# The definitive guide to cleaning fish



## GullsGoneWild (Dec 16, 2014)

So I was on another forum (shh don't tell on me) and I found this interesting posting about cleaning fish. Its a long read but well worth it. Did you know that is bad to rinse off the fillet with fresh water? I didn't. It was a real eye opening post and thought so of you may want to read. Let us know if its worth the hassle. Please note this is not my work. Here's the link and a text copy below:

https://2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthread.php?t=86667

As promised from the head/tail king thread here's the fish care/cleaning/storage thread. This will be lengthy so I'll break it into a couple or three posts. Probably the first things to consider are your personal tastes and styles. To be honest, the number of fish we have on the table goes a long way in determining whether I use traditional Texas slash and bag, do the full Japanese treatment or something in between. It just takes a lot longer Asian style.

So you have some idea where all this blather is coming from, I acquired this information (it's wonderful party trivia!) from a combination of being an obsessive/compulsive fisherman like you guys for over 40 years, chasing advanced degrees in marine oriented science to a dissertation short of a Ph.D and about three years of informal apprenticeship under a master sushi chef. We traded, I taught him fishing and he tried to teach me the sushi biz.

For a sushi chef, thinking about dinner starts before the fish is hooked. Prepare your coffin with the smallest cubes available or even better, blown snow style ice. If you have larger cubes then it is best to make a saltwater slush by adding enough seawater (do this offshore, not in the harbor) so that it is easy to slide your fish in and submerge them as they are caught. I have read where some guys add rock salt to the mix to super cool it like we did on kegs in college, but when I tried that I ended up with frozen fish. The extra high salinity cools the water below the freezing point of the fish and that isn't what you want. The next consideration is using tackle that will bring the fish in as quickly as possible. Fish biochemistry differs from humans considerably, but they undergo anaerobic respiration in their muscles when in "fight or flight" mode just like we do. That means that the longer they are on the string, the more lactic acid buildup you get with a proportional loss in food quality. It's like the poorly shot deer that has strong tough venison, well similar anyway.


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## GullsGoneWild (Dec 16, 2014)

OK, so we got the AJ at the boat. It's decision time. Do you really want to sink that gaff into the loin where it will hold, or into the belly where you won't lose loin but it might rip out? The sushi chef doesn't like either alternative. On an AJ (and most other fish) the loin above the backbone is the meat and potatoes part of the fish but the belly is like caviar and escargot all rolled into one, especially in tuna (you see it as toro at the sushi bar, the most expensive cut of tuna). So, you take your time and stick him under the throat latch (a bad idea on sharks, they tend to want to swim right up into the boat when you do that, jaws snapping). Open the coffin and swing the fish into the box in one motion. No posing for photos yet. The fish won't like the ice one bit as you know, but the slush will give and not provide him anything to bang against, which reduces bruising tremendously. It has the same benefit on the ride home if you're pounding into a chop. The slush also makes contact with the fish over 100% of its body and thus chills him a whole lot faster than cubes with air spaces between. As soon as you think the fish has chilled enough to be calm, but not dead, take him out and bleed him by cutting that throat latch right where it widens into the body. The fishes' heart lies right behind that cut and the biggest artery in the fish runs between the heart and gills so this will empty him fast if his heart is still beating. You'll conserve ice if you can bleed him out of the ice chest (I have a bait well by the box that drains out of the boat and it works great for this), but if you bleed him into the box it isn't critical. All fish benefit from this by the way, not just tuna, mackerel and sharks. It's more important on scombrids and sharks for various reasons. It's needed on tuna and billfish because they maintain their body temperature higher than their surroundings so bleeding removes heat fast, on mackerel because they are very bloody and will taste strong if you don't bleed them and on sharks because they carry urea in their blood to help balance that osmosis problem and it breaks down into really nasty ammonia-like compounds right after death. After you are satisfied that he is bled out gut him, but don't cut through the throat to the gills on bottom fish. That part is too valuable on snapper, grouper AJ's etc (more on that later). It's not such a big deal on pelagics.

