De-Boning Asian Carp (and other carp/suckers)

Simple video of the basics of removing the "y-bones" from fillet of Silver Carp. I do not recommend using a fillet knife, but rather a rigid blade as shown. Note only top half of fillet is demonstrated; repeat on bottom half which is nearly identical. Removal of fillet from body is not shown as it is identical to any other freshwater fish. The key is locating the short leg of the "y" and gently slicing alongside it, then using a gentle sawing motion to scrape the meat from the long leg of the "y." If you accidentally cut through a bone, simply stop and pull/cut it out before moving on. Yes, it takes a little time, but remember this is slowed down for demonstration with pauses for clarity (and possible future added commentary), to check camera angle on notebook, etc. and demonstrates the way to get the maximum amount of meat with minimal waste. Technique will be the same for all members of carp family or sucker family. Silvers and Bigheads are easiest while Grass Carp, Buffalo, etc. will be slightly more difficult for beginners due to the more rounded body and greater curvature of the "y-bones." Is it worth the extra effort? Yes, for frying, but for grilling or baking leaving the bones in helps hold the meat together and they are not difficult to remove, whereas with frying the bones tend to get stuck to the brown crust formed while cooking. Fish shot below Barkley Dam, and is the highest quality fish meat in the lakes/rivers. Be sure to trim most of the brown fat or else it will taste like nasty lake catfish. If you like the strong, fishy lake catfish taste, leave the fat on. However, keep in mind the fat is where any toxins will accumulate over time.
Also a test of new Gopro Session camera at lowest setting (720p, 30fps). 5/24/2016

[@melrosehawkins8294]

Holy crap. Talk about getting the most out of a fillet. Takes a little time but nicely done.

[@TripDogg5]

Very nice deboning technique with minimal waste! Great to see boneless carp is achievable and people can still use the bony leftover part for stock if they didn't want to waste it.

[@kitchensalive]

Very nice. I do this with grass carp. A very sharp knife is needed!! People don't realize how good these fish are!

[@kjellkod2]

What's your favorite way of cooking them?

[@PMJ4EVERR]

They are very nutritious and have a lot of Omega 3 and very expensive in Asian markets b/c you have to buy them whole so if you have a 15# you can make an easy $100-150. If you have a 100# carp thats $600-1000 Chinese ppl will steam or pan fry them and then top it with a soy sauce garlic green onion vinegar sugar mix. And then use the head and bones as fish stock. Nothing is wasted. The calcium in the bones are good for you. BigHeads are their favorite. In Korea Carps were only eaten by kings and noblemen.

[@duanebrown3877]

Best tutorial available. Good camera work and angles. No unnecessary jibber jabber. Nicely done! Your hand work reminds of BOLTR's. Ave's vidjeos make a complex process look simple.

[@jonpeterson1468]

Superb job,best method I’ve seen yet. thank you for posting

[@csabavarady4711]

Hi everybody, we in Hungary love to eat this invasive fish in various forms of dishes. One more tip: make sousage from this fishmeat adding some bacon to it. Smoke it, dry it for some weeks. Delicious.

[@jakemitchell1671]

Excellent technique, and don't underestimate the importance of discarding every bit of that red flesh. That's the main reason people don't like carp. The person who prepares it just cuts it up into steaks and then tries to cover the flavor with a dozen spices. No need for that if you'll get rid of ALL that red stuff. You're left with white delicious flesh that's as good as any freshwater fish.

[@wherron100]

Nice video love his method of deboning!

[@NcScbeach1]

I am blown away by the filet and deboning skills! I never thought that I would consider eating Carp until today! Also That Knife is amazing!

[@JohnSmith-td7hd]

I love the quiet simplicity. It's both instructive and meditative :)

[@charlestromblee1114]

i completely disagree. I've now watched several deboning carp videos, and they're all different. Plus, without audio to tell you what's going on, they're useless (and I think many might be wasteful of edible portions.)

[@johnvanegmond1812]

Nice knife work brother. Thanks for the demonstration.

[@kennethlansdell8409]

Your method of deboning will help me a lot 👍

[@keitharoo1962]

Awesome! I'm gonna try this. Thanks!!!

