Eating Carp

[Carpinator]

I know we're not supposed to, but does anyone here eat carp from Utah Lake?

It pains me to throw away so much fish meat.
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[FishKillr]

I never have, but know others who say they are great and there are many more waters in the state that hold some that would not have any warnings attached to them.
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[Carpinator]

Good point, so I could eat carp from Deer Creek?
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Carp ARE a fine food fish. The problem most people have is getting past the looks. If you are raised in a trout oriented society, carp are way down the list of anything you want to fish for...or keep for the table.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Virtually all other nations of the world have some form of carp in their waters and prize them as food fish. And they are also considered worthy adversaries for the sport fishing set. In some European countries they have carp clubs and carp tournaments. Winners are heroes.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Carp have a stronger odor from their skin and slime than most trout. MOST TROUT. Some trout, bass and other species also smell strong. Try northern pike. Whew.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]But, when you fillet and skin a carp you end up with firm white flesh that can be cooked any way you enjoy cooking fish. And the fillets do not smell or taste any stronger than fillets from other species taken from the same waters. Maybe even milder.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]One of the big issues with carp (and pike, etc.) is the abundance of flesh bones. But, in case you hadn't noticed, trout have them too...and much finer and harder to pick out before you swallow one. It helps to learn the basic anatomy and bone structure of a carp and then learn how to cut the fillets into long strips by cutting out the strips of bones and leaving strips of boneless flesh. The rows of bones are easy to locate with a finger tip or by trying to cut crossways through a fillet. You will easily find where they are.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]In many cultures the carp are simply cleaned and maybe scaled before being fried, grilled or baked whole...pulling off the flesh and picking out the bones after cooking. It ain't THAT difficult. You can stuff the body cavity with onions, lemons and other herbs and spices to add flavor during the cooking process. Bake them about the same amount of time you would a similar sized chicken.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]When I lived in Sacramento I usually had a supply of smoked steelhead and salmon in my refrigerator...until my buddies showed up and raided the stash. After catching a couple of big old carp in the nearby (clean) American River I filleted, deboned and smoked the strips of carp meat with the same recipe I usually used for salmon. When my buddies raided that batch they raved about how it was some of the best smoked salmon I had turned out. Even after being told what it was some of them did not barf.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Carp from Deer Creek, Starvation, Willard Bay and especially Flaming Gorge are good candidates to try them on the table. If they come from shallow muddy or weedy lakes they are more likely to develop an off taste. But heck, I have eaten trout from some lakes that were terrible with mossy taste.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Suggestion: marinate some of the boneless strips in teriyaki marinade for a few hours and then grill it in a fish basket until flaky. Dip the pieces some leftover marinade and try to find something wrong with it.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Also: Cut the strips into nuggets. Then fry them like chicken...roll in flour, then egg wash, then back in the flour (seasoned). Deep fry them and dip them in tartar sauce, wing sauce or BBQ sauce.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Carp...the other other white meat.[/#0000ff]
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[TheCarDoctor]

[quote Carpinator]
It pains me to throw away so much fish meat.[/quote]

If you've got some I could use it for catfish bait. []
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[Ratfinkee]

One time my family was on a river rafting trip on the Colorado river during memorial weekend, and we were catching carp, and one time we decided to fillet one and cook it, it wasn’t too bad. Then again the water was flowing, high and cold (about 65). The texture was not like catfish or trout, it was a little more stringy as I remember.

I don’t know how many people consider this, but there is a reason pioneers planted them in all these lakes, I'm pretty sure it wasn’t to fillet them into catfish bait, but that they are very prolific and grow fast, thus a good food source, and darn near impossible to kill, short of using C4! Oh and tubedude’s gillectomy procedure.
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[Leaky33]

Walla,-------------, finally someone with some knowledge agrees with me. Not to say that I'm not that smart but I learned how good they are by eating some fillets from Flaming Gorge bow hunting them for relaxation after smallie fishing, about 20 yrs. ago, because I was alone and I've always tried the unpopular things just to see for myself. Well, long story short, they were some of the best filets I've eaten. To me, they are on the "fat/greasy" side but not so that most people would notice and I like that. Also, I have no sense of smell??? With all of that, in my opinion, a fresh water carp is as good a fillet as any, except maybe walleys. [][][] I've been kidded on all my forums, but I figure that they just don't know what they're missing and to each his own. [] Fresh water carp is important.
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[CoyoteSpinner]

Awrighty - now just hold on there a darn minute oh FishMaster. Last time I posted "carp recipes" you came back with the old adage - nail it to a board, throw it on the fire, then chuck the fish and eat the board!

