05-27-2016, 01:26 AM
I've tried it on a few occasions and can say that properly prepared it can taste very mild and is actually good. Too many people just regurgitate what they've heard from others who probably never actually tried it either.
When I say properly prepared I mean filleted, skinned, boned. They taste no stronger than bass or trout, but with the y-bone structure they can be a pain to prepare. Because of the pain of deboning (and not the taste or texture), I prefer to use them as bait, but every year I keep one to cook just to be sure that I hadn't just got lucky in the past.
The advise about bleeding and icing them is spot on, and the advise about cutting the red meat out of the fillet is true also. The pain is in the bones only so there are a couple of ways to deal with those. One way is to carefully cut the Y-bones out of the fillets (just look on YouTube). Another way is to score the fillet across the fillet every 1/8-1/4" almost all the way through and then get your breading or corn meal down deep into every cut. Done this way the oil will follow the breading and soften the bones enough to be able to eat them without noticing them. This method works great with suckers also.
How you feel about the taste of them will really depend on how you feel about the taste of fish in general. If you only tolerate fish, and it has to be a perch or walleye in order to stomach it then carp won't be for you, but if you like trout, bass, catfish, etc. then you will will probably like carp if you can sort the bone issue out.
Also, I'm so glad that this thread didn't have reference to that asinine, often repeated joke that we've all heard a hundred times about cooking it on a board and eating the board. They are useful as food as well as bait and it makes me feel a little better about killing them if I can use them for some purpose.
Mike
[signature]
When I say properly prepared I mean filleted, skinned, boned. They taste no stronger than bass or trout, but with the y-bone structure they can be a pain to prepare. Because of the pain of deboning (and not the taste or texture), I prefer to use them as bait, but every year I keep one to cook just to be sure that I hadn't just got lucky in the past.
The advise about bleeding and icing them is spot on, and the advise about cutting the red meat out of the fillet is true also. The pain is in the bones only so there are a couple of ways to deal with those. One way is to carefully cut the Y-bones out of the fillets (just look on YouTube). Another way is to score the fillet across the fillet every 1/8-1/4" almost all the way through and then get your breading or corn meal down deep into every cut. Done this way the oil will follow the breading and soften the bones enough to be able to eat them without noticing them. This method works great with suckers also.
How you feel about the taste of them will really depend on how you feel about the taste of fish in general. If you only tolerate fish, and it has to be a perch or walleye in order to stomach it then carp won't be for you, but if you like trout, bass, catfish, etc. then you will will probably like carp if you can sort the bone issue out.
Also, I'm so glad that this thread didn't have reference to that asinine, often repeated joke that we've all heard a hundred times about cooking it on a board and eating the board. They are useful as food as well as bait and it makes me feel a little better about killing them if I can use them for some purpose.
Mike
[signature]