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Hi all, bin smoking a few years now & on my mark4 smoker.

I seem to be smoking more & more these days & my question is, so i can fit more salmon sides in the smokes (up to 12) how do you fillet salmon & leave the collar bone on so you can hang on a hook?

Looked on utube but nobody leaves the collar on.

Tried hanging from the skin but a kg of fish ends up in the sawdust by the morning.

Anybody know of a supplier other than Tesco 1/2 price sale at £5kg?

Thanks in advance

I've never done it as I use racks but I'd have thought that it's a case of starting with the knife on the head side of the collar bone (as against the tail side in conventional filleting).

There's an industry website with vids of guys filleting all sorts of fish in different ways but I can't for the life of me find it at the moment.

Phil

Found it:

http://www.filleting-fish.com/atlantic-salmon

You see where he goes in to the tail side of the fin and gills. Well, I imagine that you just cut to the head side of them so that you include the collar bone in the fillet.

...but I may be wrong!

May be of interest to you:-

http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/tan/x5886e/x5886e01.htm

Regards Gazza.

Hi Fenman

Ref Salmon prices - fill your boots at Tesco. I buy a lot of salmon from my supplier in Scotland and have done so for a number of years but even in volume I cant get anywhere near that price. However my salmon do tend to be bigger (3/4 D cut)

Macro have an "offer on at the moment as well but even they are over £5 a KG.

Cheers WW

Get your fishmonger to clean & scale the salmon.

Lay the fish on a surface with the belly pointing away from you. Using a large, sharp knife make a downwards cut just behind the gills till the blade hits the backbone. Turn the blade towards the tail and with a slight sawing motion follow the backbone all the way to the tail. When the fillet is removed, you should have the collar bone still attached at the top. Repeat for the other fillet.

Trim away fatty belly meat, fins & remove the pin bones with pliers.

Get a trussing needle and some meat string and stitch two loose loops around the collar bones. See pic. Use these loops to hang fillets on hooks or rails in your smoker.

<a href="http://s957.photobucket.com/albums/ae52/realcoolchris/?action=view&amp;current=IMG_0139.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i957.photobucket.com/albums/ae52/realcoolchris/IMG_0139.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

I've hung fillets up to 1.5Kg each using this method.

Hi Fenman,
I always used to leave the collar bone on a side so I could hang it for smoking. I used 3 stainless hooks made from 316, 1/16 welding wire.
Worked perfectly, I also used the realcoolchris method with out any problems.
Use a basket below the fillets to catch any that drop.
Best Regards,
Jan. Brisbane.

I tried hanging salmon fillets once. I won't do it again. The meat stretched and got a very loose texture, making it impossible to slice afterwards.

I tend to use some thin guage cable ties around the tail end of the fillet which if you pull them tight enough will hold the fillet and allow you to hang from a second tie looped through.

It also removed the issue of metal and salt in contact during the drying phase.

K

You can split it down the backbone on one side. You can leave the head on and split it with the rest of the fish. The meat around the brain is very nice. Hanging is generally better than racks. When you can pull the backbone out with a gentile pull, it's redy. Any fresh water fish needs salt. That's how I do it, but I'm sure there are many good methods.