# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Cooking, Food Storage, & Preserving >  Fish Jerky

## Sparky93

I am looking for a way to cook up a carp so it is half way edible cause I went bow fishing yesterday and loved it even though we didn't get any. Any how I can see me getting really into bow fishing, but I don't really feel very good about killing a carp, then throwing it on the bank and wasting it even though the are an evasive species. So I was thinking about trying to make some carp jerky if I get any this summer. I have heard from everybody I have asked that the would rather eat a car tire than a carp. Well I have had fish jerky before and it is actually better than it sounds, anybody ever made carp or any other fish jerky that might have some tips, advice. or recipes that could be of help?

Here is an article I found on making fish jerky...
http://meghanfitz.hubpages.com/hub/H...ake-Fish-Jerky

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## SARKY

Garbage fish like invasive carp won't go to waste if you till it into your garden! just a thought.

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## Sparky93

> Garbage fish like invasive carp won't go to waste if you till it into your garden! just a thought.


Hey, now that's not a bad idea! Thanks for the thought!

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## Winnie

I have to agree with you, Carp tatses like......carp(rearrange the letters) Apparently it's very big in Eastern Europe and the Far East. Maybe Google some recipes from those cuisines?
Either that, or do as Sarky suggested. Fishmeal is a pretty good fertiliser.

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## Winter

Enough garlic should make it edible.

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## jake abraham

my mom used to can it

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## Sparky93

> Enough garlic should make it edible.


I'm going to try cooking it up a few different ways and try to find something that might work.

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## Sparky93

> my mom used to can it


My reaction to that was a shiver down my spine lol

How was it? Canned fish doesn't sound all that appealing to me, but I'll try anything once...

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## flatlander88

Hey sparky, did you ever get a chance to try the carp jerky? My grandpa made it when I was younger, he pressure cooked it. I can't say for sure if it was good or not but I don't remember hating it.

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## Sparky93

Not yet, but hopefully I'll get one this summer after school is out.

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## pete lynch

I have tried jerky made from white perch. It tasted like fish and smelled like cat food.
If offered to me again, I would eat it again.
It's just not as good as venison jerky, which is the best kind. But it is edible.

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## Sparky93

> I have tried jerky made from white perch. It tasted like fish and smelled like cat food.
> If offered to me again, I would eat it again.
> It's just not as good as venison jerky, which is the best kind. But it is edible.


That's what I'm going for, edible. It doesn't have to be manna, just good enough it doesn't gag me lol

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## crashdive123

> That's what I'm going for, edible. It doesn't have to be manna, just good enough it doesn't gag me lol


When I was your age that was my attitude toward beer.

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## Sparky93

> When I was your age that was my attitude toward beer.


LMAO, true that....

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## Rick

I have not had it. When I was a kid there was some folks that lived next to my aunt that fished for carp all the time. They would cross score the bones to cut them into small pieces when they cleaned the fish then the bones would cook up when the fish was cooked. Or something like that. Hey, I was a kid. Just look for ways to cross cut the bones. Carp has a lot of bones in them and you have to deal with that in order to save the meat.

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## Wildthang

Well my Dad was from Arkansas and when he was a kid growing up, his family was poorer than dirt and would eat anything. He used to take me fishing for carp, and he and my mother would eat every carp we caught. I refused to eat it because I was a kid and I could do that!
So, they would cut it up into small peices around 2" x 2" bone and all, then mom would pressure cook the living carp ( rearange letters again ) out of it until even the bones were tender, simular to canned salmon if you have ever had that.
Then you hold your breath and eat bone and all. ( or use a clothspin on your nose option B ).
My dad thought it was good stuff, but like I said, I wouldn't touch it!
But at least with it pressure cooked, you dont have to worry about the bones! To my knowledge, this is the best way to cook carp. I would think that if you added the right spices, it could be givin a good flavor.

Now if you want to eat kidney, you just boil the pizz out of it :Scared:

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## intothenew

I can talk first hand from eating it, not cooking.

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That's in Inner Mongolia, and it was pretty good. Soy, green onion, and sesame are the main ingredients. I've had Carp head soup in Inner Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, and Russia and really enjoyed it every time. It's especially good in Kazakhstan, thin, but starchy. Regular soups in China and Russia are good, the broth that is. The Carp in it I eat, it's just got a gooey texture.

I don't think it would take well to jerky, it just doesn't have enough texture. But dried, and added in soups it would be fine for filler. As Winter mentioned, garlic. Lay on the onion and fine potatoes too.

There is no bad food, only bad cooks.

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## Rick

I think I just threw up a little.

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## intothenew

Those are not Brussel Sprouts stage right, what got ya? LOL

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## Rick

Either the fish head soup or dinner looking back at me.

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## intothenew

The former was only prose, the latter was blind.

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## Rick

Maybe but I'm pretty sure it gave me the stink eye.

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## cowgirlup

Sometimes I will buy some dried eel or squid (can't remember which) at the asian food store.  It's in the snack section and they  have various flavors.  I did a search on Asian dried fish recipies and got quite a few with various seasonings.  I bet if you get enough seasonings on it then it won't be that bad.

