Kind of what I figured TD. 
CARP FRY…TD I know you got recipes.
Over the course of my several decades of fishing, and eating fish, I have been “exposed” to the consumption of just about every species of fish you can imagine. Nay…I profess not to be the next “Bizarre Foods” program host. But I have eaten and enjoyed lotsa different finny goodies.
Going back far enough, I caught and ate chubs as a kid in Idaho. Suckers too. Just about got disowned by my troutaholic family but I figured if I caught it I was gonna try it…and my mom was patient enough to cook it after I cleaned it. Also ate my first perch up there before age ten. So I had no foolish notions about them.
As I have travelled around the country…for business and pleasure…I have had the good fortune to have known fellow anglers from many cultures and nationalities. As we have discussed on this board before, folks from other countries think we are nuts for turning up our noses at carp. Carp are a prized food fish…and game fish…in most other parts of the world. But we have become “programmed” to think of them as bottom dwelling, scum-sucking scavengers…like lawyers…errr catfish. And catfish are a good comparison. Still lots of folks who shudder at the thought of them, while countless others count them as their favorite fish.
I can personally testify that species of fish is often not as important as habitat and diet. I have eaten trout, bass and other highly touted fish that has been so muddy-tasting or mushy that it was inedible. Ditto for high priced salmon. Water chemistry, algae concentrations, food sources, spawn cycles and other factors all contribute to making otherwise good fish into something you wouldn’t want to bury in your garden.
Some species naturally have objectionable tastes. Others are prone to developing poor quality flesh during certain times of the year…or under adverse water conditions. The same can be said of carp. If you harvest a medium sized carp from relatively clean water…in which they have a varied diet of plant, insect and fish life…they will likely have a mild flavor that is not unlike that of many other fresh water fish. And their firm flaky flesh holds up better in many recipes than more delicate fleshed fish such as trout.
There are two things that turn most people off when they first take a shot at preparing carp. First, they do have a “characteristic” odor…but that comes from the protective slime layer. Once you fillet and skin the fish the flesh smells no different than most other fish. You wanna talk about stinky fish…try handling a northern pike and then sniff your hands. Peee yewww. And lots of other fish stink worse before skinning than after.
The second thing about carp that is a bummer are the bones. As members of the minnow family they have rows of fine bones in their flesh. But, guess what? So do trout, whitefish, pike and others. All you gotta do is learn to feel for the rows of bones and to slice them out…or cross score them so they are cooked enough to eat without problem.
I have smoked carp and had it proclaimed “the best salmon” I ever did. I have also made “carp nuggets” from pieces of boneless strips. When breaded or battered and fried they turn out as good as many other fish…if not better.
**Many European and Asian recipes call for steaming or slow baking carp. This either renders the bones soft enough to eat…or at least makes it easier to pick them out of the cooked flesh. **
I would not eat a carp from Utah Lake, even though I do eat catfish from there. Silly me. But I do not think I would hesitate to eat them from Deer Creek, Starvation, Pineview or other lakes with relatively clean living conditions. If I did not always have ready access to prime fillets from my other favorite species I would probably be more inclined to put carp on the table…instead of cutting it up into strips for bait as in the picture below.
[inline STRIPS.jpg]