Thread: Fillet or Whole?

Tried it both ways........fried whole you have to deal with picking around the bones and be very careful......time consuming.......when I start eating delicious crappie I do not want anything to slow me down......so, it's fillets cut up into small pieces (2") for me....more batter (more better-take your pick)that way.....

... that I've noticed, on whole fish vs fillets, is on "fresh" fish (as in fresh caught, never frozen). There is a difference in the taste, and it seems to come from the skin. The skin seems to add a sweet nutty flavor. On frozen fish, it doesn't seem to come thru as much.

While it would add a little extra effort & time to preparing your fish .... you "could" scale the fish & then filet them. This would add the skin flavor to the mix, while leaving off much of any chance of a bone problem.

If you get proficient enough, with a filet knife or elec. knife, the "wasted" meat will be minimal. Many people will sacrifice that little bit of meat, for the absence of any bones. A few extra seconds of scraping the scales off, will give you an idea of what the difference in tastes are between the two (whole vs fillet) .. so you can decide if you really want to try "whole".

If you are of the mind to cover your fish with heavily flavored coatings, I'm not sure the nutty flavor of the skin is going to be noticable. I generally only use plain yellow corn meal, as a coating on my fried fish, and it adds no particular "taste" to the fish ... so the sweet nutty flavor of the skin is noticable, to me, when I cook them with skin on.

Even if you do try whole/scaled fish .... it depends alot on how you cut the fish, as to whether or not you're really going to save that much meat vs filleting. Many people cut the head off in an almost 90deg angle, behind the gill plate In doing so, you're losing as much meat, if not more, than what you would lose by filleting. Even though I filet fish with an electric knife, I angle my cut around the gill plate to where I make my cut into the top (back) of the fish ... where the knife blade reaches a point on the fish, just about above the eyes. Then, when I start to filet down the fish's side ... I just roll the knife blade under that flap of meat, then level the knife blade so that I'm cutting against the backbone & just against/along the top fin. There's "maybe" a thin line of meat left on the carcass ... usually less than the thickness of a dime. I feel I've more than made up for that, by the 1-2" flap that I saved by angling the knife farther towards the front of the fish.

... cp

I fillet mostly , but fish more moist and flavorfull whole. It helps if you scale and leave skin on fillets.

knowing where majority of the bones are, eating them whole is what I prefer. The larger ones are either fillet or butterflied Bluegills are mostly fried hole

Originally Posted by NIMROD

I fillet mostly , but fish more moist and flavorfull whole. It helps if you scale and leave skin on fillets.

Eating the fish off the bone doesnt slow you down any if you already know where the bones are when youre filleting 'em. And...cooking 'em whole adds alot more "crispies" on the edges of the whole fish. I prefer cooking fish @ 9"-10" whole and filleting all the bigger ones. Whole fried fish has to cook a tad slower and longer to get 'em done. Makes cooking time a bit longer since the pot doesnt hold as many, but are better tasting to me. For scaling, I use a basket you pull behind the boat. Cut off heads, split the bellies and toss 'em in. When cleaned all that is left is rinsing off the lake water and mealing.

I like fillets best had it both ways