Can You Eat Snakehead Fish?

Invasive snakeheads have reared their “hideous” mugs in the news again recently, this time because they’ve been discovered in Louisiana and Missouri. My reaction to these stories is always, “here we go again.” If you know anything about how these fish have proliferated in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, no one should be surprised that they keep expanding their range. They are so tolerant of a wide range of environmental conditions that I’m surprised it took this long for them to hit the news in the South. 

Having spent a bunch of time in Louisiana and Missouri, I can tell you the make-up of many of their waterways are truly snakehead paradises. I could go on about how evidence from other parts of the country (where they’ve existed longer) suggests their presence is not that catastrophic, or how I enjoy catching them so much more than other freshwater species. But instead I want to dispel a couple myths in the culinary department…