Shad Roe (Bear's Favorite Food)

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Yes Bear you are disgusting but but but I do still love you and adore some of the OTHER foods that you make.
 
I had a feeling you might take that comment of Dudes as a compliment. Was kinda thinking that myself but didn't say it. Figured I didn't know you well enough or long enough..<grin>. And I don't eat organs either.....being a city boy & all that. The only thing running wild around me growing up was Norwegian Rats in the alleys. Think Pops made $25 a week doing construction plumbing on the high rises so we ate a lot of pasta. Luckily, the apt. we lived in (a 5 story walk up) was under rent control from WWII....50 bucks a month, or I think we woulda been eating pigeons. Thanks for sharing the peek into the Bear Cubs life....wasn't boring at all.
 
LOL---I knew what Dude meant. He's my buddy, so we just kid around.

I think he really does love me a little.

I think all those things we went through made us much stronger later in life.

Bear
 
You may be missing out on something amazing. Although I haven't had it from a shad I did have it from a monk fish while I was in Japan. It was delicious!
I'm sure you are right, but I don't think I could try it, probably for the same reason many won't try Roe, but what can I say.

I like Monk Fish though---Around here, we call it the poor man's lobster---My Mom used to make it.

Bear
 
 
Yea its good stuff man! If you are willing to the female stuff you might as well try the males! You never know some of the nastiest looking stuff tastes the best!
 
One cup of Shad Roe has 362 calories & 47 grams of protein (95%), but is very high in cholesterol.

In case anyone is interested.

Probably the only real food that is better for bodybuilding than liver. They didn't have the chemicals they have now, in my day.

Bear
 
Bear, I was born on a farm much like your dad. We didn't have many amenities in my earliest years. No electricity, no indoor plumbing. Had a "2 holer" outback and used "honey pots" in the winter. Although, we were fortunate enough to have indoor pumps at the kitchen sinks, fed from a sistern, they'd freeze up when it got real cold in the winter. Had a wood stove for house heat with gravity fed register openings for the upstairs bedrooms. We had plenty of quilts and blankets for bedding and stayed pretty warm at night, although  you could see your breath in the morning. Needless to say, you didn't waste any time getting dressed when you got out of bed. I remember my mom's cook stove that we burned mostly corn cobs in. We were dirt rich and money poor. We raised and harvested almost everything we ate. All our own chickens and livestock. Had a huge garden with all kinds of vegetables, fruit trees, grapes, raspberries, etc. You name it, chances are we raised it, butchered it, canned it, or dried it. No fridge or freezer. Got a big ice block that would last all week for the wooden icebox every Sunday after church from the gas station in town. How many guys out there can remember threshing oats or farming with a 4 horse team of Percherons? We hunted and fished for some of our food, too. To this day, I love eating what most people would consider "guts". With our family (10 kids) you didn't want to get in the way of the "flurry" of forks stabbing the chicken hearts, livers, gizzards, necks, and feet when the fried chicken hit the dinner table. LOL

We ate fish roe, too. I'd nearly forgotten about it. Mom soaked them in salt water overnight and fried them up with scrambled eggs the next morning for a special breakfast treat. Life was much different in those days. In someways much more difficult, but in other ways much simpler and better. Everyone had to work for the betterment of the family, and believe it or not were a pretty happy bunch.