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## 1stimestar

Dried salmon is big up here.  Really, if you don't live in town, it's a staple.  We can it too.  Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.

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## Sparky93

> Dried salmon is big up here.  Really, if you don't live in town, it's a staple.  We can it too.  Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.


I've had some store bought salmon jerky, and it was good stuff but I bet it doesn't compare to the real McCoy! That looks awesome!

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## 1stimestar

It is.  It's very rich with oils.  We mostly eat it with crackers and cheese or pilot bread.

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## Old Professor

Carp are very tasy IF you cut out the mud vein before you cook it.  Lay out a filet and you will see a dark stripe down the middle of the filet(its a nerve/blood vein) Remove that strip and the bad taste goes with it. When I was a teanager, I had a dissagreement with a teacher who was a dieheard trout fisherman over whether carp were fit to eat.  I caught a 3 or four pound carp, fileted it, removed the mud vein and my mother baked the fish. It was delicious.I took a big chunk in to the teacher and told him it was trout. He gobbled it down and sait it was the best trout he had ever eaten. When I told him it was carp, he would not believe me until my father(who was Principal and In on the deception) verified that it was carp.
I also can suckers. About this time of the year the suckers run from Lake Superior up small streams and can be caught by the pickup truck load.  Scale them, cut off the head and gut them , cut in to chunks and place into pressure canning jars. Add a teaspoon vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon salt per pint and pressure cook for 20 min at 10# pressure. I often add a tablespoon of barbecue sauce per jar.  The combination of vinegar and pressure softens the bones and it comes out like canned salmon!

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## jcullen24

That dried Salmon Jerky almost looks good enough for me to immigrate up there!
I think I'll go check amazon instead  :eyepoke:

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## shaner

the salmon  jerky  is great ive  had i a couple of times,  if u like salmon  i love to get the  smoked herring strips !!!

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## Rick

I ate so much Salmon when we were there I was truly sick of it. I didn't know you could fix Salmon so many ways. I never thought I'd ever miss a steak but after I started growing gills I was looking for anything made of beef.

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## shaner

thats funny rick,

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## Thaddius Bickerton

There is a dark strip in the fillets that ya have to cut out to get the bad taste out. 

 I don't care for all the bones, but I'm told pressure cookers will make them edible also.

It is pretty far down on my list of fish to eat because of the bones.

If you enjoy bow fishing, and they are in your area you may also want to try for some Gar fish.  Again not my favorite fish to eat however.  Some of the "alligator gar" get pretty big.  I have seen several that were easy 5 feet.  And nice scary sharp teeth. :-)  (Note:  Gar Fish or alligator gar are the names I know em by, no idea if that is their real / exact name)

Thad.

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## Rick

Belone belone. Didn't help did it? Garfish is correct but I also know them by the terms you used. Vicious little predators, too.

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## Sparky93

There are 3 species of gar I know of, alligator, longnose, and spotted. I saw some little ones when we canoed down the blue river a few years ago. While I'm bow fishing if I see a fish I'm going to try and stick him, I'd love to stick a big gar. I bet they put up a good fight!

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## Sparky93

As to the mud vein, I know what they look like (same procedure for catfish) but I didn't know carp had them too. Thanks for the tip!

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## Rick

Did you know the mud vein is not a vein at all but an organ? 'Tis true. It's called the lateral line and fish use it to detect movement and vibrations around them. All fish have them. They are just in different locations on different specie. Most are either on the side of the fish or along the top portion adjacent to the dorsal fin. The line is composed of nueromasts, not muscle, that's why it tastes different.

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## Sparky93

> Did you know the mud vein is not a vein at all but an organ? 'Tis true. It's called the lateral line and fish use it to detect movement and vibrations around them. All fish have them. They are just in different locations on different specie. Most are either on the side of the fish or along the top portion adjacent to the dorsal fin. The line is composed of nueromasts, not muscle, that's why it tastes different.


Interesting factoid old chap...

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## Rick

Well thank yo...hey! who you callin' old?!

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## Sparky93

I'm sorry, you must of cast your voice. I thought crazy old Joe sitting in the corner said that...

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## Rick

You know Old Joe is a member, right? He don't take kindly to being called crazy. Kinda makes him crazy.

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## Sparky93

It's okay, he's almost deaf he didn't hear me...

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## Cast-Iron

I've never had the desire to catch or eat carp.  But an old man I knew told me about how his mother would prepare carp in a pressure cooker to basically break down the bones to make them easier to eat.  He compared it to pickled herring.  I don't know if that was because of the taste and/or texture.  I don't believe it would be a good candidate for either smoked fish or jerky.  I remember hearing once that you can eat most saltwater fish raw, but most freshwater fish needed to be cooked??

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## Beo

CARP wtf unless I'm in a survival situation I'm not eating that nasty fish... Lol, carp head soup, he11 no. Lol, I've had insects, birds, snake, gator, squirrel, rabbit, crawdad, even had dog in Korea, but I'm not eating no carp. Although I don't like fish in general (cant get past the smell) and haven't eaten it in probably 15 years, I may be prejudice. Fish jerky, yuk!

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