Smoking Fish

[3fifty7]

That they do, but not nearly as good as a coppel but they are tooo hard to cut up :!:

 

[mnmtranching]

Them crawfish make darn good Small Mouth bait. :nod: :nod:

Eating Crawfish is a curious thing to us upnort folks. We have them here, or something very similar? Threw a bunch on the grill :shock: Seemed like a lot of work for a taste of meat? :???:

How do you cook them? how big are they? is it the tail you eat? or what?

 

[gerardplauche]

Them crawfish make darn good Small Mouth bait. :nod: :nod:

Eating Crawfish is a curious thing to us upnort folks. We have them here, or something very similar? Threw a bunch on the grill :shock: Seemed like a lot of work for a taste of meat? :???:

How do you cook them? how big are they? is it the tail you eat? or what?

We boil them in seasoning. We eat the tails, claws, and some people suck the heads. They are a few inches in length. It is not a whole lot of meat, but most people in Louisiana can peel a crawfish in a couple of seconds. Crawfish is serious business down here! :nod:

 

[mnmtranching]

Them crawfish make darn good Small Mouth bait. :nod: :nod:

Eating Crawfish is a curious thing to us upnort folks. We have them here, or something very similar? Threw a bunch on the grill :shock: Seemed like a lot of work for a taste of meat? :???:

How do you cook them? how big are they? is it the tail you eat? or what?

We boil them in seasoning. We eat the tails, claws, and some people suck the heads. They are a few inches in length. It is not a whole lot of meat, but most people in Louisiana can peel a crawfish in a couple of seconds. Crawfish is serious business down here! :nod:[/quot

Yummmm, That stuff in the head interests me :nod: Thats the part we overlooked. :cry2:

 

[spoon]

I can eat the tail and claws but I'm not man enuff to suck the heads. That's like eating frog legs with the frog still attached. :shock: Of course when you stop at some little out of the way backroad eating establishment in La and order up some gumbo I figure there's a darn good chance you're eating stuff you'd never eat by itself but when they put it all in a pot and cook it up it's so good all mixed together you just don't care what's in it. You just want more! :nod:

 

[Jogeephus]

We do a low country boil too. Lots of spices. Also cook corn on cob and new potatoes and onions in boil. A rich fella once asked me to help with a large gathering he was having. I'm always hip to a free meal and beverage even if I'm just the help. He brought in 350 lbs of live crawfish from Louisiana. They came in croker sacks. I worked my tail off that night cooking. I was hungry as I could be and wore my thumbs out trying to get my fill on the crawfish. I finally settled for corn on cob which was terrific cooked in all those spices. Crawfish are good but you best have some strong fingers if you want to stuff yourself.

 

[mnmtranching]

Joe, Do you cook the corn in the same water the crawfish are boiled in :?: What if there's crawfish POO in the water :nod: I'm not going to sit here and say, that it would bother me, especially if there is plenty of cold beer. :drink: Seems like it would bother some folks.

 

[iowafarmer]

Crawdads also make great walleye adn even jumbo perch bait if its a small crawdad. I don't think carb sheepheads or bullheads would ever taste good no matter what you did to them. Stupid Europeans imported them cause they thought they were a great sport fish. little did they knwo what kind of fish were here already. Carp is junk and should be removed some how even tholugh its imposible but look at how many rivers and lakes they have ruined since coming here.

 

[stocky]

You people are missing out on some mighty fine eating. In sw Mo, we have white suckers, yellow suckers, redhorse are the large type of yellow suckers. We have hog suckers, but they have a different texture meat and are not as good. We gig them in the winter. They are outstanding out of ice cold water.
The number 1 best way to eat them: They have small, hairlike bones that run the length of the fish. These have to be gotten rid of.
First, scale the fish. Then filet the fish but leave the skin on. Turn the filet over with the skin down against the board. Take your knife and cut down to the skin every 1/8 to 1/4 inch for the entire length of the filet, but do not cut through the skin. This cuts up the tiny bones. The skin holds it together. Roll it in a mixture of corn meal, flour, and some salt. Drop it in some real hot grease and deep fry it. This fries up the bones and you have an incredibly good tasting filet. Serve it with hushpuppies and anything else and you have an outstanding meal. To me, it ranks very close to crappie and way ahead of catfish, bass, trout, and other fish we have here. The farm families here used to can these fish. They would cut the fish up in chunks and pressure cook them and then eat them like you would salmon. They make great salmon cakes. My mom used to can them and my grandmother used to can over 100 quarts every winter.
If you want to do something fun. Get a group of friends together on a winter evening, and build a bonfire on a gravel bar with a pot of grease and gig suckers and bring them back to the gravel bar and cook them in the grease and eat them with hushpuppies. You wont have a much finer evening than that.
I have never eaten a carp and have no intention of doing so. Grabbing suckers has always been a huge event here in the spring when the suckers are shoaling. People use grab hooks and grab them off their spawning beds. I have never heard of anyone throwing away suckers. I used to gig up to 200 of the 1-2 lb fish in a night and had alot of neighbors who would want me to drop off a 5 gallon bucket of fish late at night and they would clean them the next morning. After those people got older, I had to clean them, so I started gigging less fish----LOL
Nixa, Mo. has a huge annual festival at the end of grabbing season called Sucker Day. They cook and sell suckers and have a festival. There are thousands of people come from all around to eat the home caught and cooked suckers.

