Reader Email: Edible Albies

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Reader Email: Edible Albies

I got an email early this week from OTW reader Tim Adams who, after catching his first false albacore, did what supposedly cats won’t even do, and ate it. Sounds like something I might have to try…

Dear Jimmy,

I decided to take your advice this week and target false albacore. Since I have never landed an albie it seemed liked the thing to do. Here is the report…

My son and I headed out Sunday morning from Green Pond on the south side of Cape Cod around 5:30 am. There was a nasty and cold wind out of the east due to the storm offshore, so we decided to take cover from the wind and do some trolling on Middle Ground. After several rounds of bluefish, one of the poles doubled over, I immediately knew it wasn’t a blue, bonito, or bass. As you probably know, albies are all business, fight hard and don’t let up, even for a second. It is great to experience such power from a fish inshore. My son netted the fish, we bled it and put it on ice. The fish fell for a green/yellow Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow trolled slow, around 3 knots. We also had numerous hits on a green and orange Fas-Trac Rebel, but no additional albies landed.

Vineyard Sound False Albacore

I was a bit discouraged after doing an internet search for recipes, most of which are “joke recipes” (i.e. season and cook the fish on a pine board, then throw out the fish…..and eat the board). Nonetheless, I forged on with three different recipes. I trimmed all of the dark meat from the fillets and rinsed the pieces in saltwater.

The three recipes:

Marinated in teriyaki, then grilled . Brushed with butter on top just prior to serving
Marinated in Italian salad dressing then grilled
Egged and breaded with Italian breadcrumb/cornmeal and pan fried

It was all moist, melt in your mouth delicious!! (Please see attached photos)

Best regards,

Tim

False Albacore Recipe Eating False Albacore

How the fish is cared for after being caught can greatly affect how the fish will taste. Notice that Tim immediately bled and iced his catch. Better still would be a saltwater/ice slurry that would keep the fish extremely cold for the duration of the trip. If your next albie looks like it might not make it, give it a shot — you might be surprised.

20 on “Reader Email: Edible Albies”

  1. Dave Vosgolf

    I agree that albies are great to eat. They must be bled immediately and kept cool. After cutting off the filets for grilling, trim off the remaining meat around the head and boned and serve sashimi with a little soy sauce and wasabi if you have it….Yummy, the best that I have had…..Dave

    1. Tim

      Dave,

      I wish I had tried a bit of the Albie as sashimi. What was I thinking! Unfortunatly, I have not had the fortune of having a yellowfin or bluefin in my fishbox… I often eat stiped bass, scup, black sea bass, and fluke as sashimi and they are all excellent.

      Tim

    2. Doug Jowett

      We were talking the same on my boat this fall on the Cape. Wouldn’t it be interesting to treat an albie the same as a large tuna – bleed and brine ice. We wanted to try it, but I don’t have the ability to cook it while on the Cape. Sounds great to me. Also saw an article that called for sushi style preparation and report was it was an excellent eat. SOooooooo.

    3. Dave “Doc”

      Yeh–I caught my first albie of the season yesterday from the shore. Despite all the curious and horrified looks from the other fisherman, one of whom asked-“you know that’s an albie, right?” I bled it, gutted it, iced it, then filleted it about a hour later when the blitz died down. A very trustworthy friend swears by a olive oil-lemon juice over-night marinading prior to grilling; so we’ll see tonight. BUT–while I was preparing it last night-I (very tentatively) had some raw albie (the lighter red meat)–not quite like raw tuna, but it was GREAT! Even the dark red meat along the center was good, but not for the faint of heart….Doc

  2. Crabman

    Bled and Trimmed as suggested, cube as for steak tips, then marinade in soy sauce, garlic and ginger for at least an hour. Roll in sesame seeds and drop on to hot frying pan with grape seed oil ( high temperature smoking oil). Sear on all sides then serve w or w/o wasabi and soy sauce. Mmmm…had it earlier tonight!

    1. Bob Levesque

      High heat smoking oil means that the oil is BURNING>>> Not good for cooking anything…

      1. Jackson

        Not true. Getting your pan smoking hot and then dropping a dried filet in there is the best way to get a good sear.

  3. jerry

    I also got excited and wanting to try one of those dishes.

    sounds great

  4. Jeremy furtado

    I’ve eaten them before as well as bonito. My grandfather used to bleed it immediately then soak the meat in milk to remove the blood that was left. We ate them fried and blackened. It was excellent

  5. Sergio medeiros

    hello!cant wait to try an albie one day,but i wanna ask something and hope to get an answer from you guys,i came from Azores islands (Portugal) and i’d say it’s one of the best places to catch skip jack tuna (katsuwonus pelamis),people don’t usually bleed skipjacks because it tastes good anyway but i know a lot people there that when they get home they cut the tip of the nose from the skipjack and leave the skipjack hanging upside down for a few hours to bleed , so i was just wondering for people that had false albacore before you think that technique will work with false albacore?

    1. Adam Laurencio

      My parents are from the Azores (São Miguel) and my dads job was a fisherman there under my grandfathers captains license and they praise the false albacore as one of the best table fairs I personally have tried it with my mothers Portuguese recipes and I think it’s delicious!! The method of catching it there and here in New England are two different tactics which I think is amazing

  6. Chris

    I think the whole “can’t eat Albies or your teeth will fall out” thing has just gotten blown out of proportion.

    A delivery I was on caught one in the Gulf of Mexico and one of the guys was a chef. He filleted that thing on the spot and grilled it. I was thinking “No way!” but kept quiet. He served it w some orange sauce or salsa. Glad I didn’t say anything , cause it was damn good!

  7. John

    I caught two alblies at 7am this morning in Buzzards Bay. 5/8 oz Hogy pink epoxy jig. Bled them and put them in livewell with water running. By 7:30 I had filleted then, rinsed them in saltwater, put them in plastic bags and then on ice. By noon they fillets were sitting in teryaki/soy sauce/olive oil mixture. Just grilled them on charcoal Weber. Tasted almost as good as YFT. Agree that key is bleeding them, cleaning them and getting them on ice quickly.

  8. SKIP

    A FEW YEARS AGO I CAUGHT A FEW ALBIES ,PUT THEM ON ICE . THEN I FIGURED THER IN THE TUNA FAMILY SO I STEAKED THEM AND THEN BAKED THEM ! BAD MISTAKE .I SPIT IT OUT AND THREW ALL THE REST OUT, TIME WET BY AND I WAS TALKING TO A CHEF ABOUT ALBIES HIS COMENT WAS BET IT TASTED LIKE DOG POOP ! FILETING THE FISH A S A P AND PUT ON ICE WITH MILK IN A BAG ITS GREAT EATING. NO POOP!

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