# Gar Cooking



## Rossbow

I know alot of people dont like eating gar but if you ask me its as good as any other fish. I usually fry it up but my question is how do yall cook it?


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## Dave aka Regulator

My grandmother Used to Pickle it for us when we were kids. Wed go down to the creek with a cheep zebco and no hooks..

Now your sittin there wondering how we cought gar with no hooks on nothing but line.........

Well we would take some of the yellow polly rope and vut a chunk about two feet long. Tie a note in it and unravel it. It would look kind of like a humongous fly once we tied it to the line. LOL! 

It actually worked. We cast out over any gar we seen from the bank and jig it past em, It was always cool to watch the gar strike and start rolling with it till it was all tangled up in our line the we would real em in. 

The things you come up with when your a kid. Ill post a recipie for the pickled gar when I get it from Granny.


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## hardhead34

We fillet it out season it up with your favirote seasoning and batter it up and fry it im with you it is as good or better than most fish just takes a little longer to clean it thats all.


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## Fishin' Soldier

Don't wash it with water. Eat it hot.


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## catchysumfishy

Feed it to inlaws!


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## Bill Fisher

gar balls


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## mikey01

fried... its like a chicken nugget!


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## johnmyjohn

I've eaten gar balls and they were spicy good. Some of my buddies that have webbed feet said gator gar is for the balls and needle or the spotted gar is for the batter. When I was in my 20's when I didn't know better I caught a 6+ fter and decided to take advantage of all that pretty flesh. So I hulled that big boy out and took a big fillet to work to treat the boys to some serious eats. I spiced it up and threw it in the oven thinking it was going to come out looking like some loin on tv and everybody was going to fight over who was going to take home the leftovers. About 10 minutes into the cooking I was coming back to the control room and the kitchen area where everybody was bailing out with a not so pleased look on their faces. I could smell it with the door closed, I thought I made a mistake and threw a shovel of Trinity river bottom in that oven. It took a few days to get the smell out, I'm not a gar cooker and leave that fish for the professionals.


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## muddnasty

my dad loves them


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## stxhunter

Last year I shot a small 4ft gar. It was my first and had a bit of trouble cleaning it, but got the hang of it pretty quick. I fried it up just like any other fish, tasted pretty good if you ask me.


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## saintsfan

best way that I found is to take the "backstraps" and create steaks. From there put them in on of those baskets for cooking fish on a pit. Seasont he meat with blackend redfish seasoning and continuosly baste with melted butter and garlic salt while you grill it on the pit.


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## letsgofishin

I took about 20-25 lbs of fresh gar meat put some TONY's on it and threw it in an electric smoker. I was in a plant and everyone loved it. At shift change it was all gone.


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## Charlie2

*Eating Gar*

I'm one of the web-footed warriors mentione and I was raised on gar.

We cooked it any way that you'd cook fish. Gar balls with remoulade sauce is one of my favorite ways of eating it.

A secret to cleaning gar is to take a hatchet or machete and slice off the top fin along with the top of the body shell. Cut down around the inside of the shell and remove the fish. Prepare as usual.

We always avoided contact with the roe because I was always told that it was poison. I didn't check to find out.

I never ate pickled gar and it would be interesting to see Granny's recipe S'il vous plait. C2


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## backbay2

*Soak with sprite*

The hammer, machette trick will do best for cleaning these suckers. I always cut out the back strap and soak it in sprite. Tends to get rid of some of that trinity river flavor:dance: Mostly a good cajun deep fry but alot of times I like to fry with a little bit of flour and a lot of parmesean cheese and season to taste. Good luck :cheers:


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## MMMMGOOD

skill saw right down the back then peel the mear right out. fry it up mmmmmgood


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## Charlie2

*Grannie's Pickled Gar Recipe*

Some time ago, I asked about Grannie's Pickled Gar Recipe. Questions:

Is it like Ceviche? I've never tried it(gar) but I bet that it would taste good.

Ceviche on a cracker, washed down with a cold beverage. Someone has to do it!

As far as running a Skil Saw down a gar's back: You have to remember that we didn't have electricity and had to either(1) Cut with a hatchet or Machete. I do like the idea of using a hammer with the machete. Makes it easier.

Thinking about it: The idea of soaking the meat in Sprite(citrus) would help to neutralize bad tastes. Thanks. That's what this board is about. JMHO. C2


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## KIKO

We prepare it in garlic sauce. Mash several heads of garlic into a past and rub it on the meat. Let it marinate for at least 1 hour. Deep fryed it in the disk or wok.


