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Preparing Freshly Caught Albacore: It's no fish tale, loining an albacore is easy! One of the keys is this -- you should allow a frozen albacore to thaw only partially before loining. The remaining ice crystals will make it much easier to cut. Then just follow these step-by-step instructions. |
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| Make a cut at a 45-degree angle behind the pectoral fin, from the lateral line to the top of the head. | To remove the first loin, cut to the backbone along the dorsal side of the lateral line from head to tail. | Make another cut to the backbone along the dorsal fin. |
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| Working from the head to the tail, slide fingers in between bone and loin along the cuts and gently separate the loin from the backbone using fluid motions. Lift out the loin. | To remove the belly loin, cut along the belly side of the lateral line. | Make a shallow cut diagonally from behind the pectoral fin to the tail, cutting around the belly cavity. Be sure to cut just through the skin. Remove the loin as in step 4 above. Turn the fish over and repeat steps 1-6 on the other side of the albacore. |
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There's a nice collection of albacore recipes at cooks.com |
| To skin each loin, place it skin side down at the edge of your cutting surface. Start the cut at a 45-degree angle at the tail end of the loin. Continue the cut, keeping the knife at a slight angle, while pulling the skin from the tail end. Discard skin. (Burying it under fruit trees or rosebushes is not a bad idea -- unless you have an excess of cats and/or raccoons in your neighborhood.) | Trim away any remaining dark meat and discard that. For better recovery, cut into loin cuts first and then trim the dark meat. | All you've got left to do now is decide whether to re-package and re-freeze parts of the albacore or cook it all. There's a good collection of cooking tips and recipes at albatuna.com and ecofish.com |