Snout to Tail...

[Slobber Bob]

I don't know how many on here ever read articles from On The Water being that they primarily target a Northeast audience, but they had a snippet on their website last month about eating fish that I thought was worth sharing. It encourages anglers to look beyond just the fillets when they harvest a fish.

https://www.onthewater.com/how-to-cl...-without-waste

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I won't cast stones because I know I used to only harvest the fillets, but within the last 5 - 7 years I've steadily got to the point now where I rarely even consider cooking fish anyway but whole. And that's any fish I decide to keep yellow perch to sheepshead. And when I do decide to break a fish down every part comes off and is either eaten or saved.

With the current state of some of our fisheries, when we do decide to harvest a fish like striper, you can feel good in knowing that none of it went to waste.

Just some food for though as we enter the new year

[Big Mike]

Friends I occasionally share a fish with fight over the collar. If you’ve eaten in a sushi restaurant you will sometimes find monkfish liver on the menu. Given that I have eaten striper liver, sautéed lightly with soy and it was delicious. I do it about once a year recognizing that it is a filter organ.

[MD Dore]

Good article. Thanks for sharing.

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[Jigsup]

Thanks for that article. My wife likes to travel and every since we have been married I have been really admiring how other countries prepare their fish. Not just fish but other wild game and regular table fare. From the knife they use to the utensil/hand they eat it with. It opened up my eyes as to how much of a comfort zone I was in far as food. Particularly wasting food.
Went to Oswego New York one year to catch salmon and trout. Jamaican friend of mine cleaned out the waste bins at the filet station. The bins were full of salmon and trout carcasses. I witnessed him bring the carcasses back to the cabin and prepare the heads to his liking. He thanked the Lord for his food and ate with joy all by himself. We wanted no parts of it.
Was uneducated then but now having experience eating a whole fish in St. Lucia, it is very satisfying knowing you didn’t waste it and wish I would have tried it back then.

The main thing is knowing how to prepare it.

[mjkeith13]

Thank you for the great article link Brian and well said Jigsup.

I'm not the best with a fillet knife so cooking whole fish has been my go to for years....any fish.

For those looking to expand their whole fish experience, I recommend you try Uhka fish head soup. Its an old Ukrainian recipe that will work with any fish and not as gross as it sounds.
Also it stretches your catch if feeding a large group. https://petersfoodadventures.com/201...kha-fish-soup/

I also put the leftover fish frame bones in the garden in the spring before tilling. Just need to keep the dog from digging them up and bringing back in the house.

[M_Duong60]

This is a good discussion, I grew up eating whole fish so whenever I saw certain filleting videos online I thought what was the point of even catching and killing the fish. Even now I see a lot of YouTubers take massive fish and end up trimming and chucking out half of the meat because it "sometimes tastes a little fishy", personally I don't ever seem to notice or care when I leave these parts in. I won't claim that I'm perfect of not being wasteful either but I try when I can.

The fish that I don't end up eating whole I usually try to save the head and bones for soup or I'll just roast it in an oven with a little salt and pick off the bones. If it's not really big enough for it to be worth my time I'll just compost it after filleting (or just fry them whole like bluegill).

I think if there's an exception to my rule it would be catfish from the Potomac, I'll usually just fillet them and then bury/compost what I don't harvest. In my eyes at least it will return to the environment in one way or another as opposed to going to a landfill.

[Slobber Bob]

This is a good discussion, I grew up eating whole fish so whenever I saw certain filleting videos online I thought what was the point of even catching and killing the fish. Even now I see a lot of YouTubers take massive fish and end up trimming and chucking out half of the meat because it "sometimes tastes a little fishy", personally I don't ever seem to notice or care when I leave these parts in. I won't claim that I'm perfect of not being wasteful either but I try when I can.

The fish that I don't end up eating whole I usually try to save the head and bones for soup or I'll just roast it in an oven with a little salt and pick off the bones. If it's not really big enough for it to be worth my time I'll just compost it after filleting (or just fry them whole like bluegill).

I think if there's an exception to my rule it would be catfish from the Potomac, I'll usually just fillet them and then bury/compost what I don't harvest. In my eyes at least it will return to the environment in one way or another as opposed to going to a landfill.

I remember one of the first times I fished with you many years back, you told me about how your family will fry flounder whole. I had a hard time envisioning how you accomplished this and how big your fry pan must be, until you told me you cut the fish in half first. Duh!

I went home and cooked my keeper that day the same way. P1030705.jpg
Quite possibly the last fish I can remember frying? And probably the last flounder I've brought home in over 5 years! I really should target them more in 2021.

And along the lines of your Youtube comment.... Youtube "cook and catch" videos are hard for me to watch. Most are bad knife skills, butchered up fish, or they just fry the fish anyway. I enjoy the fishing part of the videos, but pretty much skip the cook and catch stuff anymore. That's what a professional culinary video is for, not some Joe Blow in his kitchen who just got off the water.

[M_Duong60]

I remember one of the first times I fished with you many years back, you told me about how your family will fry flounder whole. I had a hard time envisioning how you accomplished this and how big your fry pan must be, until you told me you cut the fish in half first. Duh!

I went home and cooked my keeper that day the same way. [ATTACH=CONFIG]27127[/ATTACH]
Quite possibly the last fish I can remember frying? And probably the last flounder I've brought home in over 5 years! I really should target them more in 2021.

And along the lines of your Youtube comment.... Youtube "cook and catch" videos are hard for me to watch. Most are bad knife skills, butchered up fish, or they just fry the fish anyway. I enjoy the fishing part of the videos, but pretty much skip the cook and catch stuff anymore. That's what a professional culinary video is for, not some Joe Blow in his kitchen who just got off the water.

That flounder looks great! I was actually thinking about that exact trip when we I was writing my comment haha. I still haven't managed to catch a keeper flounder and think I only targeted one or two times since that time we fished together.

They taste amazing but I always seem to find it more fun to target other species whenever I do find time to make a trip out to the coast. I think initially the concept was interesting but the "Catch & Cook" genre has definitely become oversaturated. I enjoy Outdoor Chef Life's videos and actually tried making sushi out of some of the fish I caught this fall. I recently got a charcoal grill so I think for 2021 grilled fish is something I'll try to experiment more with.