ORIGINAL: HNI_Christine
Lots of folks eat their gar.
It's different than most other fish. You have to use tin snips or a machete to clean one.
Gar has a tougher texture than say a bass. Cut into little pieces it has the taste and texture of crawfish tails in my opinion.
I like my gar cut into little pieces and stir-fried in butterwith veggies, Asian noodlesanda touch of curry powder ....sort of a spicy Thai style dish.
Gar pieces boiled in crab boil spices and dipped in butter is good. (I'm a big fan of butter..
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Most people eat it fried in chunksor ground up and then made into fried gar balls.
I'll be trying those recipes this summer.
One thing I can tell you is.... don't soak the fillets in water after you cut them out. The fillets will soak up all the water and get a gross, mushy texture. (trust me on that one)
Christine is right about the soaking - learned it the hard way myself. I agree with her other comments too. It is very good meat - my family loves it! It can be a little more difficult to clean - it takes a little effort to learn and some tools, but once you do it a few times, it becomes easy. They're a tough, prehistoric fish.