I've done it myself many times and have been trying to get my skill right.
Have seen several utube, and even gone into the extend of purchasing a Japanese book from ebay and till now have not much clue to do it "right". I've a Deba, Yanagiba & a deboning long nose plier. Looking forward to some step by step instruction from right after landing a tuna > bleeding > filleting & deboning > ... Sashimi. An extra instruction of how to sharpen the Yanagiba will be nice nice.
Ms.Tani, if you happen to be reading this I bet you have something to share ;D
By far, bleeding and icing is a very probably the most important step. We immediately cut and pull the gills and toss the fish in a icy saltwater bath. Essentially filling a cooler with ice and pumping salt water into a cooler or fish bag so the fish is covered with the icy saltwater bath.
Quote from: Bryan Young on May 10, 2013, 04:41:47 PM
By far, bleeding and icing is a very probably the most important step. We immediately cut and pull the gills and toss the fish in a icy saltwater bath. Essentially filling a cooler with ice and pumping salt water into a cooler or fish bag so the fish is covered with the icy saltwater bath.
Thanks mate,
Now I know I've done more or less step one right. I'm normally on a ship with hungry crew crew for fresh fish, so icying is out of the question. Nothing will even get into the cooler before eaten.... its like 1. Strike a fish > 10 or more crew watching > fish landed > I do the cutting while someone else will be taking my rod looking forward to the next strike.
In that case, a sharp knife and good sharpening stones. When I was working at a sushi restaurant, we used to sharpen knives at an angle about 15 degrees. Took forever, but the edge lasted a whole lot longer between sharpenings. I think US knives are sharpened between 45 and 30 degrees.
I think that many knives is ground with a first and secondary edge, the first is like you say Bryan around 30-45 degrees and the secondary 15-17 degrees. But it depends on the blade thickness and the purpose of the knife. A longer thinner edge is more fragile so for multi purpose knives you usually try to keep that 15 degree edge as small as possible.
I use mainly a ceramic sharpener with two weels that gives you a persistent angle when sharpening. Works great. I know many people (chefs for instance) don't like those sharpeners but I guess I just don't have the skill to sharpen knives free hand.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention. I'm talking about Japanese Fish and sashimi knives that have a similar process as a samurai sword. Each knife runs about 30,000¥ and more.
First step (important):
http://www.spc.int/DigitalLibrary/Doc/FAME/Manuals/Blanc_05_Sashimi.pdf
Next, loin the tuna. There are hundreds of videos online for this. No bones should be involved. Don't forget the belly meat.
Quote from: day0ne on May 11, 2013, 08:27:53 PM
First step (important):
http://www.spc.int/DigitalLibrary/Doc/FAME/Manuals/Blanc_05_Sashimi.pdf
Next, loin the tuna. There are hundreds of videos online for this. No bones should be involved. Don't forget the belly meat.
Thanks mate. This is very informative.
The high end sushi knives I've seen had only one side of the blade sharpened too. (not double edged, they didn't flip the knife over when sharpening.
Bleed immediately, I make a shallow cut behind the pictorial fin on both sides and another on the tail, then stick the fish head down in a bleed bucket with a block of ice and saltwater for a few minutes. Then I make a 2" cut forward from the anus, use my finger to brake their waste tube, cut around the gills, grab the gills and give them a twist and pull to remove the guts. Remove the kidney around the collar and wash the fish both inside and out. Then fill the body cavity with ice, put the fish on ice and surround it with more ice. I sometimes put them in heavily iced saltwater to chill faster if the fish are large.
While I do have a yanagiba around 30,000¥ at home, I find them unsuitable for offshore purpose as they do rust rather easily.
I'm using a two s/s g-sakai for offshore. One smaller knife for gutting and a yanagiba for sashimi. The yanagiba is one side sharpen. Should I give the flat side a few brush when sharpening?
Keta,
As you mention "shallow cut" how shallow are we talking about? And what's the harm if I cut too deep?
I'm slowly getting the picture of preparing the fish for sashimi, anyone with step by step pictorial instruction for the next stage from deboning to serving sashimi please ;-)
For our 8-18 kg albacore 6-7mm hits the vein, when you hit it it's obvious. Deeper exposes meat to bacteria but it's the red meat there.
I'd just brush the back side of the knife with a steel to remove the burr. Nice knives are a joy, high quality sushi knives are a treasure.
When I make sashimi on the boat I just hack it off the fish with a clean and sharp ait knife, dip it in the ocean and enjoy it.