ShortEnd
 
Bear, I was born on a farm much like your dad. We didn't have many amenities in my earliest years. No electricity, no indoor plumbing. Had a "2 holer" outback and used "honey pots" in the winter. Although, we were fortunate enough to have indoor pumps at the kitchen sinks, fed from a sistern, they'd freeze up when it got real cold in the winter. Had a wood stove for house heat with gravity fed register openings for the upstairs bedrooms. We had plenty of quilts and blankets for bedding and stayed pretty warm at night, although  you could see your breath in the morning. Needless to say, you didn't waste any time getting dressed when you got out of bed. I remember my mom's cook stove that we burned mostly corn cobs in. We were dirt rich and money poor. We raised and harvested almost everything we ate. All our own chickens and livestock. Had a huge garden with all kinds of vegetables, fruit trees, grapes, raspberries, etc. You name it, chances are we raised it, butchered it, canned it, or dried it. No fridge or freezer. Got a big ice block that would last all week for the wooden icebox every Sunday after church from the gas station in town. How many guys out there can remember threshing oats or farming with a 4 horse team of Percherons? We hunted and fished for some of our food, too. To this day, I love eating what most people would consider "guts". With our family (10 kids) you didn't want to get in the way of the "flurry" of forks stabbing the chicken hearts, livers, gizzards, necks, and feet when the fried chicken hit the dinner table. LOL

We ate fish roe, too. I'd nearly forgotten about it. Mom soaked them in salt water overnight and fried them up with scrambled eggs the next morning for a special breakfast treat. Life was much different in those days. In someways much more difficult, but in other ways much simpler and better. Everyone had to work for the betterment of the family, and believe it or not were a pretty happy bunch.

ShortEnd
Unbelievable how many more memories you just brought back. Every thing you said was very familiar, except they had to shoot most of their meat, because their only cows were milkers. At my Great-grandpop's, where my Dad was raised, I distinctly remember the GGF lifting one of the lids on the combination cooking/heating coal/wood stove to spit his chewing tobaccy into the fire (sizzle). The house always smelled good, like wood smoke. The pump was about 70' away, and the one seater was about 80' away. People always gathered in the kitchen too, because it was warm there, and we played a lot of Pinochle in them days.

Some of this even carried into the 50s, as my first 3 years of school were in one room schoolhouses, with potbellied stoves in the back of the room, and outhouses in the field out back---one boys & one girls. The lady teachers always pitched for both teams at recess.  My first & second grades were together with only one teacher, but when I went to second grade, their were too many first graders, so they put a partition in the feed mill next door, put 14 desks and chairs in, and I went to second grade in the feed mill. In the 50s, we had indoor plumbing, but not in my school district until 4th grade (1958). Ahhh memories!!!

Thanks ShortEnd,

Bear

My first grade school house has since been restored by the Richland Historical Society:

http://richlandhistoricalsociety.com/Home_Page.html

84b6c3a8_p1010127.jpg
 
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Darn Bear, From a guy that likes menudo I'd tear into a plate of that, never had it but wouldn't hesitate. Closest Ive had was a  jar of Pautkzes after a night of fishing and tequila.
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Bear, The milt sac is really good. Just mountain oysters from the sea.
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Sauteed in garlic butter, low slow and long until the texture is like.......rare liver I guess. I eat it cold as an appetizer. Veerryy good.

No balls, no blue chips.
 
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Bear,

My friend you certainly were not boring to me.  I have never had any kind of Roe but we live in the Appalachians. My family always had huge gardens in the summer with some stuff that you did not gather till the fall.  I can remember as a child we did our own hog killing in the fall, I think I have ate about every edible part of a deer, rabbit, pheasant, squirrel, frog legs and lots of trout and catfish and even one time I remember my Grandma fixing a ground hog, now that greasy stuff I want no part of ever again, but all of the rest of it was good. Now even My Grandma, who was born in 1899, had her limits, she refused to cook a coon or a possum.  In this part of the country many many people survived on what they could raise, hunt or catch.  My family, being kind of like yours did always have one thing, a milk cow but everyone did not have one and I have heard Daddy and my uncles talk about how important that the milk cow was.  I remember my uncle Leon, (Daddy's oldest brother also a WWII vet, who helped raise me while Dad was in the military and is now deceased) tell about Liza the milk cow and how if you did not know better you would have thought we were from India where they worship cows.  Now I have never heard about them eating any kind of Roe but maybe they did but when times are tough you did what you had to do to feed your family. Bear, thanks for you and others who have shared and brought back some good memories and reminded me that even thought we are much much better off now than my family was back then it seems life was much simpler back then. I guess what I am trying to say is that when times got tough the tough survived.  Thanks again Bear.

