Species sheet · The Edible River
Silver carp
It filters the river and leaps over the boats.
- Braised fish head in a clay pot, the great Chinese classic
- Fish head soup with tofu and white pepper
- Fillets finely scored then fried to soften the bones
- In French
- Carpe argentée
- Scientific name
- Hypophthalmichthys molitrix
- Status
- Invasive species
- In the water
- A large fish of East Asia's lowland rivers, introduced almost everywhere for farming. It lives in shoals near the surface and feeds on the plankton it filters.
- Season & buying
- Farmed all year in China; in the United States and Europe, catching and eating it helps curb an invasive species.
- Common length
- ~60 cm
- How to identify it
- Silvery, deep, flattened body with small scales
Eyes set very low on the head
Sharp keel along the belly, from throat to vent
On the plate
White, mild, tender flesh, with fine Y-shaped bones in the fillets.
Avoid: Cooking the fillets unscored: the small Y-bones stay whole; score them every three millimetres before cooking.
At the sound of an engine it leaps out of the water, sometimes more than two metres: on the Illinois River, boaters get hit in their own boats.
In Umay recipes
One Umay recipe calls for it.