Quote from: Bryan Young on May 10, 2013, 04:41:47 PM
By far, bleeding and icing is a very probably the most important step. We immediately cut and pull the gills and toss the fish in a icy saltwater bath. Essentially filling a cooler with ice and pumping salt water into a cooler or fish bag so the fish is covered with the icy saltwater bath.
I could not open the PDF file in the posts so I do not know if this is covered. Tuna have the ability to shiver. If allowed to shiver after they are placed in the ice bath the shivering will produce heat even in an ice slurry. A wire or heavy piece of mono is inserted in a hole inside of the brain cavity and run down the spine to destroy the nerve. This action destroys the fish's ability to produce heat by shivering. I did it once and though I could not taste the difference, Japanese connoisseurs of sashimi can taste the difference. Also I did not do a side by side comparison. Dominick
Quote from: Keta on May 12, 2013, 04:50:04 PM
When I make sashimi on the boat I just hack it off the fish with a clean and sharp ait knife, dip it in the ocean and enjoy it.
You sure know how to make a man drool all over himself Lee...
;)
/Karl
My solution is easy, a hot grill and internal meat temp of 180 or so!
Raw fish= bait.
Ron
Quote from: noyb72 on May 14, 2013, 05:08:55 AM
Raw fish= bait.
I eat a lot of "bait", including herring that was right out of my bait net and still twitching. The last time I was in Eugene my friend that owns a small sushi restaurant made me try a special mackerel that was quite tasty, and they got me to try uni again after 45 years.
Ron, you are living on the wrong island if you don't eat sashimi or poke.
I will eat ceviche if it is at least over night in the fridge. Many have told me that some Poke is basically the same thing. Maybe some day.
This is the perfect island for me. Only place I know of that the potatoes are purple and you can find mango and coconut on the side of the road.
Ron
Nice! All we have here is road apples.
Raw fish= bait.
Ron
[/quote] X2
Personally, I like my fish to be rigger before eating it. Much too soft. And tuna from the ocean to the cutting board is too warm for my liking.
The ones I cut come out of the slush tank.
Lee,
I've ALMOST got this island laid out as a year round grocery store. I haven't hunted yet but their is pig and goat everywhere. I have seen plenty in more than huntable numbers. I have almost found enough wild fruit bearing trees to feed my family year round and their is always something to catch. The garden is going in now with lots of purple potatoes and onions, as well as the usual salad stuff and probably some peppers.
Their is no reason not to eat good in Hawaii.
Ron
Quote from: Bryan Young on May 14, 2013, 02:36:35 PM
Personally, I like my fish to be rigger before eating it. Much too soft. And tuna from the ocean to the cutting board is too warm for my liking.
Ahhh... so the right way to do it is to freeze the fish after gutting, before fillet it for sashimi.
Chilled. We normally chill it for a day before cutting it up. Less waist and mush.
joel, i would never doubt the word of a man holding a sharp knife...... ;D
Quote from: Joel.B on May 15, 2013, 03:12:43 PM
Former Chef here with some Sashimi experience from several places on the globe: I prefer fish that have been speared stone-dead or brought to boat quickly with over-kill sized tackle. They less they fight the better the flesh, same with hooved animals.
I try to give my sashimi fish a clean and private ice-bath, I dont want them crowded or smooshed in the hold with poopy/bloody ice, dont want any weight pressing on them nor do I want them contorted at all.
I will remove loins on the shore, wrap with paper and let them rest in the freezer a wee-bit before slicing. I also make sure my nails are short and clean, hands very clean, and I chill my hands/blade in bowl of icewater as i work. The heat from my hands melts the fat from the flesh.
All of the above sounds like a load-of-hoo, but you can absolutely see, feel and taste the difference.
As with any preparation, sharp knife is mandatory- mine is single edged finished on 3000grit whetstone and a glass rod.
Wow... this is some very serious pro info you are sharing ^^
I've no doubt that my cook onboard will stay away from me if I did the same.
---------------
If its not an industries secret, nnyone have some step by step picture for deboning and cutting tuna into sashimi?
Most of my catch are around 3-4 feet.
The purchaser went right for the belly fat.
Someone can buy my belly fat. I'm not sure how it would taste. hahahaha.
Brian,
In all seriousness, the next time you are in San Mateo, stop by Takahashi Market on So. Claremont, they make a wonderful Tuna belly Poke, or so says our Son's Girlfriend, she is from Hawaii (Waianae) and tells us it is some of the best she has had here in the States.
