About Boning Trout
Most trout fishermen catch and release to help ensure the trout population, according to John Hayes, a lifelong fisherman and former editor of "Outdoor Odyssey Magazine." If you take your catches home to eat, it's best to do so "humanely and efficiently."
Boning trout takes a bit of skill and can be done either before or after cooking the fish.
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The Catch and Kill
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If you've caught your own trout, don't keep it on a wire stringer until you get home. The delicate flavor of trout is ruined by slow suffocation and the hot sun.
Kill the fish immediately by using a knife behind the head, slitting it to remove the organs and storing it on ice.
Head, Tail and Scales
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Trout doesn't need to be scaled. Removing the scales will also remove the thin coat of natural jelly around them. Leave the scales attached, and people can choose to eat the skin or not after the fish is prepared.
Although many people behead fish before preparing it; removing the bone from trout is easier when the head and tail are left intact. -
Fillet
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Trout fillets. A flat working surface and a sharp knife are essential for filleting fish.
First cut around the head and down the pectoral fin.
Then, starting at the head cut and angling your knife slightly toward the backbone, slice from the head to the tail in one motion.
Turn the fish over and slice down the other side, keeping as close to the backbone as you can.
Butterfly Fillet
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Butterflied trout. Cut the head off to butterfly the trout. Then turn the trout so that the belly faces upward.
With your knife blade facing up and out, slide your knife along the outside of the rib cage. Turn your knife over and cut down the backbone to the tail. Take care not to cut through the back skin.
Make another cut down the other side of the ribcage and down the backbone.Turn the knife and cut sideways along the base of the bone structure to remove it.
Use your fingers to feel out the rows of bones still left on either side and cut along either side of the rows, removing the bone.
At the Table
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Trout can be cooked without boning.
With the trout lying on its side, use the knife behind the head and glide it along the spine to the tail.
Use the blade to press down on the bones while you fork off a mouthful of trout from above the cut you made.The trout meat should slide easily off the bones.
After you've eaten the meat from one side, use the flat of your blade to hold down the meat under the bones, then use your fork to spear the head and pull the whole skeleton away.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit trout image by michael langley from Fotolia.com fischfilet image by Silvia Bogdanski from Fotolia.com Fish filet image by bredis from Fotolia.com
