Whole Fish

[snapperbluefish101]

After going on a Gambler offshore sea bass trip this year and keeping for the first time whole Sea Bass, I find it kind of weird(best word I can think of) that we still fillet a majority of our fish on many of the trips we do. It gets kind of procedural and compulsory, so it makes sense why we do it. But I tell ya, I baked a whole 4lb BSB in the oven and I could not believe how much more extra meat I had than compared to the fillets only. Cheek meat, rib meat, and meat between the spine bones. It adds up. I am not sure how many of us here keep fish whole, but I am not gonna get fish filleted too often anymore. I know I said it a thousand damn times in the BSB regulation posts, but it really gets us more bang for our buck. If a whole Sea Bass worked out better, I can imagine a whole Cod or Striper being even more better .... (I know many of the guys on here keep Stripers whole and it's a great thing to keep on seeing in my opinion.)

SNAPPER

[june181901]

If other members of your household do not wish to see the head come out of the oven then at least cut the cheeks out of a striper and cook them. Really good tasting morsels.

[snapperbluefish101]

If other members of your household do not wish to see the head come out of the oven then at least cut the cheeks out of a striper and cook them. Really good tasting morsels.

+1 on that for sure.

[Charlie B]

I agree filleting leaves a lot of meat behind. So what I do is after filleting I cut the carcass up to fit in a pot with a little water, celery, and onion and steam it for about 15 minutes. Then save the stock and flake the meat off. Good for chowder or fish cakes...Charlie

[snapperbluefish101]

I agree filleting leaves a lot of meat behind. So what I do is after filleting I cut the carcass up to fit in a pot with a little water, celery, and onion and steam it for about 15 minutes. Then save the stock and flake the meat off. Good for chowder or fish cakes...Charlie

Also +1 on that one. Fish stock is ridiculously delicious.

[Jigman13]

Gut, scale, score and batter a whole scup. Deep fry and enjoy... The fins fry through and eat like potato chips and you can pick the fish clean! I do the same with haddock, cunner, and smaller keeper sized tog.

[jerseyhunter]

Cut the head off a nice size cod, take out the gills and simmer , drain and keep stock if you like but pick the cooled meat off refrigerate. Cut up some leftover cold boiled potatoes and warm up in a béchamel sauce with pepper and horseradish, add cod chunks and heat though trying not to break up the chunks. Simply heaven.

[Finprof]

A while back I posted a recipe for Thai-style sea bass along with a picture of a whole fish prepared with the recipe. When you cook a fish whole, the bones give the meat more flavor.

This year my wife made fishhead soup from the head of a large striper. It takes a lot of work to clean the head but the cooking after that is easy. I can post the recipe but probably nobody is going to be interested.

[HDMarc]

Black sea bass scaled, gutted, and finned with a couple of slices on both sides in the skin, put a couple of butter pats inside the fish with a little salt, pepper, and garlic powder, coated with a little olive oil on the grill over medium heat ten minutes on each side....outstanding!

[Kup]

My Dad went through the depression. He would hitchhike down to the Longbranch Pier to fish and hitchhike home. He would never filet a fish said it was a waste. I can remember him being critical of a friend of his telling me they filet all their fish. All the fish I ate when I was a kid was baked or broiled whole. We're spoiled today.

[MVP]

I normally try to keep most of fish I catch whole as the total yield on a filleted fish can be anywhere from 40-60% of the goal weight. It is amazing on who much meat you loose when you fillet

One of my favorite ways to cook Seabass and blackfish are to steam them or
Place whole fish on a cookie sheet after scaling, gutting and taking gills out
Stuff inside what whatever you like and then cover the entire fish in a kosher salt and egg wash mixture. Should be consistency of mash potatoes. Place in the oven at 400 for about I believe an hour. I forgot the exact time. The bigger the fish the longer it takes in the oven. The kosher salt past forms a crust that keeps all the juices in and steam the fish from the inside out. Crack the crust and the skin just peels off and you are left with juicy white meet that is insanely good

[Uncle Nicky]

I used to keep most of the fish I caught whole, but once thay started talking about the skin and bloodlines holding PCBs and Mercury, I started fileting EVERYTHING.

[PeteyHD]

I keep all of my porgy and seabass under 2lbs whole. Bake the whole fish or broil Mediteranean style. It is true that the amount of extra meat around the head and belly bones adds up. Plus the fish just tastes so much better!

Enjoy.

[Ry609]

Never tried the whole fish thing before, but glad I did! Just basted with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, fresh parsley, crushed red pepper 10 mins. on each side on the grill (stuck another whole clove inside with some butter where the guts used to be). Made the striper just in case I didn't like it, but the taste of the whole fish rivaled the fillets!