Only takes a minute to scale a small fish. We'll worth it.

No way, unless you fillet a lot slower than me.

Off

To each his/her own. I prefer scaling and making fillets and eating skin-on except for burbot and catfish.

Jack

Love the skin on. Just like a seasoned potato. I know friends who are from European countries who also toast and brown the fins , crunch them like candy. I like that too. Seasoned just right.

The secret to life......Buttah .

I prefer scaled. Fried crisp, hard to beat. My kids do too, always request me to leave skin on fish. Some fish are skinned.

My favorite salt water fish to scale and leave skin on are black perch, sea bass, speckled trout, and flounder.

skin off

My great grandfather used to eat the fins like that and loved them.

Yes ADC I fillet a lot slower than you

I maybe should get me one of those fancy electric knives

do you have a video of the rib removal?

No, but its pretty simple. Just use a little 4" Rapala fillet knife and cut right around them. Typically my wife cuts out the ribs for me. We can fillet 50 crappies in under 20min., faster if we're in a hurry. After 30 years we have a pretty good system. Oh, and yes the electric knife is awesome. And FWIW we still have scales all over the shop. lol

For me, this is especially true for crappie. Without the skin on, crappie tastes like water to me. Skinned crappie is a bit on the mushy side. With skin on? Now we're talking. More flavor and crispier.

I have a stainless steel loop type scaler you just scrub each side for a few passes and it is done.
a bit faster than a spoon , or back of a knife, but both work

I go over the ribs , I tried cutting the ribs the other day on one it took me longer to get the ribs out than going over the ribs with the knife
but that is how I have always done it so it may just be practice.

Wife caught me supper Sunday evening and I just fillet them. I occasionally do some fish just scaling them. But not so much any more as years ago. My father in-law used to scale small panfish. My mother in law always had to check his work because leave scales. Lmao






Mac

"Never Forget Which Way Is Up!"

If someone is cooking my fish and leaves skin on or bones in, we’re fighting!

Isn't there some kind of contraption you can put in a 5 gallon bucket to scale fish with don't know how well they work.

When Im cleaning 40-50 crappie, I aint got time to scale.

LOL!

yes there is , my cousin has a really nice one for his fish processing business


there are all sorts of different power options now , you would have to clean a Lot of fish to make a power drum scaler worth while

it looks like a fine cheese grater drum and the fish roll around inside of it and get scales pulled off

there are also numerous power type that use a small drum or paddle to remove the scales.

I just use the stainless steel loop type , most of my fish cleaning takes place on a tailgate and involves a head lamp , toss down a sheet of cardboard and start cleaning.

Skin taste better but scaling is more work than skinning.

Same thing with my wife with sunfish. She doesn't like the skin on and doesn't like messing with bones. If it was just me, I would scale, gut, and fry them whole. You don't lose any flesh that way and I prefer the taste.