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## Levelwind

Bill Fisher said:


> gar balls




Man I've had lamb fries and mountain oysters, but I gotta think castrating a gar would hardly be worth the effort. Dangerous, too.


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## Boomhauer75

The best way in my opinion to eat them is to take a 2 foot 2x4 and beat the heck out of the gar with it. Throw the gar away and season the 2x4 to your taste and eat it. LOL Sorry guys just could not resist.

I have never tried any myself but I will try anything once. Some of the above mentioned recipes sound pretty darn good.


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## Mattsfishin

Yeh, I got something you can try Boomhauer !!. I have used the cordless saw and a cordless sawsall. They seem to work ok. I have ground the meat and added seasoning with parmesan bread crumbs and make balls and or patties. Then roll it in spicy cornmeal of fish fry. I use white bass fillets the same way. When I was a kid my folks would cook the gar in a pressure cooker for a while and then make balls and patties.

Matt


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## Barbarian

Been eating gar my whole life and everyone who never has thinks I am crazy until they taste it. I usually fry it, but I'll also cook it in a sauce picante. My grandfather used it cut the back strap into steaks and BBQ it. I've never tried that myself, but I remember everybody eating it.

I've used tin snips for as long as I can remember to help clean them.


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## LongTallTexan

What size gar are ideal for cooking? With the trouble of cleaning them, would a larger one be easier or harder? Are they like Redfish, all wormy and tough, when they get larger?


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## Fishin' Soldier

I have used tin snips I like the 4-5 footers. But then again I have never kept anything longer han 5 foot.


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## mmerrell32

i have a friend whose mother in law is from louisiana and she told me to use a meat grinder and the add onions garlic jalepenos etc a lil egg and some cornmeal or bread crumbs and make patties out of it then fry it turned out its pretty good and you dont have to deal with those tuff spots in the meat


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## Longshot270

After going through this thread I may need to get me a meat grinder. Sounds like a great idea.

I use an old pair of tin snips and a painter's trowel for separating the fish from the hide.

I catch the needle nose up here on a rod. Haven't had much luck with the bow yet but I haven't been able to get out at night either. I'm about to give jug lines a try as the rod and reel has only been catching the occasional catfish. I'm not gonna complain about that except when like yesterday, I caught a 27 inch cat with more worms than a bait box and another cat that wedged itself between two tree branches and wouldn't come up.

I target the 3+ footers but only because I use their scales rather than their meat. IMO for cooking, the smaller the better.

I've grilled them mostly. Fried a few also. I'm wanting to try making gar balls but I just don't care much for fried food.


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## stxhunter

I've never shot one over 4ft so my view of the fish may not be the same as others. After I filet the gar I usually cut it into nugget like strips. I use any regular fish batter, cajun spice or whatever I have in the cubord and fry it up just like any other fish. I've found that over cooking the gar makes it somewhat rubbery in texture, so it's important not to cook too long. Other than that I think it's one of the best eating fish out there, pretty close to red and black drum in my book.


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## Trouthappy

Never tried eating one. As a teenager sold alligator gar for a nickel a pound....caught the big ones on a snapper rod. They were thick in the 1960s, and smacked their big tails on the ICW like beaver.


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## shadslinger

A lot of people have/are eating gar and don't know it. 
The commercial fishermen below the Livingston dam used to have a deal with an LA. company that would come in a freezer semi to pick up all of the gar they could catch. 
They sold it for a $1.00 a pound, just about the same as cat fish.

It would be trucked to a big processing plant in LA. where it was pressure cooked, breaded and frozen in patties.

Then they sell to Mickey D's, Burger King, school lunch programs, etc... for those delicious fillet-o-fish sandwiches


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## KIKO

My causin is a chef and did an culinary expediton with her school to several regions in Mexico. She send me some pics of gar on a stick in Tabasco located on the southren part of the Gulf. .


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## Phinest Phishing

Ate it twice, Italian bread crumbs! If they were easier to clean I'd eat it all the time. Chewy but good


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## Longshot270

I bought a little hand crank meat grinder to see if it made them any better. Greatest investment short of the fishing rods. Just chunk the meat up and shoot it through. Mix with some peppers, onion and hush puppy mix then dunk in hot oil.


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## jaime1982

Here is how we open em up. Takes a lil work but the meat is pretty good.


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## stxhunter

^^^ thats the way I do it too! Take a machete, starting at the tail and cut along the back bone all the way up to the head. Once thats done, filet the meat off the rib cage, then filet the meat off the scales. Hardest part is starting the cut near the tail on the back moving up towards the head, after that it's pretty easy.


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