Fish Head Soups and Stews, a Way to Keep from Wasting Food

When I was a child living in South Africa, I can remember some of our workers cooking fish and sheep’s heads. Now this may sound horrible to us, but they loved them and considered them to be one of the finer parts of the fish. In some cultures, they eat fish heads because they find the cheeks of the fish to be absolutely delicious.

I wish I had paid a bit more attention to the way they cooked them.  So I have been doing some research on cooking fish heads and am finding that in the early days of this county they were quite popular.  They often used them in soups and stews.  The following recipe shows how easy it is to make a fish head soup.

Fish head soup

• 2 fish heads
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 carrots
• 2 potatoes
• 1  onion
• 2 pieces celery
• 3 to 4 c. water
• Salt to taste
• Black pepper

Boil fish heads, onion and garlic for 1/2 hour.  Strain, take the meat of the bones and add back into the broth.  Cut up the vegetables in small pieces.  Add to broth and boil on low flame until cooked.  Serve with bread.

Another simple recipe is to cook fish heads with rice.  It is pretty simple, cook your rice like normal with the fish heads placed on top of the rice.  This cooks the rice and the fish heads at the same time, letting the fish flavor seep down into the rice.  When the rice is done, take the fish heads out and remove the flesh.  Put the flesh back into the rice, mix and serve.

After a TEOTWAWKI situation, it will become important to not waste food.  We will be forced to use foods that we would now turn our noises up at.  Fish heads for instance are quite nutritious and full of protein. Learn how to cook with unusual foods and collect recipes now.  If any of you have recipes or ideas you wish to share, we will be happy to pass them along.

Howard