Asian Carp Solutions
Eating Asian Carp
Asian carp are often mistaken for their cousin the European common carp. Asian and European carp primarily differ in their feeding methods. While silver and bighead carp are filter feeders, common carp are bottom feeders. Filter feeders mainly eat zoo plankton from the middle and the top of the water column. Bottom feeders forage on the bottom of the water column, eating aquatic plants, insects, shellfish, and more.
The taste of fish meat typically reflects the diet of the fish. Bottom feeders, like common carp, ingest mud constantly, leading to a unsavory taste. This is not the case for silver and bighead carp because of their filter feeding diet. Instead, their meat is more similar in taste to other white meat fish like Tilapia and Cod.
Carp Cleaning and Processing
Asian carp are a little tricky to clean compared to a normal fish. They have a set of y-shaped bones the run the length of the fish each side. These small bones make it a little troublesome to clean. Luckily, each fish can still net many pounds of meat even if a little goes to waste while cleaning.
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This video by Chef Phillip Parola is good demonstration of cleaning and cooking Asian carp.
Recipes
There is an abundance of recipes for Asian carp.
This is a recipe by Realtree for a spicy grilled bighead carp taco bowl.
This video by Crove Food Co. has great recipes for Asian carp tacos, blackened Asian carp, and baked Asian carp.
Eat the Enemy is a great resource for carp cooking. It has 50 great recipes to make. The book is available on Amazon.
This is a recipe by Realtree for crab cake style Asian carp cakes.
Here is a collection of 7 Asian Carp recipes on Outdoor Hub, including smoked carp, kebabbed carp, and more.
Nutrition Information
Asian carp are a nutritionally rich food. They have a good amount of omega-3 fatty acids and plenty of protein.
