I know when we'd gig suckers through the ice, we'd gut, dehead and skin them, grind them twice(with the bones in them) through a processor, then mix with eggs, crackers and old bay to make fish cakes.
Hey thanks for the vid man. I will try this next week when we go fishing on a big river. We usually catch channel cats and sucker there. Very informative video, cheers.
Something else to consider when you have suckers is the roe and milt. When I was younger we would gig them in the spring when they were headed upstream to spawn and were full of both. The flesh is good but the roe and milt rolled in cornmeal and fried was divine.
Years ago I had an ice shanty on a bayou in western Michigan. The suckers in that bayou could easily reach 5 lbs. I saw some I'd say were close to 10 or more. These were Lake Michigan run suckers and they came into the bayous by the thousands. Most guys just speared them and threw them on the ice for the seagulls and nighttime predators. I let a friend use my shanty when I was in school and he speared suckers for canning. As I recall he smoked them first and then canned them. I never ate any but he claimed they were fabulous.
I've done my buffalo like that but it's never worked. The bones were still there even when I cooked them to a crisp. Ths best way for me is to run the filets through my meat grinder add onions peppers egg and bread crumbs roll in flower then make patties or fish sausage links.
I was just wondering how long you fry them for? I was told they are trash tasting fish and I have thrown back a bunch. But, tried them for the first time today and it was good
That's a good question. My smarty pants answer would be, " 'till they're done", how ever it does deserve something better than that. I've fried enough fish to know what it sounds like when it is done, and how it floats in the oil when the right amount of moisture has been pushed out of the flesh. I would fry it until you think it is good and then sample it. If it is not done enough, put it back in. If you overdid it, learn from your experience and reduce the fry time.
I see this working for the smaller fish. But im curious how this would actually work for the vigger fish with a little heavier bones. I know thays beena provlem for us. We catch lots of big suckers, which if we do keep some its always been grind for patties or smoke. Its not often we get into very many small ones but id love to try this
If you curl the fish up as in 3:47, you can see the ends of the Y-bones sticking up. Just pick them out with a pair of needle nosed pliers faster than cutting through them.
No, that won't be faster at all. That will take a long time. Personally, I just just cut them out just like I do on trout. run the knife along both sides of the bones. It wastes a little meat but it's 100% boneless and it's a fast way to do it.
@@BornIn1500 assuming there are 30 T-bones in one piece of fillet, and it takes about 2 secs to do one bone, all it takes is 1 min to do one fillet. The best way is to just leave them in and pick them out as you're eating, like people do in most other countries, without wasting any time, effort or edible meat, as bones come out much easier after the fish is cooked. Pin bones may be too small to be inadvertently missed and swallowed while eating, but T-bones are large enough to be easily spotted.
Hey Jeff, Cut all the way through to the skin. Try not to cut the skin, but it doesn't hurt anything if you do. This works better if the fillet is almost frozen. I mentioned frying at 350*F, but have come to like 375*F better. Good luck and enjoy!
We hillbillies in southern mo fillet head to tail flip and fillet back takeing skin of so no pre scaling then knife score or we have score presses if done right taste better than walleye,bass or crappie to me
I'm not as good with a knife and don't have a score press, so I use the skin to help hold it together when I cut too deep. Please share a video of your process, because I want to learn and do better. Truly Thank You if you will.
We just tried it with a big carp, and the bones did not disintegrate as well as expected. Just used our small household pressure cooker instead of the big production one because I just wanted to try a pint. The small one does not have a gauge, so it may not be reaching 15#. The carp was oily enough that I didn't add oil. With suckers in the past we added peanut oil. Turned out good.
@@oneskypuppy Try smaller carp. I've skinned & filleted & sauted a couple of 11" ones and the bones were like trout. Really freaking good & better than trout IMHO
My dad told me you could get sick eating those carp and threw them back but I see you can eat them thanx, well that's when I caught one when I was really young so it was bigger than me but my dad threw it back
My experience with similar sized carp has been to skin the fish and make the scoring cuts hit the spine. Then dry bread it and fry. Much easier, it's just that we don't catch many carp
@@oneskypuppy Thanks for the reply. I tried the scoring cuts on carp a long time ago, but I don't think I had the cuts close enough together so it didn't work too well. I'll try it like that. Thanks.
And the score marks cannot be wider than 1/8....get your breading worked down deep in the slices and make sure your oil is 375! Any cooler than that, or wider cuts, and the bones don't get 'fried'!
Thanks for the reply. Us southerners that vacation up north don't have a super understanding of what fish is what up there. I was looking for a way to make use of those orange meated common carp in Ohio where my Dad and I go. The 17,000 acre lake is packed with them on the Penn border. I can still make use of this vid because I found out they have sucker fish too.
Why not filet out the y bones like a pike, buffalo, or other y boned fish? It's not that hard to do, and it would not take any more time than all of those slices. If you are interested, you can find videos to show you how. I guess if you want to eat your fish cooked into potato chip consistency, your idea works.
With all of the tasty, easily attainable fish available out there, why would anybody want to go through all the trouble it takes to prepare one of these gross garbage fish?
