Behold the lowly carp. Henry Quade did, and he wrote a book about it.
More pertinently, he focused upon Mankato’s long-ago role in feeding the multitudes with a fish that historically has been both prized and despised.
“We’re the only country to treat it like trash,” said Quade, a retired Minnesota State University professor who founded and directed the school’s Water Resources Center.
Quade said he wrote the book not because he’s necessarily promoting carp but because a Mankato cannery figured prominently in its popularity as a World War II era food staple.
“The book kind of serves as a metaphor for entrepreneurship. It shows a little town like Mankato can do great things in a short amount of time.”
Mankato businessman Armin Kleinschmidt had an idea that canned carp could provide a tasty and valuable food source for the military and civilian population during the war.
Within a few months his canning plant was operational and he was filling orders from the military and feeding a U.S. citizenry that found meat in short supply during the war years.
Kleinschmidt fostered the first successful effort to can freshwater fish, and in announcing his application to patent the process, boasted with all sincerity that it “tastes like ... chicken.”
Then the war ended, American palates moved on and the company went bankrupt in the early 1950s.
Carp was first introduced into U.S. waters in the 1800s by the government as a popular food source for immigrants. Now it’s considered a recreational and food commodity by some, an environmental pest by others.
As food, Quade said carp is still favored in Europe over bass and trout, but in the United States it has struggled to regain its place at the dinner table.
He said carp’s most salient quality at present is as a sport fish, particularly for bowfishers.
If You Go:
What: A book signing for “The Multifaceted Carp — Mankato’s Moment on the Stage” by Henry Quade
When: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday
For the online Free Press story go to http://www.mankatofreepress.com/local/local_story_208003537.html
For more Free Press news go to http://www.mankatofreepress.com/
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