OK, so I have always thrown AJ’s back but the captain yesterday said he wanted to keep one.
I filleted the fish while the captain cleaned the boat. The AJ had quite a few worms near the tail and belly areas but I was able to get considerable amount of “worm free” nice white meat off of him.
So, I tried my luck with the one AJ fillet I kept and soaked it all morning in balsamic vinaigrette. Got the grill nice and hot and cooked on a stainless steel grate until cooked through. It was FABULOUS! Every bit as good as Wahoo or Mahi. In fact, the texture and flavor was as if you were to mix those 2 species.
Needless to say, I will bring them back when caught from now on (and only 1 per trip in April). While I had to cut around half of the meat away from worms, the other half still left a TON of meat. Who knew
Amberjack is great if it doesn’t have too many worms. I’ve ate them all my life. Like you say, you can usually salvage a lot of meat even if it’s wormy. The larger they get, the wormier they get around here. We catch a lot of them on the gulf coast and they don’t have worms at all. Taste every bit as good as grouper, and even those, especially red grouper have worms. Nah, it ain’t as good as wahoo! But it’s pretty dang good!
I have cut the lions out of plenty for other people. Not for me…Shark tapeworm larve is what the worms are, and I will not eat them. Plenty of other good out there, don’t need to eat around the worms. I will let the tourists at Hymans eat them.
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NMFS = No More Fishing Season
“Back home we got a taxidermy man. He gonna have a heart attack when he see what I brung him”
Amberjack is great if it doesn’t have too many worms. I’ve ate them all my life. Like you say, you can usually salvage a lot of meat even if it’s wormy. The larger they get, the wormier they get around here. We catch a lot of them on the gulf coast and they don’t have worms at all. Taste every bit as good as grouper, and even those, especially red grouper have worms. Nah, it ain’t as good as wahoo! But it’s pretty dang good!
I second Cracker Larry. We usually keep the small and medium-sized ones and put back the bigger ones back. Don’t know how they are filleted, but they’re pretty tasty fried.
the worms are definitely freaky, but the fish is safe to eat, and delicious! AJ is a great all-purpose, firm, white meat with a nice mild flavor.
You can find these worms in a lot of fish, like sellsfish said they are shark tapeworm larvae but when I researched this question a few years back researchers had been unable to infect a mammal with the worms, so they seem to be limited to their natural hosts. Cooking kills pretty much anything even if you accidentally eat one. I wouldn’t use it for sushi, but then again, a lot of fish used for sushi has parasites too.
That said, I’m still pretty paranoid about it so I usually cut it up into 1"x1"x3" “fish sticks” and fry it because I don’t know if I could handle getting a bite of worm. Even with very conservative trimming to avoid the worms, a decent size AJ can make the difference between a great fish dinner or frozen pizza if you don’t catch anything else!
It is sad that we are talking about eating worm filled trash fish. Next we will discuss how mullet and menhaden are not so bad. This is what happens when great fisheries are shut down by the idiots at the SAFMC. We should be eating Grouper, Snapper, Black Sea Bass, B-liners and pinks, not wormy @ss AJ’s. Yep this looks Appetising!
.
NMFS = No More Fishing Season
“Back home we got a taxidermy man. He gonna have a heart attack when he see what I brung him”
You can always look at it as extra protein. I had a neighbor in Fl that would cut around the worms in black drum and eat the good part. I love black drum and I think I would do the same. However wioth the size limit on them , I dont think there will be worms in them .
Sellsfish I have a ?? Do blowfish have poison in them or parts you arent suppose to eat. I was always told that there were only 2 small strips that you
could eat. Another friend and his wife in FL would eat the whole fish .
I’ve always eaten the blowfish without the spines. I believe there’s something with the fishes gallbladder that’s posionous? I just cut the fish behind the head but not all the way through and turn it inside out, it’s like a little drum stick. good eats! Unless I’ve just been lucky?
Sellsfish I have a ?? Do blowfish have poison in them or parts you arent suppose to eat. I was always told that there were only 2 small strips that you
could eat. Another friend and his wife in FL would eat the whole fish .
I DONT HAVE A BOAT
BUT LOVE TO FISH> HINT
Sells, I’ll take this one…
The poison isn’t so much in the flesh of the fugu…it’s predominately in the internal organs(mainly the liver)and skin. Most cases of tetrodotoxin poisoning occur when the fish is cleaned improperly, resulting in the flesh becoming contaminated.
“Never argue with an idiot…he will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.”
It is sad that we are talking about eating worm filled trash fish. Next we will discuss how mullet and menhaden are not so bad. This is what happens when great fisheries are shut down by the idiots at the SAFMC. We should be eating Grouper, Snapper, Black Sea Bass, B-liners and pinks, not wormy @ss AJ’s. Yep this looks Appetising!
.
NMFS = No More Fishing Season
“Back home we got a taxidermy man. He gonna have a heart attack when he see what I brung him”
On menhaden I would literally have to be starving, but a big mullet freshly cleaned caught out of brackish water pan fried is really pretty good. They go to mush if you try and freeze them. I wasn’t brought up poor but my grandmother and father were, so I’ve got a broad view on food. Even possum is pretty good if prepared right. Perception.
It is sad that we are talking about eating worm filled trash fish. Next we will discuss how mullet and menhaden are not so bad. This is what happens when great fisheries are shut down by the idiots at the SAFMC. We should be eating Grouper, Snapper, Black Sea Bass, B-liners and pinks, not wormy @ss AJ’s. Yep this looks Appetising!
.
NMFS = No More Fishing Season
“Back home we got a taxidermy man. He gonna have a heart attack when he see what I brung him”
On menhaden I would literally have to be starving, but a big mullet freshly cleaned caught out of brackish water pan fried is really pretty good. They go to mush if you try and freeze them. I wasn’t brought up poor but my grandmother and father were, so I’ve got a broad view on food. Even possum is pretty good if prepared right. Perception.
working hard and playing harder
Great point, Joeboo. Sometimes stuff tastes better when your options are limited. You gotta do the best you can with what you have…
i’ve eaten a lot of exotics and “trash”… mullet, jellyfish, barracuda, amberjack, sea urchin, stingray, flying fish, and even ballyhoo. AJ is decent, but the worms take the enjoyment out of it. out of all the fish i just listed, all taste fairly good, with the exception of jellyfish. jellyfish is just nasty. AJ would be last on my list, but only bc it is hard to stop thinking about the worms.
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