blood meat

[curtisce]

With white bass season on or near just wanted to throw this out. Whats your feeling on blood meat. I love catching whites in the spring. They are the first to show up in numbers and they yeild a good size fillet. what to do if the blood meat, leave it be or cut it out. If so how?Personally I try to get as much as possible removed. I typically cut eah fillet down the lateral line and remove the red from the edge. That seems to get rid of the majority of it. It leaves one nice size piece but the lower piece is smaller. What about the thin film layer that covers more of the fillet. I'll try and skim it off with a fillet knife without sacrificing too mush white stuff.  I know a master filleter who says he can tilt his knife at just the right angle when removing the skin the the majority of thr blood meat will stay with the skin. If I was just so gifted.I bleed my fish yesterday and that lightened the blood meat considerably.

[DADAKOTA]

I find it easier to do the fine work with an extremely sharp non-electric fillet knife.  Not a lot different than taking the silver skin off of deer meat.

[Dutch]

When I fillet whites, I only keep the part above the lateral line.  The critters get the rest, which isn’t much meat.  I am left with real nice white, tasty, fish sticks.  Then I rinse them well and chill them until the meat is firm.  Like Dadakota I use my old Rapala fillet knife and cut the red completely off.  Then I rinse them well and put them in the refrigerator over night before eating or freezing them.

That may sound a little over the top but to me the red is absolutely NASTY TASTING.

[Seth]

12 minutes ago, DADAKOTA said:

I find it easier to do the fine work with an extremely sharp non-electric fillet knife.  Not a lot different than taking the silver skin off of deer meat.

This right here. Rip the sides off the with the electric knife, but use the non-electric fillet knife for the finishing work. I can trim red meat and rib with a non-electric knife a lot better than I can with the electric one.

Whites are good eating, but I prefer crappie over them simply because of the extra work that is involved with prepping the white filets for eating. I definitely wouldn't turn them down though if I get into a mess of them.

[Terrierman]

When it comes to freshwater fish for human consumption the rule is very simple:  If it's not white it's not right.  Even a little of the red meat ruins it all.

[curtisce]

2 minutes ago, Dutch said:

When I fillet whites, I only keep the part above the lateral line.  The critters get the rest, which isn’t much meat.  I am left with real nice white, tasty, fish sticks.  Then I rinse them well and chill them until the meat is firm.  Like Dadakota I use my old Rapala fillet knife and cut the red completely off.  Then I rinse them well and put them in the refrigerator over night before eating or freezing them.

That may sound a little over the top but to me the red is absolutely NASTY TASTING.

I'm about the same. My Rapala knife is actually an Ozark Trail from Wmart. sharpens up just the same. Most of the time I make cerviche so everything gets cut to small cube so I use the lower section. fresh I'm not sure if the blood meat is nasty. If it is frozen for awhile it does seem to affect the meat.

[Quillback]

I cut the red meat out on whites, stripers, and hybrids.  Usually when you get into those species you get enough of them that you can cut the red meat out and still have plenty of fish.  

[nomolites]

2 hours ago, Quillback said:

I cut the red meat out on whites, stripers, and hybrids.  Usually when you get into those species you get enough of them that you can cut the red meat out and still have plenty of fish.  

I do the same, although I have an electric and I can shave the red meat off easy peasy with no waste.  Some fish have a deeper lateral line and I will bisect as mentioned above and shave the red from each edge with very little waste.  With hybrids and stripers there is quite a bit of meat below the line although I agree with Dutch that there isn’t much there on an average or small white.

Mike

[luckycraft]

On 3/5/2021 at 9:24 AM, curtisce said:

With white bass season on or near just wanted to throw this out. Whats your feeling on blood meat. I love catching whites in the spring. They are the first to show up in numbers and they yeild a good size fillet. what to do if the blood meat, leave it be or cut it out. If so how?Personally I try to get as much as possible removed. I typically cut eah fillet down the lateral line and remove the red from the edge. That seems to get rid of the majority of it. It leaves one nice size piece but the lower piece is smaller. What about the thin film layer that covers more of the fillet. I'll try and skim it off with a fillet knife without sacrificing too mush white stuff.  I know a master filleter who says he can tilt his knife at just the right angle when removing the skin the the majority of thr blood meat will stay with the skin. If I was just so gifted.I bleed my fish yesterday and that lightened the blood meat considerably.

Fish and chips