Eat Dogfish Shark?

[tufnik]

You bet.

Just saw a show where a bunch of guys took Andy Zimmerman (host of Bizarre Foods) fishing off the coast of Massachusetts. Using a long baited trot line, they caught dozens of dogfish.

They went to shore and a fellow gutted and then cleaned the fish in brine. The fellow then pan fried the fish. Andy said it tastes very good, almost like trout. They also serve dogfish in local restaurants.

Last year Moc and I caught and released a bunch of dogfish several hundred yards off the inlet at Lewes, DE. Didn't know they are good table fare. Next time I'm going to take one home. Can't wait to try it for dinner.

Pic: One of many caught last August.

[ronaultmtd]

Smooth dogfish is the fish in "Fish and Chips" served in Britian fast food...small dog sharks require some special treatment, though- they have high concentrations of ammonia in their blood- so bleeding them and icing them down is critical to the quality of the meat-

Looking at the weather forecast for this week- warmup is coming- early spring = early fishing season.

[mmanolis2001]

Yep the brits prize dogfish for fish and chips. How do you pull all the ammonia out of the flesh? Butter milk or brine soak?

[DOGFISH]

Hey, Hey, lets not pick on Dogfish.

[Capt Brady Bounds]

Getting the Ammonia Out Of Freshly Killed Shark

Immediately after capture, kill the shark and filet the desired meat cuts. Soak them in seawater with ice , minimum of one hour.

[tufnik]

Apparently, it has uric acid in the bloodstream. When dogfish dies, the acid aids in the conversion of fluid to ammonia, which is bad.

So, best thing is to gut the fish right after you catch it, then put it on ice. Of course, it's sort of inconvenient to do that on a yak. So, throw it on ice. The idea is to minimize the conversion to ammonia. I guess you could also try to keep it alive until you're back on shore, then gut it.

When you gut it, it means to remove the guts, bleed it, chop off the head/fins and skin it. You can do some or all of the above.

Here's where I get a variety of answers. Before you cook it, soak the meat in milk, lemon and water solution, orange juice or brine. I don't know what is best, but the idea is to neutralize the remaining acid, among other things. I get a variety of answers on soaking too. I heard from one hour to overnight (4-8 hours).

Finally, prepare the fillets as you like.

[MDFishin]

I catch em off the beach in OC all the time, they are delicious fried up. I cut the tails off to bleed em, and keep em cold. Filleting is easier then you would think, as long as your knife is sharp like it should be. Mcdonalds used to use em in their Fillet of fish, not sure if they still do.

[surfdog]

make sure to keep the white belly (the best part) for flounder bait. i wish they would find a good commercial market for them to keep their numbers in check. mcdogfish sammies sounds good

[ronaultmtd]

The internal white lining is the best bait- much better than the tough skin- long strips of four inches or so seem to get the bigger flounder- big killifish minnows tipped with shark belly makes a sandwich a flounder cannot resist

[jsquare]

I like dogfish. Get them on ice as soon as you catch them. You'll never be able to keep a shark alive on a stringer or something like that. Fillet and skin them, then soak in milk for at least a couple of hours, up to overnight. Breaded and baked or fried is good. They have a kind of lemony flavor, and spongey firm, not flakey, meat.

The spiny dogfish is the scourge of the northeast recreational and partyboat fisheries. They can totally overwhelm a fishing location to the point where the only option is to pull anchor and leave. The sharks are not very popular and you'll see mates and fisherman employing all sorts of inventive ways of knocking off the pesky doggies (sharks will be gutted, finned, or bashed on the railing before being sent back to the deep). We'll do our part to control the population, but all the sharks we kill end up in the cooler. Helps supplement a slow day of seabassing or cod fishing, too.

On an obvious side note, make sure what you're about to eat is actually a dogfish. They aren't difficult to identify, but if would definitely suck to kill one of the less common sharks by accident.

Anyway, bottom line is that dogfish are tasty.

[tufnik]

Hmmm...I can picture myself. Go out. Catch dogfish. Kill it, cut'em up and throw the meat on ice. Cut up internal lining and then fish for flounder. Repeat as needed.

Got to figure out the best and safest way to kill dogfish while in the yak. Sheesh, I got to bring a big cutting board too.

[surfdog]

its not that bad. dogfish dont have regular shark teeth just crushers. make sure to look at its eyes, if the pupils are cat-like its a dogfish and safe to put your fingers near the mouth if they are round keep hands away even a small 2-3' shark can make a hell of a nasty bite

almost made that mistake with this little guy till i saw its little razor sharp teeth see the pupal is round

[kanvery]

I remember this post from another forum with great directions on preparing any shark you catch. Really good step-by-step I'd have to imagine dogfish would be the same.
http://www.pierandsurf.com/fishing-f...ach-to-freezer

[ronaultmtd]

Small inshore sharks that have teeth are usually the young of larger sharks like the Silky, Sandbar, Dusky, Night, Bull or Lemon sharks- sharpnose and blacktip (spinner) sharks are small sharks and don't get big- all are edible so it does not make a difference- spiny dogfish and smooth dogfish do not have teeth.

[tufnik]

I remember this post from another forum with great directions on preparing any shark you catch. Really good step-by-step I'd have to imagine dogfish would be the same.
http://www.pierandsurf.com/fishing-f...ach-to-freezer

Good find. Now I'm about ready for some Spring/Summer shark fishing.