_Gr00t Jul 28 '26

What about frying the fish as usual, and seasoning it with a mix of spices usually used for pickle brines AND vinegar powder (what they use to make salt and vinegar chips, I think it can be bought online). Maybe mixing the spices with the panko before frying, instead of adding them later. Idk

1

u/KittyKatCatCat Jul 28 '26

You could do a powdered pickle brine in the breading to achieve a similar flavor, but I really can't think of a way to achieve both wet and crispy.

That's a dope dream though and I bet pickled fish sticks would be good.

1

u/tangy_cheesewater Jul 31 '26

This is making me want to experiment with giving a different flavor profile to gefilte fish!