 

[gerardplauche]

Joe, Do you cook the corn in the same water the crawfish are boiled in :?: What if there's crawfish POO in the water :nod: I'm not going to sit here and say, that it would bother me, especially if there is plenty of cold beer. :drink: Seems like it would bother some folks.

The veggies are boiled in the seasoning before the crawfish, but are later mixed in with the crawfish. This helps people to fill up their stomachs. Potatoes are my favorite, but corn, onions, and sausage are pretty standard procedure.

 

[mnmtranching]

Joe, Do you cook the corn in the same water the crawfish are boiled in :?: What if there's crawfish POO in the water :nod: I'm not going to sit here and say, that it would bother me, especially if there is plenty of cold beer. :drink: Seems like it would bother some folks.

The veggies are boiled in the seasoning before the crawfish, but are later mixed in with the crawfish. This helps people to fill up their stomachs. Potatoes are my favorite, but corn, onions, and sausage are pretty standard procedure.

MAN :nod: That does sound GOOD. I know you Southern folks could make the Red Horse taste good. I never had Carp, don't have them up here. I hear their not good for eating.

 

[stocky]

MNMT, I agree with you on the crawdads for bait. We have crawdads in all of our spring fed ponds and we use a 4 ft by 20 ft seine and pull out many hundreds up to over a thousand with each dip. We pick through the crawdads and take the soft ones and what we call papers. The papers were soft and are just beginning to harden up again. They are brighter in color and the smallmouth, largemouth and just about anything else goes after them like crazy. The hard ones we throw back in the pond. The soft ones get eaten by perch as fast as they hit the water. The soft craws that are 4-5 inches long are big enough the perch wont bother them and they are killers on the 4-5 lb smallmouths. I like to eat the crawdads, but I love to fish with them.

 

[Horticattleman]

I was hungry as I could be and wore my thumbs out trying to get my fill on the crawfish. I finally settled for corn on cob which was terrific cooked in all those spices. Crawfish are good but you best have some strong fingers if you want to stuff yourself.

Typically if your thumbs hurt after eating crawfish they weren't boiled right.....or you're a pansy :cowboy: :banana: I have a hard time because I peel em so fast that I get swoult up in a hurry.

 

[Jogeephus]

I was hungry as I could be and wore my thumbs out trying to get my fill on the crawfish. I finally settled for corn on cob which was terrific cooked in all those spices. Crawfish are good but you best have some strong fingers if you want to stuff yourself.

Typically if your thumbs hurt after eating crawfish they weren't boiled right.....or you're a pansy :cowboy: :banana: I have a hard time because I peel em so fast that I get swoult up in a hurry.

I'll admit that I didn't know what I was doing that night as it was the first time I ever ate crawfish and I darn sure had never cooked any till that night. I had a crash course with little or no instruction. Just brought the pot to a rolling boil and dumped them in. When they turned nice and red we pulled them out. (they sure are better if you peel them too) ;-)

 

[Horticattleman]

One day we need to ice down some cold beverages and boil a few sacks. The real way!

 

[angie1]

I have had both carp and suckers smoked. They are good enough I think ~ much better if you don't have to see them before they are cleaned. They are the ugliest fish I've seen besides Sheeps heads.

Crayfish, where I come from, are bait only. Would be like eating a beetle ~ you know there are people that do, you just dont know why. :lol2: ;-)

 

[mnmtranching]

Angie, You know :?: Times are tough upnort, fuel prices and all :help: When we get the bus to Lusyanna next Jan, we will need to live off the land. I think we need to get the crawdad recipe. Maybe get our thumbs toughened up. :cowboy: Can't be worse then filling up on Sun Flower seeds in the shell. :|

 

[angie1]

Crayfish Hotdish? Who'da thunk it? :help:
You are the hunter/gatherer of this adventure.
BL, MM and I will hold down the lawn chairs. :drink: :banana:

 

[mnmtranching]

Crayfish Hotdish? Who'da thunk it? :help:
You are the hunter/gatherer of this adventure.
BL, MM and I will hold down the lawn chairs. :drink: :banana:[/quot

OK, I'm going to get studied up on wild edibles of the South. We'll try most anything. :help: :???:

 

[Jogeephus]

Crayfish Hotdish? Who'da thunk it? :help:
You are the hunter/gatherer of this adventure.
BL, MM and I will hold down the lawn chairs. :drink: :banana:[/quot

OK, I'm going to get studied up on wild edibles of the South. We'll try most anything. :help: :???:

Carp is good to eat, IF you know how to clean them. They have a lot of bones and a mud vein that MUST be taken out. Long ago, carp were actually used as bribes. As a kid I would trade carp to some folks that ran a Chinese restaurant for plates from their restaurant. They were always happy to trade as were we.

Mnmtranching, what you need to do is come on down and we can show you how to hunt and cook gator. This could be the main course and will definitely add some spice to your life as they tend to sink once you plink him in the head. The idea of feeling the bottom for the dead carcus is not appealling for some - especially since they (like other reptiles) tend to have reflex movement after death. But I know you are a good shot so I'll let you have the honors if you wish. ;-)
I'm sure you would enjoy some rattlesnake holandaise and some frog legs as a hors d'œuvres. This could all be washed down with some blueberry medley. I would try to appease your palette with some coyote but we just haven't quite mastered how to cook em as yet. Might be impossible but they say nothing is. Of course, this critter :nod: might be the one exception.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I'd also introduce you to some REAL REDNECKS. ;-)