Fishing Victoria Forum

Hello all. Just wondering, there seems to be a few schools of thought on how to prepare whiting for the table. Scale and keep the skin on or skin the fillets? How do you scale them, it's a bit PITA so do you use a scaler bag? I look forward to hearing any tips to make it a bit easier.
Cheers.

I just use my knife to scale and gut. Pan fry the whole thing. Fillet if its a big whiting and keep the scaled skin on.
I don't have a boat so never tried that scale bag behind the boat thing. Sounds like an easy way to scale them when you have a lot of them.

Fillet n skin, n cut bones out out for kids.

Scaler bag is the bomb. Not on my scales but takes of all the slime making them so much easier to fillet.

I usually scale bag, take fillets of and de bone. I leave skin on as I like the crunch.

It can be frustrating fillets tings that are just over 30cm, there isn't much left on them. Bigger ones scale and fillet, smaller ones leave whole for the charcoal grill.

When I used to fish & catch them in Sth Aust kept them damp which made them easy to scale (you can use a fish scaler available on Ebay), I used a quality thin filleting knife which makes it much easier, They were either cooked in beer batter or crumbed, that depended on what the wife preferred on the day.. here's a youtube clip on how to fillet them as well..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBWZqOG92bU

cheers
Adrian

The skin is also the healthiest part, it contains most of the omega3 I’m pretty sure. So if you do take it off maybe fry it separately later.

Scaler bag,flour egg breadcrumbs and salad or birdseye potato gems baked yummy

fishnut wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 20, 2020 6:18 pm

Scaler bag,flour egg breadcrumbs and salad or birdseye potato gems baked yummy

Don’t forget 12 stubbies

If you want the cutting edge of ideal fish preparation.

- Ikajime them immediately upon catching - a pointy screwdriver or similar through the brain. Bleed too ideally, through the neck.

- Gut them quickly.

- Keep them on or near ice but don't get them wet after you've pulled them outta the water.

- Scale them about a day before eating. But ideally don't use a big rough scaler as that totally messes the flesh up. Use a teaspoon or blunt end of a butter knife. The real pros, sashimi chefs etc, use very sharp knives to cut the scales off along with the thin membrane above the skin. But that takes a long time to learn!

- Leave them uncovered in the fridge, ideally on a little rack or something so there's air circulation all around. This dries the skin for top notch crispiness. At least 24 hours before cooking ideally.

As for prep, that's up to you. I like butterflying or reverse butterflying whiting, especially if you're grilling. Takes care of most of the bones and gives you one big flat thing to grill, unbeatable crispy skin that way.

Some recipes call for fillets which is fine too. Others, cook whole without butterflying - there's benefits to cooking on the bone.

I've also seen people prepare them pickled, like the japanese Shime Saba (vinegar pickled mackerel) way which works great with Whiting.

I know most people can't be bothered with any of the above, but doing any one of those steps will improve the quality of your fish, trust me!