Mullet Roe

[TheNiche]

My uncle recently came to town and recommended mullet or especially mullet roe. My mom backed up his recommendation, recalling having eaten just about every part of any kind of fish imaginable while growing up in a poor bay-side fishing community. Yes, I'm aware that mullet isn't typically considered worthy of consumption, but I'm also aware of the fact that the same was true of lobster for several centuries. I'm willing to experiment.

The only caveat was that only one serving of mullet roe should be eaten at a time; otherwise it results in a two-day session of diarrhea.

So my question to you all is: where might I procure mullet orespecially mullet roe?

[crunchtastic]

Isn't mullet fished mostly off the Florida coast? I don't know when its season is, but I'd bet you could find a supplier of fresh roe in FLA.

You can buy it imported, my guess is Spanish or Italian brands, so try a place that stocks a decent variety of caviar. Give Specs a call.

[20thStDad]

I've seen mullet all over the LA coastal marshes. They travel in tightly packed schools very close to the surface. There are dozens of times we could have snagged 20 or 30 with just a cast net, but the general sentiment was that mullet weren't worth anything, even as bait fish.

[crunchtastic]

I've seen mullet all over the LA coastal marshes. They travel in tightly packed schools very close to the surface. There are dozens of times we could have snagged 20 or 30 with just a cast net, but the general sentiment was that mullet weren't worth anything, even as bait fish.

Yea, my family would never bother with it, even as bait. And my grandpa was a cheap bastard who would catch and eat anything, practically. (No offense to Niche's people) Hey, grouper used to be considered a trash fish, so you never know. Maybe it's time for mullet to get some respect.

[rsb320]

We have plenty of mullet in our waters. They're the ones you always see jumping out of the water, I guess to avoid being eaten by something.

Growing up on the coast of MS, I remember hearing the term Biloxi Bacon, which was mullet and was eaten by local fishermen.

In all my years of fishing, I've never hooked one. I assume they just get caught shrimper fish nets, etc. and are generally thrown back.

[EMME]

HA! When I first read the title of this post, I thought you were looking for a part of town where everyone had mullet haircuts. I need a nap.

[Reefmonkey]

I used to eat mullet I caught in West Bay (Galveston) a bit as a kid. Fried right after they are caught, they are very tasty. It's just a local prejudice that keeps people from eating them around here. People who have never tried mullet have heard for so long that it is bad to eat that they never bother to try it, and go on believing it sucks. Texas saltwater anglers are pretty finicky in what they will or won't eat. Really, most won't eat anything they catch except redfish, flounder, and speckled trout. Most throw back sheepshead, which has one of the sweetest, best-tasting meats you'll ever eat, and even sand trout are great, taste similar to specks when fresh.

I have never tried mullet roe, never heard of eating it. That's one thing I would look into further before trying to get from any fish I caught myself. I know for a fact that gar roe is poisonous. While it is a slim possibility, it is still a possibility that "mullet roe" comes from another fish besides Mugil cephalus. The mullet which is popular in the mediterranean is not remotely related to our mullet, it is actually related to goatfishes.

[Reefmonkey]

In all my years of fishing, I've never hooked one.

That's because they are detritus eaters, don't eat crustaceans or small fishes.

[TheNiche]

Yea, my family would never bother with it, even as bait. And my grandpa was a cheap bastard who would catch and eat anything, practically. (No offense to Niche's people) Hey, grouper used to be considered a trash fish, so you never know. Maybe it's time for mullet to get some respect.

You'd never know it to look at any of them today, but that side of my family was raised dirt poor in the Bacliff/San Leon area. They were industrious, though. They didn't raise kids; they raised a work crew. My grandfather (with help from his 10-year-old son) actually built a shrimp trawler from scratch in the back yard. The family grew up on all varieties of seafood from Galveston Bay, just as a matter of stark necessity. The boat was grounded well over a mile inland during Carla, an uninsured loss which fortunately did not include my grandfather's life--he remained on the boat during the storm.

In the context of constant news about the consequences of the economic crisis, it's sometimes easy to forget that up until only a couple of generations ago, the United States had a significant population struggling with subsistence. You couldn't always pick and choose your meals. I consider myself fortunate to be a cheap bastard by choice. It is a luxury.

I have never tried mullet roe, never heard of eating it. That's one thing I would look into further before trying to get from any fish I caught myself. I know for a fact that gar roe is poisonous. While it is a slim possibility, it is still a possibility that "mullet roe" comes from another fish besides Mugil cephalus. The mullet which is popular in the mediterranean is not remotely related to our mullet, it is actually related to goatfishes.

The recipe that was recommended to me was to take a strip of bacon and form a ring out of it, and then to form the roe into the ring before frying in the thin layer of bacon grease in your frying pan. Flip it once to make sure both sides are cooked.

That's because they are detritus eaters, don't eat crustaceans or small fishes.

How do you catch them, then? Doesn't sound like I can get them commercially. Am I limited to cast nets?

[20thStDad]

I used to eat mullet I caught in West Bay (Galveston) a bit as a kid. Fried right after they are caught, they are very tasty. It's just a local prejudice that keeps people from eating them around here. People who have never tried mullet have heard for so long that it is bad to eat that they never bother to try it, and go on believing it sucks. Texas saltwater anglers are pretty finicky in what they will or won't eat. Really, most won't eat anything they catch except redfish, flounder, and speckled trout. Most throw back sheepshead, which has one of the sweetest, best-tasting meats you'll ever eat, and even sand trout are great, taste similar to specks when fresh.

