"IKI JIME" . . .

[ez2cdave]

"IKI JIME" . . .

http://www.ikijime.com/[/b]

[Bryan Young]

We call that spiking the fish.  We normally use an ice-pick.

[jigmaster501]

The classical ike jime is passing a wire down the spinal column of the fish. This severs the nerves and stops impulses from the spinal column.

One has to be careful with the classical ike jime for sushi, sashimi, ceviche style fish as there is a great potential to introduce pathogens up the spinal column and into the fish that won't be eliminated with cooking.

This tool will definitely kill the fish quickly which will aid in maintaining a better quality fish.

Breaking the gills and rapidly dropping internal temperatures to <40F is essential for high quality and safe seafood. If the fish can be cleanly gutted and rinsed, the temps will drop much faster.

[swill88]

Great post and video...

The pdf poster is great.

I want to improve killing & meat prep for chinook, ling, rocks, yellowtail, albacore & other west coast varieties. Would be nice to have the detailed kill info on these species. The Aussie names are so different - maybe just a translation would help.

The past few years I started to bring a bag of ice on my party boat trips and toss it in the burlap sack. Figured it couldn't hurt.
Think I'll start quick killing and bleeding too.

[Steve-O]

Neat website and info. I will print out the pdfs, too.

Bonk and bleed is a must for my eating fare. Always has been and it does make a big diff. A good rap to the noggin followed by spearing/severing the gills through the gillplate while the heart is still bleeding and pumps out the blood. Some fish need a cut on the tail as well. Sharks, if harvested, need a whole nother level...beheading asap and getting them bled out, then soaked to remove and neutralize urea buildup. They pee through their skin. 

OP- thanks for sharing

[ez2cdave]

OP- thanks for sharing

You are quite welcome !

[Dominick]

For those of you interested in this subject see this study.  Clear and informative.  Dominick

http://www.spc.int/DigitalLibrary/Doc/FAME/Manuals/Blanc_05_Sashimi.pdf

[jigmaster501]

This study discusses the ability to provide excellent quality. The difference in quality is night and day. The biggest problem that the commercial fishing boats who harvest fish for uncooked consumption are natural pathogens present in the water and the pathogens introduced from sanitary practices on the vessel. The use of antimicrobials especially when sliding wire or monofilament into the fish is necessary to prevent the inoculation of a theoretically sterile interior of a fish. (outside of the intestinal cavity)

Also the use of antimicrobials and the rapid drop in internal temperature will drastically slow down the spoilage microorganism and extend the quality of your fish by days.

What I like to do is break the gills of my fish, place them in a barrel of water that you run a hose in frequently to get rid of the blood and keep it cold and then place the fish on ice and water to rapidly cool. Keeping them straight help when the fish go in rigor and the fish need to be filleted at the end of the trip. Bending a fish in rigor will cause gaping and tearing of fibers and ruin your quality.

The study references the RSW systems which are good and many of them use a salt brine for chilling as the freezing point of the brine is much lower and thus removes more heat energy, much faster.

[ez2cdave]

I found an interesting article a couple of hours ago . . . They did taste and other comparisons, too . . . Interesting stuff !

http://www.cookingissues.com/index.html%3Fp=1802.html

[Tightlines667]

BTW the vast majority of Ahi landed commercially here in HI are treated this way.  I have discussed this in a few other threads.

[Steve-O]

This thread and the links have been MOST informative. I will be applying some new learned techniques on my Alaska trip fish this fall. That is my annual "meat trip" and over that last few years I have been taking much better care in processing the fish for best results. This brings it up a notch and can see these steps used on Salmon, Rockfish, Cod, Halibut or whatever I catch and keep to improve the quality. We've always bonked and bled our fish but sometimes not taken the best care of them between the bleed out and the freezer.

[jigmaster501]

It might be hard up in Alaska to get chemicals to rinse and/or soak your fish with but if you can get ice that is treated with an antimicrobial from a fish house or something to take on the boat with you, it will pay off. You can always do the plain bleach trick using a cap of bleach per 4 gallons of water to dip your bled fish in prior to icing. Once it gets a bit dirty or you go 2 hours, make a new solution.

Eviscerate cleanly and don't spill guts everywhere. They harbor spores of Clostridium botulinum (especially the marine strain Type E which is non proteolytic and doesn't produce a smell). Rinse out the cavity and scrape out the red section along the spine. That is the kidney and contains provides a rapid medium for spoilage that most don't think about.

You might spend a bit of time doing all this and not catch as much fish but the "meat" that you bring home will be of a higher quality and last longer.....

[Steve-O]

It might be hard up in Alaska to get chemicals to rinse and/or soak your fish with but if you can get ice that is treated with an antimicrobial from a fish house or something to take on the boat with you, it will pay off. You can always do the plain bleach trick using a cap of bleach per 4 gallons of water to dip your bled fish in prior to icing. Once it gets a bit dirty or you go 2 hours, make a new solution.

Eviscerate cleanly and don't spill guts everywhere. They harbor spores of Clostridium botulinum (especially the marine strain Type E which is non proteolytic and doesn't produce a smell). Rinse out the cavity and scrape out the red section along the spine. That is the kidney and contains provides a rapid medium for spoilage that most don't think about.

You might spend a bit of time doing all this and not catch as much fish but the "meat" that you bring home will be of a higher quality and last longer.....

Great advice! thanks, JM501. I will be land and kayak based for the most part. Silvers in both salt and fresh from shore casting or bait soaking and then jigging around the kelp beds off the kayak. Might get lucky and do a day charter. Will definitely process each fish as they're caught as cleanly as possible and onto ice asap. We always scrape the kidney out.

[LLCC]

We do ike jime to the fish that we want to take home. I find that the fish quality is better with ike jime and spinal chord destruction, than simply bleeding the fish. We fish on kayaks so Ice is too much of a luxury to carry along since we tend to catch and release our fish. Without Ice, ike jime'd fish tend to keep better in sunny Singapore.

Here's an Ike Jime'd Blacktip Grouper (Aka Hata) to share:

Caught at 2pm, it was only put into the freezer when we got home at 6pm. Then after 6 days in the freezer, thawed for 2 days to Gyotaku. It was then kept in the refrigerator to age for 3-4 days before I sashimi the fish. We had another one sashimi on the evening we caught it - it didn't have enough time to age, and the meat was without flavour and umame unless soy sauce was liberally used.

I think it is the spinal chord destruction and bleeding that enable the quality to be preserved. After spinal chord destruction, the fish are all limp and relaxed.

Best,

LL

[swill88]

Umai!