steaking a bass

[redcrbbr]

I think i may have been trying to make the steaks too close to the head. Steaks were easier to cut the closer I got to the dorsal. It did do a job on my fillet knife edge. So better weapon next time.

[Ed B]

Redcrbbr,
Here's how the professionals did it when I worked at Harwichport Fish Co.

Step 1. Scale and gut the beast

Step 2. With your fillet knife, make cuts every inch or so (however thick you want the steaks) along the body of the fish. Cut into the flesh only as deep as the back bone but do not cut through the backbone.

Step 3. Get a big heavy knife, clever type or similar, and put it in each cut you made in step 2 and hit the big knife with a mallet to break through the back bone.

Step 4. Finish each cut the rest of the way through the fish with your fillet knife.

Viola, you have just steaked the bass.

An alternative, which someone recently showed me a couple of years ago is to butterfly the thick sections of your fillets. That worked out very well also.

Ed

[striperman36]

You need a good cleaver, I also put a piece of wood on the back to hit with the mallet to avoid mangling the cleaver.
Also use a steel on the cleaver as after every few cuts keeps it sharp.