eating buffalo fish and carp

who on here commonly eat buffalo or carp ?

I was cleaning carp one time and dropped one on the ground. A dog came by and took off with it. He took a bite and turned around and licked his butt to get the taste out of his mouth. I didn't clean any more.

I like buffalo, and used to get tons of them with my bow. Carp got choped up for pocket sets.

When I was growing up you could net catfish in the Missouri river . There was a thriving commercial fishing industry . You could buy dressed river caught fish at the local grocerie stores and every town had a local fish market .There were many bars that had all you can eat buffalo on fryday nights . Most public fishfrys consisted of a mix of scored buffalo and catfish .most people around new how to fleece,score ,and rib out a buffalo . Then the fda stopped the sale of home dressed meat and they banned netting catfish in 92 . a huge part of our heritage gone in the name of legislated conformity
Now days everybody has turned into fish snobs looking down their noses at those of us who carry on the culture of eating ROUGH fish .

Carp roe is pretty good

I have had smoked carp but not in a long time.

You are right Bigfoot. There has been a ton of money made by commercial fisherman off of carp and buffalo from the mississippi river.

I shoot buffalo with my bow, can them, then use them in fish cakes. Carp i use for fish and trap bait.

Are those jumping Asian carp ok to eat?

In my younger years, I used to can carp, and it was darned good that way. Also used to pickle carp, that wasn't to bad either!

Your right about the buffalo though, score them and deep fry....darn good eating!

Both are very good. There where commercial netters that came up to Kandiyohi county in MN netted carp buffalo and bullhead in the winter. I caught a lot of carp sucker and red horse in the spring. All good to eat. Smoked or fried.

Carp out of small lakes are no good to eat. Big lake carp taste better.

They say they are really good. Go to youtube and search Tim Farmer or Steve Douglas cooking asian carp.

i've got rocks in my garden but i don't eat them.

Probably 'cause they don't jump!

Don't eat any fish regularly, but carp is as good as fish gets if handled well. Buffalo is fine.

When I was kid, the two fish in the creek that didn't end up fried were lm&sm bass. Cat fish were noodled and all others fell to the gig. The black bass were said to have worms/flukes.

The only reason we have carp is because the Feds imported them to feed people, European immigrants did not like to eat American fish. Guberment spent tons of money stocking carp and even imported Germans to run the carp hatcheries.

As a kid we ate carp whenever I caught one or two. We also ate a ton of chubs, bullheads, & suckers.

If the water is cold in the spring they're good smoked

I live near a river town where the mom and pop bars fry alot of locally caught catfish and buffalo. If dressed and scored right and the person frying it knows what they are doing buffalo is excellent. I eat it at least twice a week.

What Is Meant by The Term: SCORED when referring To Preparing Buffalo For The Table ?

I Am Not Familiar With That Terminology ?

Thanks

walleyed

Slice two-thirds of the way through the meat every 1/4 inch with a sharp knife. Scoring allows heat and cooking oils to penetrate and soften the fish's many small bones.

Can't speak for Buffalo because I have never caught one, they're not a common fish here. Carp are, and I've eaten many. I like the smallish ones fried, and I have canned them along side the suckers we would fish for in the spring. After they are in the jar they are as good as any canned fish. Smoked carp are very eatable too. One thing I don't do, however, is eat the big ones.....those over maybe 5-6 lbs. Also, when I clean them I always fillet off the lateral line/"mud vein" dark meat. It's disgusting no matter how small the carp.

Thanks For That Info TJM !!!

w

Yeah I just take the backstrap on carp, bleed well,fillet and skin.

The bar I eat at alot fixes fried buffalo with grilled homemade hashbrowns and grilled onions. It is their specialty.

People come from a long ways off to eat there and it is just a little, old, local bar. Nothing fancy at all, but great food. Sets within 100 yards of the river.

The way I scored Buffalo is to have a board that has grooves cut in the board that was a quarter inch wide by about a quarter inch deep and the center of every groove was around 1/2 inch. So what happens is when your knife passes over a groove it doesn't cut any skin but when your knife passes over the solid section of the board it cuts through the meat and skin. This leaves like small sections of the fish that has a elongated section that lets the bones fry out of the meat. the only way I ever seen it done or the only way I ever did it was to fleece the Buffalo and leave the skin on the fish. If you took the skin off ,the meat would cook all broken up in pieces.
I hope I typed this so it makes a little bit if sense.

