fish filleting question - mackeral and wahoo

[Jeremy]

I am getting a bit annoyed at the wastage I am getting from mackeral and wahoo.

What I do is I run the fillets off both sides, then turn them over and skin them and remove the pin bones and cut the fillets into serving size pieces to eat or freeze for later. What is happening is the fillets are seperating around the top edges and bottow edges - basically the flesh is a bit soft and falls apart, especially as I am skinning them, spoiling the nice fillets, which leads to wastage. The pieces which fall apart go to the dogs or get used for burley.

I bleed and ice the fish (I don't make an ice slurry) and my knives are sharp (could always be a bit sharper).

Anything I can do to stop them falling apart?

[tunaticer]

I do not usually skin mackeral, just fillet and trim to portion pieces suitable for cooking.

[cobiaman]

Dont skin them???

[Muddy Toes]

Skin them before filleting.
Run a shallow cut along the top of the fish, around to the bottom and back up before the pectoral fin so the whole fillet has been run around with the knife.
Pull the skin back from the head end first and it takes the rib cage out and leaves the guts still attached to the back bone giving a nice clean fillet to just fillet like normal.
I'm not big on trolling so I don't catch many of the fish in question but each time I've done it like this it's worked.
Seen it done heaps too with success.

[Crunchy]

Skin them before filleting.
Run a shallow cut along the top of the fish, around to the bottom and back up before the pectoral fin so the whole fillet has been run around with the knife.
Pull the skin back from the head end first and it takes the rib cage out and leaves the guts still attached to the back bone giving a nice clean fillet to just fillet like normal.
I'm not big on trolling so I don't catch many of the fish in question but each time I've done it like this it's worked.
Seen it done heaps too with success.

Are you peeling the skin off or still slicing it off like normal with this approach?

[Muddy Toes]

Are you peeling the skin off or still slicing it off like normal with this approach?

Just give it a tiny slice between the skin and the flesh up on the top/head end corner of the fillet, grab a tea towel to help you grip the skin and pull.

Easy as that.And trust me.....if I can do it.....it must be easy.



Thanks Bruce

[Midnight]

One good way to get a higher yield, is to only fillet the fish from the tail to the dorsal fin, and steak the fish from there forward. Wahoo and Mack steaks on the BBQ are awesome.

Cheers,
Myles

[Moonlighter]

And make a saltwater ice slurry to put them in as soon as they have been bled.

The slurry makes them cold much quicker and keeps them much colder than just ice. Firms the flesh up and will help with the issues you have mentioned.

We brain-spike, bleed and ice slurry ALL of our fish these days. Makes them so much better to eat.

And by the way, here's nothing wrong with leaving the skin on mackerel. We sometimes run the back of the scaler over them just to remove the slime, and then just fillet and leave the skin on. It crisps up really nice on the BBQ plate, and lots of people actually like that, I'm one of them!

Cheers

ML

[Midnight]

Further to what Moonlighter said, I always used to rub the skin of the Wahoo and Mack's with a scotchbrite pad to get the black slime off them.

Cheers

[Jeremy]

Thanks for the replies and ideas. I'll give it a go next time.

[johncar]

Yes I too am a leave the skin on. I don't recall any waste, just the bones head and guts which are very minimal on a mack.
The skin comes away very easily during the cooking so for those who like it eat it and otherwise leave it on the plate (The chooks like it)

[Moffy]

Another option - particularly if you don't like the skin - is to skin it perpendicular to the blood/lateral line. i.e After filleting lay the fillet down as normal (skin side down) ready to skin and then instead of sliding along the fillet to skin it (which is pretty bl00dy hard to do with a mack and not cut the skin at some point anyway) - cut vertically down as if you were cutting the bloodline/pin bones out - turn the knife as you get to the skin and slice out to the top/bottom side of the fillet (depending which side of the blood line you are on). and then work your way up the fillet - cutting the skinned section off into eating size bits as you go.

You end up with the blood line left on the skin and the whole fillet sliced up into eating size bits AND all the skin left behind - try it - amazing how much easier it is to skin the macks this way (works for cobia too).

Moffy

[Vitamin Sea]

One good way to get a higher yield, is to only fillet the fish from the tail to the dorsal fin, and steak the fish from there forward. Wahoo and Mack steaks on the BBQ are awesome.

Cheers,
Myles

That's what I do as well Myles, get the best of both worlds with fillets for doing whatever with an nice steaks for the BBQ.

Cheers

VS

[thelump]

Another option - particularly if you don't like the skin - is to skin it perpendicular to the blood/lateral line. i.e After filleting lay the fillet down as normal (skin side down) ready to skin and then instead of sliding along the fillet to skin it (which is pretty bl00dy hard to do with a mack and not cut the skin at some point anyway) - cut vertically down as if you were cutting the bloodline/pin bones out - turn the knife as you get to the skin and slice out to the top/bottom side of the fillet (depending which side of the blood line you are on). and then work your way up the fillet - cutting the skinned section off into eating size bits as you go.

You end up with the blood line left on the skin and the whole fillet sliced up into eating size bits AND all the skin left behind - try it - amazing how much easier it is to skin the macks this way (works for cobia too).

Moffy

Thats what I do Moffy and reckon it works well even if you freeze with the skin on in portions it is easy to skin especially when just not quite thawed.

[thelump]

Confuscious Say Skin them before filleting.
Run a shallow cut along the top of the fish, around to the bottom and back up before the pectoral fin so the whole fillet has been run around with the knife.
Pull the skin back from the head end first and it takes the rib cage out and leaves the guts still attached to the back bone giving a nice clean fillet to just fillet like normal.
I'm not big on trolling so I don't catch many of the fish in question but each time I've done it like this it's worked.
Seen it done heaps too with success.

Never tried that one with a mack Muddy. Did it with dollies and is works well. Will have to give it a crack.