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Whomever said Jacks were not edible lied.
RodbuilderESM gave me the Jack he caught yesterday and I filleted it while it was still kickin'.
Washed it well and put it on ice.
Got home, removed the skin & all the bloodline meat. Cut it into small "steaks".
Today I cooked the first batch
Check out the recipe I just posted.
It was great, no "fishy" or "bloody" taste, pretty mild flavor. Texture more like pork.
Not at all what I was expecting.
I'll be keeping every single one I catch.
That's interesting, what kind of fish was the flavor comparable to? I'm curious as to how it would taste seared. Thanks for trying it out for us!
Hard to say what it compared to, I really cant say.:confused:
Perhaps chicken? :cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by CarlF
Chicken-----dark meat?
Dang, I have to try one, I've heard from a Filipno friend that they're good to eat cooked in a Soy & Ginger recipe.
"...texture similar to pork." I've heard that before too.
Ya know, the Sabiki Brigade wouldn't pay up to $40.00 for a Jack if they were inedible.
I say the same thing about bonito. I caught one last year, cut out the darker meat, and soaked and boiled it for bonito salad. Excellent. Pretty, almost white meat when cooked. Better than packaged tuna by far.
So in other words, there are no bad-tasting fish, just bad cooks. I like it.
Pretty much to an extent. Some fish only require minimal preparation. Others require a little bit more to be suitable for most fish eaters. But some people like myself enjoy those fish the way they are. I like king mackerel the way it is but some people have to marinate or soak their king for them to consider it edible.Quote:
Originally Posted by midwestexile
Large Black Drum may be the exception. The 26# Black Drum I caught earlier this year was just plain nasty. Wont be keeping any of those anymore.Quote:
Originally Posted by midwestexile
A friend of mine caught one saturday and smoked it on smoker and said it was better than redfish
Which fish, a Jack or Black?Quote:
Originally Posted by randy36535
You nailed it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rockinchef88
Once a few years ago I tried to eat a gafftop and it was terrible. A few weeks ago, my boss brought some fried gafftop in to work. I tried a piece and it was actually pretty darn good. He said the secret was trimming out the tiny red stripes in the meat. Goes to show you that the only difference between a trash fish and a tasty fish might be a little extra effort at the cleaning table or in the kitchen.
Monday evening I fried fish: 4 spadefish fillets, 2 bluefish fillets and 4 fillets from a big hardtails. On the blues and hardtails, I cut out most of the blood line.
Simply coated them in corn starch and dropped in hot grease.
All tasted fine, spadefish were the mildest, blues and hardtails had a little stronger flavor but were still good eats.
If I get into a run of big hardtails and don't have anything else in the cooler, they will be getting filleted.
Well I guess jack crevelle is next on my bucket list of fish to eat before my time is up ;-)
Chef & Pierless nailed it.
Much of it is preperation and presentation.
Typical American palates can be extremely discriminating.
Thirty years ago hardly anybody ate triggerfish or amberjack, now you can't hardly keep one.
Who let the cat out of the bag re Triggers? Back in the day, tourists and some semi-locals didn't want anything to do with those "ugly things".Quote:
Originally Posted by Pier#r
he caught a Jack
I have read, do not know, that the meat in a jack varies and one should selectively clean them to get the lighter pink, finer textured flesh. I figure to try that out later when I come down.
FWIW
Alright, I admit it, I tried a remora once, and it was actually not that bad, don't remember how we cooked it, I think we just fried it...............
When I used to fish the Outer Banks Piers, trigger fish were easy to come by but nobody wanted to clean them since they have such a tough skin.
I was happy to take them off their hands.
They are a lot like sheepshead.
A real solid clean white meat but not as much rib cage as a sheepshead.
Buddy of mine who grew up over in Panama City, said back in the early 80's when they would go out on head boats, no one , tourist or locals, wanted triggerfish.
"trash fish" everyone said.
His dad & granddad would tell everyone to throw them in their bucket, they "wanted them trash fish for fertilizer".
Needless to say, they always came home with a pile of triggers to clean and fry up and never told anyone on the boats what they really knew!
Trigger is my favorite fish to fry up, hand down, no contest. Grouper is a close 2nd.
