My belly is full and happy as I type this! First time I ever kept and enjoyed a shark for dinner. We bled the fish out while on the water, Cut him into chunks and took the skin off when I got home, then soaked him in buttermilk for 24 hours (recommend 48). I then went on line and got the recipe listed below. My chunks were bigger than the recipe suggested, so I wish I would have marinaded them longer - but it was excellent!
I’m going to give it a go on chicken, also!
Shark Marinade
Servings: 6
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup catsup
1/4 cup fresh parsley, Chopped
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 tablespoon ground pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 shark steaks
Directions:
Prep Time: 5 mins
Total Time: 20 mins
Combine soy sauce, orange juice, catsup, chopped parsley, lemon juice, pepper, and minced garlic in a ziploc bag. Squish to mix well. Add fish, seal and marinate in refrigerator for 2 hours.
Remove fish from marinade, reserving marinade. Pat dry with a paper towel and apply a good layer of vegetable or olive oil to prevent sticking on the grill.
Preheat grill so grill rack is screaming hot. Place fish over hot coals or gas accordingly 6 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork, basting frequently with marinade.
Allow to rest a few minutes before serving.
Hope yours turns out as good as mine did!
Vinman
19.5 Triumph, 115 HP Honda
“Every saint has a past, every sinner a future”
yeah! the quicker the bleed and ice, and the longer the soak and marinade steps, the better the outcome, imho.
cubed, marinated and then breaded and deep fried is not a bad way to go either…
a good friend was having a party for his family years back, and his father in law was hanging around the grill… which was my responsibility to take care of. we had marinated bonnethead and a bunch of other stuff, and father in law swore up and down to the entire party that it was the best chicken he had ever had. refused to believe he’d eaten shark for a good half hour.
some have less of the shark flavor- in order of preference (from the ones i’ve killed and eaten): spiny dogfish, blacktip, bonnethead, anything else (sharpnose). i believe if treated correctly any of them are good.
spiny dogs have bright white colored flesh which looks odd, but almost zero odor/shark taste… but they’re only here in the winter months. i’ve heard mako’s the best… some day i may get to try one.
my wife makes a pretty dam good shark. marinates it with a TON of cilantro and hot pepper sauce. usually will kind of steam it in a pan with a bunch of onions, tomato, and citrus juice. oh yeah and ketchup… wife can’t make anything w/o it
Awesome marinade! I cooked up Drew’s shark in it last night and it was loved by all. My 2 y/o daughter even said “awesome Daddy…more…more”! I soaked it in the buttermilk from Thursday night until Sunday around noon, then tossed it in the marinade until the grill was smokin’ hot about 6. It turned out really well…along witht he flounder and blues from Saturday.
old post, just wanted to dredge it up for others to see because it’s a quality recipe and I use it from time to time. If I ever happen to keep a shark and one of my guests says “how do I cook it?” I tell them google “soy sauce, orange juice, shark, charlestonfishing” to direct them to this thread. One thing I sometimes add to this recipe is sriracha sauce to spice it up a little bit.
edit: For the budget/hassle minded person such as myself, I use dried parsley (which is roughly 3X stronger than fresh, so divide the recipe by roughly 3) and it still turns out pretty good, the marinade hydrates the parsley. also, i skip the buttermilk thing and I’ve never found a shark to taste bad to me. although I have only kept smaller sharks like bonnethead and sharpnose. have yet to catch a mako. Have caught other species large enough to keep, but have decided to release them. Perhaps the buttermilk is more useful for the larger sharks, but I wouldn’t know.
One tip for cleaning shark is that when I fillet the skin off of it, I purposefully leave a very thin layer of meat on the skin for the purposes of leaving the strong tasting bloodline/blood layer on the skin and not on my light pink/white fillets.
I can confirm that Mako is the absolute best. I’d trade swordfish for it any day. It also seems to have a super long life in the freezer because I found 1 lost bag in the bottom of my deep freezer after a year and it was just as good as day 1. You don’t have to do anything to mako to make it taste not sharky. It’s already good to go.
I can confirm that Mako is the absolute best. I’d trade swordfish for it any day. It also seems to have a super long life in the freezer because I found 1 lost bag in the bottom of my deep freezer after a year and it was just as good as day 1. You don’t have to do anything to mako to make it taste not sharky. It’s already good to go.
Vinman, now there’s a name I haven’t seen in a while. What ever happened to him?
Don’t mean to de-rail, just curious.
-The size of a fish is directly proportional to the time between when it’s lost and the story is told. - Me
-What’s the best eating fish, you ask? I’ve found that for a lot people, its the ones that they happen to be able to catch, clean, and cook. - My Dad
-Until you have loved a dog, part of your soul remains unawakened. Anatole France (paraphrased)
-RIP my “Puppy Dog” 10/15/2004 - 1/14/2013. I’ll never forget him. What a special friend he was.
-Team Gonna Fish
Y’all are right about gut as soon as possible. I have found especially with larger sharks ( over 54" ) they must be gutted before they die, even for a minute. As soon as they calm down enough for me not to get stitches I open them from the vent to the head and dump all the entrals and then ice. Don’t forget if it has a limit don’t remove the head or cut up.
