Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation smoked carp.

I ust got back from bowfishing and smoked four of the carp I arrowed, other than the bones it is as good as any of the smoked fish I've eaten except Lake Michigan smoked chubs/whitefish from the old fish shop on the dock in Port Washington.

Smoked carp can be very good if the mud line is cut out.

I think Rancid Crabtree was the one who said: "Smoked carp is just as good as smoked salmon, when you ain't got no smoked salmon". It seems he was right. Lake trout are still my favorite from the smoker.

On these I left the skin on and when I peel the skin to eat the mud line lifts right out with the skin, haven't noticed and bad flavor.

Had lots of those as a youngster, as I started smoking I usually went for white fish, sheep head or striped bass

Nice!

I just threw up in my mouth

The recipe for carp I was given is for planked carp. You nail the cleaned carp to a piece of hickory, or other suitable wood, and season to taste; after cooking thoroughly on an open campfire you throw the carp away and eat the plank.

Small 1 1/2 to 3 lb carp are very good smoked.Too oily to cook, but great for smoking

Never ate carp, but there used to be regional carp festivals in the NE where people told me that they served carp cooked in various ways, and they said it was actually pretty good. I always thought they were trash fish. Same with shad.

In the nineties, I remember seeing a TV show promoting tourism to the US for Europeans to travel to the US to catch carp. IIRC, it was primarily Germans. And it showed them using really long and limber poles to cast dough balls. Apparently in some parts of Germany, and elsewhere in Europe, carp isn't considered a trash fish but a delicacy.

On a side note, I remember seeing material in AZ promoting crayfish harvesting. Again, targeted to the Germans. Apparently they like their buggers cold, and not warm.

Anyway, carp are a hoot to catch with young kids. Easy to bait/chum, good fight, and docile when taking the hook out. Like a big goldfish. I once gave a bunch to a Chinese guy I worked with, until he said his freezer was full. Didn't seem like there was much edible flesh, even on the big ones though.

PS - looks good, and I bet it tastes great, erich.

Fun to catch on a 5-weight fly rod. Here's a 26" I got.

I smoked one once. It almost covered up the carp taste.

The first real book on Fishing, written by Izaak Walton, “Tge Complete Angler” was basically about Carp Fishing.
They were and still are considered “sport” fish by Europeans.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izaak_Walton

Saw a TV a show a couple of years ago where Europeans pay big money to fish for “Trophy” Carp with a guide in Austin, TX downtown where the river runs through it. 🤪

^^^This^^^

With all the derogatory comments, I wonder how many of the naysayers have actually tried them. I've eaten quite a few in Europe but mostly in the orient and they have been quite tasty. The rest of the world considers them a food fish and they were stocked here for that purpose. But being of European decent I find Northern pike a far better eating fish than the beloved walleye. The only draw back to carp is the bones but I have some Japanese fishbone tweezer that cover that problem.

prior to WW2 carp were considered a delicacy. served in places like Delmonico's in NYC.

"Carp, Iowa Trout"

Lore has it, Germans came to North America, sent back to Germany for carp to stalk them.
Only 6 survived the trip. All the carp on NW America depended from those six.

Erich
Those look fantastic. I've never tried carp. Someone mentioned shad above and that can be excellent when smoked and canned.
May have to try carp..
Apple and alder smoke?

Carp is one of the primary ingredients in Gefilte fish, which I grew up eating and love. Then again, next to Lutefisk, there is probably no other fish dish more polarizing than Gefilte fish.