Deboning Whole Trout
- Thread starter WyoDoug
- Start date
I do it all the time, have been for over 50 yrs.
That is the way I was taught to eat Trout.
Even on big trout the pin bones come off the spine no matter how gently you try to pull the flesh off.
MITCHMO
Well-known member
Not 100% answering your question but…..I’ve cooked a lot of trout whole over a fire in foil and in a pan. Once the trout is bigger than about 18 inches I always fillet. I NEVER LEAVE BONES IN THE FILLET. I can’t eat fish that has pin bones in it. Drives me crazy.
If cooking whole, once cooked, peel skin back and pull apart with two forks gently at the seam in the fillet. If the meat doesn’t come right off, it’s probably undercooked. I usually use foil wrap so the steaming helps soften the meat. The two forks, one holding one pulling really works well.
If cooking as fillets, carve ribs out, peel tail section off skin from vent back. Take the tip of the knife and make a shallow cut along each side of the pin bones. You can feel the tip of them poking through but can be hard to see. Then use the tip of the knife to cut down to skin keeping in mind that the pin bones tip towards the spine. The knife should be tipped accordingly. It normally takes a couple passes down each side to get to the skin. If you push to hard and cut all at once, you risk cutting the bones.
Once cut trough, hold onto skin from tail and skin the rest. Each fillet will be three pieces. No bones, no skin. Cut out grey line and it will be great. I’ve done thousands of trout this way and it’s my favorite. I’m sure others have good methods but this is how I roll with brookies, browns, and Lakers.
Dang now I’m hungry
If cooking whole, once cooked, peel skin back and pull apart with two forks gently at the seam in the fillet. If the meat doesn’t come right off, it’s probably undercooked. I usually use foil wrap so the steaming helps soften the meat. The two forks, one holding one pulling really works well.
If cooking as fillets, carve ribs out, peel tail section off skin from vent back. Take the tip of the knife and make a shallow cut along each side of the pin bones. You can feel the tip of them poking through but can be hard to see. Then use the tip of the knife to cut down to skin keeping in mind that the pin bones tip towards the spine. The knife should be tipped accordingly. It normally takes a couple passes down each side to get to the skin. If you push to hard and cut all at once, you risk cutting the bones.
Once cut trough, hold onto skin from tail and skin the rest. Each fillet will be three pieces. No bones, no skin. Cut out grey line and it will be great. I’ve done thousands of trout this way and it’s my favorite. I’m sure others have good methods but this is how I roll with brookies, browns, and Lakers.
Dang now I’m hungry
WyoDoug
Well-known member
This I do when I fillet but it does not answer the question in the OP. There are times I like to cook trout whole which I usually do with skillet sized trout or when I want to bake or grill them. Rib and pin bones drive me nuts when I eat fish and no matter what I do, I nearly always get a mouthful if I don't debone. Them pesky pin bones though are harder to debone because of the angle you need to go at. I ordered some tweezers specifically made for pulling fish bones and going to try that method and see if I can pull them without pulling too much meat with it. I like to cook skillet size trout whole, lightly breaded and stuffed with things like butter, onions, garlic, twig of cilantro, lemon or lime and that. Anything bigger than electric skillets I fillet and cut into individual serving sizes. Removing the bones for that purpose is quite easy.
MITCHMO
Well-known member
Gotcha, I always end up with a pile of big chunks after I debone with the dual forks but that’s not ideal for serving more than 1-2 ppl. Kind of like “here’s a pile of fish pieces”.
We cooked a LOT of these doing that and no pin bones but we all sorts ate our own trout in the aluminum foil so we didn’t have to cut up and share.
WyoDoug
Well-known member
That is the size I like to wrap in foil head on and stuffed, exactly what I like to do. Just hate picking bones out of my mouth eating them so found ways to remove them. Trout cooked over a campfire is something I and my hunting pals do every hunt we do. We always have fishing gear when we go hunting LOL.