I know of more than Asians that'd pickle a carp. And I've swore (ok threatened) some fish-mates I'd smoke a carp, and not tell 'em, and they'd love it. Sounds like you've been there, done that. Ends up being a conveyance for spice and smoke flavor, heck I could probably spice up some shoe leather at tell 'em it's Jerky![]

Hey - protein is protein, right? That's why we grow herbs and buy spices - for the flavor enhancement. If you do a lil' googling - you will find a plethora of carp-prep ideas out around the world. As has been mentioned - Europeans look on Carp with a whole different set of eyes than us 'Mericans.
Plus carp is not just one kind of fish. There are various different kinds of carp, and I'm sure various different flavors the bring to the table, or the catfish hook!

[SkinnyLynnie]

I'm glad to see that some people are brave enough to try carp and smart enough to know that how carp tastes depends a lot on how you cook it. I've eaten some very good tasting carp in China, but the Chinese are masters at cooking spices and sauces. My Scandinavian ancestors in Utah enjoyed eating pickled carp. Carp meat probably tastes good when it's smoked also. I'll have to try that. My experience is that most any fish tastes bad if all you do is put the fillet in a pan and cook it without the proper spices. By the way, my biggest gripe about "outdoorsmen" (next to those who leave handfuls of coiled monofilament line thrown on the shoreline as if it was going to decompose) is about those who feel it's some sort of public service to throw piles of dead carp on the shore. Finally, I suspect that if more people in Utah learned to catch and eat carp, we might not have such a problem with carp overpopulation. Telling everyone that they're inedible is exactly what the carp want us to do (like the Chick Fil-A cows telling us to eat more chicken).
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[Springbuck]

Carp will never be walleye, in my book, but they ain't bad.

In China, (Taiwan) I had lots of carp, too, and lioke it better than most of the farm raised tilapia I had.

It's not just the sauces, it's the prep. Catch them from cold, clean waters (I'll add Pineview to TD's list), trim out the best filets, clean off the red meat on the sides and don't use the belly meat (oilier and stronger tasting), and cook it properly. Carp is chewier than some other fish. I liked it chunked kinda small and stewed in dill sour cream, like they do herring.
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[12inchlunker]

[fishon]
I have to be honest. I have never thought to try Carp. But I caught a few in Cutler where the water is always running, heck even when I've caught them and used them as bait. There meat is white and nice looking. Growing up I was always told that Carp were Garbage fish. Again, not sure what that means but I just figured they must taste terrible. Same thing with Yellow Bellies.....but you think about it they almost eat the same stuff......

Coyote!!!!! Break out the smoker lets try it out!!!!!!!!!!! If it's good I don't care what people think of me for eating it. And I could care less what they look like.....really!!! Have you seen a Channel Cat...might be uglier...I think it has everything to do with how you are raised and what you hear...but I'm always open to try FOOD!
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[night_flyguy]

Check out this episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (one of my favorite shows!).

There is a restaurant in Omaha that is famous for their fried carp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bFCbifra...947CD0E904

If we could get people to eat german and silver carp we could improve the water quality here and the damage being done on the Mississippi. We need some marketing geniuses to come up with a new name - i.e. calamari for squid and keta for chum salmon. Maybe if we start calling them Golden Bonefish like the fly fishers do it will catch on.
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[TheCarDoctor]

I may just be because it's right before lunch, but that fried carp looks GOOD!
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[jiggaWHAT]

Might have to give it a whirl if the walleye ever stop biting.... couldnt possibly be any worse than eating one of those nasty slimers (trout)
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[Kevin_VanDam]

Amen, brotha!

