Fishing Forum

I know the old joke you can smoke anything and it will taste good. But how many here have done it with a carp.
I tried it once when I was a teenager, but made more in trading for dirty magazines and beer/wine at the grain elevators when the ships where in. But overall the taste wasn't bad, yes I know boney and oily, blah blah.
So anyone here cook it, smoke it, fertilze it.
I've been catching some healthy looking carp lately and I know that most countries just love them. But dang, that smell and slime and honker scales turn me off.
So is smoking the only way to go? Or just throw the whole thing in a pot and boil. yumyum.
[signature]

I bet there is a few guys out here that have downed some carp...but no one want to admit to it
[signature]

EZOP,

I no longer have a smoker but smoked carp in the past numerous times. I would only use ones taken from clear water (more superstition than anything else) and would fillet the prime back straps to avoid messing with guts etc. There is a brown colored "mud line" that I would discard. From a 20 # carp I would end up with pure meat fillets without bones, hide and mud strips-- of maybe one pound total. Then I would slice what is left into strips with thickness no larger than 3/8" and of various widths and lengths.

I used a Little Chief salt and sugar brine and smoked them more than required using the standard wood for fish --either alder or apple if memory serves. I always heated everything that I smoked in the oven to about 300 F just to make sure that it was cooked.

Carp is very fat (or greasy) so traditional methods such as baking or frying will result in a product that is disgusting and inedible (in my humble opinion). Smoked, I found the opposite to be true and found it among the best of the fish--certainly much better than trout that is cooked by traditional methods.

FR
[signature]

I have never cooked carp but I have cooked coyote. Had to run the pan out of the house it stunk so bad.

Windriver
[signature]

[cool]

[#0000bf] Ha, that's the funniest thing I've heard of lately.[/#0000bf]
[#0000bf][/#0000bf]
[#0000bf] Dumb too! [crazy] You should try my road kill stew...[:/][/#0000bf]
[signature]

Here is recipe from my grandfather.

Take one carp gutted and place on a cedar shingle. Use salt, garlic salt, lemon pepper salt, a little butter and a few strips of bacon. Season inside and out and then place the bacon, a few strips inside and a few outside. Cook the carp for 30-45 mins for a fish around 2-3 pounds, longer if you have a larger fish.

When the fish is done cooking, throw the carp away and eat the shingle. []
[signature]