# Practicing fish butchery



## longhorn (Oct 16, 2016)

I am not exactly sure if this topic fits on this board, so mods I apologize please move it if necessary.

I've been cooking professionally for a few years and have cooked and prepared raw fish thousands of times. Unfortunately the bulk of my fish experience was at a restaurant that had an in house butcher so I hardly ever broke them down. I just took a job where I will be butchering and cooking all the meat and the fish. So I picked up a deba[emoji48]

How can I go about getting some practice in before I start. We are already eating fish everyday at home but the selection is t great unless I want to shell out big bucks I do not have. Also we just moved so I do not currently have a restaurant I can ask to practice on their product in and the place is not yet open so that isn't an option either. 

Tl;dr got job where I have to butcher fish, I have limited experience. How do I practice cost effectively at home?


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## daveb (Oct 16, 2016)

Whole, sometimes live, Tilapia are available here at Asian Markets. Cheap. Snapper cost a little more but still inexpensive.

JKI has a couple vids out, and our own Theory does as well that illustrate 3 piece filets.


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## jmgray (Oct 17, 2016)

Go fishing


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## WildBoar (Oct 17, 2016)

When do you start the new job? if you have 1-2 weeks, maybe a KKF who works at a restaurant in the area will let you come over and watch, and possibly try some.


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## mhlee (Oct 17, 2016)

Get a fish butchery book (there are several Japanese ones that have photos and go through butchery step by step), get your knives nice and sharp, then buy the cheapest, freshest (still in rigor or firm), local fish (because they're usually the cheapest), and practice. And be prepared to eat a lot of fish, or give it away.


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## Von blewitt (Oct 17, 2016)

mhlee said:


> Get a fish butchery book (there are several Japanese ones that have photos and go through butchery step by step), get your knives nice and sharp, then buy the cheapest, freshest (still in rigor or firm), local fish (because they're usually the cheapest), and practice. And be prepared to eat a lot of fish, or give it away.


+1 
once you learn the basic anatomy of certain fish, it's just a matter of practice. I'd look for videos on YouTube of the main species you think you'll be dealing with.


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## copperJon (Oct 18, 2016)

jmgray said:


> Go fishing


No joke, some lakes(at least where I'm at) have very generous limits of trout, which equate to lots of sanmai (3 piece) oroshi practice. Bigger bones are a bit tougher to deal with, so if you're in need, the season is right for that too, if you're in the right place. The chum salmon season is in full swing and you can get practice with chum aka "keta" salmon for considerably cheaper than equivalently sized kings. Still sanmai, but on a bigger scale. For gomai (5 piece), find some cheap flounder/sole.

Not sure if it's still relevant, but the king season in Milwaukee harbor puts out a ridiculous amount of "trash" fish... Kings that are all spawned out and not fit for table fare. They have nowhere to spawn, so they basically show up, realize their life's purpose has come to nothing, and waste away. I think the show is pretty much over but worth a look. PM me and I might be able to put you on some fish.


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## Danzo (Oct 19, 2016)

jmgray said:


> Go fishing



Lol


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## spoiledbroth (Oct 20, 2016)

mhlee said:


> Get a fish butchery book (there are several Japanese ones that have photos and go through butchery step by step), get your knives nice and sharp, then buy the cheapest, freshest (still in rigor or firm), local fish (because they're usually the cheapest), and practice. And be prepared to eat a lot of fish, or give it away.



Can someone link this! I have seen Jon mention this book in his videos but I have never had any luck to find any of these books,my impression is that they'll only be sold on Japanese language sites because the books are only available in Japanese.


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## _PixelNinja (Oct 20, 2016)

spoiledbroth said:


> Can someone link this! I have seen Jon mention this book in his videos but I have never had any luck to find any of these books,my impression is that they'll only be sold on Japanese language sites because the books are only available in Japanese.


I believe you are referring to _Shokuzai no kirikata daizukan: CuttinG_.


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## ryann (Oct 24, 2016)

Have you seen ita-san on youtube? If not I'd spend some time watching him


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## daveb (Oct 24, 2016)

I found this site a couple years ago and have found it helpful. Good fish section. It's in Japanese but google will translate most of it. 

http://www.tsuji.ac.jp/hp/gihou/Basic_Techniques/index.html


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## senryu (Oct 25, 2016)

[video=youtube;5cmMvH-auWs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cmMvH-auWs[/video]

i refer people to this one. i don't do it exactly the same way after 3 minutes, i think it's a little faster and safer to flip the fish so the spine is down and the tail is away from you, and just pull down the right side using the deba's wide bevel to stay parallel to the spines. lifting gently with your fingers up as you follow the bones to the spine, up then back down.


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## zitangy (Oct 31, 2016)

i enjoy cutting fish at abt 5 to 6kg. Normally pick up a shashimi grade salmon from a restaurant supplier abt usd12 per kilo. I cut it into portions, give half to friends.

Perhaps when seriously practicing with emphasis on technique not speed, you should make a video via mobile phoneso that you can "revisit " your experience and see your good cuts, bad cuts and awkward positioning, hesitations etc

hv fun

rgds
d


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## tienowen (Nov 16, 2016)

I used gyuto after learn from deba. I breakdown around 30 fish to get this close when work at restaurant.
PS: Cheap gyuto Miyabi 8' Kaizen for breakdown fish.


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