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Scaling Fish


snowangel

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Paul went ice fishing today. It was a beautiful day, and I had I not had three kids at home, I would have gone, too.

Anyway, he's bringing home a bounty. 50 sunfish and a couple of northers. The sunnies are big enough to fillet.

Normally, when we catch fish like ths, it's at the Cabin in the summer. Scale them on the dock, dump a few buckets of water on the dock, and that's it.

It's winter -- serious winter here -- so we'll be scaling the fish inside. How best to do it so there aren't scales flying everywhere and I'm not discovering them years from how?

I am tempted to just scale a few of these and deep fry them ala the Chinese or THai way, BTW.

Edited by snowangel (log)
Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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Get a big garbage bag. Set it in the sink. Open it and stick a fish inside. Hold fish with one hand and scale with the other, inside the bag. Repeat with remaining fish. When done, throw garbage bag away.

You don't really need to watch the scaling process to do a good job with it, especially if you're an experienced scaler--which it sounds like you are.

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Rochelle's suggestion sounds better. Yes, I have a heated garage, with a divider. But, I don't want scales all over my car, nor do I want them all over the desk I just built.

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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I may be a little late to this party but why bother to scale them at all?

Just fillet them and then slice the skin off each fillet.

OK so they're tiny freshwater fish but skinning is still much less work than endlessly scraping scales off.

Do you really eat the skin?

Here in BC no one ever scales a fish-I can't remember the last time I ever did it.

Place the fillet skin side down on a cutting board, cut down through the fillet to the skin and keeping the knife angled down draw the skin toward you.

Much easier to do than type with these 2 old fingers and the result is a perfect piece of fish to cook with.

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I may be a little late to this party but why bother to scale them at all?

Just fillet them and then slice the skin off each fillet.

OK so they're tiny freshwater fish but skinning is still much less work than endlessly scraping scales off.

Do you really eat the skin?

Here in BC no one ever scales a fish-I can't remember the last time I ever did it.

Place the fillet skin side down on a cutting board, cut down through the fillet to the skin and keeping the knife angled down draw the skin toward you.

Much easier to do than type with these 2 old fingers and the result is a perfect piece of fish to cook with.

Add something to coat them, onion rings and fry's in the deep fryer. Want another cold one? :biggrin::biggrin:

Edited by winesonoma (log)

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I opted to scale, and not fillet. There were just too many of them. Side note: He catches, I clean; I catch, he cleans (it has worked well for more than 25 years).

Here is a photo of the fish:gallery_6263_35_1106540010.jpg. This shows but 25 of the 70 that he brought home.

Believe it or not, people will actually give you sunnies instead of cleaning them themselves!

The bag method works well.

Dinner: A salad. Baby greens (from who knows where?), a chopped up pear (again, from where? -- after all, this is MN in January), Maytag, pecans. Roasted cauliflower. A lot of fish, prepared just as my MIL does. Headed, gutted, scaled, egg wash, then slathered in very finely crushed saltines and fried.

I love sunnies. Part of it has to do with memories, which can be strong proponents of how one feels about food.

I remember well the last weekend we had at The Cabin Before Kids (about a month Before Kids). That Saturday, we went blueberry picking and picked about 3 of those ice cream pails worth of berries. The next morning, we arose early, I hied by big belly into the boat, and we caught 70+ sunnies on cane poles with worms we gatherered from under the conveyor belts that serve as paths. It was a specatular day, and no one was around to see my in my bikini, with my huge belly, as we hauled one in after the other. We cleaned, cleaned, cleaned and cleaned more fish on the deck, washed the deck down with 5 gallon (empty food service) buckets (from a friend). Left far later than we normally did. But, did we eat well. Some 14+ years later, we still have memories of that last carefree weekend Without Kids or any other family around.

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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Here is a way to scale a fish without causing the scales to scatter, using a rubber spatula:

Bring the rubber spatula into contact with the fish, near the tail pin, at an angle.

Slowly move the spatula toward the head, keeping it in contact with the fish.

This way, you won't let the scales scatter about.

This is the way I learned from a well-known TV show in Japan, called Itouke no Shokutaku. Unfortunately, I have never tried this method.

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Here is a way to scale a fish without causing the scales to scatter, using a rubber spatula:

Bring the rubber spatula into contact with the fish, near the tail pin, at an angle.

Slowly move the spatula toward the head, keeping it in contact with the fish.

This way, you won't let the scales scatter about.

This is the way I learned from a well-known TV show in Japan, called Itouke no Shokutaku.  Unfortunately, I have never tried this method.

I'll try this on the next batch I have to scale. Since the scales are pretty sticky, it makes sense that they might just stick to the spatula.

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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My suggestion is simple, and should work with the spatula, or a dull knife, over a bag in the sink.

Remove the scales under a slow stream of water. This will slow the speed of the the departing scales, and lubricate the cutting surface.

You may have to cut a few slits in the bag to allow the water to drain.

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  • 1 year later...
Here is a way to scale a fish without causing the scales to scatter, using a rubber spatula:

Bring the rubber spatula into contact with the fish, near the tail pin, at an angle.

Slowly move the spatula toward the head, keeping it in contact with the fish.

This way, you won't let the scales scatter about.

This is the way I learned from a well-known TV show in Japan, called Itouke no Shokutaku.  Unfortunately, I have never tried this method.

It's time to update this thread!

Here is how to scale a fish with a rubber spatula:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1bYxHiYyCU&search=urawaza

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