Sunday, July 17, 2011

Because You Never Know Until You Try

The night before A. and my's wedding eight years ago, A. went carp fishing on our beach with his friends. Better than a strip club, I guess. Also a good indicator of the sort of man I was marrying.

A. loves to fish for carp. They're so big, you see. And you can catch them from shore, which is much easier than loading all your fishing gear into a boat and sitting out in the sun all day. A. has caught a lot of carp over the years, but he always releases them. Because carp aren't good to eat. Everyone knows that.

Everyone is totally wrong.

See, my soon-to-be-brother-in-law spent his childhood on the Mississippi River, where his dad caught fish to sell commercially. And they ate carp. He told A. all about it when we were in Wisconsin last week.

Yes, carp are bottom-feeders, but so are a lot of other fish that people eat regularly. It all depends on the waters the fish live in. If you're pulling fish from disgusting, polluted rivers or lakes, then any fish is going to be nasty. But our lake is very clean and clear, so there's nothing those carp are eating that will make them taste gross.

So of course, when A. heard that, he was all fired up to try eating carp. And then his cousins came for their week of camping on the beach and pulled this in yesterday afternoon.

What's for dinner? Ugly-ass whiskered fish, of course!

I don't actually know how much it weighed, because I was not inclined to pick it up myself, but it was a heavy fish. Let's say ten pounds. Which could be completely off, but whatever. The point is, some BIG-ASS fillets came off that thing. A. hauled it right up to the house from the beach, filleted it, skinned it, soaked it in buttermilk, rolled it in flour, cornmeal, and pepper, and fried it in tallow. Half an hour after it was pulled out of the water, we tasted it.

Carp is really, really good.

In fact, I bet most people couldn't tell it from chicken in a blind taste test. That's how mild it is. Like chicken, there's white meat and dark meat. In this case, the white meat is better. When raw, the flesh looks a lot like tuna, and cooked, it's very firm and mild. Like, well, chicken. It had no fishy flavor whatsoever. Way, way better than lake trout. Carp are actually a highly prized game fish in Europe and also common in Chinese cooking.

Carp does have what are called "free-floating bones" in it, which means that even if it's filleted, you do have to watch out for bones. But we're pretty used to that, since the pike and pickerel we normally eat are very bony as well. I guess the bony fish are the best.

So once again, conventional wisdom is just wrong. Carp are good. You can take my word for it.

8 comments:

  1. Oh my. Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it but, there is no way you are going to get me to eat it. I'm not a big fish fan to start with and my stomach just did a double back flip when I saw that brute.

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  2. I'm a big fan of eating fish, having grown up on Florida's Gulf Coast. But no way would you get me to eat carp. I used to love to catch salt water cat fish because they put up a big fight on the line, but I put them in the same category as carp. Some ethnic groups do eat salt water cat fish - but not me!

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  3. Oh,I'd certainly give it a try from a clean lake...we live near a not too clean river you wouldn't want to eat bottom feeders from.
    Beth
    Good, it gives A. more fishing incentive. :)

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  4. Carp - it's not just for breakfast any more!

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  5. Wow! I'm impressed. I've always been told that carp are so bony they aren't worth eating. Judging from the picture the carp is probably bigger than 10lbs!

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  6. Oh I forgot to mention about "scoring" the carp to help find those free floating bones. Not sure if you all did that or not, but if you didn’t on the short side of the fillet (top to bottom) score it in about 1/4" or so segments by running the knife through the fillet, just make sure not to cut it all the way through! Not only does this help find most of the bones, but it adds extra batter to the fish!

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  7. We used to get smoked carp from a fish place over on the Mississippi River when I was a kid. Yum!

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  8. A lot of cultures around the world eat carp, but most bake it. I think it has to do with the bone issue.

    By the way, I reckon just about anything "soaked in buttermilk, rolled it in flour, cornmeal, and pepper, and fried it in tallow" would taste good. Mmmmm...

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