Cooking Stingray and Skates: 3 Easy Recipes

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Next time you crank up a stingray instead of your intended catch, don't cuss it, eat it. Yes, you can cook stingray and skates.  As unappetizing as they look, and as weird as their anatomy seems, stingrays (skates too) aren't much harder to clean than your usual table varieties. And, yes, they make delicious dinners.

Do they taste like scallops? You bet. Do some Florida restaurants serve them as scallops? I doubt it. The procurement of stingray “scallops” in restaurant quantity would cost more than buying the real thing. But it's a good topic for debate at the dockside bar.

In my estimation, the perfect size stingray for the table is one with a wingspan of around 18 inches to two feet.  Smaller ones don't yield enough meat to make the effort worthwhile and those with a span much greater than two feet tend to be stringy and tough, although the fillets can still be quite good if parboiled or baked.

You'll find suggested recipes on this page, but let me hasten to assure you that fillets from a two-foot stingray can be cooked in any way you prefer. Sautéed is my favorite style, but I have also enjoyed them fried and grilled.

If you are skilled at filleting flounders you won't have much trouble transferring your talent to stingrays, for the procedure is nearly identical, the difference being that rays have cartilage in place of bones.

Here's how to proceed:

With the ray lying flat on the cleaning table, poke with your finger to find the line where the tender wing joins the hard back. Using a sharp knife, slice downward along that line from front to back, just deep enough to reach the cartilage.

Next, turn the knife blade flat and work it along the top of the cartilage out toward the wingtip—just like separating the fillet from the bones of a typical fish. Do the same for the opposite wing.

Now turn the ray on its back and fillet the undersides of both wings in the same manner. The bottom fillets will be thinner and smaller—but good. The final step is to skin the four fillets by running the knife between flesh and skin.

An alternate cleaning method is possible, and perhaps preferable when working with a pretty large ray, say one with a three-foot wingspan or greater. Here you simply cut off the wing, place it in a pot, and simmer it for about 30 minutes. Unless you have a very big pot, you'll need to cut the wing in half. Once parboiled, the skin comes off rather easily. Neither is it difficult to scrape the meat away from the cartilage.

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You can kill two birds with one stone by adding spices or other flavorings to the water in which you parboil the wing, and once you flavor it up you can refer to the water as court bouillon. Many cookbooks, including (blush) my own Angler's Cookbook includes recipes for court bouillons. An easy and delicious one calls for adding salt and pepper, plus a couple of lemon slices and a half-cup of white wine or a quarter-cup of vinegar to each two cups of water.

Boiled ray meat lends itself to many scrumptious treatments. In small bits, it is as good as crabmeat or bay scallops in cold salads and pasta sauces. In slabs or slices it needs only a quick searing on each side, plus your pet sauce, to become a barbecue treat.

Years ago, long before I ever (knowingly) sampled a stingray, yet another system of preparation was described to me. The myth of stingray-for-scallop substitution in restaurants was widespread at the time, so it sounded logical to me. This method requires a sort of cookie cutter made by sharpening the edge of a two-inch iron pipe with a file or grinding wheel. When hammered though the wing of a ray, the makeshift cutter produces a neat plug of meat which, after the skin is sliced away, might pass as a scallop—in taste only. Anyone who falls for the masquerade is bound to get wise when they bite into the cartilage. On the other hand, you still might fool your guests with the accompanying recipe for mock scallops.

MOCK SCALLOPS

Ingredients

• 2 stingray wings, filleted, skinned, cubed
• 2 eggs beaten
• 1 cup plain bread crumbs (more if needed)
• Salt and pepper
• Garlic powder

Directions

STINGRAY WITH CAPERS

Ingredients

• 2 stingray fillets (appr. 1 1/2 lbs. total)
• 2 oz. butter
• 3 tbsp. drained capers
• 2 tbsp. vinegar from the capers

Directions

BROILED STINGRAY

Ingredients

• Stingray fillets, about 1 to 1 1/2 lbs.
• 2 oz. melted butter
• 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. dried parsley
• 1/8 tsp. paprika
• 1/4 tsp. ground white pepper

Directions

Florida Sportsman Magazine January 2011