Grand Traverse Bay Sampler Platter

Upon returning from up north with 3 target species acquired (lake trout, cisco, burbot), a whitefish was the only thing missing. It seemed like a good idea to try some of each and see which one everyone liked best. The girls have eaten lots of different fish and quite a few different ways so they would be good judges. Besides burbot never get frozen and ciscos are best eaten fresh or cooked before freezing. However, they all have some red meat on them and I also don’t like picking bones out when I’m eating fish. I had some trimming to do before the taste test could begin.

I was going to cook the fish 4 different ways. The cisco and the tail sections of the burbot were going to get breaded and fried. The burbot backstraps were going to be chunked and boiled. After that they get a dusting of Old Bay or Garlic Salt then dunked in butter or cocktail sauce. Lastly the lake trout was going to be very simple, pan seared in butter and seasoned with garlic salt.

It’s hard for me to rank them all because they were all really good and prepared differently. Top pick for me was probably the boiled burbot followed by the fried burbot. Part of that is probably just because it is such a rarity to eat one. I will say this particular fish had a lot of that shellfish vibe to it. Having eaten burbs from several different fisheries, the Grand Traverse Bay ones seem to have more of that flavor than the others. The small lake trout out of super cold water are legit fantastic, even the summer ones from that fishery are really good. No need to make them fancy with sauces and lots of seasoning like you would big summertime king salmon. That would finish 3rd and lastly the fried cisco. There are better ways to utilize the cisco but with limited time and no prep work I kept it simple. The cisco is a really good fish fry it just comes out drier than the burbot does. We used more cisco for tacos the next night and it was excellent. A full recipe on that is coming soon with a couple things we like to add to our fish tacos.

One of my daughters chose the boiled burbot dipped in cocktail sauce as her favorite, commenting that she felt like she was eating shrimp. Another picked the lake trout as her favorite and barely let anyone else try it. The youngest one did not have a clear winner between the lake trout and 2 types of fried fish but did like the boiled burbot. She’s 3 and a half so we will probably chalk the dislike to trying something new. Lastly Amanda picked both kinds of burbot as her favorite.

So, I guess you can declare burbot the winner of our sampler platter taste test. Not surprising since I think they are the finest eating fish in freshwater. The good eats were a solid end to a great trip.