Wayne
Quote from: Joel.B on May 16, 2013, 04:37:18 PM
here is a good vid- not too fast so you can see how vs how-fast
This is about exactly how I break mine down too.....but there are about a million vids on the subject- watch as many as you can and use what works for you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHoOdsAuy6Y
Thanks for the link. I must be doing something wrong all the time removing belly bones with longnose plier.
Great store. See photo of inside of store at http://www.takahashimarket.com. Dominick
Suddenly I'm very hungry.
I really have to be careful of how I answer this due to my regulatory job but to say the least, I am a seafood processing subject matter expert and a Seafood HACCP instructor.
Bleed all of your fish immediately and get the internal temperature down to below 40F ASAP. Fish need to be bled, headed, gutted, washed and iced on the boat as soon as possible.
A saltwater slurry ice works best and the more ice the better. 10lbs of ice per 100lbs of fish in a controlled 32 degree room will only extract 18F of temperature from a fish and the timeframe hinges on the size of the fish. The larger the fish, the slower the time.
Obviously you need lots of ice to chill a large fish that is very hot after fighting and in hot ambient temperatures.
The biggest concern is that of pathogens on the surface of the fish. Fish get dragged on the deck that you walk on, pee on, throw garbage on, etc and finally the fish gets bled, headed and gutted on the same deck by someone who hasn't washed their hands and might be smoking a cigarette right after going to the bathroom in a bucket to boot.
This means the surface of the fish is CONTAMINATED with listeria, salmonella, E coli, etc.....
The video shows a man processing a fish with cloth gloves which hold pathogens and there was no surface pathogen rinse on the fish before processing.
You can get away with that if the fish is cooked but sushi/sashimi has not heat treatment for pathogen control.
For those who loin their fish on a boat and can't process THAT SAFELY, you need to wash your fish in fresh potable water and then soak the loin in a potable water bath containing approximately 25ppm of bleach and let it sit there for about 10 minutes at the dock or when you get home. Then rinse the loin in fresh water and take a thin layer off the surface, skin the fish and discard those pieces.
Now the remaining section has a drastically reduced pathogen load on the surface and is ready for ready to eat processing once you have cleaned, rinsed and sanitized your cutting surface once again. You should have done that as well before placing the bleach treated loin on it.
If you plan on using acidified rice, don't use brown rice as the acid can adequately penetrate and you run the risk of Bacillus cereus toxin formation in the rice. Also find a vinegar/rice ration that will give you a pH of 4.3 or less.
Last but not least, refrigeration of 40F or less is a must for the prevention of histamine formation (which can't be cooked out) and other pathogenic growth.
Also any fish species that is known to contain parasites (ie: wild salmon, flatfishes, king mackerel, etc) need to be frozen to kill parasites. The home freezer if set coldest might get you there. You need the fish to reach -4F and stay there continuously for 7 days. That will kill parasites. The faster the fish temperature drops, the smaller the ice crystals and the less damage is done to the fish when thawing for use. A big freezer with little in it can do much more that an freezer jam packed........
Anasakiasis is usually asymptomatic but why get sick?
Ron, you have some of the best bait in the world...from Papio/Ulua, Ono, Opah, Ahi, Aku, Oio,...
you should put that to music bryan. ::)
have u tried ike jime?
its the jap technique of dispatching your catch in the freshest and quickest way.
vital for sashmi! do look up the technique on youtube.
and of course when storing your tuna.... dun let it come into direct contact with e fish.... osmotic pressure will cozzz the fish meat to be mushy...
degut fish only when arriving home... this prevents further unnecessary contact with water
and of course a sharp knife..
have fun!
As jigmaster501 has stated, chilling as quickly as possible is very important to preserving the quality of the flesh. Especially with very large fish, putting ice only on the outside is insufficient. For the best quality, in addition to what's been previously stated, some people shove a large rod down the backbone of the fish as a heat sink to reduce core temperature faster than just by chilling outside alone, in addition to destroying the neural canal.
Fish that takes a long time to come up has what we call "burn". The flesh turns brownish, instead of a nice clear red, and is totally useless for sashimi. This is what typically happens when a large fish is taken on light tackle. The commercial guys are "meat fishermen" and do not use light gear. Either very heavy rods and reels (e.g., 300 lb test in the reels with drags locked), or longlines. Longline fish do not seem to be subjected to the burn, perhaps because they cool down after the initial bite/fight. The really heavy tackle guys bring up the fish so fast (matter of a few minutes) that the fish doesn't have a chance to generate much heat. The fish are spiked in the brain immediately, bled, gutted, and chilled in brine.