[@darrin2425]

Thanks for making this video. I am definitely going to try it!

[@geoffb108]

It's great to see how to debone carp. Thank you for this demonstration. The problem is that most people never even clean or fillet any fish and only buy bone less frozen fish. People would buy frozen carp but ,the name would have to be changed and the cost of filleting added to the equation. Invent the automatic fish filleting machine and you would make your millions and solve a lot of world hunger.

[@luftgewhrschutz7099]

Guess this will work on common carp as well. Thanks for sharing.

[@trashfishtvoregon7290]

Great video thanks for the upload bro

[@linzierogers7479]

Best illustration yet.

[@ronnierob]

awsome vid.....this method can also be done for pike...very smooth deboning.!!! luv it

[@Xyz-gf5op]

Interestingly in Asia their mindset is it is a fish with bones so we will eat it according meaning use hands or chopsticks to clear bones before eating ;).

[@jakemitchell1671]

Yep, in Europe too. They learn to clear bones as kids and don't think anything of it. In the US we're just too spoiled. Most young people won't even eat bluegill because they have to deal with a few bones. Americans want filets or nothing!

[@ronmoore6598]

Great video and overview! Thanks!

[@TheGoshia]

Great job and little waste 👍🏻

[@comfychairstudios746]

Nicely done!

[@rougarou1559]

nice work

[@El_Gallo_de_Pesca97]

Nicely done, what I normally do is heat the meat in hot water and peel the bones out one by one. don't know if this works for a common carp.

[@johnbrakingground]

ASMR should be in the description and you would probably get 100K views.

[@micajahnordyke5760]

I just smoke the fish it falls off the bone

[@serdargurdal9422]

Bravo, amazing

[@AnnaAnnaYes]

Great job.! I would grind up the bones for my Cats!

[@christopherpandolfi1229]

Well done

[@sjvche7675]

Interesting technique, does the heavy blade help ?

[@jordanholland5943]

I believe it does.

[@JasonSmith-qx3zh]

Helps the knife do the work why you gain the feel for the bones and not cut thru.

[@trashfishtvoregon7290]

Oh will this work on suckers? I know your title says it will but just wondered if you have tried this method on them

[@jordanholland5943]

Yes

[@byrongreen2167]

Just out of curiosity Friend, was that fillet frozen beforehand??…it looks like it….very impressive video!!!

[@konstantinivanov1986]

Approved proper way to do it. Also it tastes better than catfish if you do it right.

[@DhanrajLaishram]

Is ASMR video or?

[@maxsmeraldi]

Great!!!!!

[@Siegerinjesus]

Godlike

[@samsadowitz1724]

I know this is an old video, but is there a way to remove the bones like this with the skin still on the fillet? I want to try smoking them for better flavor.

[@jordanholland5943]

I don't really understand what you are trying to do...but the short answer is "no." You could remove some of the meat, but not all of it. If you had a large fish, say 50lbs or bigger, you could end up with decent sized fillets just using one side. But I don't really see why you would want to leave the skin on...It could be smoked after cutting out the y-bones. Asian carp are not really the type of fish people usually smoke. Smoking is typically done on oily fish, like salmon or common carp. Smoking is too labor intensive and time consuming for me to do--you have to devote so much time to be there to take care of it and feed the fire. Good luck!

[@samsadowitz1724]

Jordan Holland I was asking since i am assuming that both common carp and silver carp have the same bone structure. You know how in some specialty shops slice lox with the skin on it or how whitefish are cut into chunks after smoking? Thats what i want to try doing to carp.

[@jordanholland5943]

I looked up lox and whitefish and I am unfamiliar with either. I don't believe the salmon has bones and the whitefish seem pretty small, so if they do they may soften while being smoked or brined. You may try pickling them. Pickling dissolves the bones. You might smoke them and then pickle them, or even add liquid smoke to the pickling solution. I don't know how the skin would do being pickled. Common carp skin is pretty thick in my experience. It may stay tough, I don't know. The skin and fat under it is where the toxins accumulate and tastes bad, so I have never had a desire to keep it on the meat.

