Cleaning A Grouper

[Dave]

Filleting a grouper is pretty strait forward - sharp fillet knife, a pair of pliers, and standard filleting techniques. Harvesting the cheek meat and throat of a grouper may prove a little more difficult but well worth the effort, I think. Not to worry, I'll take you through the process so you can try these tasty morsels for yourself, having you cursing yourself why you tossed all this good stuff in the trash before now ;D

As with all big fish, think before you cut and consequently leave substantial meat on the carcase. Many large fish have a fair amount of meat up close to the front of and on top of the head. With this in mind, make your first cut to capture this meat in the fillet. As you cut along the skin, take care to cut JUST below the skin, leaving the flesh uncut as mush as possible. Turn the fish over and repeat on the other side, leaving the skin in place, before you skin and fillet the first side.


http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc188/djerhart/GrouperCleaning27May08043.jpg


Don't pull the skin down on the second side before you have completely filleted the first side. Leaving the skin on will help keep the meat of the "down" side clean while you fillet the first side.

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc188/djerhart/GrouperCleaning27May08037.jpg


Make a cut across the tail meat then move to the top and work the fillet knife (slanted downward to "feel" the bones as you cut) and cut down to the center back bone and until you reach the rib bones nearer the head. Work the knife carefully up and along the ribs to the top of these bones and then turn the knife edge downward and cut along the back side of the rib bones. Finish the fillet cut by directing the blade along the back bones until you have separated the fillet at the bottom of the fish. In this picture, the fillet has been removed, and the rib bones have been "sheared" off as well.


http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc188/djerhart/GrouperCleaning27May08039.jpg

The fillet. The other (smaller) piece of meat is the ribs, with some belly meat attached, which have been cut off with the boning shears, after the fillet has been removed. This rib meat is delicious, grilled or fried, and because the bones are large, they are easily picked out and removed during the feast.

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc188/djerhart/GrouperCleaning27May08040.jpg

To remove the cheek meat, feel carefully for the bone and make an incision through the skin and down along the surrounding bone, working from bottom to the top edges - no need to cut completely around the skin of the cheek meat. Peel the skin up and remove the cheek with careful strokes of the knife tip.

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc188/djerhart/GrouperCleaning27May08041.jpg

The final task is to remove the throat, skin it, and trim it up. I don't have pictures of this process but after removing the fillets and cheek meat, simply chop or shear through the backbone close to the head and discard the bones of the carcase. The throat is meaty and easily identified. Before removing it from the head, cut off the pectoral fins and make an incision through the skin at the bottom center of the throat and pull away the skin with pliers. Cut or chop through the jaw bone to remove the throat. Trim and clean it up and it should look like a this, resembling a breast of chicken or (in the case of a really big grouper) turkey breast!

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc188/djerhart/GrouperCleaning27May08047.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc188/djerhart/GrouperCleaning27May08046.jpg

[Big Will]

1stSgtUSMCRet,

I have to say I have never seen a better example of how to clean Grouper. I am really thankfull that you took the time to do this. I'd like to see this on the site for many years to come. Hopefully I can develop into a fish cleaner too. Currently, I have skills for trout and pan fish. My redfish give me heartburn everytime I have to clean them. Your tip about cutting from inside the skin (written into your post about the trigger fish) makes me think I could do that with reds and stop dulling my knife on that tuff hide they have. Seriously, thanks.*yay**Woot**thumbsup*

[Dave]

Thanks for the compliment Will.

I usually skin my fish, some before and some after filleting. Flounder, grouper, tuna, dolphin, wahoo, cobia, king & spanish macks, trout (specks and gray) all get skinned before filleting and I use the "cut from inside to outside" method to initially cut around the skin. These are all "small" scaled fish, most of them having relatively soft skins, nonetheless, they do dull the knife edge. I adopted the inside to outside way, almost exclusively, from cleaning many flounder since arriving here in NC in 1983. I made a point of this with the triggerfish only because it's impossible to cut through the (armor plate like) skin from outside with a conventional knife edge.

Some fish, drum and black sea bass for instance, have very hard scales. I typically skin these fish AFTER I fillet them but before I sever the fillet away at the tail. I cut through the skin of these fish from outside in and continue on with the filleting. To make it easy to do this, I first use a teaspoon to scrape away the scales ONLY in the area that I will cut through the skin - narrow line along the top, along the bottom and on a line from top to bottom just behind the pectoral fin. Goes pretty quick and allows the knife to penetrate the skin without having to work through the scales.

