'Ambivalent,but slightly Fish orientated,Thread.

The best fish ever is the massively underrated Mackerell. The flavour and texture is just spot on, and the flesh is robust enough to withstand many different cooking methods, making it suitable for a wide range of dishes. However the best way to cook it is simply to stuff the cavity where its guts were with a bit of fresh time, wrap the whole lot head and all in foil, and bake it in the oven.

 

Like it Centurion, like it

Or, cut the head and tail off & boil it in sea water on the beach

I ate a raw sprat once, simply to annoy my Sister.

It was dead though, wouldn't eat anything alive, i'm not Klingon.

 

Only caught one Coalfish down here on the south coast, but he was a whopper, 3lb I seem to remember.

Love the oilyness of mackerell, I don't eat land animals so i'm allowed a bit of fat :D

Pouting are good if you gut them straight away & cook them fresh, bit bland otherwise. I usually make fish cakes with them & spice it up a bit.

I usually hot smoke the Pollack I catch, really nice.

Can't eat eels anymore Unless you buy them from a licenced fishery.

 

That's exactlty where I stand. When I met my wife to be approx 30 years ago she had already been a vegetarian for about 10 years, and when when moved in together the compromise was that we both only eat 'animal' stuff that I catch, consisting of fish, prawns & crab (so rabbits trying to eat our veg are dog food.)

Anyway, mackerel underated, pouting - yes for fish cakes, whiting - scrape the slime off and fry/deep fry/fish cake, dogfish - we actually prefer them quickly frozen/defrosted so they're not so 'wet' as when cooking from fresh, gurnard grunt, rays are so wasteful in eatable fish that I can't bring myself to kill another one....

 

I'd been vegetarian since 1984, but started fishing again 10 years ago. Wish it had occured to me earlier, I only stopped eating meat because I didn't want any more of my money going to the meat trade.

I guess when I was little my mum didn't go any further than cod & crab paste. I certainly don't remember her ever cooking a Mackerell or anything else.

Since then, i've been trying everthing fishy, there are some fantastic tastes & textures.

I microwave Dogfish from frozen, get the timing right & it splits so you can lift the cartilage out.

Eaten one ray, but like you say, not worth the effort for what you get back, same with smoothound, i've come to regard them as sportfish only.

Have eaten a Rockling, very nice flavour, but can't bring myself to kill another because of their sweet faces & little fatty bellies.