Fried Fresh Fluke

[Gumada]

Has anyone noticed the early season fluke seem to be on the mushy side when cooked ? I don’t clean the fillets in water of any kind, I bleed fish immediately in the live well and then directly on ice ! Any ideas ?

[PortlyRedhead]

You ask a really good question. I also bleed my fluke in the livewell but leave the the fluke on ice for a few hours before I clean it so the flesh tightens up.

[Billfish715]

Ice, Ice Baby! From the time the fish is unhooked and bled until the skin is removed from the fillet. Try a Kosher Salt/Ice Water bath for the fillets for awhile to remove any additional blood and firm up the meat before removing the skin. You can also then place the finished product briefly into a salt and ice water solution to remove any remaining slime and scales.

It has worked for me for years. Pat them dry before bagging them and putting them into the refrigerator. More work, but worth the results.

[reason162]

Bleed, rinse fillets in cold salt water, then pat dry.

But most importantly, roll up fillets in fresh paper towels - all sides of the fillet in contact with dry paper towels, then wrap in tinfoil. Put your little fluke fillet tinfoil burritos in the fridge and they will firm up over 24 hours. Good idea to stack them in/around frozen water bottles to keep the temp as cold as possible. They'll also keep fresh for up to 10 days in the fridge, if you swap paper towels once or twice.

Moisture is the enemy - never ziploc or saran wrap fish/meat. Always have a way to soak up moisture leeching out of the fish.

[Jigman13]

Bleed, rinse fillets in cold salt water, then pat dry.

But most importantly, roll up fillets in fresh paper towels - all sides of the fillet in contact with dry paper towels, then wrap in tinfoil. Put your little fluke fillet tinfoil burritos in the fridge and they will firm up over 24 hours. Good idea to stack them in/around frozen water bottles to keep the temp as cold as possible. They'll also keep fresh for up to 10 days in the fridge, if you swap paper towels once or twice.

Moisture is the enemy - never ziploc or saran wrap fish/meat. Always have a way to soak up moisture leeching out of the fish.

I do exactly this with all of my fish aside from tuna. Tuna doesn't get the salt water rinse ever.

[henro]

Same here with the saltwater ice slurry. I let all my fish sit in it for 24 hours before fileting them the next day. Filets go in the saltwater brine for another 24 hours then vac seal or eat. There's a thread on here from a few years ago about this. Someone was shown how to do this by a NY sushi chef I believe which was how they prepped all their fish. My fish are always firm and clean when cutting up and very little blood. I do this for all my fresh and saltwater fish.