I Finally Ate Toad

[tufnik]

That's right, oyster toad fish. It's the ugly fish everyone throws back.

With all the talk about it being tasty, I just had to try it. So, today I had some for dinner.

After I caught the toads yesterday, I cut them up while on the yak (using Jack's method). It was messy, but I took home two nice "body fillets" on ice.

(Click on the "Cleaning Mr. Toad" image to see Jack's cleaning demo: http://drumwagon.com/toadclean.htm)

I used pliers to take off the skin, and my wife reluctantly pan fried the flour-coated fish.

Just as they say, it tastes pretty good. In my opinion, better than croaker. It has an almost sweet taste to the flaky meat. It's best to catch/eat the larger fish because it's harder to rid of the bones in the smaller ones. I think the secret to enjoying toad is to not think about how they look.

Anyone up for toad fishing?

[kevinfry]

Never going to happen...........

[daddyg]

Never going to happen...........

+1

[HokieDJ]

Nice. I might have to try it out to get revenge on those big suckers taking my gulp.

[Shady]

I tried one that I caught down at the HRBT last year and didnt come away with much meat because I tried fileting the fish. Did you get that little claw thing from the video? I probably wont try it again...

[ronaultmtd]

Never, ever going to happen- too many fish that are delicious and toads are toads-

[tufnik]

...lol....you guys ought to push the envelop in fish eating.....where's the Andrew Zimmern in you?

No, didn't use the claw tool, Ryan. Since the first toad was good size, it was a last minute decision to take toads home. Had a small cutting board and a small paring knife on the yak. After I struggled to cut behind the head, I held the head down and ripped the body off with my bare hand. That's why it was a bit messy on the yak. Those things are really slimy.

Also, notice I really didn't fillet the fish. I just had the whole body cooked. The smaller body had a lot of small bones.

[Capt C-Hawk]

tufnik, give me your number, next time I catch some I'll save them for you. The old saying "if it smells like fish eat it" doesn't apply to those ugly things.

[DOGFISH]

Snakehead maybe, toad never.

[jsquare]

Looks delicious! I'd catch and eat some of those with you.

FWIW the fish in the video demo is a blow toad, or puffer fish, not an oyster toad, oyster cracker, toadfish, or whatever else people call those things. They do have similar body structures and it looks like the cleaning method worked well. Thanks for sharing.

[HokieDJ]

I don't understand why the fear of eating it. Do you guys eat pretty cows and pigs only? All it matters is what food it eats because
it's what flavors the meat usually.

[WetHen]

I have a crow recipe if you want to try eating those next

[ronaultmtd]

Buzzard, anyone?

[HokieDJ]

Goes in and out the same so why not?

[tufnik]

Reminds me of that show, "Shallow Hal"......maybe hypnosis will do the trick.....lol.....

Anyway, next up on the menu: snakehead and skate. I don't quite get snakeheads. People said it's ugly, it's creepy, it's frightening, it's........then all of a sudden, it's the rage.... and now people want to catch and eat them.