Batter fried common carp...I know!!!

[Tripplebeards]

They were spawning again this morning but am sitting it the woods with an extra turkey tag listing to gobbles on other properties...as usual. Figured it would give me some posting time. I should have stayed home and stuck a few more carp. Last week they were spawning like crazy so I cherry picked a few for my neighbors and some for me.



I was watching YouTube the other day about cutting through the bones in little slices. Apparently if they are cut small enough that the bones will cook soft enough to eat. Well I gave it a try. The side meat outside the ribs that looks almost white with zero bones was really good... but chewy. There are still some big bones left in the back straps after frying so you have to watch for them. I was surprised it all tastes pretty good. I cut out 99.9% of the red mud line. Soaked overnight in the "best darn fish seasoning" and salt. I rinsed the next day and wiped dry. Rubbed with corn meal shore lunch mixed with corn starch and flour because I was running low. It's surprising good. Just have to watch for bones. Whoops ...just thought I had a Turkey sneaking in while typing...it was a deer checking out my decoy...again. I had two big bucks in velvet come by yesterday. Deer every sit...but no turkeys this past week.










Reminds me of the 1970's taste of the Mc Donald's fillet O fish...which they used carp for and never disclosed. Lol


I watched another youtuber grind it up twice to grind the bones up into fish hamburger before cooking. Might have to try it.

[Delkal]

Look up some Chinese recipes where it is steamed whole. It is considered a delicacy there. The Chinese have many other ways to cook it and carp is also popular in Eastern Europe so look up some dishes.

Here is a typical steamed fish recipe even though they didn't mention carp. The Woks of Life is one of my favorite sites to get authentic Chinese recipes.


https://thewoksoflife.com/steamed-whole-fish/

[Winger Ed.]

Carp has a bad reputation from people that have never ate it.
Several other places in the world raise them for food like we do pigs & chickens.

Ya don't get that much off of one since they are so boney and have a big head.
With catfish, you can fillet out about 40% the weight of the fish.
With a carp, it's closer to 25%, but they're usually big enough that it's still worth while.
Also, the cut up scraps from the carp make a pretty good catfish bait.

I fillet them away from the big 'normal' skeleton, but leave those 'Y' bones in that are like steel wire.
We run the fillets in a pressure cooker for 90 minutes.
The 'Y' bones soften down like the bones in canned sardines.

Then use the meat like you would with canned salmon from the grocery store.
Taste wise, it's kind of hard to tell the difference.

[DCB]

well there is nothing wrong with carpe. One out favorite recipes was baked. we got young ones mostly about 12 to 16" long. scrape off the scales, Gut them out open up the cavity. usually took out some of the bone. good liberal amount of cinnamon, brown sugar and chunks of sweet potato in the cavity. Bake for about 1 hour. never bothered with the mud vein in these. we like fish.
I wonder how it would taste smoked?

[country gent]

Smoked carp is a delicacy in many countries and very good. Marinate overnight in your seasoning liquid is best, then put the marinate in the water pan and smoke for 6-8 hours. Carp and suckers Mom would fillet the grind up and make fish patties from them. Or we would smoke them. Smoked spread on crackers makes a great snack

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Carp can be good eating, and it can be awful eating...it just depends.
The nice looking fish and prep work that Tripplebeards has showed us, sure looks tasty to me.
.
I watched an Asian cooking show where the mud vein of fish, like the ugly Carp, is their favorite part. They called it "bloodline."
No thanks! But, I guess if that's all you got, they you get use to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD1-Y14duIU

[DCB]

Asians will eat some stuff that would make a maggot blush.

[rockrat]

Makes me harken back to the day when near the town just West of us, the river overflowed for a few days and once it receded, we asked the farmer if we could see what was in his waterlogged pasture. Water was still a foot or so deep. Friends brought frog gigs and I brought a baseball bat. Got laughed at for this. After about two hours, the score was 17 carp with the baseball bat and zero with the gigs. Most were about 2-3 lbs. Gave most away, but kept a few and one guys mom pressure cooked them.
Not horrible, but not great either.
The farmer had taken some out of the field before hand. Anywhere from 35-50 lbs. They were huge!!! He had put them in a stock water tank so got to see them. Hoping to get one or two that big but no luck. We had fun that day!!

[Electrod47]

Baked Carp is supposedly the Christmas Goose for the Polish people each holiday.....Good ol' Colorado Bone fish. Used to use kernal corn on a micro hook with my favorite fly rig to test my tackle in the shallows of the Colorado River near Needles Ca on 10lb monsters before heading north for Browns back in the day.

