carp comments

December 22, 2008

I certainly enjoyed this issue of Big River [January-February 2009]. I have been on a crusade to use carp for some time. I am aware of the problems and the potential we face in having them accepted as human food. I am also aware of several alternative uses that might profitably reduce their nuisance abundance to manageable levels. Lastly, I am aware of one example of a restoration effort that succeeded and another example where a similar fish was managed to partially restore the environment that it had diminished.

Carp are bio-accumulators: they are a fatty fish, PCBs are stored in their lipid membranes and in their liquid fat. I am assisting Professor Mark Richards, a University of Wisconsin food scientist who has a patented process to remove the PCBs. He minces the meat and reduces it to a solute with an acid. When he centrifuges the solute, the PCBs and the lipid membranes settle to the bottom in a hard pellet, the liquid fat is at the top, and the protein is in the middle layer. He then brings the pH back to 5.5, whereupon the protein returns as a rubbery solid. He has restored the protein as a surimi [fish that is processed to produce a crab substitute] product. The surimi can then be manipulated and flavored in many directions

I am in touch with a firm that wants to use the carp surimi as a fish sandwich. Another contact suggests using carp surimi to make fish pellets for the aquaculture industry. That use would avoid the poor image carp have in our minds. Another use would process the brain, muscle and viscera for biodiesel and char food. I am in touch with Sanimax, an international producer of biodiesel.

There are more than enough uses for carp, that we don’t need any more ideas. We just need focus and leadership.

I have attached previous memos that speak to carp use. I would urge you to look up the Stoller Fisheries website. They do it all now but the surimi part. They may soon be doing that also. They also list carp leather on their web site.

Keep up the good work.
Ed Brick
Oregon, Wis.

Editor’s Note
A survey of fish consumption advisories from Minnesota and Wisconsin generally agree that it’s safe to eat carp of any size caught in the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to the Iowa border once a month or 12 times a year. Better yet, carp caught from Coon Rapids, Minn., to Lock and Dam 1, and from Alma to Genoa, Wis., can be eaten once a week, according to Minnesota. Wisconsin suggests following only “general guidelines” for eating fish, regarding carp caught between Alma and Genoa.

Iowa suggests no restrictions on eating carp from the Mississippi. Illinois suggests up to one meal a week from the river, with the exception of the LeClaire to Davenport, Iowa, stretch, which it lists as one meal a month.

Carp Cuisine Contest

Rules

Our incognito judges are looking for the best carp dish served by a restaurant on the Mississippi River between Coon Rapids, Minn., and Muscatine, Iowa.

1. The dish must be a regular item on the menu and prepared using carp caught in the Upper Mississippi River.

2. The restaurant must be within a mile of the Mississippi from Coon Rapids, Minn., to Muscatine Iowa.

3. Submit a photocopy or readable picture of the menu, along with the restaurant name, address and contact information to Big River Magazine, PO Box 204, Winona, Minn.; or email to carp_at_BigRiverMagazine.com (using "@" for "_at_").

4. The winners will be announced, with a a lot of fanfare, in the January-February 2010 issue of Big River Magazine.

Prizes

The First Place winner will receive three half-page ads in Big River Magazine during 2010, along with an appropriate measure of notoriety.

The Second Place winner will receive three sixth-page ads in Big River Magazine during 2010, along with an appropriate measure of notoriety.

The Third Place winner will receive one sixth-page ad in Big River Magazine during 2010, along with an appropriate measure of notoriety.