# Fish Head Soup



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

*OMG, this warms the tummy up!*

Lake trout heads n carcasses, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, fresh thyme n fresh parsley. Cover with water and cook until heads fall apart. Let cool and remove meat from bones. Rinse meat and save. Strain broth through cheesecloth. Save 5 cups of broth.









*Fish head soup ingredients:*
1½ teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
¾ teaspoon tumeric
1 teaspoon paprika
1 to 1 1/2 lb cooked fish
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
3 tablespoon olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
4 garlic cloves minced
1 28- ounce can diced tomatoes
½ cup white wine
4 - 5 cups broth
1 cup packed chopped fresh parsley
1 cup packed chopped fresh cilantro
3 green onions chopped (both white and green parts)
lemon juice from one lemon









Fish head soup:

In a small bowl, mix the spices together.
In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions, bell peppers, celery, and garlic. Cook, tossing regularly, for 5 minutes or until the vegetables soften. Season with a good pinch of kosher salt and black pepper and the spice mixture.
Add the tomatoes, white wine, and broth. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to medium-low. Cover the pot part-way and let simmer for 20 minutes.
Add the fish and cook for about 4 minutes or until the fish is cooked through (do not over-cook the fish, remember it will continue to cook in the hot broth even after you remove it from the heat).
Stir in the parsley, cilantro, green onions. Finish with lemon juice. Serve immediately.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

There is a song about this recipe.


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

Homemade fish stock is definitely a treat. I've only made it for trout chowder though.

My siblings and I would taunt each other with that song while chasing each other around with "talking" bass after a day of fishing. Life was simpler during childhood (at least for us kids).


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Catherder said:


> There is a song about this recipe.


Eat them up, yum!


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## pollo70 (Aug 15, 2016)

I remember my dad making fish soup or like we knew it " caldo de pescado"
back in the day I would watch him get the heads and suck them clean , he once told me that the eye's would give you super eye sight so being young I tried my first fish head eyes and all like he would consume them and they where tasty! my pops made the soup as years went on so then my kids would watch me and grandpa eat the heads we told them the same theory about eating the eyes but they weren't buying it however they did like the 🐟 caldo .


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

I still have the stupid "Fish Heads" song stuck in my head this morning. 🤦‍♂️ 

On a serious note, one of the Asian guys that frequents Utah Lake was telling me that a lot of their catch would go into traditional soups. They would use the entire fish in their recipes. Guts, head, and meat. I've heard second hand that it is really good.


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## pollo70 (Aug 15, 2016)

I worked with a Asian fella that would bring perch soup made like that for lunch entire fish not gutted in soup he never offered me a taste so I did never know if it was good, as far as trying to make it myself growing up I was taught to gut and clean the inside of the fish so I will never know


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

I'll do head and spine but I'll never do viscera. I've read the gills make the broth taste bitter but never experimented.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

I've never done fish guts other than eggs and a coupla livers.


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## Daisy (Jan 4, 2010)

I have spent more than a bit of my life in former Soviet Union. Ukha is a traditional clear broth fish soup from the region. Carp, zander, and various Coregonids (Whitefish) are the traditional species used. Heads, tails bones, and meaty chunks are combined with the water, potatoes and onions, and garnished with dill. Good stuff that is usually washed down with some local spirits. I had a colleague that administered all the fish hatcheries between the Urals and Baikal in Russia. He loved to make an Ukha using whole fingerling sturgeon. The sturgeon were about the size of big french fry and you just popped the whole fish in your mouth. Good times.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

No "stinkhead" recipe?

-DallanC


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## pollo70 (Aug 15, 2016)

Daisy said:


> I have spent more than a bit of my life in former Soviet Union. Ukha is a traditional clear broth fish soup from the region. Carp, zander, and various Coregonids (Whitefish) are the traditional species used. Heads, tails bones, and meaty chunks are combined with the water, potatoes and onions, and garnished with dill. Good stuff that is usually washed down with some local spirits. I had a colleague that administered all the fish hatcheries between the Urals and Baikal in Russia. He loved to make an Ukha using whole fingerling sturgeon. The sturgeon were about the size of big french fry and you just popped the whole fish in your mouth. Good times.


Where they boiled or fried ?


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Come to think of it now I have purposely eaten fish guts, smelt.

Back in the 70s I took a number of trips from northwestern Illinois to Mackinac Michigan to dip net smelt.

We would put four or five 30-gallon garbage cans in the back of a pickup with bags of ice packed around them. Drive all the way up there during the day, 3 of us taking turns driving. We'd dip net all night until the garbage cans were 3/4ths full. Then race back home, the one who had drank the less beer driving. When we got back home the smelt were packed in plastic ice bags and placed in the big freezer at the VFW club......first week of April. The local VFW paid for the trip. My father-in-law was a big mucky muck for the VFW.

I'd take four or five bags full home. Put 24 smelt each in Ziploc bags and freeze. Used them for bait, catfish, turtles at home, muskie lakers and northerns in Ontario Canada 3rd week of May. Nothing as oily as a smelt.

The VFW had two big charity smelt fries annually. The 6" to 7" long fish were deep fat fried whole, most of them guts n all. I would gut 30 pounds or so for the more squeamish patrons...uh, my wife being one. ha

Those were the days.


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## Daisy (Jan 4, 2010)

pollo70 said:


> Where they boiled or fried ?


boiled


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## pollo70 (Aug 15, 2016)

Daisy said:


> boiled


Sounds like a tasty snack while sipping on some adult party pops 🍻


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

Catherder said:


> There is a song about this recipe.


You beat me to it! I immediately looked this song up when I saw the title of this thread. 

Classic song!


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

Well, I suppose it tastes OK, but I was always taught that as leader of the pack it is our responsibility to make sure the whole family gets a taste. So, what do ya keep for your K-9 friends after a successful fishing trip? 
My pups actually get smiles on their faces when they see me comin with a few fish heads in hand. Chomp, chomp, crunch, crunch.


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## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

My elder Brother of 15 tears, told me all sorts of stuff they would eat in "Nam". Fish Head soup was one of them. His CO took him to a place in or near Saigon for dinner one time, after they had ate, the CO asked if he liked the dinner. "Yes", he replied. The CO chuckled and told him what he had ate. I'm sure most of you know what it was, but, I sure the hell wouldn't eat a mans beast friend. 

My brother was an amazing individual when it came to foraging from the land. He could take a 30 min walk from camp, come back with a pack full of "stuff" and make some of the best tasting meals I've experienced.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

My daughter sent me this picture from the grocery store she was shopping at.











And she was texting the "Fish Heads" song, of course. 

Which I now have stuck in my head again.  

Eat them up, yum.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

THEY ARE WORTH ALMOST $1 PER HEAD???

I wish I would have known that 10,000 fish ago... sheesh.

-DallanC


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## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

DallanC said:


> THEY ARE WORTH ALMOST $1 PER HEAD???
> 
> I wish I would have known that 10,000 fish ago... sheesh.
> 
> -DallanC


That's for the "Farm Raised" fish. Now the wild caught, they would be $2 a head.


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## pollo70 (Aug 15, 2016)

Them eyeballs look big and tasty! 

Eat them up, yum 🎼


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Eyeballs and fish cheeks make a nice meal. 

You never realize just how much that there is to eat until you start boiling heads and pulling that meat off of it.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

I love halibut cheeks.

-DallanC


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Catherder said:


> My daughter sent me this picture from the grocery store she was shopping at.
> 
> View attachment 152114
> 
> ...


Cool!


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