[Mk42gunner]

I'd rather eat a carp than a spoonbill, even if I had to pick around the bones.

The best way I have found to prepare carp for frying is to scale them, filet them leaving the skin on, then score the meat about a quarter inch apart between the bones. Fry as normal.

I was told this by an old riverman that grew up eating rough fish, his dad sold most of the catfish he caught/trapped.

Robert

[Tripplebeards]

I actually have two smokers and I’ve smoked carp every year since I’ve been knee-high. This was just something different to try. I had some leftovers for supper. I just had to watch out for the bones those big Y bones I’ll get you. Cold out the refrigerator. It still taste awesome. I used to eat it straight smoked but now I peel all the meat from the bones and mix it up with cream cheese and sometimes I add a little bit of sour cream and some chive. It makes one heck of spread.

[MaryB]

Carp from clean cold water is good eats! I smoke some every spring. I have also had it baked, other than some bones it is tasty stuff. I grew up eating northern pike so bones are no big deal!

[Tripplebeards]

Hey Mary! Hope you’re feeling better!

Northern pike are my favorite! I cut around the Y bones and then I pickle the strip with the bones. The boneless filets out of pike are my are my favorite part.

[Stew]

We have had scored carp for many years. Around here we fillet the fish and cut or score the fillets to cut the small bones and then deep fry it. And the bones get soft like sardine bones and can be eaten. My mom loved scored carp. My favorite is catfish, but if I was going fishing I had to bring back some carp like the ones in the OP's pics just for mom.

[MaryB]

Hey Mary! Hope you’re feeling better!

Northern pike are my favorite! I cut around the Y bones and then I pickle the strip with the bones. The boneless filets out of pike are my are my favorite part.

My spine is slowly self fusing... a very painful process... to hard to concentrate with pain levels that would have most people screaming for morphine... what I calla 5-6 on a scale of 10 LOL living with pain you learn to ignore it but it reaches a point it is just to hard to do super detailed work. Plus sitting in a bent forward position is really bad for spiking the pain...

[BJung]

Glad you can eat them. I tried eating carp from a nearby lake and I had the worse belly ache. After that I buried them in the yard. If I knew what I know now, I'd cook them and feed them to the chickens and get great eggs.

[MrWolf]

My spine is slowly self fusing... a very painful process... to hard to concentrate with pain levels that would have most people screaming for morphine... what I calla 5-6 on a scale of 10 LOL living with pain you learn to ignore it but it reaches a point it is just to hard to do super detailed work. Plus sitting in a bent forward position is really bad for spiking the pain...

Saw you ad in S&S. Sorry it has gotten so bad. I am still putting hope before the cart with my latest surgery. Folks who have never had back issues cannot understand what it is like wanting to scream every ten minutes all night long hoping just to pass out for twenty minutes to get relief. It is taking me a lot longer to recover this time but hoping to be able to sit, drive, etc for more than an hour. Anywho...

That carp looks pretty good. Never had any as growing up it was always what one group would eat but not us. I happen to really like catfish but was always told don't eat carp. Doubt at this stage in life I will. Get to try any but who knows. Thanks.

[MaryB]

Quite a few east coast restaurants serve carp, but they call it something else LOL I used to help clean out the carp trap at the lake and the bullheads were put in dump trucks and dumped on farmers fields to be plowed under. The carp were put in live tanks and trucked east! And we took some BIG carp out of there. Biggest was 75 pounds, it beat up my dad with its tail as he tried to get it in the tank LOL needless to say none of us offered to help, we were to busy laughing as he tried to manhandle and angry fish.

Properly cleaned the flesh is white, flaky, and fairly mild if you let the fat drain from it(and make sure to get all the fat off the meat that sits under the skin).

[Winger Ed.]

They're commercially fishing for the invasive Asian carp in the Mississippi river and others.
They are the ones that jump out of the water when a boat goes by.
They're pulling them out by the ton and selling them overseas.
It's big, big business in some places.

[MaryB]

Carp patties... bake or steam the carp, pick the meat off the bones and just barely pulse it in a food processor(you want pieces not puree). Add mayo, bread crumbs, seasoning of choice, and beaten egg(as needed, you don't want these to wet). Form into patties, season again, pan fry in 1/2 inch of oil. Fish is already cooked so all you are doing is cooking the egg to set the texture, and make a nice little crust on both sides. Serve with tartar sauce on the side.