Once you have all this done slide the fish back into the slush so that the body is in a vertical swimming position with its head down like it is swimming for the bottom of the coffin. This allows any other loose body fluids to run out of the fish at your cuts instead of pooling in the meat and it helps to further reduce bruising on the way home. If you were really lucky and the fish was a beast that won't fit in the box, cut off the tail before the head. The tail meat is the least desirable on the fish. You'll notice that when you go on charters out of the country and ask for some fish to take to a restaurant or whatever, the mate will almost always give you the meat from behind the dorsal fin to the tail unless you specify otherwise. Those guys know what they're doing and they're gonna keep the best for themselves or to sell at a higher price. If you still have to remove the head (lucky you) then make double sure that you have either made a salt water slush or if you had crushed ice that the coffin is drain open for the rest of the trip. The meat above the backbone up by the head is the best block of meat on the fish (there are arguments on this between belly and loin men). It's not anatomically the same as the tenderloins on a deer but qualitatively they are analogous so you don't want it screwed up from freshwater ice melt. Freshwater contact can mess up your fish faster than anything else if you're not careful. Fish skin acts as a natural barrier to the evils of osmosis so as long as it is there you're OK. Expose the meat to that freshwater unprotected and within seconds freshwater runs into the cells and explodes them like overfilled water balloons. There goes your tasty fish, and how much did it cost per pound? OH MY! If you make a slush that has a similar salinity level to fish fluids, then the the power to the osmosis engine is cut off and your fish is safe. If a little melt dribbles over the fish on the way to the bottom and out the drain it's way better than having your fine cuisine soaking in it for hours. So that's what you would do with fish number one. Now repeat that process several more times until the box is full and head for the house.


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## GullsGoneWild (Dec 16, 2014)

I'm glad you guys found the information interesting and I'll see if I can't make this one more reader friendly for speckle-catcher. Oh yeah, wishin4fishin, you're right. That's a bad idea and I'll cover it in the next installment.

It has been a long hot day of fishing and you're finally back at the dock with a box of fish. Now you can drain all the saltwater out of the box so you won't get a hernia lifting it out. We'll assume a perfect world here and you are able to get your fish to the table easily and there isn't anybody else anywhere around. As you approach the table a half dozen sleepy seagulls that have been roosting on the table take wing, each of them depositing a nice oyster sized glob of processed gull food right where you'll be cleaning you catch. _There are gulls even in a perfect world_. There are tap water hoses for you to rinse you catch and several lengths of 2X8 lumber to use as cutting boards.

Obviously, if you are thinking about eating your fish raw there are some things here that are unacceptable. The provided cutting boards have been in use for who knows how long and cleaned up with a minimum of care, if at all, for as long as they have been in use. The gulls have probably never left a deposit on them either, right? The point is, the cleaning table should only be used for the preliminary cleaning that you really don't want to do at home.

Step one is to decide how the fish will end up. Most of the time we don't even consider options other than fillets, but in the world of haute cuisine this is the least desirable form. Fish cleaned with skin and bone intact hold better, freeze better, give you more options later and if you cook them, they yield a much moister tastier product than boneless skinless fillets. Optimally all you do at the cleaning table is gut the fish if you didn't do it at sea, scale and rinse them. Even here you can make a difference though. Just take the fish out of the box and work on them one at a time and then put them back in the ice. You went to the trouble and expense of all that ice to keep your fish cold so don't waste it by piling the fish on the table to get hot while you work. You'll get some funny looks for scaling your fish, but it's a little like having numbers to a spot that nobody else has. Just smile and keep working. That's all you want to do here. Everything else occurs in a way more sanitary environment, like your kitchen.

The good news is that your fish are now in a kind of suspended animation in terms of quality and as long as you keep them vertically on drained ice, they will actually improve for three days. So, you can get all the rest of the chores done and rest up some before you become a bona fide fish butcher. I probably ought to explain that 'improve for three days' thing. The old saw, "Fish are best right out of the water", is a myth. Fish is protein just like lamb, beef, pork or venison and all those proteins benefit from aging as we all know. So why not fish? The molecular structure of fish protein is slightly different from mammals, but it still improves with proper handling. The fish need to be kept on ice, not in the refrigerator, and held in that same vertical position to allow draining. Tip the ice chest so that it drains most efficiently and add ice to keep the fish covered as necessary. Like this, fish improve to the end of the third day after capture and then hold there for 24 hours before beginning to decline in quality. If I haven't eaten the fish by the fifth day, they get frozen. This is an average for all fish. The process is slightly faster for dolphin and slower for snapper. Tuna are the benchmark for this system. Tuna sashimi right on the boat is good if you eat it still "dancing" with life, but if you wait until the fish is stiff before slicing, it will be the toughest sashimi you ever eat.

