Cleaning fish and shellfish

Electric Knife Filleting

Here's a little video I found on youtube that is basically how I learned to fillet fish with an electric knife.  This guy does a decent job of the walleye but messes up the pike a bit.  This method works especially well with panfish like perch, bluegill and crappie.  I've since become adapt at filleting with a fillet knife, but when it comes to a big pile of perch it's nice to have the electric knife on hand.

I'm sure if I look long enough I could find a better video.

[youtube=425,350]H3NxJnUKUts[/youtube]


If anyone has a favorite fish, crab, clam, etc.. cleaning technique please share.

Brian

Pretty cool. Although I could never give into an electric sissy tool like that. Me man, big muscle sharp knife! JK

When I fillet I normally don't gut the fish first. I make the same first cut as he did, connect that w/ a cut along the spine about 1" deep to the tail, and then carve the fillet off the rib bones. I've gotten pretty good and feel that I can get almost all the meat.

kinda like this:


Z

I have a friend from Alaska who showed me how to clean dungeness crabs prior to cooking.  The nice thing about this method is that it gets rid of the main carapace and all the unwanted bits before cooking.  You can also stuff a steam pot with a ton more crabs then if you were doing them whole.   I checked youtube and wouldn't you know, they have a video of someone doing it.

[youtube=425,350]GWGzHNe2tZw[/youtube]

But what about the crab butter.... gutz is gooood.. 

Z

I think it was last summer in "salmon trout Steelheader" they showed how this guy developed a neat method for filletting big salmon----he makes a cut down the lateral line to the spine all the way from gills to tail, then 4 or 5 vertical cuts, then fillets off each section.  totally works, and great 1-person size fillets.  Much less waste than the whole-side off method. 

I think it was last summer in "salmon trout Steelheader" they showed how this guy developed a neat method for filletting big salmon----he makes a cut down the lateral line to the spine all the way from gills to tail, then 4 or 5 vertical cuts, then fillets off each section.  totally works, and great 1-person size fillets.  Much less waste than the whole-side off method. 

A fishing buddy taught me how to do this a couple of years ago.  It's by far the best method I've found.  One change I've incorporated is to forego the vertical cuts on smaller fish and strip the skin in one long stroke.  Then I can steak them after the skin is removed.

Don't know if this is the right forum for the topic, moderator please feel free to move it to recipes, or wherever.  Caught a nice hen chinook this AM at the usual spot with the usual gear, and thought I'd share the easy fillet method I've been using since finding it in the Salmon/Steelheader Journal.  This fish weighed 10# 7 oz with head, guts, and sneer intact.

   First cut after field-dressing is right down the lateral line to the backbone:

Now  make some vertical cuts all the way down top to bottom, number of cuts depends on the size of the fish, and the size of the fillets you want to grill--in this case, 3 cuts for 4 fillets top, 4 bottom.



Then slide your knife down to the backbone and slice along the ribs to the outside. This nice old knife was a wedding gift to my grandparents in 1915 or so, it's flexible German steel and still going strong!



Here's the top after 4 fillets removed:



and after both top and bottom done--I got careless and mangled one rib section--


  Flip it over and do the same thing on the other side, and you're done.  There is minimal waste with this method,and the fillets are really a nice size and shape:



There's a nice skeleton for crab bait, and a little bit of trimmings.




It all gets vacuum packed --- some to freeze, eat some fresh, and smoke the rest!


  After beheading and gutting, and filleting, I got 6 pounds-one ounce of fillets, for a 57% yield. Kind of sobering! So  if you smoked an entire fish, you'd get about 1/4 of the wet weight of the fish as smoked pieces.  Guess that's why smoked salmon is so pricey in the stores~! 

Nice technique, now i just have to actually catch a salmon so i can try it..

Don't know if this is the right forum for the topic, moderator please feel free to move it to recipes, or wherever. 

Great tutorial.  As far as moving it, I'm going to merge it to the fish cleaning thread.

Thanks for the how-to, I'm definitely going to try that on my next catch, especially for the smoker.

Great tutorial K! I will definitely try that with the next salmon I catch. Although no luck tonight, just some king size sole...

Z

Nice job on that, now take a  spoon and scrape the bones of what ever meat is left and make salmon croquets for you soup. (croquets are little dumplings made of fish, cream and egg whites) They are very yummy little morsels, good in a nice fish soup like bisque.