ACH: Add some exotic animals to the American diet

Driftless

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I live in an American community that eats carp from the Mississippi River. There is the issue of Asian "flying carp" that jumps out of the water and creates hazards. Now, if Americans could develop a taste for eating them the way the Chinese do...... Problem: the meat does not freeze well.

Smoked carp is good & it keeps reasonably well.

In the northern states or Canada, I would think you could salt & dry it as the Norwegians do for Cod, but you would need to do the drying in the cooler & dryer months. If you tried to dry them in the hot humid summers, you might create some spectacular catfish bait (the more foul smelling, rancid, goopy the better....)
 

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Acorns: further development of Native American use of acorns as a starch and oil source. Red, White, Black, Pin, and Burr Oaks grow all over the northern US and southern Canada.

*edit*
Hazelnuts: Corylus Americana are native to the eastern US & Canada and grow as bushy shrubs in the understory of forests. They provide useful nutrition and oils.

Both are a darn sight easier to remove from their husks than many other North American nuts: Black Walnuts, Butternuts, and especially Hickory nuts.
 
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Driftless

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Snapping turtles: another good source of lean protein. Just a real challenge to clean. They were and are still commonly found in North American streams. With the larger specimens, you need to be careful when catching them....
 
Smoked carp is good & it keeps reasonably well.

In the northern states or Canada, I would think you could salt & dry it as the Norwegians do for Cod, but you would need to do the drying in the cooler & dryer months.
They do smoke it and it does keep. The issue is, if you are going through the trouble of curing and smoking fish in a refrigerated locker, you don't waste space with the cheapest product on the totem pole (carp), you go with more valuable stock like salmon, sturgeon, etc. Salt is the other issue; it is often too salty to make a healthy meal. But it works for hors d'oeuvres.

Now here's an operation in Kentucky that catches them and freezes them for shipment to China: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHkM1LQosFs

On the upper Mississippi, the most commonly eaten variety is the Buffalo Carp, and the meat is scored and fried, not cut into filets. I can say from personal experience that scored carp, when frozen, becomes too mealy and looses its texture.
 

Driftless

Donor
They do smoke it and it does keep. The issue is, if you are going through the trouble of curing and smoking fish in a refrigerated locker, you don't waste space with the cheapest product on the totem pole (carp), you go with more valuable stock like salmon, sturgeon, etc. Salt is the other issue; it is often too salty to make a healthy meal. But it works for hors d'oeuvres.

Now here's an operation in Kentucky that catches them and freezes them for shipment to China: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHkM1LQosFs

On the upper Mississippi, the most commonly eaten variety is the Buffalo Carp, and the meat is scored and fried, not cut into filets. I can say from personal experience that scored carp, when frozen, becomes too mealy and looses its texture.

As you say, Buffalo Carp would be farther down the list for preference and you are right about the texture (I'm not a fan - but for subsistence... it works). Kinda oily too, though some folks prefer that. I've never tried the Asian Carp - so far.

A long time ago, I worked with a fellow who was an avid panfishermen, and he would smoke Bluegills and Crappies and give them away to family and friends. Very good, but since he only removed head, fins, and viscera, you needed to be watchful for bones.

Sturgeon were once more common in North American Rivers and Lakes as well - as you note.

Another more recent exotic Great Lakes option would be the alien invader: Sea Lamprey, which are eaten in other parts of the world
 
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