Hi guys, some have probably seen this, but I did a video on filleting and cooking trout like the North American indigenous used to:
Youtube video

I like it as it saves most of the meat and you end up with a complete boneless trout fillet in 1 piece.

Great video. I have never tried that with a trout. I will try it the next time. Thanks.

Let me know how it works. It's best to leave it a bit after killing it so the nerve endings can die.

Cute video--especially with the young assistant helping out!

But it's a lot easier to do this after the fish is cooked...the filet should just drop off the bones.

That is way cool Paul. I've never seen a trout cleaned that way. I'll have to go catch some trout and try it.

I've baked and fried a lot of trout, and for the most part never really liked it much, but I found out I love smoked trout, and that looked delicious!

Love your son's comments too. I used to clean fish and cook them with my kids and that really took me back a few years

BTW, that was a fat trout!

Thanks Bill! I'll have another simple one of me cooking a trout filleted like that on a hot rock. I snuck in some fresh sliced garlic and sliced lemon. Now THAT was something to look forward to.

My kids love being involved in my projects / videos. They learn lots that way and we are able to spend quality time together. I'll be taking my daughter on a backpacking trip this summer with me where we'll employ some of these tools. She always insists on reminding me about bear safety (there's a video of her telling me what to do on my youtube channel.

yah, you can flake it off using the center line when it is cooked but then you have to mess with the entrails (not that hard). When I get to a country that has sphagnum moss I'll probably do a video of cooking it in over the coals without filleting it but... We work with what we have !

Love the video. It backs up the point that ours hands are two of the best tools we have.

I had a question/comment: It seems you could just stick the top half of the main stick underneath the upper cross stick (instead of over it) and then you wouldn't have to tie it up at the top. I guess maybe it could fall apart when you cook the skin side.

Well I have two comments, and both are a bit negative. First it seemed that the knife was among the most dull ones I have seen. It did not look like cutting, rather crushing apart.

Second I do a lot of fileting every automn as I have the opportunity to fish with nets in a overcrowded lake. We try to reduce the stock of "tableknifes" or "thousandbrothers" by fishing as much of the small fish as possible. So I stand there with two buckets (20 kg+-) of trout/char and I fillet most of this. But this method is hopeless for my purpose.

The smallest (8in) end up as dog-food. Too small to bother with. Those around 10in are nice for frying, 4-6 is a usual dinner for two. I just cut the head behind the collar bones and remove the belly fins and the tail. When fried I split them along the back and remove the back-finn and the gut-finn and the main bone and there is two fillets without bones!

My wife also has a nice recipe for fishcakes using trout/char so I usually make some kilos of bonefree and skinfree fillets for this. Rule number one: razor sharp knife.

But I agree that the trout was a nice fat one, must have tasted great.

Thanks for the feedback.

Believe it or not, but that knife normally takes the hair off my arm (still does, I just checked), but it isn't a filleting knife that's for sure. I'll take another look at it.

You're right, the method isn't really suited for your purpose.

All the best! I'd be interested in seeing your wife's fish cakes recipe.

BZH,

Thanks for that. It was a lot of fun to do and an easy alternative if you're on the trail.

It's worth giving it a try as you mentioned. Let me know how it works. I never ended up flipping it to cook the skin side, it cooks slowly enough and there is enough oil in the skin to keep it moist. It's an added safety, nothing more.