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Full Version: Cleaning Fish For Frying & Sashimi!
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Cleaning Fish For Frying & Sashimi!

Today i got a call from my buddy Dustin Jed. He had to much fish & wanted to know if i wanted some? First time in years that someone offered me fish. Been giving my fish away to friends & family plus the homeless for years. So i went over & Dustin gave me 2 Trevally, 3 Mackerel Scads & slabs of Tuna. Wahoo! Time to fry fish & dine on sashimi logs.

I'm not a cooking kitchen type kinda guy but thought i'd show how i clean my catch. Been awhile since i give most of my kept fish away for years. I tend to leave the skin on the smaller fish so i scale them because i like fried crispy skin, like my chicken. Also helps to keep the fish fresher.

Note that i mostly use my kitchen shears to clean fish over my fillet knife. And i scale my fish with a scaler that catches the scales (also i scale fish outside the house). I only use my fillet knife for larger sized fish. And i use thick freezer bags to store my fish in. If the fish has long sharp spines then you should cut the spines off during cleaning.

Today i was forced to clean fish at home. I really try not to let fresh water touch a exposed fish fillet, rather salt water from the ocean is better. If you just want to fillet the fish then don't bother scaling it. For smaller species using a good kitchen shears over a fillet knife leads to less painful accidents. If a knife is needed please be sure it's sharp.

And lastly instead of buying ice i use used frozen water bottles. I re-fill the bottle slightly less then the original level was which allows the expanding ice more room to solidify without busting the bottle. Cheap alternative to buying ice. I then add salt water when i have fish to create a brine that is much colder then the ice itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJGcv8dLu0c
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Interesting video Chris, thanks for sharing it with us. One question, why do you like to use salt water instead of freshwater for fish fillets?
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Fresh water "softens" the exposed meat. Natural salt water doesn't. Professional fish cutters here only use paper towels to wipe off the fillets.
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Can't say I've ever noticed that with Freshwater fish, do you think that's because you are catching Saltwater fish? I have put salt in the water of some of the fish I soak but that's mainly because of the stronger taste of the fish but that isn't Natural salt water.
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