[Ratfinkee]

I can recall my dad telling me about the perch in Deer Creek, and how when they would catch them and throw them up on the bank, because they were considered a trash fish... Funny thing is this last winter we caught our limits of perch up at pineview, and we called it a good day. But this isnt going to change my view of eating carp out of utah lake, I dont think I would use them for anthing other than bait. but I might consider deer creek.
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[CoyoteSpinner]

[quote Ratfinkee]I can recall my dad telling me about the perch in Deer Creek, and how when they would catch them and throw them up on the bank, because they were considered a trash fish..[/quote]

I think your dad needs to try some of TD's chow down perch chowder, and he'll change his tune.
I know that's done with carp - though I know folks that live on some of them shores will ask you - please don't!
But with perch - I think that falls into the "wasting fish" category, to which the proclamation says - "no no". Many places the perch can serve as a good cut-bait source.

If you don't want em- you can 'donate' them to me. I'll smoke some and give em back to you . Again - change of tune. Besides they serve as a good food source for other bigger game-fish.

[cpierce]

This is from a post I did about a year ago:
Generally treat the carp as you would any other food fish. I really recommend the filleting and boning videos that are linked further down in my post. Carp are a good food fish, you just have to take some extra steps to debone them.



First step is choose a fish from CLEAN, cold water.

Second step is bleed the fish immediately and then put it on ice.

Third step is to fillet it (and debone it) and remove ALL of the dark meat close to the skin.

Fourth, and this is just my preference, I soaked the fillets in a brine for about 30 min. to an hour. I just used a salt and brown sugar mild brine. This is something I generally do for most game meats, and I thought it might remove any overly strong flavors. I don't know if it was necessary as I didn't leave any fillets out to try and see if there was a difference. I should have, I am curious if it makes a difference.

I then grilled them just to get the actual flavor and not the flavor of a breading.

The fish was quite good, very mild in flavor. Not like perch or other white fleshed fish. It was a light color and more closely resembled the texture of trout or salmon. Closest description would be the flavor and texture of a very large trout.

The main problem with carp is the massive amount of bones in it. They have floating Y bones like pike do. I think that smoked or canned would be a good option with them. Canned would probably be the easiest way to get away from the bone problem.

There is a set of 3 youtube videos on dealing with the bones and filleting carp that are excellent. They are about the silver or flying carp, but the ideas are the same for common carp or pike. Here is the link to the third one on deboning:
[url "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhGkjwxm_0o&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/...&feature=related[/url]

I suggest that you watch at least it and the first one. The flying carp are fascinating. What a pest! The second one shows an easy way to cut it up for frying. Leaving the large Y bones in.

[url "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1NVUV8yhmU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1NVUV8yhmU[/url]

[url "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB-fmA07gZ8&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/...&feature=related[/url]

Also I should say, that they have a massive egg sack. I have heard that it is prized and eaten in Asian cultures. Also I have heard of caviar being made from it. I imagine that it could be made into some great fish bait for the bait fishing crowd.

Otherwise the pigs should love it, or it will make some great fertilizer if you can bury it to avoid the smell. --- A field far far away!

I just hate to see it go to a land fill, and least of all do I want to see(or smell) any on the banks, or floating belly up in the water!
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]I think the reference to throwing perch up on the bank goes way back to the "olden days". Virtually all Utah anglers were strictly trout fishermen. Anything other than trout were unworthy of pursuit and were summarily dispatched and disposed of. That included bass, perch, white bass and of course catfish and carp. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I first fished Utah waters in the early 1960's. I had gotten to know perch as a fine table fish as a kid in Idaho. They were not actively pursued up there but folks who caught them in larger sizes still kept and ate them. So you can imagine my surprise when I saw bank tanglers at Deer Creek cursing when they caught a perch and heaving it back up into the rocks. And they were chucking some perch that most Utah anglers would die for today.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]It wasn't until Deer Creek first opened for ice fishing in the early 80's that more people actually fished for them and tried eating them. In those days you couldn't keep any trout you caught through the ice. There was a trout "season". So people kept the perch and discovered what they had been overlooking all those years.[/#0000ff]
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