Most saltwater fishermen I know throw the sheephead back because they are a bit of a pain to clean, not because of the taste. It's a very good meat. Same for drum. You're right about the mullet though, I just always heard it's bad so never even tried.

How do you catch them, then? Doesn't sound like I can get them commercially. Am I limited to cast nets?

I used to try and try to catch them with rod/reel. I would cast right in the middle of their schools with tasty bait, never a single bite. I side hooked one once. So yeah, cast net or trolling with a net. If you find some they will be pretty easy to cast-net, they weren't ever shy about being near our boat.

[infinite_jim]

I've caught mullet down in Myrtle Grove, LA using nothing but a rod/reel and no bait!

Co-sign on the cast net.

[TheNiche]

Most saltwater fishermen I know throw the sheephead back because they are a bit of a pain to clean, not because of the taste. It's a very good meat. Same for drum.

I've heard that drum is about the wormiest fish there is. True or no?

[20thStDad]

I've heard that drum is about the wormiest fish there is. True or no?

I don't have any stats on that, but drum and sheephead seem to be wormier than redfish and speckled trout. I'm not eating either of those without fully cooking, but it's still good that way. Also you can see most worms after cleaning and can pull them out if it bothers you much.

[TheNiche]

I don't have any stats on that, but drum and sheephead seem to be wormier than redfish and speckled trout. I'm not eating either of those without fully cooking, but it's still good that way. Also you can see most worms after cleaning and can pull them out if it bothers you much.

OK, next question: I recently ate a fillet of speckled trout that had been caught just hours before and then fried but that was large enough that it didn't cook all the way through. It was an extremely fishy taste, unlike most traditional sashimi that I've ever had in restaurants, but then I like fishy tastes and smells. And I really liked this.

Aside from drum and sheepshead, are there any other fish in our waters that you wouldn't recommend eating without fully cooking them?

[rsb320]

I've steamed whole Sheepshead in a rice cooker basket with aeromatics in the water and it was awesome - fell right off the bone. It wasn't any harder to clean than other fish.

Redfish is Red Drum. Black Drum is very similar, if not inextinguishable (edit:the taste). Both get worms after getting too big and old.

Redfish and Black Drum used to be considered trash fish. I guess the worm thing gave them a bad name. Paul Prudhomme made Redfish trendy by creating his blackening method. Now, it's eaten as regularly as Red Snapper. Can we do the same thing to make Mullet acceptable - probably not.

[Reefmonkey]

How do you catch them, then? Doesn't sound like I can get them commercially. Am I limited to cast nets?

That's how I've always caught them.

Most saltwater fishermen I know throw the sheephead back because they are a bit of a pain to clean, not because of the taste. It's a very good meat.

I think a lot of that has to do with many fishermen, being guys, are limited in their culinary techniques. If it's hard to filet with an electric knife, they won't bother with it. I have fileted sheepshead before, but mostly I find it easier to cut little strips, what the French call goujons, from the flesh. you can cut around the bones that way. But if you do want to cook it another way, I have found that using a hacksaw to cut the head off saves you a lot of work. That's one technique they won't teach you at the Cordon Bleu.

I've heard that drum is about the wormiest fish there is. True or no?

Worminess is generally a function of the age of a particular fish, not its species. If you catch one of those monster black drum in the surf, yeah, it's going to have a good chance of being wormy. Catch a smaller one in the bay, and it is probably going to be just fine. Same with redfish. I have never had a problem with slot reds caught in the bay. The big bull reds on the gulf side, that's a different story, but you can only keep one of those a season, so I think its a moot point. Red snapper are the same way, by the way. The really big trophy ones often have worms and overall make poor eating.

OK, next question: I recently ate a fillet of speckled trout that had been caught just hours before and then fried but that was large enough that it didn't cook all the way through. It was an extremely fishy taste, unlike most traditional sashimi that I've ever had in restaurants, but then I like fishy tastes and smells. And I really liked this.

Aside from drum and sheepshead, are there any other fish in our waters that you wouldn't recommend eating without fully cooking them?

You must love mackerel, then. I think that the spec with the fishy taste was likely a result of the water it was in and what it had been eating. That has an affect on the flavor of any fish. Since the fish was still flopping just hours before, I doubt you were in any danger. I've never tried spec raw. I can't think of any fish really to avoid, except gar roe and least puffer meat. I would recommend cooking all fish thoroughly before eating them, especially during months when our bays and gulf water temps get bathtub warm.

[20thStDad]

OK, next question: I recently ate a fillet of speckled trout that had been caught just hours before and then fried but that was large enough that it didn't cook all the way through. It was an extremely fishy taste, unlike most traditional sashimi that I've ever had in restaurants, but then I like fishy tastes and smells. And I really liked this.

Aside from drum and sheepshead, are there any other fish in our waters that you wouldn't recommend eating without fully cooking them?

I think you're safe, unless you have a weak stomach or something like that. We've done some trout sashimi style and I like it, along with amberjack and grouper. Grouper wasn't near as good as amberjack. Spec meat was nice and clean, didn't have the fishy taste. When packaging we cut the fishiness down by putting a teeny bit of saltwater (clean - homemade) into the ziplocs before freezing. With fresh fish we don't usually get the fishiness, but it can happen like reefmonkey said.

[Witch King]

Try eating a REAL fish... GAR !!!

[TheNiche]

Try eating a REAL fish... GAR !!!

I was turned on to gar a couple years ago, and I'll take gar over perch, bass, or trout any day of the week. It's meaty and has plenty of protein. It's not flaky or delicate like most fish, and I like that about it.