We score fish under 3#. first you scale the fish , fillet the back bone out ,lay the fillet on the table cut the ribs out like you would a pan fish . then you make slices across the fillet perpendicular 1/8"apart ,to the skin but not through it for the length of the fillet .this cuts up the Y bones so they fry up and aren't noticed . Take the ribs fry them up they only have the big rib bones in them no Y bones so they are easy to pick .the bigger the fish the better the ribs them big grass carp ribs are some of the best fish in the river .We bake or grill the fillets off the bigger buffalo and grass carp the big y bones are supper easy to pick out of a whole grilled side they smoke as well as any fish . the big ones can well to the bones dissolve just like mackerel .

#11 what bar what town ? I will sure stop in and get some when I'm in the neighborhood . I'm around Quincy or Louisiana Mo once in awhile

The Southside, Meredosia,IL. It's on the Illinois River. The Approach is across the street and is good too.

There are still a handful of commercial fishermen on this section of the river. In an effort to sell Asian carp, it is referred to as Silverfin in a fish Market in Springfield, IL. I've never tried it, but would given the opportunity.

I fish the river for fun and catch channel cat, silver bass, white bass and others on rod n reel.

i love to fish carp and suckers but have too many walleye,perch,and crappie to eat them.

Whenever we have fish fres its normaly flathead ,chanel ,or blue cat mostly blue .I try to always cook some buffalo for the old timers and to keep the practice alive one year I was a little short on buffalo ribs and I mixed in half silver carp ribs nobody picked them out . I ate at a restraint in saint jo mo I ordered the carp platter it was served skinned and scored to the back bone and fried whole i'm almost positive it was a silver carp it wasn't shaped like a yellow carp . Id never eaten one scored like that before .

The Asian carp are awesome to eat!! Boil like the Asians do and the flesh (at the risk of being stoned by Tman purists) is whiter than walleye and actually tastes better.

I have shot a lot of carp with bow and used to smoke a lot of the smaller ones because they smoked up faster because they are less fatty. There were ok as a smoked fish.

I have a friend that smokes big grass carp he sells the crap out of it

We worked in the substation there a couple of years ago. I was not there much myself, but did eat at southside. Our crew that was there, ate there almost daily. The best food is found in the old time tavern, restaraunt.

You got that right! There are a half dozen of those taverns on this section of the river, all have good food.

35 years ago when I was a young buck, the Southside was rough. It was the best place to go drinking on Friday/Saturday night if you wanted stabbed or the crap beat out of you. Now it's more of a family tavern/restaurant. Kinda the same crowd, but those that lived through it are older and calmer.

....Have ya'll hands tried chitlins and big red soda water yet ? Lol

HAND, theres absolutely nothing wrong with chitlins ,coon meat ,carp or fried chicken . It's all in your mind . evidently a very narrow mind .

......now why'd you have to go and drag fried chicken down into the bottom of the barrel like that? Lol ....I'd expect better from a wide minded hand

Been here long enough to think your a tool lol.

...you can think? ....must be one of those great wide minded hands lol

if you feel the need to conform to society's norms go right ahead . In certain parts of the country fried chicken goes along with the stereotype you alluded to . anyway what kind of Texan eats chicken . have you ever seen what them things eat!

....people it just got Eastwood in pale rider in here....touchy bunch of yanks these days lol

.....what happened to all the ole boys that didn't lose their sense of humor in the battle of Chancellorsville that used hang out in this place? lol

It's probably cause you don't qualify, MOO.....

....now that was just strange

I may live north of the Mason Dixon line ,but I do live in the only county in Missouri that seceded from the union they call it the kingdom of Callaway .and I tried to lighten things up with the chicken joke

....well you sound like a very conflicted man....I'll bid you goodnight and hope the morning brings you peace and some form of identity lol

I shoot ALOT of carp with my bow......I look forward to the spawn......can shoot a lot in a short perid of time......75-100 per day in some places. I can all of the meat........1 way I prepare it has the carp tasting 100% identical in taste and texture as canned tuna. another way has it coming out like canned salmon.

Foxkidd44 give us your recipe

Bless your heart foxkidd44, but tuna and salmon should be considered rough fish in my opinion. When the wife fixes either one in the house, I need to leave the house. I can't get past the strong, rotten fish odor.
Now if you can make it turn out like rock bass or mahi mahi...

for the carp to taste like tuna........filet the carp....make sure it contains no rib bones....and remove the skin and any reddish colored meat......rinse in cool water ....then cut up into manageable pieces and pack into pint jars.......don't add water. add a few tabelspoons of salt. then let it set on 11 pounds of pressure for 100 minutes.

for it to taste like canned salmon........remove head, guts, fins and scales......then chunk up the carp into 1-2 inch chunks.....pack into jars, pints or quarts.......no water.....a few tabelspoons of salt. then set on 11 pounds of pressure 100 minutes.

simple as that......homemade tuna /canned salmon wayyyyy cheaper than you can buy it at the store. give it a whirl.....and you'll def see for yourself.

