Can you eat stingray?

[El Cid]

It seems that there've been lots of questions recently about what you can/can't spear or can/can't eat. I have my own after hearing lots of stories about this: Can you eat stingray? I've heard they taste like scallops, they taste like leather, they taste like sh*t (you know what sh*t tastes like? NO) the whole nine yards. So, if I spy a little southern ray in the sand, is it fair game and does it have any culinary value?

[Marcus]

Yep, they're good. Treat the meat well like any other good fish. Don't get them too big or too small. Search the site for this topic, you'll find more info on how to clean them.

[smilinmatt]

There's a section of the wingmeat that's similar in texture to scallops, but it doesn't taste like it (at least I don't know how to make it taste like scallops). To me, stingray tastes like shark, only without the ammonia smell.

[Wayward Son]

Rays are related to sharks. IMO, the yield of meat from a stingray is not worth the effort it takes to fillet it out, so I don't bother with them. They're OK eating, but not great. You do have to shoot a fairly big one in order to get enough meat to bother with.

[Ironhed]

alot of times in a restaurant if scallops are all the exact same size they are ray. real scallops are all individuals and run in all sorts of sizes. many restaurants will pass off stingray as scallops especially buffets that serve them.

[TheMackDaddy]

yea, its pretty good, only eaten it once in mexico, the guy was telling me that they go on the flats and throw hand spears with lines attatched to them at the rays...sounds kinda fun.

[Christof]

I've got a friend that also states the "If youve eaten scallops, youve eaten ray" but not sure I buy that..... Why? Cause I have ate guaranteed scallops and the suspect scallops tasted the same... Now, if they soak it in scallop juice or something, then I guess it could be..... How can they advertise on the menu as scallops if it is fish??

Christof

[stevemc1]

Scallops taste nothing like any kind of ray we have here. Stingray does taste like shark, and can get ammonia smell if you dont take care of it,but has stringy tough meat, nothing like a scallop and the grain runs the wrong way. That rumor was from many years ago, like the 1930s, when seafood wasnt even regulated. I have heard people saying that sea scallops were stingray! They dont know much about sea scallops! If it was dont you think they would have wiped them out in short order? I have had stingrays and cownosed rays. Cownosed rays are darker meat than sting rays which are sort of dark, and like someone said, you need a pretty good sized one or its too little. You fillet the top and bottom off a flat cartilage and then fillet off the skin. A lot of work. I used to bow fish for them a couple times, when redfish was legal to spear, but dont like them(rays). If I was starving I could eat it. Steve.

[Mighty KC]

I heard that "stingray taste like scallops" line too, so when my son got a big southern ray last year we decided to try it. Hard to clean, meat looks really wierd (kind of like strings) and TASTES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE SCALLOPS. Wont go to that trouble again unless I am stranded and starving. (and this is coming from someone who likes bluefish)

Keith

[Ed Walker]

Originally Posted by Mighty KC

I heard that "stingray taste like scallops" line too, so when my son got a big southern ray last year we decided to try it. Hard to clean, meat looks really wierd (kind of like strings) and TASTES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE SCALLOPS. Wont go to that trouble again unless I am stranded and starving. (and this is coming from someone who likes bluefish)

Keith

And there you have it. Thank you very much. That old wives tale is total BS (same as the restaurant urban legend) but theres always that guy. You know, the one who has a friend whos sisters husbands brother-inlaw makes these psuedo-scallops all the time and says they are great. Shark too. In fact I think you can go to Walmart, get yourself one of those ever-so-common stingray scallop stampers and make delicious and tasty scallops out of just about anything.

[cerobit]

I'll second on that weird looking meat. Full of cartilage. Maybe I just cleaned it the wrong way, but it was WEIRD!!!! hey, and I love bluefish AND HARDHEADS!!!

[Christof]

Originally Posted by Ed Walker

In fact I think you can go to Walmart, get yourself one of those ever-so-common stingray scallop stampers and make delicious and tasty scallops out of just about anything.

Now that is some funny shiot!
Someone on the Florida Sportsman site had said that sheepshead if boiled in crab boil were just like eating lobster (not the first time I had heard similar stuff about other fish) which I found NOT to be the case.... It tasted like fish boiled in crab boil to me.... So I figure either people have really shitty taste ability, or they eat some really crappy lobster/scallops etc. if they think all this stuff can be made to taste like all that stuff...... I think if I want lobster, I'll go buy some, or crab, or scallops.....
I did have a guy ask me today for all my sheep carcasses and says he fries them up (fillet'd already) and picks all the meat "out da bones".... Also loves to fry up the tails "and et em like tater chips".... Makes me feel like I waste a lot of edible fish...


Christof

[cerobit]

my grandma used to fry up fins from bream i would bring home when i was a boy. tasted better than potato chips!

[23six]

you just go ahead and knock yourself out