Ladyfish may not be a species that too many people are familiar with, and thus, they may not know if it is edible. The short answer is yes, you can eat a Ladyfish, just like any other normal edible fish. It doesn’t even have any special cooking requirements, so if you cook fish often, there won’t be an issue.
Don’t worry, we’ll cover more useful information about cooking and eating Ladyfish down below, as well as any notable differences the fish actually has to any of its contemporaries.
Can You Eat Ladyfish?
As said previously, you can eat Ladyfish. However, there’s a lot of things you can eat: that doesn’t mean it is necessarily a good idea. Not that Ladyfish will make you ill, but there are a few things about it that might make you think twice about it.
Problems With Ladyfish
If you do some of your own research on cooking and eating Ladyfish, chances are you will come across two primary complaints regarding this seafood: it has too many bones, and it has a mushy, oily taste. We’ll cover both of these cons in more detail down below.
Ladyfish Have Too Many Bones
When we speak about the number of bones in Ladyfish being too high, we’re not implying that Ladyfish are more bone than edible meat. However, compared to other fish, the number of bones is comparatively higher, and difficult to ignore.
It’s not even that the fish have a large spine or many large bones. In fact, the problem with Ladyfish is that they have many tiny bones instead. Needless to say, removing all of these tiny bones manually can be a serious hassle, and makes the cooking process more tedious.
Moreover, considering how much work you have to put into getting rid all of those bones, many people don’t think the actual meat you are getting out of the fish to eat is worth it. Ladyfish aren’t exactly small, but considering the work, the payoff can be less than satisfying.
Ladyfish and Their Mushy, Oily Taste
Ladyfish has some odd flavors and textures that some people don’t really like. Mushy and oily is the best way to explain it. For instance, the meat is fairly crumbly, not exactly melting in your mouth, but being pretty fine-grained.
Naturally, this isn’t an objective con of Ladyfish, since this kind of thing comes down to personal taste. Some people will like the taste and texture of Ladyfish, while others may prefer a firmer, more textured fish.
That said, it is still a very oily fish, more so than things like salmon, cod or tilapia. It can be pretty overwhelming and make it taste more like fat than a tasty fish. However, that is completely subjective, and there’s no way to know if you’ll like the taste or texture of Ladyfish until you actually eat it.
More importantly, flavor and texture are majorly affected by seasoning and cooking methods, so it’s not like those aspects of Ladyfish can’t be changed, though it’s admittedly harder to work with a poorer base.
Cooking and Preparing Ladyfish
Of course there’s seasoning to consider, but we’re not going to talk about that here. After all, the type of seasoning used with fish really comes down to personal preference. But as far as actual cooking methods and preparations are concerned, there are a few special considerations for Ladyfish.
First of all, you’ll probably have to experiment with recipes a bit, because Ladyfish isn’t exactly a popular food item. There aren’t many people out there that cook and eat it regularly, as it is more often used as bait for catching other fish.
This is not to say you can’t find Ladyfish recipes online, but there aren’t as many as you would find for more popular fish. That being said, you may want to consider using Ladyfish as a base for a meal, rather than the main course itself. It’s unconventional flavors can be enhanced by other ingredients.
As for cooking and preparing Ladyfish at all, there’s not much to say specifically. You don’t have to do anything special with Ladyfish, as you can cook it like you would any other normal fish: in a pan, on a grill, using a pressure cooker, you name it. It’s not unique enough to require a special cooking method.
Is There any Reason to Eat Ladyfish?
We’ve established that you can eat Ladyfish, but that doesn’t really answer whether or not it should be eaten. Or rather, if there’s any reason to go out of your way to eat it. This isn’t an entirely objective statement, but we have to say that there isn’t.
It’s not that Ladyfish is hopelessly disgusting or unhealthy. But at the same time, it doesn’t have any particularly good points either. The taste isn’t anything extraordinary that people would say absolutely must be tried, and it doesn’t have any noteworthy health benefits either.
So as far as eating it is concerned, it’s really up to the individual. It’s neither particularly appealing nor particularly unappealing. Really, the most viable reason to eat Ladyfish would be because you are simply curious, or happen to catch a lot of them while fishing.
But of course, whether or not you’ll find something tasty comes down to the individual, so we would say that everyone should try Ladyfish at least once. While many people may not like it, others may fall in love, so it never hurts to try.
That said, if you already know you don’t like overly oily or mushy textured food, then you probably shouldn’t bother. After all, while you may be able to counter those things via cooking methods or seasoning, you could just start with a fish that you actually like, which is less work.
Ultimately, you can eat Ladyfish if you want to, though it poses a fair deal of challenges and isn’t a universally beloved food. At the end of the day, choosing to eat it comes down to personal preference more than anything else.
