Cooking Carp?

[Yooperhawgs]

This may sound off the wall, but has anyone eaten carp before? Caught one for the first time the other day and with the fight it put up I wouldn't mind fishing for these. Just wondering if they are worth eating if I do fish for them.

[ice_shack]

There pretty good smoked as long as they aren't to big.

You gotta love the fight they put up, I'm going to try them on a fly rod this year.

[Yooperhawgs]

Wonder if they would be any good ground into patties like I do with suckers? I couldn't believe the fight that one gave me!! That would be a blast on a flyrod!

[SilverLakeBoy]

A friend of mine used to can them and they tasted just like canned salmon. I'll see if he still has the recipe. I have smoked a few smaller ones 1-3 lb range

People really liked them. Myself I don't care for them much.

A few years back I worked with a guy from Iowa he said they had baked carp every year for christmass dinner at his grand mothers and it was delicious. ???

[PierBridge]

Smoked Carp can be good.

And they sure are fun to catch.

Yooperhawgs that looks like a 15" perch maybe 2 pounds? Where did that pig come from?

[Yooperhawgs]

Thanks,15.75",2pound2ounce. Came from a known lake in the U.P. of Michigan, west end, ice fishing.

[The Grebe]

Had some fried Carp years back, and it almost killed me it was so nasty!

My dad used to smoke them up when I was a kid, small carp, a pound or so and I could'nt get enough of them. The bigger they got, the worse they tasted...I can't even imagine how nasty a 20 pounder would be?

But, there are people all over the world that swear by them and consider them pretty special? Maybe I just hav'nt had them fixed in the right recipe, but as good as panfish and Walleyes are, along with the assorted ocean species, I'll leave the experimenting to someone else!

[Eric Wettschreck]

There are people that live for smoked carp. I hate it!!!!

To each their own, yes they put up one heck of a nice fight and are really fun to catch, but I'd rather lick my dogs butt than eat another carp.

[ozzie]

My brother lived in germany and he siad that he loved eating carp there but he also said that if he caught one here he would put it in a kiddie pool for a few days to "clean it out". I think the way he told me is they gut them and bake them. He swears by it but I wouldn't try it in a milloion years.

[The Grebe]

Boilerguy...bad as those nasty old Carp are, I would certain opt for the Carp instead of the dog hinder...yuk!

But then when you think of a nice, greasy, muddy, seeping chunk of fried Carp?...yuk! It would probably run a close second!

[M.T. Bucket]

I'd rather eat a smoked carp than a northern cooked any which way. Carp don't taste half bad, but they can't possibly be very healthy to eat, considering their diet.

Pound for pound, no freshwater fish fights like a carp. When I was a kid in Illinois, we used to find a lonely, shallow stretch of river or stream, toss 2 cans of corn out by the handful over maybe a 30'x30' area, the corn would sink, and we'd come back in a couple of hours. The water would just be boiling with carp. We'd fish in there and battle carp (and the occasional catfish drawn by the corn) for hours, sometimes with a flyrod or ultralight--what a gas!

[cyberamish]

I loved fishing for them as a kid, the best recipe I found was to dig a large hole roughly 2 ft away from Mom's tomato plants and bury them there. We had the nicest tomatos in town!!

[MuleSkinner]

About 40 years ago, as a kid, I proudly speared 3 carp in a dredge ditch right beside our farm. I begged and begged and begged my mom to bake 'em. She did. I had one bite. Ever since, I carefully examine my private parts every night to make sure nothing extra is growing down there.

Of course, that was back in DDT times, and also most every farmer connected their septic up to a field tile.

Actually, I very much like smoked carp. But it is very greasy looking, and I can only stomach so much, before the tummy aches.

Unless you smoke 'em, I would follow cyberamish's recipe ver batim...and then I would even bury the tomatoes.

[abens1078]

Plank-charred Carp

We use the Cedar planks that they sell for doing Salmon on the grill. go through the normal plank preparation(soaking in water mostly)

Use only the top portion of the fillet(nearest the backbone) this helps to avoid the line of floaters(bones)similar to Y bones in a northern. The srtip of meat is about 1 1/2" wide by 1" thick and it is the prime cut on a carp.

