Do you like to eat tarpon?

Can-You-Eat-Tarpon-
4 Min Read
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The majority of fish that anglers like to catch are edible once they’ve been filleted and cooked. Fish is a staple of the diets of many regions around the world because it tends to be not only tasty but healthier than other meats, too. 

But you can’t eat every fish- there is the occasional exception. So, Do you like to eat tarpon, answer is technical, yes, but anglers rarely choose to eat this fish because of its overwhelmingly fishy taste and smell, as well as its bony structure? 

If you’re an angler that likes to eat every fish you catch, though, then you’ll want to know how exactly it tastes (which isn’t that bad, once you get used to it), and how to cook it. Here is all you might need to know about tarpon as a food. 


The Best Way To Eat Tarpon

The best methods for cooking up tarpon are making them into fish cakes or poaching them. 

If you’re poaching the fish, slice it into fillets of medium size and then bring the fillets to the boil so you can make broth, as well as your preferred seasonings for fish, and your preferred vegetables. 

Next, you’ll be turning the heat to medium and letting the tarpon simmer until it’s cooked all the way through. This process tends to only take around 10 minutes. 

Once it’s cooked through, remove the fish and let it cool for a while. Then begins the process of removing each and every bone.

Once you’ve removed all of the bones you can roll the fillets in breadcrumbs, before cooking them in your oven at a temperature of around 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Let them cook for between 15 to 20 minutes- longer do you like to eat tarpon? or Your breaded fish on the crispier side.

If you’ve gone with the fish cakes method, you’ll still need to poach the fish, before removing all of the bones. You’ll need a food processor to make proper fish cakes, so if you have one, place the fillets into this machine. 

You won’t have to blend the fish for long- just until it’s been broken down into small chunks. Don’t keep blending until it’s more of a paste, as this won’t be suitable for your fish cakes. 

Once the fish has been blended, place it in a bowl.

The exact recipe may differ depending on your preferred seasonings, but your next step will be adding one chopped green pepper, one chopped onion, four egg whites, three pounds of potatoes (mashed), one teaspoon of dijon mustard, two teaspoons of paprika, one teaspoon of garlic powder, one teaspoon of cayenne, and a good amount of both pepper and salt. 

Mash all of the ingredients together using a fork until everything’s been combined and the mixture is smooth. Then dust your counter with some flour, scoop out a heaped spoon of your mixture into your hand, and roll it on the flour until it’s a ball. 

Flatten the ball with your hand until it’s the shape of a small cake. Keep doing this with the rest of the mixture until you’re all out. 

Do you like to eat tarpon, put a couple of tablespoons of oil in a pan and set it between medium and high heat. When the oil has had a chance to get hot, put your fish cakes onto the pan. They should only need around three to four minutes each to cook.

You’ll know they’re cooked once they’re brown and crispy at the edges. When they’re fully cooked, remove them and drain them on paper towels. 


Can You Eat Tarpon Raw?

Can You Eat Tarpon Raw

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Tarpon is found in both saltwater and freshwater. Generally, it’s safe to eat the majority of fish from both kinds of water without cooking them, but most people like to keep their raw fish intake strictly to sushi. 

Do you like to eat tarpon then you’ll want to be catching them in clean saltwater? This kind of water will help to kill the bacteria and parasites on the skin of the fish, ultimately making for a safer meal. 

To guarantee that the raw tarpon will be safe to eat, you should freeze the fish, which will kill the remaining bacteria. Keep it in the freezer for one full day, at the very least, before eating it. 

How Does Tarpon Taste?

The taste of tarpon is somewhere between the taste of a trout and the taste of a salmon. The flesh of the fish is white and flaky, and the oily texture of the skin means there’s no struggle when it comes to removing it from the fish’s bones. 

The exact flavor isn’t necessarily sour, but it’s a lot stronger than the taste of fish that you’re probably used to. It’s the smell, though, that’s the real kicker. A lot of people wouldn’t be able to stand such a pungent scent for more than a few minutes at a time. But with a lot of different seasonings, it’s possible to arrive at a relatively pleasant meal.

It may not be as conventional a meal as salmon or trout, but you can still have tarpon as a meal. The main reason that most people will never taste tarpon, aside from the subpar taste, is practicality. 

The tarpon isn’t the easiest fish to catch, especially when compared to something like the trout, and when you finally do catch this fish it’s a bit of a hassle to prepare and cook.

The deboning process in particular is a lot more arduous than it tends to be with other fish.


Conclusion

Tarpon can indeed be eaten- can even be eaten raw. Do you like to eat tarpon Tarpon likes main reason people choose not to eat this fish is that it tastes very strongly of fish, and smells just the same.

It’s also not a very easy fish to catch, and preparing it to be cooked is quite the hassle because it has so many small bones.

If do you like to eat tarpon and decide to cook up some tarpon, you might be onto a somewhat tasty dish if you add the right amount of seasoning- which will probably be a lot.

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