Perch - Scale or fillet?

[Skidsteer]

How do you prefer to clean and cook them?

[Pc4sun]

I like to scale first then fillet them off the bone. You don't even need to gut them. Unless of course you want to boil the bones and head for a great fish broth, then you need to gut them. Then I dredge the fillets in a simple flour mixture consisting of a little spicy seasoning of your liking, flour, and lemon/pepper seasoning. Just the flour/spice mixture and then in a little oil in a frying pan. After the fish is cooked, dip in an aioli made from mayo mixed with smoked chipotle mixed in a food processor with a little lemon juice. Yummy!

[PigPen]

Seems scaling would be needed if the skin tasted good. Trout/salmonella n skin is pretty tasty. Is the same true for most fish to make scaling worth the mess?

[Skidsteer]

Never thought about eating the skin. Whenever I cook a fish with the skin on I just eat the meat and discard the skin. Do you eat the perch skin?

[john from md]

I scale, cut the head off and gut them. Then I throw them skin on in some Italian salid dressing for a couple of hours. Then, I heat up a large well used cast iron pan on the grill. When water will boil on it, I add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. I let it heat for a min and then throw the perch on for about 2 minutes for each side. The skin shrinks off by it self during cooking. When ready to eat, you slide a fork into the meat on the lower side of the fish. Then pull up on the tail and the meat will flake off the bones. Do the same for the other side. Drizzle on some lemon and enjoy.

John

[Yak Fish]

Here's what I do. Someone shared this a few years ago and I've been doing it ever since.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjTlFwQb7D0

[groundhog]

I gotta try that that cleaning technique in that vid. Good stuff.

[Yak Fish]

I gotta try that that cleaning technique in that vid. Good stuff.

I clean trout that way too and sometimes smaller rockfish.

[Goody]

Thanks for sharing. I'll have to try this.

[MetroMan]

It depends. I like to fillet them when I have a bunch of 'em. That way I don't have to worry about scaling & beheading them.

Otherwise, if I only have a few or if I'm giving them away, then I scale 'em, behead them, then split 'em down the back then scrape the guts out. (basic butterfly.)

similar to this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFoJZedzZ9M but I leave the backbone in (because I'm not as good as the person in the vid lol)

[Shady]

Filet and release!

[john from md]

Fillet and use for crab bait.

John

[YaknBass]

scale, fillet, skin on. do all my fish that way.

[Frogsauce]

My wife just wants me to scale it, cut through the backbone just behind the head, then peel off the head (pulling all the guts out with it). Makes for a very fast cleaning process.

[kevinfry]

I filet...no good fish cleaning station for scaling
When making broth I only use heads...easier to strain. No little bones escaping the colander. I'll use carcass of larger fish with bigger boanes like striped bass for broth, but only heads of croaker, perch and spot........I freeze it and make paella in the winter when we crave seafood