Fish Butchery

[Berleyguts]

I’m just watching Masterchef and there is a guest chef on, Josh(?) Niland, who just demonstrated a method of butchering a kingfish to get the most out of it. It was fascinating! He scaled the fish by cutting the scales off the skin with the blade of a knife. He keeps the scales. Then he showed a method of removing the guts without cutting the belly open. Then he cut a tail shank, a couple of cutlets, a 4 point rack, 2 point racks or devil’s cutlets, a huge butterflied belly flap, a nice fillet (perfect for sashimi), the cheeks and the head (split in 2). Fascinating. It will be interesting to see what the contestants do with the cuts they choose.. I’ll try and watch the demo online tomorrow and see if I can post the link. Definitely worth trying!

[Scratchie]

I just watch him do it. Amazing actually! I didn’t realise there was that many portions to a fish! Don’t think you’ll see me doing that at the cleaning tables though 😬😬

cheers scratchie!!! 

[Welster]

I saw that.   How good is it watching somebody that's a master of their craft?

I don't watch the cooking shows but I saw it and hit record I will be watching it again.

[Berleyguts]

46 minutes ago, Scratchie said:

I just watch him do it. Amazing actually! I didn’t realise there was that many portions to a fish! Don’t think you’ll see me doing that at the cleaning tables though 😬😬

cheers scratchie!!! 

Me either but I wouldn’t mind removing the guts etc that way and doing the rest at home. Always seems a shame to throw so much to the pelicans!

[kingie chaser]

Personally while it was interesting to watch overall I think its was merely a made up technique for him to try to get his restaurant to stand out from others & I don't see any practicality in some of those cuts, if you served me that rack I'd send it back & tell the chef he didn't bone the fish properly!

 

But hey if it works for him then all well & good.

 

Its a bit of a wank really imo, for 100 years chefs have been slammed for leaving 1 bone in a fish, let alone 2 or 4 even!

 

But hey I give credit to the guy for coming up with it for a point of difference, mind you Im sure someone else did it 1st, 99% of the time chefs are just copying someone else & just putting their own twist on it. 

 

If anyone is interested to know what industry taught traditional fish cuts are then follow this link.

 http://chefpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=Fish_Cuts

These are all old school French methods/cuts, some are obsolete. 

Obviously they don't cover the larger fish, 

[Scratchie]

14 minutes ago, kingie chaser said:

If anyone is interested to know what industry taught traditional fish cuts are then follow this link.

Yep! E and F for me! 👍

[Rob81]

I think cutting fish in Japan is like an art form and this person is just trying to bring it to western countries if anything. I remember when I was in Japan, I would just stand there watching them cut up the fish.

But yeah, a lot restaurants have a gimmick, which is what makes them slightly different from the other.

[mrsswordfisherman]

Good try @lyons90 but that link didn't work

Here is the Tenplay vid

 

[PaddyT]

Got given his book in Jan for my birthday, its got some interesting ideas -not that ive tried any of them yet. BUT i will make the following point about that kingie last night-it looked pretty rank in my eyes and hadnt been bleed properly- heaps of blood left in the meat.