Dave

[workinprogress]

Sarge, this is a fantastic post. I'm going to throw a suggestion out and see if any higher-ups think much of it. A lot of our members may already know most of what you explaining, but I'm sure there are a lot of people, including myself, who are using your posts about cleaning specific kinds of fish as a manual on how to do something for the first time. I have cleaned some kinds of fish, but never a grouper or a triggerfish, and maybe I could learn a better way to clean fish I think I already know how to clean from thread like this one.
How about creating a post in the FAQs called "Cleaning different types of fish" and putting your (or anyone else's) step-by-step explanation on how to clean a particular kind of fish in the main thread. I think it would be a great resource for the novice fisherman like myself. Thanks, Sarge, and keep 'em comin'.

I had the same thought after reading Slim's fantastic tutorial on trout fishing about starting a thread in the FAQs about techniques for catching different kinds of fish. It's a great way for those of you who know to teach those of us who don't.

[Big Will]

How about creating a post in the FAQs called "Cleaning different types of fish" and putting your (or anyone else's) step-by-step explanation on how to clean a particular kind of fish in the main thread. I think it would be a great resource for the novice fisherman like myself. Thanks, Sarge, and keep 'em comin'.

I second that motion.

Additionally, I suggest that 1stSgt please consider doing a video.

I searched and found all kinds of fish cleaning videos that suck. Everyone had unnecesary motions or points were you could tell the person being videoed didn't know what the hell they were doing.

[Slim to None]

great post! incredible detail! *thumbsup**yay*

[NOTHING ELSE MATTERS]

great post! incredible detail! *thumbsup**yay*

Like always.He gets a big credit for that. *Cheers*

[Dave]

Sarge, this is a fantastic post. I'm going to throw a suggestion out and see if any higher-ups think much of it. A lot of our members may already know most of what you explaining, but I'm sure there are a lot of people, including myself, who are using your posts about cleaning specific kinds of fish as a manual on how to do something for the first time. I have cleaned some kinds of fish, but never a grouper or a triggerfish, and maybe I could learn a better way to clean fish I think I already know how to clean from thread like this one.
How about creating a post in the FAQs called "Cleaning different types of fish" and putting your (or anyone else's) step-by-step explanation on how to clean a particular kind of fish in the main thread. I think it would be a great resource for the novice fisherman like myself. Thanks, Sarge, and keep 'em comin'.

I had the same thought after reading Slim's fantastic tutorial on trout fishing about starting a thread in the FAQs about techniques for catching different kinds of fish. It's a great way for those of you who know to teach those of us who don't.

Good suggestions WIP. I've brought your idea up in the staff forum and we are working to find the best way (given the purpose and intent of each forum) to present these sub-category, "special" interest topics. I'll post something here soon to let you know the final results of our discussion. *thumbsup*

Dave

[Dave]

OK WIP, here's the scoop, but first I want to thank you. I'm glad you find my tips and illustrations useful and I (and the staff) truly appreciates your suggestions.

The FAQ forum however, was/is designed for, well "Frequently Asked Questions", and primarily used as a "technical" resource where unarguable facts are presented, rather than (in this case) my opinion of how a certain fish can be cleaned. The fishing forums, I hope, would be the place most would come to look for fishing related threads.

With this in mind, I'm gonna put up a sticky thread titled "Fish Cleaning Tips and Techniques" in the "Fishing reports and general fishing discussion" forum. Like in the FAQ forum, this sticky will be locked so that only staff can make additions or changes to the thread - but every member can (as you have) make suggestion to have a topic added to the sticky. To keep the sticky thread clean and lean, I will copy and paste the primary topic information the author posted, without all the accolades and comments of other members. I will give credit to the author of that topic and a link back to the original thread where the discussion has taken place and can continue to evolve. I'll have it up in a day or two so you can check it out - I think you're gonna like it.

I'll make another sticky in the "Tackle Box" forum titled "Fishing Rigs - Illustrated". Here we can add Slim's post, and a few others I know are scattered out in the forums.

Thanks again for the suggestion *Cheers*

Dave

[NOTHING ELSE MATTERS]

That is great 1stSgt *thumbsup**thumbsup*

[workinprogress]

1st Sarge--Thanks for the considerable amount of time you obviously put into getting the stickies going as well as for the original posts on cleaning fish. Slim--Thanks to you too for sharing your technique for trout fishing. I think what's been done here with these topics will serve as a valuable tool for shortening the learning curve for rookies like myself, and I applaude those of you willing to share your expertise as well as this site for providing a friendly environment in which to exchange information. I guess I'm going to have to take my laptop in the boat with me to use as a quick-reference guide.

[Dave]

1st Sarge--Thanks for the considerable amount of time you obviously put into getting the stickies going as well as for the original posts on cleaning fish.

My pleasure WIP. It's not really much effort, considering guys like you and the others who make a difference, by your own contributions, and by taking a moment or two to post up with words of encouragement and appreciation. *Cheers*

Dave