As usual, I’ll be spending Labor Day in Florida, on St. George Island. We always do a bit of surf fishing while there, and always wind up catching mostly sail catfish (a/k/a gafftop catfish, a/k/a top sail catfish).
Now, I know these are regarded as “trash” fish by most, and we usually just throw 'em back. But are we missing out on a taste treat? Are these fish worth eating? And if so, does anyone have any preparation/cooking tips?
Other than being really common, is there a reason the sail cat is regarded as a “trash” fish?
Maybe it’s like the little crap vein in shrimp? I haven’t cooked enough fish dishes to know that one.And my father the chef is not avalible for questions.
“before storage you should remove any darker colored flesh (the bloodline).
If you leave this on, it will pollute the rest of your fish with its strong flavor.”
I guess it’s the darker meat near the backbone.
Nah. When you fillet a fish, there’s this dark portion, next to the ribs and kinda in the center of the fillet, which runs longitudinally from gill to tail.
I always remove it in any fish. But some are stronger tasting than others.
Peace,
mangeorge
The “bloodline” people seem to be referring to is just a patch of highly-vascularized muscle tissue on the fish. I’ve also heard it called the mudline. For most fish, it’s on the outside, but on sharks for example it’s on the inside near the bones. This is the “dark meat” of the fish so to speak - the muscle the fish uses all the time for swimming and moving; it needs a lot of blood/energy so it has lots of blood vessels and associated structures in the area… which gives a very “fishey” taste, same as drumsticks taste different from turkey breast. It isn’t bad for you, and doesn’t contain pollutants (that’s stored in the fat mostly on the belly). Many people trim this off and use it as cat food.