Media 105 lb Halibut

Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

ThEoRy

Founding Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2011
Messages
4,648
Reaction score
26
Could've abridged it a bit more maybe to make it a bit shorter but hey what do you want, that thing was a monster!

[video=youtube;MpZVArgxJ2M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpZVArgxJ2M&NR=1[/video]
 
I wish I had one of the flexible globals. Nice workhorse blade for just this type of thing. Any reason you prefer the yanagi to a sujihiki for portioning the filets?
 
Nice work! My brother caught a 425 pound halibut a couple years back, The guys who "butchered it" had a lot of seagull feed. You could teach those guys a thing or two. Thanks for the video.
 
Nice work. I had no idea these beasts would get that large, and Pierre's brother catching a 425pounder sounds crazy.

Stefan
 
I wish I had one of the flexible globals. Nice workhorse blade for just this type of thing. Any reason you prefer the yanagi to a sujihiki for portioning the filets?

Well, the global feels a bit light when portioning. I can do it and have used it for such a hundred times or more but the yanagi just gives a more true slice. It's like with the global you have to press harder and this distorts the fish because it pulls the flesh as you are cutting, creating almost an angled cut giving the portion a parallelogram shape. It's minor, but I know it's there and I can feel and see it. With the yanagi the fish just stays there and doesn't slide while draw cutting.

As for why I prefer the Tanaka over a sujihiki it's simply a matter of not owning one yet. Yet. :D Any recommendations? I've been looking at Hiromoto or kikiuchi tkc.
 
The yanagi doesn't want to pull to one side either? Or does the softness of the fish and drawing action on the slice help it make a straight up and down cut? I only have a small yanagi and haven't used it that much, and not to portion any fish yet.

I have a 300mm Hiro suji with a Dave handle. I like it a lot, but it's the only one I have so I don't have much to compare it to. Nice having the aogami super and stainless cladding though.
 
Nice Job, thanks for sharing that, I enjoyed it.
 
The yanagi doesn't want to pull to one side either? Or does the softness of the fish and drawing action on the slice help it make a straight up and down cut?

A yanagi is designed for just this task, and it performs it flawlessly. The weight and balance of the knife is as assymetrical as it looks like it would be, so the result is you that you just pay attention to where the knife is going and the fish just gets out of it's way. I noticed when I switched from a suji at the sushi bar to my Yanagi, I dealt with what felt like steering. Then I started watching my knife instead of the fish, and no more problems.
 
The yanagi doesn't want to pull to one side either? Or does the softness of the fish and drawing action on the slice help it make a straight up and down cut? I only have a small yanagi and haven't used it that much, and not to portion any fish yet.

I have a 300mm Hiro suji with a Dave handle. I like it a lot, but it's the only one I have so I don't have much to compare it to. Nice having the aogami super and stainless cladding though.

Watch this for suggestions from KC Ma via Jon on how to avoid steering with single bevel knives...

[video=youtube;63F3gFbGBv4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63F3gFbGBv4[/video]

Also, why don't you use the yanagi for removing the skin? A.) Yanagi's are tailor made for exactly that application, and B.) The longer blade would make skinning such a wide fillet much easier without risk of cutting into the flesh so much.
 
Yeah, steering. I knew there was a word for it, just forgot. Like I said, I haven't used mine that much and when I used it on harder items it did steer quite a bit. I have been trying to force myself out of my natural instinct to automatically reach for my double bevel knives. Actually packing them in my kit has certainly helped, haha. Been using my deba a lot more, not the yanagi yet though.

When KC places the blade on the filet where he wants to start his cut, is the blade angled slighting (not straight up and down), or is the camera just playing tricks on me?

When skinning is it better to have a certain side of the knife towards the skin? Ura towards skin, bevel towards filet?
 
I think that's a trick of the eye. Because the knife is "flat" on the inside, when held with the ura perpendicular to the board the other side (that you can see in the video) looks "tilted". When his slicing sashimi on the bias then yes, the knife is slightly tilted.

As far as skinning, the ura lays flat going to the board side. This allows the bevel side of the knife to "lift" the fillet away and up from the skin. Watch some of itasan18's videos on youtube for demonstration of the technique. For example, look at the 40 second mark of this video.

[video=youtube;gI4-7VPyBjE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI4-7VPyBjE[/video]
 
Watch this for suggestions from KC Ma via Jon on how to avoid steering with single bevel knives...

[video=youtube;63F3gFbGBv4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63F3gFbGBv4[/video]

Also, why don't you use the yanagi for removing the skin? A.) Yanagi's are tailor made for exactly that application, and B.) The longer blade would make skinning such a wide fillet much easier without risk of cutting into the flesh so much.

I do use the yanagi for skinning mostly (see my mahi video) however it was still in my kit at the time so I just used the global. The yanagi does work flawlessly while skinning mostly. However sometimes it can be too sharp for certain skin types and it will blow right through the skin and then you have to jerk around trying to get it all off. Doesn't happen too ofter if you are careful but when it does it's a pain for sure.
 
I do use the yanagi for skinning mostly (see my mahi video) however it was still in my kit at the time so I just used the global. The yanagi does work flawlessly while skinning mostly. However sometimes it can be too sharp for certain skin types and it will blow right through the skin and then you have to jerk around trying to get it all off. Doesn't happen too ofter if you are careful but when it does it's a pain for sure.

Ha, true. Funny thing is, there is an itasan video (I think the skipjack tuna one) where he does exactly this, leaving pieces of the skin on the filet. It's funny, cause he uses a "BOO" track in the background or something like that when he shows the mistake.
 
Another very good video. But I think you're going to need a bigger boat.
 
great job. may i know which song is that ?
 
Thanks! The first song is La Roux's "In for the kill" with Skream's let's get ravey dubstep remix. The second one is Ellie Goulding's "Starry Eyed" with Jakwob's dubstep remix.
 
IME, a Yanagi that is sharp enough to cut Toro sashimi well will go right through the skin on a bass, flounder, etc. I have more luck with my flexy Gyuto than my Yanagi.
 
Now thats gonna be some stock out of there.
Staff fish soup for a month :D

Good job there, how do you like meat from older one versus lets say 10-15kg one?
 
I think I like the younger ones better for sashimi or crudo while the bigger ones make for nicer entree portions.
 
You mean makes better portions visually? I also love squared off pieces :)
I meant flavour vise. Do you see difference between the two?
 
i kno im late but dude sick video as always ive learned alot from watching your stuff
 
Thanks! It's an old one, and certainly not my best work but I just had to show that big ass fish! :D
 
Yea that thing was a beast. You could see your face in the beginning and it looked like you were struggling. I want to learn to filet where I work at now we buy the filet already but it’s something that I really want learn to do
 
Funny story about that which we were just talking about the other day. My boss, who's color blind was the one holding the ipod for filming the first shot. I'm trying to hold the fish up gently so as not to damage it in any way but it's kind of awkward because of it's flat wide shape. He doesn't know how to start the recording for like 2 minutes and he's saying, "Hold on, I think it's going. Wait, no, don't put it down yet, there I got it, wait, no, not yet. How do you start this thing?"

I tell him, "Just push the red button."

"Rick it's a color."

"I know, it's the red one, just press it!"

"It's a color Rick!!!"

"I know press the red one!!!!"


I forgot he was color blind as I'm yelling, "press the red one!" for like 5 minutes while holding the awkward beast up in the air as he's figuring out which one is the red one. That's why it appears as though I was struggling. Because I was by that time. :D
 
Nice.

Like your style and elegancy. Clean area and clean nice clothes. I would eat there :)
 

Latest posts

Back
Top