There is nothing you can do to make a Jack Crevalle edible to a normal human being. Clean it, prepare it and cook anyway you want, with any season or marinade and it’s still bad. Real bad. They don’t even cook it in Southern Louisiana where those Coon [censored] could cook an old tire and make it good. Anyone who likes eating it like would eat anything. People around the world eat just about anything. Jeffrey Dalhmer liked eating his guests. His mom said, “Jeffrey I don’t think I like your friends”. Jeffrey said “mom, try the vegetables.”

Pound for pound it will fight with about any fish in the bay or gulf. They will destroy a top water. I hate when we go fish the Chandelier Islands and within the first 5 casts of thr morning I hook a Jack or Bull red. He gets broke off, quick. No way I am fighting either of those while the trout are being hammered.

Skipjacks cut up make great redfish bait. Poor man’s Tarpon….lol.

Jeff,

I understand that you need to keep things as simple as possible and that you bread and fry everything so that the breading is all you ever taste. You can leave the specialty fish to others - no one will laugh at you. PS, don't ever order sashimi at a sushi bar! Stick to the "California Rolls" - they're right up your alley...

Except that you would be wrong. Grill plenty. I will take Yellow Fin Tuna for sushi. I have eaten fish quite a few ways around the world. Never have I seen a restaurant serve a Jack Crevalle. Even in China where they have about as wide a range of what is eaten as anywhere. No Jack.

Plenty more for you.

Apparently some people eat them.

https://saltwatermecca.com/jack-crevalle-recipes/

I had a guy tell me he could clean Kingfish ensuring they are bled right after they were caught. Then he had a special recipe that made them tasty. You could eat them. There probably are 100,000 things in the ocean that taste better. When we caught then I always donated mine to him,

Half the family is from S Louisiana. They've served me nutria rat, coot, gar, carp, peacock and stingray. All of it was quite good. I assure you if a coohon won't stick something in his mouth, it's not edible.

I’ve never tried it, but from time to time I hear tha crevalle is great “ if it’s cooked right.” Might be something to it. I’ll never know…….,,,

Jeff,

Yellowfin Tuna sushi (Nigiri / on rice) is girl sushi - let me know when you have worked up the courage to try sashimi (raw fish / no rice).

When I eat sushi I eat, Yellowfin (Maguro), Yellowtail (Hamachi) and Mackerel (Saba) sashimi with some Sea Urchin roe (Uni) and Raw Shrimp (Ama Ebi, replete with the fried shrimp heads), and they are all fantastically delicious - of the fish, the mackerel is my absolute favorite - yes, raw - and the non-fish sea urchin roe is a very close second)

Also, when I get a craving for shrimp I buy Colossal Gulf Shrimp and de-vein them with the shell and head on, deep fry them in peanut oil with a little chopped garlic, and eat the whole shrimp - shells, eyes, tentacles and all - and they are wonderful.

Jack Crevalle, when cared for properly (bled and dark meat removed immediately and fillets placed in brine on ice) and cooked appropriately, is great.

Don't be afraid to challenge your emotional biases.

Here endith the lesson.

We can settle this pretty easy.
I'll bring a bag of filets, trout, flounder or redfish.

You cook smiling jack however you like.
I'll cook whatever I've got

Have a few clueless people there, let them decide.
It's not a matter of *IF* it's a matter of *WHY*.

Pat,

Your plate looks good, but, if there is actually fish on that plate, how is anyone supposed to taste the fish with all that stuff it is mixed in with?

If fish has to be drowned in something, or breaded and fried to "taste good," I'll pass. I like seafood prepared pretty basic - so I can taste it. My favorite way to prepare fillets (when I am not eating sushi) is to broil them with a little butter on top, and maybe a small dash of high quality soy sauce.

Less is more, in my humble opinion.

When I lived in Hawaii I was a mate on a fishing boat and the First Mate was a supremely nice, extremely experienced, Hawaiian, that was born and raised in Hawaii. I learned so much from him that I can never repay him.

On the way out, we would always catch Skipjack tuna to use as bait, and the First mate would always bleed and ice one immediately, "for later."

On the way back to the dock at the end of the day, he would do a demonstration for the customers by expertly preparing a spread of sashimi and offer it to any of the customers that wished to try. It was beyond superb - you cannot get fresher - but invariably there were customers that thought that Gorton's frozen fish sticks were fish, and would not go near it...

They did not know what they did not know - so they could never be expected to be unbiased.

Once one side of the fish was consumed - often, mostly by the crew - the First Mate would then demonstrate how "Native Hawaiians would eat fish back in the day," and he would flip the fish over to the untouched side, pick it up, bend it in half, and take a HUGE bloody bite out of the side of the fish - skin and all - and with the biggest grin you have ever seen, munch it down, with glee! Nope, I never tried it - that was his lane and I stayed in mine.

Almost all the women, and a few men that acted like women, would groan in revulsion!

I will never forget those days - some of the happiest, most enjoyable days of my life - some of the best fish I have ever eaten - and hearing those people freak, was music to my ears.

Less is just less....
We eat a lot of fish, because I catch a lot of fish. Serve it up a lot of ways, that picture was just for reference, and if you've never had a good ponchatrain sauce, with oyster crab and shrimp involved, you just don't how happy your mouth can be.

Again, I'll bring a bag of fillets, you bring your jack, serve them up identical, and let's see which one gets eaten first. People eat gafftop too, but life's too short.

We are just going to have to agree, to disagree.

But you cannot ask people that eat fast-food for almost every meal, to be fair, unbiased judges of any dish - much less one that they have never had because they have always heard it was bad, and never tried it for themselves...

I have eaten Yellowfin right off the boat when we hit the dock in Venice.

With today’s limits if a Jack Crevalle was any good they would be cleaning it and eating it. Heck, now they even keep trigger fish on the head boats.

Generally, I will try a small amount of any seafood. I’ve had plenty of it around the world. For a bunch it’s, “I will pass, too much real good seafood out there.”

Apparently you have the ability to eat about anything and enjoy it. Most people don’t. In foreign countries they typically have a wider range of what they typically will eat.

Jeff,

I never said that Jack Crevalle was as good as Wahoo (one of the best tasting fish I have ever eaten), or Mahi Mahi, or especially good was Gray Snapper in Hawaii (spends its entire life eating shrimp and is flat-out awesome), all I said is that Jack Crevalle is no where near as bad as many people think it is. And, yes, I have tried lots of foods that I previously thought were inedible, only to learn that they were great!

And, Jack Crevalle just kicks [censored] on a fishing line - so I love fishing for them even if only to release them to fight another day.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Jack Crevalle are a blast to catch. Then be released. I'll be eatin' with Pat Goff, given the option. Best fish sandwich ever is the "Bake'n'Shark" in Trinidad. But they know how to make it. IslandJim