Pike fish have a lot of bones inside it that’s why it scares off many fishermen. Pike is very nice for eating fish and by removing Y – bone you can make a good meal for yourself. It is not difficult to remove a y-bone from a northern pike and you can avoid most of the bones from the pike to get five clean fillets from one fish. Here we are providing the best way for filleting a pike easily.
Filleting the Top
1. First of all, lay down the pike on its belly and cut about half an inch down right behind the head. For that purpose you have to perfect a 6 or more inches fillet knife for work. Cut behind where the body of the pike meets the head and do an incision until you do not feel the fish’s backbone.
2. Make an angle toward the tail and move your blade all the way toward fins. Here you can guide from backbone and move from bottom to top fin. Complete blade should be inside the fish except one or one and half inch flesh of fillet from the behind of the fish.
3. Slightly move the angle of blade upward at the back of fin and remove the upper fillet. Let me explain, when you reach the dorsal fin then start curving in order to confirm that your knife will exit before hitting the fin. This top part of the pike should be boneless. Using this way, you can stay above all bones.
4. For removing a centre bone from the fillet you can use your fingers, tweezer or careful use of a fillet knife. Usually there should not be many but still be careful of them. If you think that thin bones are embedded deeply which is more common in large fish then use a tweezer for removing them.
5. Fillet the skin if it requires and for doing this, slide the fillet knife between the skin and flesh and exit it through the other end. Hold the top of the fish with one hand and cut all the way down the fillet to remove the fish. Move your knife slowly to prevent meat cutting. Some people like to keep the knife between skin and flesh and ripping it off by pulling the skin.
Removing the Fillets
1. Use your fingers to feel the y-shaped bones from the top of the fish. This will help you know where you cut the side of the fish. If necessary, use your fillet knife to lightly cut into them and locate the tops so you can grasp your guides as you come into the side fillets.
2. Turn your fish on its side and attempt the knife behind the head, it will be good in line with those cuts you made on the upper part of the fish. Same, slide the cut until you did not touch the bone which we exposed in the last step. It will not be very deep as you went in top fillet because here sides are thin.
3. Now move your knife and fillet the dorsal fin and get a guide from y-shape bone. Try to cut near to these bones as possible without hitting to get more meat. Run your fillet knife parallel to the cutting board for making perfect fillets.
4. To complete your fillet, blow up when you reach the dorsal fin. If you like, you can use your knife to square off any edges for a more restaurant-quality fillet. If you want, now is the time to remove the skin of the fish.
5. Remove all stray bones using a plier or tweezer or with your fingers. Most of the time it happens if you cut too deep and it is the worst problem to have but you can easily pull some stray bones easily from fish.
6. Change the position of the fish and repeat the same process. Even this process is the same but it is a little bit hard to maintain to handle with otherside. Be careful and slowly while using a sharp fillet knife and trying to slide the fillet parallel to the cutting board.
Removing the Tail Fillets and Extra Meat
1. There is a small hole located underneath the fish and this little hole is the fish’s anus. Actually it is located on the belly of a fish near the tail. You can use this hole as a starting point for fish. Cutting a pike tail is the same as other fishes. If you know what you are doing then no worry about anything because there is no extra bone or step to do.
2. Dive the knife toward the tail just opposite to vent and slide the knife until you did not touch the backbone of the fish. You just want the tail side of the vent so it would not be included in your fillet. This hole is used as your starting point but should not be used to cook it.
3. Cut with the fish until you just about reach the end. You don’t want to completely cut your fillet. There is a small hinge(link) of skin right where meat meets the tail and you can pull off the meat from the skin like an opening door.
4. To easily remove the skin and scales, get a knife between the skin and flesh of the pike fish. Barely leaving the fillet on the fish makes skinning much easier, as the tail forms a natural pin.
5. Remaining extra meat around the bones can be removed by using a spoon to scope. Still there is good meat left on the fish for you if you are not only interested in fillets. Use only a spoon and your knife to pull off the meat from bone and resolve even a last bit of bone.
Also Read : https://knifeplatoon.com/how-to-fillet-a-tuna/
Also Read: https://knifeplatoon.com/how-to-fillet-a-bass/
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