Filleting a Dolphin Fish

21Feb07

Dolphin Fish, Dorado, Mahi Mahi…..

It’s been a while since we last posted… but we’ve discovered when you’re out fishing every day, its hard to find the time!

We are at Port Stephens for the start of the Striped Marlin season down here. Fishing has been great. And, one of our talented anglers also managed to snare this bull Dolphin Fish during the week so Capt. Scadwalker thought he would take the time to walk us through filleting and skinning Dolphin Fish.

Start by catching a Dolphin Fish – once that is achieved, the rest of the steps are pretty easy. Hee hee… (Apart from Leather-jackets, Dolphin Fish are one of the only species of fish Capt. Scadwalker knows of that can be skinned in this manner.)

Cut around the entire side fillet of the fish making the cut shallow literally just cutting through the skin. Grab a hand hold at the back of the head of the fish and pull down separating the skin from the flesh. This can take a fair bit of effort depending on the size of the fish but the skin should come off in one piece. Traditional lure makers in Hawaii use this skin inside their resin head marlin lures.

Once the skin has been removed, cut along the same line again horizontally, this time angling deeper using the bones as a guide until reaching the backbone. Turn the fish over and do the same to the other side – it’s best to get both sides of the fish to this point before attempting to remove the fillet. At this point, all that is remaining to be separated is the flesh from the backbone. Cut yourself a finger-hold at the tail end and slowly lift the fillet while cutting along the backbone notch by notch. Once you’ve reached the rib cage release the tail section of the fillet and cut around the ribs from the spine side leaving the rib cage connected to the fish frame. On smaller fish it is possible to cut through the rib bones and de-bone later, but due to the size of this fish it was better to cut the rib-cage out at this stage.

Once the fillet is separated from the frame and you have done the other side as well, you need to remove any remaining bones and the bloodline by cutting vertically up the fillet where the backbone was. Cut on either side of this line to remove completely.

Now you will have left two boneless pieces from each size which can be further cut and divided into take home portions. To best store the fish especially if you are freezing for later, dry the fillets and remove all air from the plastic bag before sealing.

Tip: Zip-lock bags are best for freezing fish – a simple method of vacuum sealing the bag is to ‘zip-lock’ the bag almost completely leaving only a centermetre gap, submerse the bag in water leaving the gap exposed and the water pressure will force out any air trapped in the bag. Seal before removing from the liquid.

Dolphin Fish is very tasty and there is no need for fancy recipes. We cooked ours in butter after lighting dusting with plain flour. Yum! It is also a very moist fish and doesn’t take well to beer batter or crumbing.

Filed under: Fishing, Food   |  7 Comments