Season the fish with Emmril's fish rub and lemons while its on the cedar planks. Lemon Pepper is another good flavoring for this method. Allow the fish to sit for about 20 minutes in the fridge.

While the fish is siting start your grill and get it warmed to Medium heat. Place the the planks of fish over the flames with about 1" spaces between planks so the smoke can surround the fish. I even like to cover the spread with a couple sheets of tin foil to help trap some of the smoke around the meat. You should be done cooking in about 20-30 minutes, check by flaking the fish with a fork. When fish flakes bring it to the table on the planks and gather the family/company(using a cookie sheet works the best to get everything from table to grill.

Finally after garnishing with lemon wedges and parsley Throw the G** D*** carp away and eat the planks.

An old timer laid that one on me real thick one afternoon while I was out bowfishing in a local lake. HE even went so far as to ask me for a fish to help him get this gag started. I laughed til my sides hurt.

[The Grebe]

M.T....Them Pike are good if you get all them danged bones out and to do that, you seem to have to start with a good sized pike if you want to end up with anything?

The fish seem to be mostly bones, y bones, regular skeletal bones, free floating bones...they probably even have backup bones!

Although I say they are good, they are only good if someone else does all the work and knows how to prepare them...me, I don't mess with pike, as a rule.

I'll smoke or pickle a winter caught pike occassionally, but not often. But Carp? Yeah, they can fight, but that is where it ends? Now days, I would'nt even eat a little one smoked!

[MuleSkinner]

OK abens1078, ya got me on that recipe, even though I have heard it before Actually, I think I saw it in the official Iowa state cookbook, (minus the punch line.)

[Mike89]

Grebe and Bucket, Bucket for sure you are missing the boat on Northerns!!!!! They are among the finest eating fish when prepared properly, completely boned. If you ever get by Osakis, north end of the lake, let me know and I will give a lesson on cleaning one of those slimmy things!! I only charge beer!! When these things cleaned right you will have one of the finest eating fish. And yes I have eaten carp, smoked and ground into patties. They are good this way too, but I also enjoy all smoked fish. Good fishing!!! Mike

[The Grebe]

Mike89...I can do the pike boneless, I learned how to do that about 10 years ago. Maybe it's my past programming, or something? I just think it is to much work for the return? And it seems that just when you are enjoying a piece of the boneless pike, you find that they automatically grew another bone while the fillet was on the plate, waiting to be cooked!

[abens1078]

Yeah buddy, its right next to bullheads in the microwave.

[Mike89]

Grebe, I do know what you mean by another bone growing when you aren't looking!! I do have a good safe guard for that though!! My wife hate bones more than anyone I know, so after I'm done she goes over those filets like a mad person!! Good fishing!!! Mike

[Yooperhawgs]

Muleskinner, if I can borrow a saying from a known comedian: "I don't care who you are, 'dat 'dere is funny!". I laughed so hard I had to go to the can! O.K. I get the hint, carp good to fish for fight, bad for the tastebuds. And M.T., pike are good if you pickle them or grind them up for patties. I tried a recipe for Italina Pike once, tomato sauce and cheese, baked..... Italian food has no place for fish!!!

[cyclebear]

Did you find the recipe for smoked carp? If so, I would like to try it.

[island guy]

As a kid we lived by a old fella who said the best recipe for carp and suckers was to bury them in the garden. He would too. When he planted his tomatos, peppers, cabbage, ect. he would dig the hole, put in a bunch of rough fish pieces, cover with a few inches of dirt then put the plant on top. He always had a unreal garden. As a youngster, I was always too freaked out to eat his produce as my young mind figured them vegies were full of rotten carp juice!!

[USPENAMC]

Yeah its a good fertilizer someone should come up with a commercial way of selling them as so Thats why my grandma never had any problems with any rabbits eating her plants...I guess they have the same opinion about Carp...hey i have an idea there was someone having snake problems in the forum now you know throw a couple of these puppies around them

[catmand0o0]

I've somked 1 carp and pickled 2 suckers this spring. The carp is fantastic... no kidding. The key is to cut out most of the red meat. The rest of the meat is great. Of courst to do this you must skin the carp. Just rest the meat on some foil in the smoker. I use a salt and brown sugar rub overnight. I'm not against a healthy garden, but if you don't try some smokin and pickling with these "underutillized" fish you are missing out!