Carp for food

I have heard every joke about eating Carp. Well I was a poor white boy and we ate them and never thought about it twice. We fried them or grilled them. I know most folks are to high class to try them. They taste great and if I can catch a Carp I will never go hungry. Never tried eating the board like one of the jokes. I cannot understand how these fish have remained mostly not utilized for food? Well I catfish mainly but have my sweet corn jello panko Carp bait when I want a good fight and maybe a fillet. They have bones but are easily removed after cooking. Now I have had it pressure cooked and just eat the bones after forming Patty's with bread crumbs and maybe some corn meal. So try them before turning your nose. It is funny when lived in Colorado many folks told me catfish taste like mud. Well mud in Texas taste as good as anything else.lol what is your favorite recipe that does not include eating the board?

I've yet to try it, but i'm pretty sure it is a good eating fish just based on what the rest of the world does with it. People just need to give it the proper attention and preparation when cooking it, just like any other meat.

I've never tried it myself but I have seen carp and buffalo for sale in Asian Seafood Markets and yesterday I seen buffalo steaks at my local HEB's seafood counter. I would be willing to try it but I do not even know where to start in preparing it or the best ways to prepare it and I do not know of any restaurants that actually serve it?

To many other species of fish to choose from. Crappie, White Bass, Catfish, Bluegill, and not to mention some of the salt water fish. Never ate carp before but I have friends of mine who have. They all have said it taste pretty good. As for me I will stick to the other choices.

Buffalo are one of the most commercially caught fish in U.S.

The issue with most people is the bones. I have eaten both carp and buffalo. I have had really good [censored] cakes; fixed similar to crab cakes. Buffalo have white meat and were the number one commercial freshwater fish in the United States in the 1930s and 40s. They have much milder meat compared to the carp. As with other fish I would cut out the red meat. I do not think they are as good as red snapper.

I ate a lot of carp meeting with assorted sheikhs in Baghdad. The Iraqi's would open them along the spine instead of along the belly, prop the butterflied fish open facing the fire and then serve it whole. If you pulled the meat off towards the belly the bones stayed with the skin. I actually liked carp the way they served it...as long as I didn't think too much about what bottom feeders living in the Tigris River in 2003/4, 2007/8, and 2011/12 were eating.

i once saw a video that guy with blonde spiked hair made , i think its diners and dives or something like that .it was a carp and catfish diner .they had people lining up to eat carp there.this was in Omaha Nebraska
.they interviewed some families and the loved the carp and said they their children were 3rd generation eating there ..i took one home once and fill the inside with pico de gallo and drizzled lemon on top then baked it in the oven ..when it came out i got some saltine cracker and a fork and spread it on a cracker ,pulled the bones out and ate . the meat was surprisingly clean tasting and moist and flaky .it wasnt bad at all

You are brave my friend and have guts of steel! I've sat in numerous KLE (Key Leader Engagements) and fish was always on the spread but I stuck to the chicken and goat. I've been on to many dismounted patrols going through villages/markets and seeing whole fish guts intact covered in flies and it's 100+ degrees and no ice in sight! Being Doc I've treated "Saddams Revenge" more times than I can count and did not want to put myself through that agony...MRE it is! Lol

I've cooked and eat carp and it is just fine. A pure white meat after pressure cooking. Most who share the bad stuff about carp are just repeating what they have been told by someone else who don't know what they are talking about either.

Probably the most eaten fish by humans in the world.

I would have shot you the eat the board joke, one of my favs LOL!!! But I lived in coastal NC for a while in the early 80s. I was fond of fishing with the real locals in the small towns that bordered the Great Dismal Swamp. I also lived in Missouri in the Ozarks in the early 60s. I learned to eat a lot of things there that were not regularly found on Central Texas kitchen tables LOL!!!! Carp, eels, frog legs, oysters, gator, paddle fish, mud bugs, gar and other items of questionable delicacy. I learned one thing that has followed my living all over the world. You can make a friggen block of wood taste good with the right seasonings and spices and you cook it long enough to make it tender. With that said.... Carp is not one of the worst fish I have eaten but given my preferences…. My fav is evenly split between Nassau grouper and ling cod. But I would not turn down some pressure cooked carp peanut oil fried corn meal covered patties on potato bread with muenster cheese, coleslaw, mayo, and brown mustard with some garlic pickle spears on the side.

On that note..... Damn I'm hungry..... I have some catfish and jumbo shrimp..... Hmmmm ok I'm off to start cooking Be well all.

Oh yeah.... You can make those patties out of any fish and it will still be good. ;-)

I agree 100%

Went to Missouri years ago with a friend to paint his grandparents house. We were invited to a fish fry at a big farmers place. Yep, millionaire farmers were frying carp. Wasn't bad but that keg of Olympia was real good.

Carp for food?


Yea for cats and drum... Oh bass eat em too

bbq buffalo ribs are awesome the bigger the better.. carp is not as good as buff imo.

Years ago, we cleaned some, fried and ate them...I remember a distinct "seaweedy" taste. the filets even smelled that way.However, I have eaten fried carp overseas, and it tasted just fine. ...What did we do wrong? (Granted, these were pretty hefty fish!)

As a kid we stayed with my grandparents while my folks we3re on mission trips (Dad a Baptist minister) My grandpa would make me and my cousin sein a shallow part of the river. Most of the time we would get carp and sometimes gar.

Grandma would gut, scale, take off the head and the fins off and cook them in a giant ole timey pressure cooker. She would pick the meat off the bones and out of the skin and make patties and fry them.

We would chow down. I would mix pepper sauce with catsup and dip the patties. Brings a smile to my face thinking about it.

Wish I had interacted more with HumanSeine on here. I miss seeing his posts.

Ive eaten at that place with some friends. It was OK. They did split the fish along the spine as mentioned above and meat did peal off pretty easily. I thought the meat was kind of mushy and the red line was as nasty as any other fish with a thick red line.

In Europe where they originate the carp is very highly sought after. Only here are they considered a "trash fish." I have eaten them and if you get them out of clean water, like a gravel pit, they are very good. Kind of bony but there are ways around that such as scoring or pressure cooking.

nothing. as with any creature they will take on a mild flavor of what they eat. it's the reason i don't eat Texas ducks. they taste like mud and weeds.