Anyone eat scup?

[Jim in CT]

Never been a huge fan of scup. But they are biting like crazy in my area, was thinking of taking the 3 boys to get a few.

In the past, I have eaten them fried or baked - meh. I have used them to make decent fish tacos.

What do you guys do with scup? Can you use them to make chowder? I would imagine the racks would make a decent soup stock/broth.

[spence]

Lot of bones but they taste fine.
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[Billybob]

If you get them big enough for a decent fillet, cook them up like a chicken cutlet, they're not bad.

[Cool Beans]

my wife puts them on a cast iron frying pan with a tiny bit of olive oil. Sprinkles a few spoons of brown sugar on them and then drizzles soy sauce over it, covers and cooks at a slow simmer. This creates a nice caramelized teriyaki flavor. It is pretty good. She does the same with fluke as well. slow cooked like this makes the meat very easy to separate from bones and the kids love it.

[fishbones]

Originally Posted by spence

Lot of bones but they taste fine.
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What he said. And the put up a great fight for a fish their size. If scup grew to be the size of stripers, no one would fish for stripers anymore.
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[ivanputski]

Keep the larger ones, fillet them, then bread them lightly fried like fluke...

They taste great!

[piemma]

I love scup. I found a recipe for Greek grilled Scup. Olive oil, onions, garlic, oregano, basil, salt pepper and zest of a lemon. Stuff the scup with the mix and grill. Out of this world.

[JFigliuolo]

To get past the bones, just cut that strip out if filleting. John Skinner actually has a good video on youtube. You wing up with 4 pieces of meat per fish. I bread in Cajun fish fry... makes a decent sandwich.

[FishermanTim]

I heard a rumor that they make great bait for stripers, but that's just an urban legend created by "Scuppers Unlimited" to help bolster their membership numbers...

I've never eaten them myself, but have heard that they're like the "pumpkinseed sunfish" of the ocean: a great bait for big fish but also quite edible when they are big themselves.

[Raider Ronnie]

I'll stick to eating me sea scallops.
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[Ed B]

What Piemma said. Greeks love their Scup, and they do it right. They call it "chapora" or something close to that back in the old country. You might also google "Greek porgy recipes" and find some good stuff. I used to just go to my Greek friends house and let his Greek wife figure it out. She never missed. Always had rice pilaf on the side too.

[Poncho]

Take a 3 to 1 ratio of ritz crackers and cheese nips crush em set aside in a bag. Sweat some garlic in a pan and set aside. Melt half stick of butter in pan let cool and add garlic crackers and fresh parsley apply the mixture generously on the scup then bake it till golden brown
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[WESTPORTMAFIA]

The portagee way. Scale, fin and gut them. Score the sides and rub with minced garlic, wet crushed red pepper, salt and black pepper, coat each side in flour and pan fry until hard and crispy in oil. Need to fry until it looks burnt. You can peel one half of meat completely off and then pull the bones in one shot from the other half. Simple and unbelievably good.
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[Guppy]

There big this year along with the BSB,,,
I skin them, dip in can milk, bread with mix of flour and pancake mix, pan fry in veg oil.....

[bloocrab]

Originally Posted by WESTPORTMAFIA

The portagee way. Scale, fin and gut them. Score the sides and rub with minced garlic, wet crushed red pepper, salt and black pepper, coat each side in flour and pan fry until hard and crispy in oil. Need to fry until it looks burnt. You can peel one half of meat completely off and then pull the bones in one shot from the other half. Simple and unbelievably good.
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I agree with this guy, only thing is........they are that much tastier when they're in the 6-8" size. The larger scup (imo) aren't that tasty at all, no matter how you cook em...the fish itself is ummm..........unpleasant to my pallet (Politically correct way of saying....sux)...again, just my 02$

[Rob Rockcrawler]

I like them. Fillet and pan fry or deep fry. The big ones are a little stronger tasting but I still prefer them over striper any day.

[Poncho]

Another good way to do them is cover them in tai chilli sauce then roll them in panko. Then o fry them in butter and olive oil flavored with garlic
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[Poncho]

I also do somthing called bottom fish delight. Put scup bsb sea Robbin fluke what ever you got. In a tin foil boat or tin foil pan. Line the bottom with raw white onion cut into slices, seasoned with olive oil and salt, pepper. put fish filets over Onion slices, pour a generous amount of white wine over fish and onions. Add a generous amount of capers over fish. Sprinkle bread crumbs over fish then thinly slice butter and add it to bread crumbs. Squeeze two lemons over crumbs. Next I mince garlic and sprinkle over crumbs. Toss it on grill uncovered at 400 degrees. Cook it until fish is done and bread crumbs are crisp.
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[bloocrab]

Reading a lot of good recipes on here.....only thing is, if the fish tasted that good, you wouldn't have to cover it up as much.

I just had some striped-bass this afternoon....sauteed a few garlic cloves and extremely thinly-sliced onions in SALOIO oil, after they browned...added the striper fillet(s), placed the cover on...fired her up to sear the side, flipped and repeated....then lowered the flame to finish cooking.
Although there are hints of garlic, I can still taste the fish.
What's the sense in seasoning something heavily with Cajun seasoning to only taste the Cajun? Again, just another guys' ....errrr, opinion.

[Dick Durand]

I like scup, which I usually fillet. I've several recipe, but often I'll cook them in garlic and onion, add some garden tomatoes later in the season, and season with Old Bay. Tasty fish.

[MakoMike]

Love them! I usually make them one of two ways, either way I use whole fish gutted and scaled. One method is to steam them and serve with Chinese black bean sauce and/or a 50/50 mix of soy sauce and rice vinegar. Second way is to score the skin a couple of time and stuff the body cavity and scored slits with some spices, (rosemary, time and a lemon wedge) then make a 50/50 mixture of evoo and lemon juice with lots of granulated garlic added and cook them on the grill for about 3 minutes a side. (works real well with BSB as well)

The racks make a pretty good fish stock as well.

[hq2]

Pan fry 'em in butter with a little flour. Pretty tasty. Can't wait to eat the ones I just caught this weekend!

[Steve K]

The Japanese restaurant that I frequent serves them steamed with scallions. Delicious