I remember a few yeas back seeing a humorous website about the joys of carp fishing, a play on its reputation here as a trash fish. I tried to look for it, but now there’s all these serious sites extolling carp :eek: . I think they’re probably a good sport fish because they put up more of a fight.
I haven’t had it, but I have heard it’s very muddy tasting. Bottom feeding probably contributes to this, but catfish are bottom feeders, as well, but generally don’t taste all that muddy. Perhaps it has to do with how either fish processes their food or something.
ETA: I see BMax had the same thought regarding flavor. Damn, I’m hunkering for some catfish now!
I’d always heard large catfish are very poor eating, where a younger/smallish catfish is pretty good. Is this true? Does this have some bearing on carp edibility?
Pretty much what he said. The lakes in EU, from what I understand, are clear and have rocky bottoms. Lakes in the US usually have softer bottoms and muddy water. The mud flavor really comes through in the fish.
Yeah, that’s true; there’s a bit of a muddy taste in wild catfish. But I think this is probably true for most fish when you’re talking wild vs. farm-raised.
Some folks I know vastly prefer the wild caught taste, but to tell you the truth, I’d just as soon have farm-raised. Also, if I never have to skin another catfish, that would be fine with me.
A perfect case of unfamililarity with a meat allowing it to acquire an undeserved reputation. Mutton is different from lamb, and needs to be cooked accordingly, but it’s simply not true that it’s ‘poor eating’.
I fish for catfish a lot and eat them from time to time. The general rule we have is that we never eat one if it is bigger than the span between one’s elbow to the tips of their fingers. That works out to about a pound or two. Rule number two is that we rarely eat them much past mid-May or so. Much later than that and the water gets warm and the meat gains that muddy flavor. The cool water combined with the size makes a huge difference in the flavor of the meat.
Here in Texas, I have catfish fairly regularly and have heard that “small = good” on more than one occasion. While there may be some actual taste or texture difference between the adolescent and the aged, I am more inclined to believe that the taste of the fish is just better disguised with the smaller fillets. After all the spices and breading that typically coats the fish is added, I could be eating a cooked sponge for all the difference in taste it would make.
I don’t mind catfish or carp, although neither are favorites. The trick for both, and much moreso in carp, is to fully and cleanly remove the dark line of meat along the back. This significantly lessens the muddy flavor.
You’re right; it wasn’t the best analogy. But it’s tougher and stronger tasting, is what I was getting at. There are ways to compensate for that, just as I’m sure you could cook bigger catfish in a way that would be more palatable.
Well, you’re half right; mutton and lamb are both disgusting. I’m quite familar with both, having been served lamb at least once a week at boarding schools and having been served mutton once a week by my mother.
Mutton and lamb are awesome! I just had a lamb barbecue here last week. The mutton barbecue I’ve had in Owensboro, Kentucky, is simply amazing.
Anyhow, carp is very popular in Central European cuisine. It’s pretty much the fish of choice for Christmas around those parts. When you walk the streets of Budapest during Christmas, you’d see vendors with live tanks of carp along the street. You’d go up to one, pick your carp, he’d whack it with a mallet and fillet it on site for you.
That said, I never got the sense it was particularly prized. It’s more of a tradition than anything else. My folks (Polish) grew up with carp, but they absolutely hate it. I don’t like it much either, except in Hungarian fish soup, as it has a very muddy, river-bed sort of taste to it.
Add to that the fact that Americans, in general, are very sensitive to gamey, “dirty” flavors, and you have your reason for why it’s not popular here. I hate to make such sweeping generalizations, but it has been my experience that the American palette has been conditioned to avoid such “wild” and “gamey” flavors. I mean, hell, our commercially-farmed chicken here barely has any flavor, yet the popular opinion is that breast meat (bland) is to be prized more than thigh/dark meat (which actually has some flavor to it.)
Some people prefer wild caught catfish? I’ve honestly never heard that (Of course, I live in Atlanta, where catfish isn’t as popular as it is in your neck of the woods). Most distributors won’t even think about buying anything that approaches wild in taste, and many will send back farm-raised if they get so much as a whiff of mud.
Little nitpick. Be careful of the phrase ‘esteemed in Europe’. What they eat or esteem in the Czech Republic is as alien to my British tastes and knowledge as it would be to any Americans. Small continent, VAST cultural differences.
I’ve had smoked, wild carp, and catfish from muddy rivers at a time in my life when I absolutely loathed fish of any kind and loved it. Smoked fish was the only kind of fish I would eat as a young boy. Hated the highly prized breaded and deepfried Perch and Walleye, but had no problem with the smoked “Junk” fish… in fact it is a delicacy to me now.