Your Friend,

Barry 
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Darn Bear, From a guy that likes menudo I'd tear into a plate of that, never had it but wouldn't hesitate. Closest Ive had was a  jar of Pautkzes after a night of fishing and tequila.
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You ate the Bait?????   

Reminds me when I used to shoot in the pool league with my best crazy buddy as my partner (two man teams league).

One day I got back from fishing a little late, and had to go right to the match.

I took a small Killifish Minnow (only about 1 1/2" long) in my pocket, into the bar, and when nobody was looking, dropped it into my buddies beer.

Jack took a couple sips, and a couple pool turns, before he noticed the minnow swimming in his mug (still alive).

Then I saw him looking close at his beer for a few seconds.

Then he looks over at me, says, "Is that the biggest one you caught?", and picks up the mug & chugs it!

Bear
 
You ate the Bait?????   

Reminds me when I used to shoot in the pool league with my best crazy buddy as my partner (two man teams league).

One day I got back from fishing a little late, and had to go right to the match.

I took a small Killifish Minnow (only about 1 1/2" long) in my pocket, into the bar, and when nobody was looking, dropped it into my buddies beer.

Jack took a couple sips, and a couple pool turns, before he noticed the minnow swimming in his mug (still alive).

Then I saw him looking close at his beer for a few seconds.

Then he looks over at me, says, "Is that the biggest one you caught?", and picks up the mug & chugs it!

Bear
Well actually it was a friend and myself fishing and the jar was empty the next morning along with the Quervo...........
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Wow! Nice little waltz down memory lane, thanks for that guys. I was really surprised to see that anyone at this stuff, well other than me. *laugh* I remember my grandmother frying up catfish eggs and mixing them with scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfasts. There wasn't much on an animal that we didn't eat. Even now I'll eat just about anything and it drives my lady nuts. Nothing better than fried "parts". I'll have to hit the local Asian markets and see if they sell roe or not.
 
Wow! Nice little waltz down memory lane, thanks for that guys. I was really surprised to see that anyone at this stuff, well other than me. *laugh* I remember my grandmother frying up catfish eggs and mixing them with scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfasts. There wasn't much on an animal that we didn't eat. Even now I'll eat just about anything and it drives my lady nuts. Nothing better than fried "parts". I'll have to hit the local Asian markets and see if they sell roe or not.
If you get some, get a kind that has very fine eggs, like 1/32" in diameter or less.

Shad roe is better early in the run season. They sell them by the set (pair), but even though you get less for your money when the sacks are only about 7" long, they taste much better than later in the season (closer to when they drop them), when the sacks are 9" to 11" long, and the eggs are getting bigger individually.

That's why Salmon eggs are only good for bait!

Good Freshwater roe to eat:

Shad

Sucker

Bluegill

Crappie

Bass (Large M, Small M, Rock,)

Yellow Perch

Catfish (under 20")

Never ate any others.

Bear
 
Anybody want to learn more about various fish roe, check this out:

Cooking With Fresh Roe: A Rite Of Spring

Link:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125898335

And don't tell me this Striped Bass (rockfish) Roe doesn't look awful tasty:

cf41c5ef_rockfishroe_wide.jpg


Bear

On Edit:  Since I posted this picture & link above, my Son has brought me a number of large Striped Bass.

I prepared the Roe every way I know, and I don't care for any of them.

Just wanted to let people know---I do not recommend Striped Bass Roe.

There are many fish that have great tasting Roe---IMO, Stripers are not on that list !
 
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Bear those roe do look good,I will be cooking a few more as time goes by. I have to compete with Asian & European folk to get them at market. Lady sever said I was the first Australian she had ever seen buy them! Goes to show you how dumb people can be,if its 95% protein for $10 a kg  & farmed Atlantic Samon is $25 a kg
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Dont complain to me about your food bill.
 
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