Fresh Pacific Saury Prepared with a Home Kitchen Knife Sashimi and Cured with Vinegar - serving

Method

• Cut into the fish around its neck, just above the side fin, until the knife blade hits the backbone.
• Cut into the belly from the lower part of the fish to below the side fin.
• If you break the fish's neck by bending it towards the belly, the head and guts should be removable together.
• Rinse out any residue.
• Fillet the right side first.
• Place the fish with the belly facing you and the tail facing left.
• Cut into the fish from the lower part, all the way to the other side above the backbone.
• Slice above the bone to the tail.
• Next, place the tail to the right and slice the fish from the tail to the head end as shown here.
• Let's tackle the left side next!
• With the back edge facing you, make a cut about 4cm (just eyeball this) in starting from the tail end, pushing the blade through the other side.
• Then cut through the fish as shown in the Step 7 photo.
• Turn the fish over, hold it down and cut through the fish over the backbone.
• Once you get used to it you can do this all in one go.
• Once the fish is filleted, slice out the main bones.
• Start by holding the knife with the blade facing upwards, and make a cut from the middle of the fish in between the flesh and the bones.
• Next, hold your knife the normal way and slice out the backbone.
• Once the backbone has been removed, salt the fillets generously, put into a tray or similar, and leave in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to firm up.
• When moisture comes out of the fish, rinse the fillets off under running water to remove the salt, and pat dry with paper towels.
• The traditional method is to rinse the fish in vinegar or sake, but using water doesn't make a big difference in the taste.
• Next, immerse the fish in vinegar and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes.
• Wipe the vinegar off very well, and peel off the skin with your hands!
• You can start from the head end or the tail end.
• If you start from the tail end, it's easier if you make a 1cm or so cut first!
• The skin rips easily so go gently.
• There are some small bones left in the flesh.
• Slice the fillets diagonally as if to cut through these tiny bones.
• You may feel the bones when you are slicing, but you won't really feel them when you eat the fish!
• If the bones really bother you I recommend curing the fish in vinegar (Step 15).
• Line up the sliced fish on a plate and serve.
• I cured the fish with salt and vinegar, but this is not to add flavor; it's to get rid of any parasites and bacteria and to firm up the fish so that is has a more pleasing texture.
• You won't really taste the vinegar or salt, so you can eat this like sashimi.
• If you want to cure the fish with vinegar some more, add sugar to the vinegar in Step 12 and leave the fish to marinate for 3 hours.
• The result is vinegar-cured fish that has a sour flavor.
• If you leave the fish in salt for a longer time in Step 11 the fish will be 'cooked' through (it will turn white), but it won't taste as good.
• The photo shows one serving of vinegar-cured Pacific saury that was on sale.
• It cost 70 yen.