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## GullsGoneWild (Dec 16, 2014)

OK, that takes care of the cleaning table. Essentially, just use it for rough cleaning and then get out of Dodge. I'll tackle the kitchen angle next time.

The fish come out of the ice one at a time and get rinsed in tap water for the last time. Now they are thoroughly dried with paper towels. You'll be amazed at the difference in cutting up dry fish vs wet. Done right, you will not even feel the slightest urge to wash the meat. It will be cleaner than any you've done before. If you don't get the fish dry and you get a little goop on your fish, mix up some salt water (about a tablespoon per quart) with plain salt and bottled (not tap) water and you can wash them without the burst cells problem. Anyway, the first item is to remove the head, but sushi chefs take off a lot less than we normally do. The cut runs from the top of the head down in front of the rear gill collar down to the throat latch that you already cut when you bled the fish on the boat. Now is the time to remove those cheek scallops from the head that are so popular and then discard the rest of the head. Next it is time to remove the belly pieces and throat. After you have done this a few times this step is pretty simple with just a knife, but the first few times through you'll be happier if you have some heavy duty kitchen/game shears or tin snips for snapping the gill collar at the backbone. Start cutting the belly back by the vent and work forward along the bottom of the backbone, through the ribs until you run into the juncture of the backbone and gill collar. This is easy with a serrated knife. There really is a little seam there that allows you to complete the cut with your knife, but like I said it usually takes a few practice runs before you are comfortable with it. So, get out your shears and snap it off next to the backbone. Now repeat this on the opposite side. You'll end up with a giant butterfly looking piece of meat and just how giant the butterfly is determines your next move. Just keeper snapper, small grouper, redfish and the like can keep this whole. All you do is make a cut on the inside of the throat on the midline so that the butterfly wings lay flat. This meat will have bones, most of them large and easy to get around but you'll have to warn the family members used to fillets. The reward is outstanding fish and that is not overstating the claim. These areas of the fish do the least work but store the most fat. Just like a well marbled prime rib this is really good stuff grilled, fried or broiled (on bottomfish, mahi and wahoo. For most AJ's split the collar into 2 halves, they're too big to handle as one piece. This section is the Gulf equivalent to a Japanese classic done with their 8 to 12 pound yellowtail (same genus, different species from AJ's) called the hamachi kama. Hamachi is yellowtail and the kama is the collar section with a little of the front part of the belly attached. Just don't toss the kama word around too loosely without a fish name in front of it. By itself, kama is Japanese slang for gay, so in the wrong crowd you might make a sumo wrestler pretty unhappy with you! The rear part of the belly on yellowtail, or AJ's is reserved for high quality sashimi.

OK, now we've got the carcass trimmed down to the basics and the rest is pretty much what you have always done. The sushi chef has a ritual of slicing the length of the fish just under the skin along the dorsal fin on one side then along the anal fin and then along the anal fin on the other side and finally the opposite side of the dorsal. There's a name for that technique, but it has flown out of my brain for the moment. They then retrace their steps completing the cuts down to the backbone and finally removing the fillets where they attach to the backbone by pretty much just lifting them off. On small fish like flounder and just keeper trout the backbone is broken in half and then marinated in a combination of soy and sake and then deep fried for an appetizer. Sounds weird but I have had guests turn down entrees for more "fried bones!" Larger fish have the remaining flesh removed with a teaspoon and this is mixed with minced scallion and some nanami togarashi (Japanese 5 spice) or other ingredients and used as a filler for makizushi (rolled sushi). There's not much left for the garbage guys to haul off.


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## GullsGoneWild (Dec 16, 2014)

Tuna are more involved due to their roundness, but it's not that big of a deal. Make an additional cut the length of the fish down its lateral line so you end up with 4 loins instead of 2 fillets. Remove the blood line (your cat will love you) and you are good to go. If you plan to work on sushi and sashimi for several days on a large fish, only cut off the carcass what you need for that session. Cover your fish in parchment paper and then plastic wrap and return it to the ice and you're good to go the next day.

As for freezer storage, you can't beat vacuum sealers. I use a Foodsaver Pro that I've had for over 15 years and the darn thing is still going strong, hope I didn't just jinx it! I have grilled year old blackfin stored that way next to month old blackfin and been unable to tell the difference, they're that good.