Cleanliness is essential. Do not wipe the fish on the outside and then use that same cloth/towel to wipe cut flesh. Wipe, or wash and wipe, the outside very well, and then cut. Do not apply any water to cut flesh. Always wipe with a clean towel/cloth. Clean the knife frequently. Do not use the same knife to cut the fish through the skin and to cut sashimi (different kinds of knife anyway).
I'm with Bryan. Chilled sashimi is better than immediately caught and warm. The texture and taste are better.
I know that's how guys cark tuna but it always seems wasteful to me. It seems like their is at least 5 pounds of fish in the head of that fish. I grew up scaling and gutting. When I started filleting the old man made me cut the back of the fish into 3 pieces and we would fry those too. I guess I just don't like seeing any meat wasted, we can't say their isn't as much as their used to be and then throw it away.
Ron
What makes you think the head is wasted? It's put to use also.
OK,
If it's used, great. I've just seen a lot of albacore heads just like that go over the side.
Ron
Quote from: Bryan Young on May 14, 2013, 02:36:35 PM
Personally, I like my fish to be rigger before eating it. Much too soft. And tuna from the ocean to the cutting board is too warm for my liking.
x2
uh...yeah, few of us tried that on our boat in fiji once.......ONCE ! :-[
....and i Loooove me some sashimi ....but straight outta the ocean..too warm and quivery... a few hours packed in the cooler is a different story though! ;D
Lots of fish make good sashimi. We ate ringtail(considered a nuisance) offshore one day and dang it was good, fresh caught Spanish mack and pompano is good to
I think the best way to treat an Ahi for sashimi is to:
1)Catch and land the fish very quickly, in order to avoid anerobic/lactic acid buildup/muscle burn
2)Pierce the main veins draining returning blood from the main muscles by making a picture cut with a small knife(such as a vitorinox) directly behind the pectoral fins.
3)Allow muscles to drain while fish remains calm and heart is pumping
4)Make a cut a minute or 3 later into the heart cavity, on either side of gills
5)Spike the fish, by inserting a metal spike into the brain to it's base within 3-4 mins of landing
6)Run a heavy piece of mono or wire from the base of the brain through the entire spinal cord to contract and relax all muscles
7)Gill and gut (or head and gut)
8)Get it cold fast, immersing in cold saltwater brine is the quickest
9)Once temp is down, pack in ice and keep chilled for 12-24hrs
10)Loin out
Other things to consider, whichay affect the quality of the end product, are to:
-Avoid gaffing the fish in the body
-Minimize bruising
-Avoid long fights/anerobic conditions
-Avoid undo stress on the animal
-Avoid using any fresh water
-If storing fish before final preparation, avoid exposing any of the flesh to the external environment, less cutting is better(a small slit at anus, and at each end of the gill arches is all that's needed.
You can use alternative methods for bleeding, just go str8 to spiking,spineing, gill/gut or dress or you can make cuts near the caudal peduncle (tail stock), but this tends to drain the coldest blood first in tunas. Sometimes on a fish that I have fought for a long time, I will simply make the bleeding cuts (behind pecs, under gills) while the exhausted fish is still in the water, and allow it to pump out blood (and some lactic acid/toxins that have built up), I then land, spike/spine/and brine. Not sure really what the best way of dealing with a 'burnt fish' is, but I am a strong proponent of getting it cool quickly. I like my sashimi fresh, but chilling it first will definately firm it up, and improve taste.
Just my 2 cents.
For some nice knives and sharpening tools/info go to: chefknivestogo.com . The owner is very informative FYI, Spyderco uses a steel named H1 (thats H One) that absolutely does not rust (have several models) that is very good for fishermen. There's a "limited production" folding fishing model in H1 called the "Catcherman" that you can find on ebay for about $150.
Carbon steel knives melt (an exaggeration, but rust badly) when exposed to salt water or water period. Stainless steel has a minium chromium content of 12% and the good knife makers wont consider a knife a stainless unless 13% chromium or more. Kershaw makes a decemt quality line of ss fishing knives. Sharpening is the key to knives. For thin/flexible blades used for sashimi and fillet's a 13 degree angle is quite common.
Carefull, dont get too caught up with knives (and sharpening tools). Heck, Im dying to get $300 of sharpening stones. You dont have to go that far but talk to the guy at chefknivestogo and then look arouund at his site (good prices on the ultimate/high end stuff that I like) and else where for a good sharpener (Apex, Wicked Edge,and some less costly alternatives).
Knives and sharpening are art forms,
Leo