Eating shark

[McDaniel8402]

I caught a sharp nose shark on Sunday afternoon, and brought it home to eat it. I've eaten a handful of small(ish) sharks before, and I always enjoyed them. Bonnet heads, small hammer, sand sharks (in Florida). I have always gutted the shark before icing them down. The meat from this sharp nose had a rather strange, unpleasant, acid-like taste to it. Not un-edible, just a little strange tasting. It never got warm. Shark was caught, gutted, iced down, and shortly after i went home and cleaned it. I'm not sure if i somehow mishandled the meat, or what. I'll certainly soak the rest in milk prior to cooking, and get rid of the funky flavor. Any ideas on why the wierd taste is present?

[big john o]

Cut the tail off and bleed it out next time...

[rubberducky]

Originally Posted by big john o

Cut the tail off and bleed it out next time...

X2


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[sharkbait-tx70]

Most sharks dont have bladders so they urinate threw their skin. So if they are full of urea it doesnt do much good to bleed them. However some of the sharks are better than others. small finetooth,blacktips and afew of the other coastal sharks are pretty good to eat.Mako is my favorite.Hammers,bulls,tigers any many others have size limits but are unpalatable most of the time.

[McDaniel8402]

Originally Posted by sharkbait-tx70

Most sharks dont have bladders so they urinate threw their skin. So if they are full of urea it doesnt do much good to bleed them. However some of the sharks are better than others. small finetooth,blacktips and afew of the other coastal sharks are pretty good to eat.Mako is my favorite.Hammers,bulls,tigers any many others have size limits but are unpalatable most of the time.

I was under the impression that NONE of the sharks had bladders, and the urea is stored in the blood, and excreted through the skin, hence the need to thoroughly bleed them. I believe I will do some research on this though, it is definitely interesting.

[sharkbait-tx70]

Originally Posted by McDaniel8402

I was under the impression that NONE of the sharks had bladders, and the urea is stored in the blood, and excreted through the skin, hence the need to thoroughly bleed them. I believe I will do some research on this though, it is definitely interesting.

You are right about bleeding them. What i was trying to say was if the muscle ie the flesh is full of urea already i have found bleeding them doesn't do much good. We tag most all sharks these days that are big enough to tag. We may keep a blacktip or a mako to grill up. I had a buddy keep a four foot blacktip last yr. He cut tail ,gutted and iced when it hit the deck. It was the most god awful stuff ever.. Haha he buried the fillets in his yrd ( after trying to cook some of it) to get rid of them. There was so much ammonia in it nothing has or will grow in the spot he burried them to this day.

[McDaniel8402]

Originally Posted by sharkbait-tx70

You are right about bleeding them. What i was trying to say was if the muscle ie the flesh is full of urea already i have found bleeding them doesn't do much good. We tag most all sharks these days that are big enough to tag. We may keep a blacktip or a mako to grill up. I had a buddy keep a four foot blacktip last yr. He cut tail ,gutted and iced when it hit the deck. It was the most god awful stuff ever.. Haha he buried the fillets in his yrd ( after trying to cook some of it) to get rid of them. There was so much ammonia in it nothing has or will grow in the spot he burried them to this day.

I wonder if the sharks go through some sort of cycle or something, certain times when the urea is stronger and more prevalent, because it seems hit or miss at times. I've eaten several sharks, and they were always good. A few years ago, i caught a hammerhead about 2 foot long. No, not a bonnethead, a genuine hammer. I filleted him out on the spot, and we cooked him while we fished. He tasted great. I suppose i will press on. Bleed and gut em as best as i can, and hope they turn out well.

[Swells]

I don't know if our Texas sharks taste worse than off Florida, but what many say is correct. I know a few tricks however, if you're going to eat something besides the noble Mako.

Do as others say and kill & bleed and cool the shark as fast as possible. Ice the fish but don't leave it waterlogged in freshwater (true for any saltwater fish).

Now get a clean 5 gallon bucket of very clean ocean water, 3-4 gallons will do. When you fillet the shark, throw the meat into the bucket with some ice so as to keep it a slush (some add some a small shake of Kosher salt). You will see tiny bubbles some off the fish fillets and that is pure ammonia hydroxide, which has the pee-pooh smell when you cook it. After about 15 minutes the bubble action should stop, time to lightly dry the fillets and bag them. The blue-water trick works!

The other trick most Texans know is to use a light dose of Tabasco before cooking. I don't know why, but the Tabasco will clean the nasty off-tastes further without making it hot, or disguising the shark meat in any way. Some will cut their Tabasco about 50% or more with water (the Brits like vinegar) to keep from drenching it in hot peppers. That's the Tabasco trick.

Lastly there's the aluminum foil trick. Usually we BBQ our shark outside because no matter what you do, it's a strong tasting fish. So I like a slow fire to put a nice brown edge on the shark, and then we wrap it up with aluminum foil, which steams it. Before tenting the foil, throw in any spices you want, along with some chunks of onions and especially squash. Any kind of quash will do and cheap yellow squash is the best. The squash will absorb even more nasty tastes in the shark.

Don't eat any of the squash, as it will suck out the poisons like a sponge and taste horrible.

[fishingcacher]

Shark meat has an unpleasant taste due to the presence of high concentrations of the waste product urea in the tissue.
When a shark dies, the urea is broken down to ammonia by bacteria, causing the dead body to gradually smell strongly of ammonia

[HEADSHAKER]

Get them out of thier skin ,leaving most of the red on the skin and soak it.Changing out the water atime or two.