A helluva a lot of "Thats nasty, it's trash fish!" is hearsay.
So far out of the so called Trash Fish I've tried,
Bluefish
Hardhead & Gafftop cat
Southern & Cownose rays
Hardtail
and found them to be from OK to pretty good.
I never did try Viking Guy's Ladyfish Nugget recipe, still have it, have to try it.
I didn't read through this whole thing, but I completely agree that Jacks are not bad to eat if cleaned and cooked properly. I didn't mention it about the jack I caught at DI because I knew I'd get laughed at for eating trash, however we filleted into steaks and cut any meat off that was black or purple. Basically looked like tuna cubes when done.
Three different preparations. First was marinating in ginger soy for 4hours then grilling. Teriyaki glaze.
2. Rubbed with dry rub and grilled/smoked. BBQ sauce to dip.
3. Grind up, add onion powder and a little bit of panko breading and ball into hamburger. This was excellent.
Had it three different days after I caught it, was enjoyed each time. Same with white trout. I think people must get awfully picky with the fish they catch based on how easy it is to target the species.
Honestly, it is a great change from the standard white flaky fried fish that people refuse to venture from. I added Jack to my list of red meat salt fish for sure, right after tuna.
LOL!!! I really liked this post! There are so many fish that you are right...TRASH! But when I get it home it is table fare for a king!
I am curious tho...triple tail?? Never heard of it until this yr..all the yrs living here and that is a first for me..had some blackened at WBL and it was super! Son and I are going to try catching flyrod style sometime in future..hear they are fighters!
Yall letting the sun get to ya eating jacks and stuff :confused: yall clean a puffer fish and tell me how it taste :D
No one kept Trigger fish on the charter boats out of Orange Beach in the 1950's (Lowe family charters)and I was too young to buck the trend. In the 1960's (Walter Griffith and James Brown charters) an old man told me they were great and just a little difficult to clean and that was the reason whey the Charter Guys called them trash fish. I tried them and never threw another one away. I would rather have them than Red Snapper or Grouper which are very high on my eating list. I have cooked Jacks on the grill and enjoyed them. I have smoked Bonita and enjoyed them. I have to fall in the group that says most fish are edible and good if properly cleaned and prepared. I personally eat some type of fish/seafood/crustacean an average of 4 to 5 times per week and my heart doctor says my pipes are clean.
A friend from the northeast told me the Puffer is Spectacularly Delicious!Quote:
Originally Posted by salt_water_guy
Fried Puffer Fish | Spectacularly Delicious
On arriving in bama 35 years ago I was appalled to see mullet in the Winn/Dixie. In texas we occasionally used them for cutbait,coyotes wouldn't eat em..Bringing this to my dad's attention he replied "son them people in florida were feeding them to the yankee tourists,then they started eating them too" Different cultures different tastes,If I had 5 bucks for every person whom extolled on the virtues of fresh mullet,I could live in Gulfshores,,,However I remain half coyote, half s#b,,,see yall in sept...chuckster
I can't say I've tried a pufferfish but the people in North Carolina were amazed I was throwing them back. I guess there are a few different species of puffer, some are edible but apparently some can be deadly poisonous.
Triple-tail are supposed to be quite good, although I haven't had them. I've also heard on North Carolina forums that the two strips of meat along the back of the blowtoad are very good. The northern puffer move in about the time the standard fish slow down, which may account for someone trying them. A video on www.drumwagon.com supposedly shows a quick cleaning method. I should have watched the video because this verbal description is not quite enough: "Take a knife and make a slit right under the jaw, and slip your fingers in. Run your fingers back down under the meat, and turn the fish inside out. Then cut the meet free of the head, its really simple." Right.Quote:
Originally Posted by sralman308
If someone wants to try Puffer fish, then they really need to try 'Fugu'.
Gourmet Russian Roulette.
In the late seventy's, fishing out of Destin, we kept our triggers for a pasta salad. Ease skinless, boneless trigger into salted boiling water for four to five minutes, and remove from heat, let stand five to ten minutes. Drain well and let cool. Cook your fave pasta, add celery, onions and mayo. Fold in cooled trigger. Try not to moan and slobber while eating.