MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.02

     Title: Smoking Salmon And Trout Part II - Filleting and Boning
Categories: Fish, Smoke, Info
     Yield: 1 text file

 A very sharp knife [and a whet stone and a sharpening steel nearby] is
 essential.

 ~1- Skin on Fillets: Begin at the vent [anus] making a cut on either
 side of the anal fin just deep enough to reach the backbone. make
 these cuts all the way back to the tail.

 Start the next cut where the head has been removed on top of the
 backbone. Cut through the fish, from back to belly, lengthways right
 down to the tail. You will run into the belly bones which get tougher
 as the fish gets bigger. Here is where the *sharp* knife comes in; it
 must be able to cut through the belly bones easily. As you continue
 the cut from head to tail work the knife along the backbone with the
 cutting edge slightly slanted towards the bone.

 Remove the first fillet, turn the fish over and cut the second fillet.
 There should be very little meat left on the backbone.

 Now the belly bones can be removed without loosing any meat. this
 leaves you a boneless fillet except for the line of long, thin bones
 just above where the backbone used to be. You can feel their sharp
 ends with your fingertip.

 These last bones can be lifted out in a strip by making a cut on
 either side of the row _just_ to the skin. This final deboning will
 somewhat spoil the fillet in appearance and utility when making
 smoked products that are thinly sliced. A more finicky method is to
 remove these bones one at a time with small needle nose pliers. If
 the bones don't pull out of the flesh readily, you can do it after
 smoking.

 ~2- Easy Skinless Fillets: [This section by JW not the author.] Most
 smoke recipes call for skin on fillets but for sauteing, frying,
 poaching and grilling fresh fish the easiest way to get a skinless
 fillet with just a little waste is as follows:

 Start with whole fish, uncleaned and head on. Make the first cut just
 below the gills done to the backbone at a slight angle. Turn the
 knife and cut along the backbone to the tail at a slight angle so as
 to "float" over the belly bones. Stop just short of the tail and peel
 back the skin-on fillet without tearing it away from where it is
 attached to the fish at the tail. Lay the fillet on the table skin
 side down and start a cut at the tail. Cut down to but not through
 the skin and turn the blade sideways. Cut the fillet away from the
 skin and continue back up the fillet to the other end.

 Turn over the fish and repeat. Be careful throughout not to puncture
 the intestines, bladder or stomach. You should now have two skinless
 fillets with the guts still attached to the carcass. This way you do
 not have to scale or clean and you loose only a small amount of meat
 and belly skin. This works best on larger fish say 4 lb and up. -JW

 ~3- Defatting Fat Fish: Salmon and trout are fat fish and you *may*
 want to defat them for various reasons- to adhere to a low fat diet
 or remove contaminants that may be concentrated in the fat tissues of
 fish from certain waters. To do this, when you fillet, leave plenty
 of meat on the backbone where the meat is especially fat. Cut off the
 belly portion. Skin the fillet leaving about 1/8" meat on the skin.
 Make cuts on either side of the lateral line, lift it out and discard
 it.

 ~4- Boning Small Trout:

 French Presentation I - Through the back with the belly uncut. Start
 by snipping the fins off with scissors. With a small knife cut the
 gills loose at the throat. With your fingers pull the gills loose
 along with most of the intestines. Make a cut along one side of the
 backbone, working the meat loose from the bone and all the way to the
 belly without cutting the belly skin. Repeat on the other side. with
 scissors snip the backbone as close to the tail as possible and then
 again at the head. Now you can finish cleaning the belly cavity with
 your fingers and the fish with head and tail on is ready for smoking
 or cooking.

 French Presentation II- Boning through the belly. After cleaning,
 start by making a cut from the vent, along each side of the backbone
 to the tail. Then work the meat loose from the rib cage and along the
 backbone to but not through the skin of the back. Then snip off the
 backbone close to the tail. Pull the bone free up to the head and
 snip off. Scissor off the fins. Ready for smoking or cooking.

 Extracted from: Smoking Salmon & Trout by Jack Whelan. Published by:
 Airie Publishing, Deep Bay, B.C. ISBN: 0-919807-00-3 Posted by: Jim
 Weller

MMMMM