[@samsadowitz1724]

Jordan Holland Salmon have pin bones that are usually removed using tweesers or pliers before smoking or curing. Whitefish also have pin bones above the ribcage that are sorted out as they are eaten or flaked off. As for the smoking with the bloodline still on the fillet, depending on the wood used, the smoke will overpower the foul flavor of the meat. That has been my experience so far. A thick and durable skin is actually desirable in smoking since not only will the presentation not be good, but if hot smoking, it will keep the meat together for the duration of the process. The brine i typically use will not break down the bones because it is a simple saltwater solution using kosher salt (not iodized salt) and sugar.

[@schoolboy405]

Bit of asmr in this vid

[@chateacolney4783]

Whew, that's too much work

[@chriss8206]

Let us know how it tastes. Thumbs up for good thumbs down for bad. Can you compare the taste to any other species.

[@kevinlawrence3105]

Tedious to the maximum extent.

[@MyBigAzzPimple]

Im asian and ill tell you how you can eat the asian carp and not have to worry about the bones in 5 easy steps. 1. You fillet the fish. 2. Cut up your favorite herbs. 3. You dice up the fillet carp into thump size. 4. you throw your herbs and dice up carp into a blender and blend it until its perfect blended. 5. Heat up the oil and throw it in until cook.. Bam! No bone you have to worry about... If you tried it reply back please...

[@fair2guy]

**moist scraping**

[@keithkarbel2000]

More work than picking blue crabs. But hey, if you have the time and the hunger, why not?

[@Jay-tk7ib]

I would think you could put that bony meat in a grinder and then make carp balls, like you can with a buffalo.

[@donniechilton1582]

Looks like too much work to me........

[@youtuub]

looks more like T bones than Y bones

[@jordanholland5943]

Must be the camera..they do in fact look like a lower case y.

[@serdargurdal9422]

This iş really filleting

[@LifeIsGoodThankYouGod]

Thank you..... this is why people do not want to eat the asian carp... too much work.

[@chriss8206]

Talking helps for instructional videos. Subtitles works well also

[@UnLikeU]

So do eye glasses, contacts, & better vision... Guy made a GREAT VIDEO. Where is yours?

[@jakefrumst8farm510]

they are not bottom feeders.. do your research.. these are the fish that jump out of the water. they are near the surface

[@greatnortherntroll6841]

A little narration might have helped...

[@YD-uq5fi]

Why does everyone waste the red meat? That is the best part. Well, I hope you at least fed it to your cat.

[@jordanholland5943]

The red meat is the fatty meat. It is terrible tasting from the fish I have tasted here, though different fish from different waters can taste very different. It is also the place in the fish where toxins such as lead and PCB's accumulate. The dams here are not far from the Ohio River which is pretty polluted, and I know many people do not eat fish from it. I do let my dog have some because he likes it, but not too much because I don't know for sure if it's completely safe.

[@flyrog07]

Bleeck! Fishy taste and that is where most of the toxins reside if any present.

[@charlessneed793]

all that red meat on the backside you got to cut out real nasty!!!

[@PMJ4EVERR]

I think people are better off steaming it, then flaking off the bones and making fishcakes.

[@dananbutler7800]

Ya know you can describe what the hell you are doing so we can follow along!

[@matthewjacobs141]

8 minutes to debone one fillet...I can understand why they are not a popular eating fish

[@vicbanks9079]

ps gonna catch me one of them and fry or steam the whole damn thing. Way too much work.

[@konadude50]

RECIPE FOR COOKING CARP: 1. Place carp on a wooden board. 2. Season the carp to your liking. 3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 4. Bake the carp along with the board for 25 minutes. 5. Take out both from oven, throw the carp away...and eat the board. Bon appétit! 😜

[@artonodarmodjo6154]

Dude, just fry it and flake the meat of the bones. Ha

[@davidnesbit7949]

To much work! Put chunks of that shit in a good grinder,grind the hell out of it,patty it up In your meal or flour of choice, salt,pepper,garlic, fry that shit up into crispy McShitfish nuggets!👍🤔