I def wouldn't be eating any fish that smelt rotten....lol......i'd be using that for bait

I tried some smoked carp because a friend told me they taste just like ham. He was right, they taste just like fishy-tasting ham. I think his taste buds are shot. Or, I didn't drink enough beer.

I cut up a buffalo I caught yesterday. Got it soaking in a salt brine right now. Tomorrow will get rinsed and put into straight white vinegar to soak a couple days. Will get rinsed then a second time and covered in vinegar with sugar and other spices along with some chopped onion for pickled buffalo.

What’s wrong with you people? Lol

Most fish snobs look down nose of eating ANY fish anymore......we're supposed to release ALL game fish and eat the chit they import from china and central america

Foxkid in your 2nd recipe, are you leaving the bones in?
I've had mullet canned that way and it was real good, the bones cook up from pressure canning.

I'd eat a lot of these if prepped like you guys do.
I could never get it right, but may try again.

pretty good. taste kinda like sweet cucumber pickles. got the recipe from bigfoot. I think everybody reading this ought to pm him for it. I think any fish would be good like this

Looks like pickled pike.

I ate many a carp and sucker growing up in the Ozarks. I really miss deep fried red horse. I still eat squirrel whenever I can.

prob is all the rivers around here are so polluted with toxins and heavy metals they arent safe to eat. The big creek behind my place has mercury in it and HUGE carp.

Mahi mahi . . . IMO the best eating fish out there.

its dolphin,,we eat many in asia!! It is good!! most fish are good.

Pass.

Osky

That's Dolphin the fish, not Dolphin the Mammal.

the culinary association got them renamed silver-fin and now serve them as such in restaurants.

A person once told me that carp smoked tastes just like smoked ham. I tried some and it tasted just like smoked ham. You do have to like ham with a fishy taste.

I just caught a Freshwater Drum aka Sheepshead Saturday , I didn't have a way to keep it, but I looked it up when I got home and it looks like a very interesting fish and like it may be a decent eating fish. as long as we are talking rough fish anybody eat Drum?

I have. They are best caught in early spring out of cold water. Still ok though in summer. Have to trim a lot a lot of red meat off them.

Once. It tasted exactly like the Neosho River smells.

Mike

Hey now! What you know about the Neosho River?

I tried the same with spawned out salmon. Ain't doing that again.

around here the Neosho produces some big spoonbill and flat heads

click on the pictures

http://academic.emporia.edu/schulmem/hydro/TERM%20PROJECTS/2007/Camp/index.htm

I ran into the dad of one of my All Purpose Boy's old school chums, the guy had just returned from a Walleye outing (Saginaw Bay or Detroit River???)and told me the fishing for Walleye was so-so, but that he'd caught a bunch of "Sheepshead", as a bunch of Michigan folks call them. I asked if he eats them and he said he loved them smoked. Two days later he dropped off a couple smoked to perfection. It was delicious. I won't toss back any if I catch them. They are not found in most of the inland lakes here, but the Great Lakes and connecting waters teem with them.

around here the Neosho is called Grand Lake of the Cherokee and is where the Twin Bridges Trapperman Spoonbill Meet is held every March

small drum under about 15" are excellent when fileted like crappie and fried in cornmeal . I'm not fond of the big ones

I caught this one on the Wisconsin river upper dells , from shore while I was eating my lunch on Blackhawk Island , the Island is closed to the public owned by the University of Wisconsin it is for research and education projects but my son and I were there helping with a mussel study.

very interesting the Fresh water drum is the host fish of a a few Mussels.
The Mussel biologist we were working with thinks the drum are eating the Zebra Muscles that were attaching themselves to Pimple-Back mussels we saw several of the pimple back that had been attached to and eaten off and one that was still attached.

last time I caught a sheepshead was in Sturgeon Bay WI about 1993. I would be up for catching more and would like to try frying some up.

my son and I went fishing with my dad Friday , his boat is on lake Michigan but the wind had kicked up NNE after midnight and waves were up to around 6 feet , so we fished the river and harbor , and picked up a nice sheepshead.

I filleted it up and tonight we had rainbow trout and sheepshead fish fry .

I did do a 30 minute milk soak on the sheepshead , but the wife compared it to fried catfish at a restaurant and ate 2-3 peices and really liked it.

very mild flavor not fishy or smelly.

