Thread: Eating Bonito: Food Network

I was watching food network last night and there was a rerun of the Chopped All Star Finale on from Sunday. For those of you who do not know, Chopped is a contest for Chefs. There are 4 Chefs and they compete for the best dish and money.

Anyway, the main course was Bonito. The Chefs had to cook bonito. The judges really liked the fish, and the judges are professional Chefs and authors themselves.

I thought it was interesting that Bonito was one of the ingredients and that the judges liked it. I also learned that the skin of Bonito is not edible and you must remove the bloodline. One guy made a soup of some kind and had pieces of skin and bloodline in the soup. uke:

The ones who grilled it or pan seared it looked really good. I even wanted to try it.

So, has anyone really ate it or do we all just say you cant eat them because that is what some one told us? Why wouldnt it taste like Tuna?

So does this mean that a Jack might taste like Yellow Fin Tuna?

^ have seen people clean jacks! I have heard never tasted that it is a good fish to eat, but then again some people eat Crow, Gar, and Opossum....

I have ate it raw and its like tuna...Also dad grilled and said it was good i have only ate it raw with soy sauce

What we call bonito is actually a little tuny. There is a difference in the two fish. I'm not saying little tuny isn't edible too but if they were referring to a fish as bonito on food network then it is probably not the fish we are used to catching around here.

they were likely cooking atlantic bonito, not little tunny...different species and the atlantic bonito flesh is lighter than little tunny's.

[quote author=fiver link=topic=1086.msg10502#msg10502 date=1336573537]
they were likely cooking atlantic bonito, not little tunny...different species and the atlantic bonito flesh is lighter than little tunny's.
[/quote]

Yep, exactly. Atlantic Bonito are what they call "Northern Mackerel" over on the Fort Walton Pier.

True dat!
Atlantic Bonito flesh cooks up like spanish mackerel :headbang:
Littly Tunny ("bonita&quot to me is darker like tuna.

This is yellowfin tuna
[img width=720 height=413]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/pierpounder/Misc/FishCooking/Tuna_Marinating.jpg[/img]

This is "bonita" (a trimmed 'tenderloin') which I kept and cooked (panfried) a while back.
[img width=720 height=540]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/pierpounder/Misc/FishCooking/Bo-Trim.jpg[/img]

This is the end result after cooking (pan-fried in olive oil) left is just light seasoning (basically just salt & pepper), right is marinated in soy sauce prior to cooking.
[img width=720 height=540]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/pierpounder/Misc/FishCooking/Bo_fry.jpg[/img]

RESULT:
I luved the lightly seasoned pan-fried best. It tasted GREAT! :eat:
We made fish salad with most of it and my wife declared it was "much better than any tuna out of a can."

[quote author=LugNut link=topic=1086.msg10496#msg10496 date=1336570976]
So does this mean that a Jack might taste like Yellow Fin Tuna?
[/quote]

I have to keep the next one I catch to see for myself, but pescador(Jim Egbert) was telling me the other day that Jack smells real fishy when cooking but tastes like pork when you eat it. So I gotta try and see.

Saw a few Jacks on the Cleaning tables last week, so some people are eating them, though mostly foreigners.