Striper?

[FishingAddict]

My little 4 year old is begging me to bring home a fish to eat. I don't normally keep my fish, cause there would not be any left, but I'm thinking I'll keep a couple small stripers in the 4# range to cook for him and the family...and it will help the big ones get bigger too.

So, what's the best way to cook them? For saltwater fish, I pefer to salt, oil, and grill....and since striper is a saltwater fish originally, I was thinking of doing it that way.

So- is the meat hearty enough to do it that way? Any other suggestions? Is the meat any good, for that matter?

[Twenty five ought six]

You can grill it or fry it. If you fillet it, there is a dark streak of meat that most people cut out.

They bake them on the eastern shore (Maryland) and I think they are pretty good.

Basically dress, stuff salt and pepper body cavity, fill body cavity with aromatics (onions, celery, carrots,), rub outside with oil. Put in a roasting pan of some sort, into 300 degree onion, bake.

I'm not sure how long --I start at 40 minutes, and see if a skewer will slip through the fish at the backbone.

Serve as is, you eat one half down to the backbone, pull out the backbone, eat the other half. Have lemon slices available. It gets a very creamy texture when you do this.

[Big7]

More on the order of freshwater fish (flesh wise) - good
on the grill. I use one of the basket deals so
you can turn them without touching (flipin' with fork or tongs)
THEY WILL FALL APART. Treat on grill carefull like. Same as a flounder, freshwtr cat,
etc... Will come apart real easy!

Real good fried too.. Has a kinda' "sweet flavor -not to "fishy"
even folks that don't like fish will eat stripper.

CUT ALL THE BLOOD VEIN OUT - the "white meat is very good.
Big flakes, real good. One of the better fresh water eating fish!
Never had saltwater stripper. I guess would be about the same.

[FishingAddict]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

I ended up grilling it on tin, olive oil and salt. I've got some picky eaters and I did not want to get too crazy.

The fish is a lot more like a freshwater fish than a saltwater fish, which is odd since it's technically a saltwater fish. It was good, but not my favorite fish.

Also: FYI: the red in a fish is actually an organ- it is the fish's lateral line- used to detect vibration in the water. That's why it does not taste all that good.

The two stripers I kept (I kept small ones (4#s), I don't like killing the big un's) had a ton of lateral line- instead of just a thin strip in the middle, it thinly covered almost the entire side of the filet, which I have never seen on another type of fish. But I don't keep many fish anyhow.