I had cut off the meat below the ribs keeping any of the white flesh above the blood line

she was presented with 3 beer battered pieces of fish tried each and decided which one she liked not knowing which was which and she choose the sheepshead.

making me hungry!!

I can a lot of carp. I used to just mix them all with no preference. Now I actually prefer the silver jumpers. When you remove most of the red meat they look much whiter than common carp in the jars. Pressure canned 24 pint jars about a month ago and only have 6 left. lol

Have never had anyone, even people who dont really care for fish, not like fried carp pattys made frome canned carp. Put on a bun with home made tartar sauce or mayo, a little lettuce and you'r good to go:



Is also great with cream cheese or Mayo and relish for a cracker type dip.

I have a 10lb grass carp on brine at the moment. I will smoke it tomorrow.

I use to smoke carp and they were very good … the secret was in the marinade sauce you soaked in for about 12 hours … when you took them out you knew they were ready to be smoked, because they had a slick looking glaze on them. Then you smoked them for another 8 to 10 hours … AND they did taste like ham … but … I have lost the marinade recipe … and don't want to waste the fish or time experimenting … If anyone from the lake Erie area has it, let me know. We usually didn't even mess with anything under 10 pounds (fish size) and used mostly the meat one the upper back and above the red/gray line.

Garry-

never cleaned a carp...had a little smoked once a guy gave me. It was good. Saw huge big head carp steaks in asian store other day.....looked good.

trapset how do u clean yours? any pics?

ya your right about the water,gotta be good no toxins.if the water is muddy skin em,i have seen people clean the platter of fish that they would not eat if they knew what it was.you just gotta take care and fix them right.be it pickled,smoked,canned,baked or fried.you got me hungry for fish now too.

Had some smoked Carp down in Sandusky once.Was very good.

That is the area I was in …. just on the west side of Sandusky Bay …


Garry-

I couldn't find any pics of the cleaning WRR. On the Silvers I fillet with electric knife, just a Walmart Black and Decker. I don't go very far down the rib cage any more, thus I avoid the mess of opening belly. Have also heard the fatter belly meat is where the heavy metals hang out. Jumpers get real bony down by the tail section as well. I usually cut off the last 3 or 4 inches ahead of the tail. Cleaning like above then removing red meat takes aprox 30 jumpers to make 25 pints of canned fish.

I just made cold Carp sandwiches Saturday. Scoop of mayo and a scoop of dill relish mixed in well drained canned Carp. Put in frig to cool and set up for an hr or so before making sandwiches. Putting carp jar in frig several hrs before making cuts down frig time on finished product. This is way milder than tuna salad and is great on crackers as well as sandwiches.

Here's a couple jars of all jumpers.

i dont know what u mean by jumpers,,we just have the big old common river carp here.

Asian Silver Carp

The invasive Asian Carp called "Silver Carp" are the ones that jump out of the water from the noise of the motor. We just started calling them Jumpers and it stuck.LOL

I used to do the exact same thing as above with the common Carp your talking about as well. We would run set lines baited with night crawlers early in spring until we got enough for a canning batch. OK to freeze till you get enough, but like always, fresher is better. Common Carp are not quite as white in the jar, but looks good when you remove most of the red meat. Tastes pretty much the same as Jumpers to me when canned.

we dont have those here in the river in my pasture...yet

Lucky you WWR. We have way to many of them. They got here 6 or so years ago and just exploded. Seems like the pop doubled every year for a while there.

doesnt look appetizing,canned

Well if ya only ate stuff that looked good what fun would that be? LOL

You are not hungry enough.

I don't think they'd move much Tuna if it were sold in glass jars either. I can tell you that removing the red meat, which turns brown when canned make the fish look a lot better.

They were trying to develop a market for thees invasive carp so they had blind taste tests and nearly 100% of the people tested preferred the milder canned Carp over Tuna. The problem was, when the people were told what it was nearly 100% said they would still buy Tuna over Carp.LOL

I told my daughter that story when we were canning a few years ago and she said "They just need to call it something else." Thats when she started labeling the jars Carpe`. LOL

Heck, those jumpers get big enough, call them fresh water tuna.

I see you put an E on the end of "Carpe"?? does that make it more trendy like a "Shoppe" at the mall? You really got me thinking now I need to be canning me some Carp or at least suckers. I've only ever smoked them.

Mac

My daughter started adding the e' with the accent to make it more marketable, jokingly, after i told her about the Tuna/Carp taste test. Sounds like Carpeh' rather than just plain old Carp. lol