Fastest Way To Clean Fish?

[RedneckWoman]

Does anyone have a really fast method of cleaning fish? I can pretty well manage just about any animal in a short amount of time but a friend dropped off what had to have been 70 or 80#s of fish the other night and I was cleaning fish from about 9pm that night until the wee hours of the morning. I kept thinking I had to have been doing something wrong for it to take so long. Anyone have a fast, easy way of doing it or is it supposed to take forever? (I haven't cleaned many fish in my day so could that be part of the problem?)

[woodsrunner]

If this is going to be a regular occurance. I'd recomend a trip to the local sporting goods store for a electric fillet knife.

I'm pretty much anti modern devices, but, my buddy has one of these and it really speeds things up. That's assuming you fillet your fish. That's all I do, I won't eat the skin off freshwater fish.

[moopups]

What type, size of fish? I have seen a descaleing tumbler at a fish camp, hand cranked. There is also a board with a large clip available, where you place the fishs tail in the clamp to descale. About 1 minute per fish is common speed if you do it often.

[RedneckWoman]

It will probably be a regular occurance with dh and myself fishing plus the friend dropping all of his off here (he loves to fish he just doesn't eat them). I will have to check out one of those knives.

Mitch, they are mostly drums, catfish, and trout (at least those are the ones I am able to identify ) mostly weighing 5-15#s I think. They came out of the creek that runs by my house so no huge munsters. 1 minute per fish? Holy shamollies I was taking an hour :haha: .

[Rick]

Originally Posted by RedneckWoman

It will probably be a regular occurance with dh and myself fishing plus the friend dropping all of his off here............... 1 minute per fish? Holy shamollies I was taking an hour :haha: .

It seems like my BIL cuts the fish in half (mouth to fin- after gutting and de-heading). Then he flips it scales down, and slices the meet free.

I've only seen him do it once, but we're planning to visit, and go out in his newly acquired boat, so I'll watch more closely.

[mistletoad]

We just cut away a filet from each side and then skin the filets. I don't think I can manage a fish a minute, but 5 minutes would seem about right.

[james dilley]

Not omly is this faster but its HEALTHER too. Skin the fish after gutting then finish as fillet. quick fast ,and better for you to. as it gets rid of the fat that can contain harmful chemicals

[Cygnet]

It doesn't do much for their appearance, but you can sure speed up the descaling process by blanching the fish in hot (about 160 degree) water until the scales come off easier. You may lose some skin doing this too, but it's so much easier that it's how I do almost all the trout and bass I catch.

Mmm ... fresh fish.

Leva

[Jolly]

Catfish you have to skin, and then filet, or steak out. Don't forget to save the livers, as they are as good as chicken livers when fried. If they are real big cats, you can even make catfish head stew, like the commercial fishermen.

Other freshwater fish such as bass, chinquapin, or sac-a-lait, we filet, scales on - shouldn't take more than about 30 seconds or so. We used to use a ringer type washing machine, and knock most of the scales off thataway, but it was too much sugar for a dime.

I'm not much on gaspergou, which is probably the same thing as a freshwater drum...meat's a bit tough, especially if fried. They do make a nice red gravy, though.

[comfortablynumb]

any fish ive ever cooked when caught, i gut, put them on a stick and campfire the skin til it peels or sluffs off.

then into a skillet goes the skinnless fishy (no head or tail)

now for buckets and bucket of fish.... your on your own.
lol

[mohillbilly]

I have found the fastest way to clean fish is to put them in the washing machine on delicate setting with some tide, works pretty good! LOL, just had to say that!

[comfortablynumb]

do ya cook em in the dryer?

[ajaxlucy]

My Japanese grandmother said the best present we ever sent her from America was a potato peeler. She used it to scale fish, and thought it worked great. That woman prepared a lot of fish in her life. I've seen her working calmly and unhurried -- took her maybe two minutes to clean a fish, unless it was really big.

[OD]

Here is a site that explains how to fillet a fish. This is how my Dh does it, & he can do 2 or 3 a minute. There is almost no waste & no bones in the meat. It doesn't stink the house up when you cook it either.
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/wildlife/...filletfish.htm

[fearlessemily]

This may be a really dumb question -- you can probably tell I don't have to clean fish much -- but if one is going to skin the fish anyway, what's the purpose of scaling skin that you are just going to cut off? Couldn't one just gut it and skin it and skip the scaling?

Emily

[Cornhusker]

With trout and salmon, you don't need to skin the fish as the scales will mostly just rinse away.
Lay the fish on it side, and cut behind the pectoral fin to the backbone. turn the knife toward the tail and flatten it out on the backbone.
Run your knife to the tail, and youi have a fillet
remove any ribs that may have come with the fillet.
Trout and salmon have pinbones right in the meaty part of the flank, and can be removed by cutting a v-groove alont the flank.

[baysidebunny]

We've spear fished and after we were done, we just threw them right on the grill. I'm thinking of the salt water fish though which do not need to be seasoned. They are delicious just the way they are!

[Cyngbaeld]

Used to gut salmon and remove the head. Then wrap in tin foil and bake. The skin peels right off with the foil.

If I catch a whole bunch of fish I'll fillet them. No need to scale them just fillet the sides off the back bone and then fillet the meat off the skin. If its catfish then I will skin them with a pair of pliers and then fillet the meat off the bones.

If I only catch a few scaley fish then I might just scale them, gut em, and then freeze the whole fish. These I use for grilling. Get you a grilling fish basket, one that is shaped like a fish with a wooden handle on the end. Take scaled fish and punch several holes through the skin with a fork. Season on both sides with lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Wrap fish in foil and place in basket. Place on heated outdoor grill for several minutes on each side. Or build a big wooden fire and let burn down to coals. Place basket on ground and cover with hot coals. After several minutes turn over and cover with coals again. Use one basket and place sliced up potatoes and onions in foil and season with salt and pepper and grill it also.

[ozarksnick]

Boy am I getting hungry for fish.

Usually I just filet the meat off the sides then filet the skin off the meat. Simple and easy and no mess to deal with.

Now that we have a place to grill, I'll probably gut and cut the heads off some of the smaller panfish to grill like r.h. said.