Catfish is very tasty to eat, you can try a lot of dishes like fried bite – sized bits with it. There are different sizes of catfish and it can be horrible if you don’t know how to prepare. Anyone can purchase a famed catfish from general stores but there is no competition for those catfish’s taste which is caught and prepared on the same day.
Fillet a catfish is not a difficult process no matter how scary, the electric fillet knife can make this process easy. In this article all those things that are necessary for fillet a catfish with electric fillet knife no matter what kind of it.
What we will learn here :
How to Fillet a Catfish With Electric Fillet Knife in 5 Easy Steps
If you want a quick method then you should ignore the head and fins and just start cutting from a little bottom under the gills. You can also cut through or cut around the ribs depending on you but cutting around gives you a good control.
Removing a Head and Fins
First of all you have to remove your catfish’s head and fins. You can eat other fish’s heads but catfish is not good to eat. Further it doesn’t have as much meat as other fishes have. It has fatty and red meat that is highly flavoured.
Its head does not have much meat so it will not be worthy to save it. The best and easiest way is just cut to behind the gills and use your electric fillet knife to make it easy to cut through the backbone. If you make a cut in front of the breast feathers then go ahead and cut them off.
A pair of clippers can also be used for removing fins instead of doing with an electric fillet knife. Electric knife works the same way so it depends on which tool you prefer.
Cut the Tail Fillet
Once the head and fins are removed then move to the tail fillet for cutting. If you skipped the removal of head and fins, start the filleting below the gill on your catfish as well below the chest/pectoral fin.
You can use three ways for cut this fillet
The large fillet will come from cutting the rib down to the tail and this is the easiest process to cut through the fish’s rib with an electric fillet knife but if you think that you have a skilled person then you can cut around the rib instead efficiently.
You can also cut the ribs from below instead of above but make only small fillets.
Reach the Centerline
Now make a small slight diagonal cut into the until you did not reach the bone along the spine (centerline). After that, make a cut with the centerline until you do not reach the tail of the fish.
Now unconnected the last part of the fish from the rest and release the section you have cut loose. It will be our first fillet. If you cut through the ribs instead of arrow them, there will be a small portion which still has ribs. You can use an electric fillet knife to cut it away and it will be reddish.
Repeat the same process on the other side of the fish to get the other tail fillet.
Wash the Fillets
Now you should stop everything and wash your fillets because a little bit of blood remaining on the fish can change the taste of fish. Wash every piece of fish in water quickly. Once all of them have been cleaned, you can taste the sweet and tasty fish.
Remove the Skin & Trim Red Meat
Now this is the last step, in which we will remove the skin and red meat from the washed pieces of fish. For that purpose we will use an electric fillet knife with our hand flat on the fillet.
If you want to cut a little more than just skin off the fillet because there is a little bit of red meat left on the right next to the skin. Repeat the same process on all fillets. Still there will be some red meat in all fillets with lateral lines (a slight split in the centre of each fillet).
Make a v shaped cut of fillet with your electric fillet knife in order to remove all red meat. Now you will get with two even fillet
In the following section I have provided a detailed video of how to break down a large catfish. They are doing a little bit more than filleting but their experience of fishing and its preparation can help you to identify each and every part of catfish you should keep and which one should cut away.
They are filleting each section of catfish into a much smaller chunk instead of finding a single large fillet and just removing a head and fins first. In this video you will also see almost every cut at least two times once the catfish break down.
Benefits of Electric Fillet Knife for Catfish
Still the electric fillet knives are less common as compared to their unpowered counterparts but the angles of catfish know the importance of these modern tools. The electric fillet knives provide you various ways for filleting a catfish and make it easier for you to remove the head and cut through the bones.
Electric knives also make the entire process fastly by facilitating you to cut through the fish fastly and efficiently. It did almost all of the work and does not require as much pressure and make this filleting process safe.
The less pressure needed on the knife, the less chance of losing control on the knife which can accidently hurt you. Electric knives are specifically designed for filleting a catfish and you can do the entire cleaning by using a single knife.
Different Ways for Fillet a Catfish with an Electric Knife
Various methods are available for fillet a catfish. The huge difference is how big fillet you want to make and are you satisfied with rough cuts to eliminate the unwanted part of catfish.
You should remove the head and fins of catfish before in order to get perfect and largest fillets from catfish. If you like a fast procedure and you don’t have any problem on unequal sizes of fillet then you can use an electric fillet knife to make a smaller fillet instead of 2 large.
For that process you don’t need to remove the head, you just cut around the fins and no need to worry about them. Some other techniques are still used for cutting through the catfish ribs but it can dull your electric fillet knife.
Supplies Required for Fillet a Catfish with Electric Fillet Knife
Before starting fillet a catfish you need a proper space because it comes with a large range of sizes and big catfish have a lot of consumable meat but it requires a huge place for cleaning.
If you think that you don’t have enough space in your kitchen then you can use a folding table or work table to provide space yourself. You also need a sink close to space where you fillet a catfish to rinse off the concluded fillet.
Definitely you will need an electric fillet knife, catfish and trash bag. You should throw out the catfish’s remains outside of your home because catfish have more smell as compared to other fishes. Following bullets will clearly describe the supplies needed for fillet a catfish.
What You Need to Know About Filleting a Catfish with an Electric Knife
Filling a catfish is a simple and easy method but still you need to know some tricks and techniques before starting it. You will also need to remove the skin to make sure that you have to remove all ribs from catfish.
You don’t want to leave the skin on the side of the fillet because it has good flavour unlike other fishes. You will also want to keep eye on the red meat inside the catfish because it has a stronger flavour than white meat. Many people do not like red meat so you should avoid the red in your fillets.
There are two common places in catfish where you can find red meat : with the lateral line and right next to the skin. Furthermore, you will see a mini section of red meat inside your fillets and it is toward the edges where you can easily cut it. Fatty sections are still considerable in catfish which are present near the boundary of your fillets which are apparently fatter than the rest of the catfish.
Fatty portions are those where a lot of the strongest flavour is stored and majority of the people think that its taste is worse than red meat. Frying your catfish plays an important role to cover up the flavour of fatty catfish if you couldn’t cut it all.
Final Verdict
While using a normal fillet knife you can do the same process on catfish which is explained in the above section but electric fillet knives for catfish make the whole process easy. It also helps in cutting of rib bones much easier than typical fillet knives.
Moreover, you don’t need to apply much pressure for making fillet which leads to a safe method for beginners as well. You can also experiment with some other method as well that may bring effective variation for you. Thank You.
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