I've got a recipe for planked trout, the only problem is it call for
the whole fish, minus the head, and says to de-bone it. Now I know how
to fillet pretty well but can anyone tell me how to de-bone a whole
fish before cooking? That is without tearing up the meat. Thanks.

On Wed, 21 Mar 2007 05:19:21 -0700, Abe > wrote:

>>I've got a recipe for planked trout, the only problem is it call for
>>the whole fish, minus the head, and says to de-bone it. Now I know how
>>to fillet pretty well but can anyone tell me how to de-bone a whole
>>fish before cooking? That is without tearing up the meat. Thanks.
>Plenty of instructions he
>http://www.google.com/search?q=debone+a+fish

Yeah but they all are instructions for filleting a fish which I
already know how to do. This recipe clearly calls for a WHOLE fish
that has been de-boned. All of these pages seem to use the terms
filleting and de-boning to mean the same thing.

"Ridge Roofing, Inc." > wrote in message
...
> I've got a recipe for planked trout, the only problem is it call for
> the whole fish, minus the head, and says to de-bone it. Now I know how
> to fillet pretty well but can anyone tell me how to de-bone a whole
> fish before cooking? That is without tearing up the meat. Thanks.

After thoroughly cleaning the cavity, pick a start point at the rib
section and run a knife under the length of the rib bones as far as the
head. I put the knife in the other hand and work my way towards the tail
end. Turn fish over and repeat the process with the other side. I then
work the knife around the backbone until I find the pin bones that run
from the backbone to the top of the fish (I hope you get the gist) and then
slowly run the knife down the length of the pin pones towards the outer
skin, being careful not to pierce the skin. I am able to do this on both
sides of the pin bones working the flesh completely clear. With a pair of
kitchen scissors, cut the backbone at the head and tail end and remove.

There are a few stray bones at the head end that are able to be removed with
ones fingers.

I've got to admit that it takes about 10-15 minutes per fish and is a little
fiddly, but it works.

Graeme