I think I hit just about all the basics, but if you guys find any holes or have questions I'll see if I can't get to em in a few days. But I'm not going to be in a hurry with 42020 forcasting Instigator level seas for the weekend. See you guys out there


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## jay.bush1434 (Dec 27, 2014)

I saved that article years ago. Changed how I handled and cleaned all my fish that I decide to keep. If I am going to keep fish to eat, I remove the gills and guts right away. This allows the fish to bleed out, removing the guts reduces bacterial contamination chances significantly. Fish go in a bag, on ice. When I clean the fish, I don't rinse the fish with tap or hose water. I rinse the cleaning board and the knives frequently but the fish gets rinsed in saltwater. I live on the water so it is easy for me to give it a quick swish in the water. Alternatively, if the water is dirty, I will make up a brine solution in the kitchen sink and rinse them in that. It balances the pH of the meat and really helps them to stay fresh tasting. If the fish isn't going to be cooked in a couple days, it gets vacu-sealed.


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

It was an interesting read. The things I got out of it was the importance of using slush saltwater ice vs freshwater ice slush.

I've learned from a kid to spike and even bleed them the same way, then break their neck at the throat where you make the cut to bleed them, thereby severing their spinal cord. But pithing them is just going a little too far for me. Never heard of it until recently, watched a video on and it and said to myself..."no thanks!" With smaller fish (trout, snapper, sheephead and such), they just get tossed into the ice slush. If I know I will be eating them for ceviche or sashimi, then I will bleed them out first before putting them in ice.

Later on, as far as bleeding them out is concern, I found that just making a cut down by their tail, like you were going to start a fillet down from the tail, or a smaller slice up by that same area under the gill as he describes, then either drop them in an aerated release well, or if a pelagic with a fork tail, do a quick slip knot in a cord and slip it over their tail and toss them over the side where their head and gills are in the water but they are hanging from the gunnel, still alive and kicking and allowing their heart to pump out the blood. That seems to remove all the blood quicker and faster Then toss them in ice. Definitely makes for better meat.

I do fillet them out, but I've learned several things. Before I start anything, I thoroughly wash the cleaning station before I start. I learn decades ago to only take out one fish at a time. THEN, completely wash the slime off the fish before I even touch a knife to it. Once the outside slime touches the meat, then it seriously degrades the taste of the meat. I also rinse the outside skin, rinse off the blood between steps and really wash off the cutting board between every step. That way the meat stays clean and free of any slime. Also, the fillets never is laid on the spots where the outside skin and therefore the slime has touched the board, unless thoroughly rinsed off. Fillets goes right in a ziplock bag, air sucked out, zipped up and put right on ice.

Back home, fillets are checked for bones, trimmed (Podo the cat gets the trimmings and blood meat) do a final rinse in cold water and placed in a clean ziplock bag, bag placed in a seal-able container and immediately placed in the freezer for a quick chill for 15-30mins, but not frozen. Then it's switched to the refrig for that night's dinner or to be eaten within the next several days The sealed container regulates the temps, so I'm not so worried about temperature fluctuations. I'm mostly cooking my fish instead of eating it raw anyway, tho I do on occasion and will take tips from this post in the future for more refining of my sashimi prep skills.

IF I decide to freeze some, I make that decision at the final rinse and check process. Those fillets are placed in a ziplock freezer bag and filled with cold water from my refrige filter. All the air is removed and ziplock sealed. I then place it in a bowl and put it in the freezer. Once frozen, I can remove the bowl for easier freezer storage. Freezing this way keeps fish fresh tasting longer. I learned this when I was a kid in a family/community of fishermen.

When smoking mullet or kingfish, I always smoke the backbone and it's what I nibble-on 1st!  Also love leaving the skin on big snapper. So each scaled/skin-on fillets are divided in-half at the lateral line where the pin bones and bloodline meat is removed.

Another take away from the original article was the use of a spoon to remove all the meat around the backbone area and other areas of a larger fish where it's hard to remove with a good fillet knife. I can think of all kinds of uses for that meat, if not for anything else, for ceviche. 

Lastly, some years ago, I realized how important the meat in the fish head and carcass are to people in other countries, especially the islands. After learning how to process it and using that meat in a fish stew and the remnant meat and bones to make the fish stock for the stew, it opened my eyes up to more full uses of what I've always tossed away.

Thans for sharing that a post, Gullsgonewild! 

Ted Haas


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