Your Seafood Survival Guide: 9 Kitchen Tools That Simplify Whole Seafoods
From top to bottom: cleaver, fillet knife, scaler, and shears.
Photo by Jake Stein.
If you feel intimidated and inconvenienced by the prospect of cooking whole, local seafoods at home - you aren’t alone. While we believe that you can prepare and enjoy whole seafood with nothing but a pocket knife and determination, nothing beats feeling fully prepared and equipped. Just one of these easy-to-find kitchen items may pave smoother roads for your learning adventures. And with a few of these tools in your arsenal, you have what you need to prepare whole seafood at home!
1. A fillet knife
Flexible and narrow, these knives are extra maneuverable around fiddly parts of fish anatomy, and allow you to get very close to the bone when cutting a fish up. Long ones are awesome for bigger fish and helpful for removing skin (check out a recipe for Fish Skin Chips & Dip from Chef Davin Waite).
2. Shears
Why waste time with a knife when shears will do the trick? They are perfect for preparing whole fish, particularly smaller ones. Most fins and bones are no match for a good set of shears, so put the knife down and put some respect on shears - these sturdy kitchen scissors are a secret weapon in the kitchen.
3. A scaler
If you enjoy eating fish skin as much as we do, you know that you have got to remove the scales first. While some people use a spoon or the back of a knife to remove the scales, but truthfully we think a specialized scaler makes for a much better experience. It also creates less mess - we find the scales don’t fly quite as far. There are more than a few designs to choose from!
Fun fact: in the seafood processing industry, folks often repurpose horse curry combs as scalers - they work much the same way and cover a lot of surface area quickly - especially important when you’re dealing with big fish.
4. Fitted, grippy gloves
Kira with the Atlas Showa 381, size Small. Photo by Jake Stein.
Have you had the experience of wrestling with a sharp-spined and/or slippery fish? Whip on a pair of close fitting gloves with some texture for a better grip. We recommend thin, nitrile-coated gardening gloves or fabric kitchen gloves. With a good fit, you’ll keep all your dexterity with a thin glove. A favorite is the Atlas Showa 381, (see image). Notice to all dainty-handed folks, the size Small is a ‘true small,’ and one of the closest fits we’ve encountered for women and children. After use, you can even run them through the washing machine (we’ve learned to soak them in water and detergent first, especially if they are heavily used).
5. A sharpening stone & honing steel
No matter what kind of knife you are using at home, you will be so much happier if you have a way to keep it sharp. A sharpening stone actually grinds away metal to recreate a sharp edge, physically reshaping the blade by removing a thin layer of metal and establishing a new cutting angle.
A honing steel, in contrast, doesn't remove metal but instead realigns the microscopic edge of the blade. As you use a knife, its edge can become slightly bent or misaligned. Running the blade along a honing steel helps straighten these tiny metal particles back to their original alignment, maintaining the existing sharp edge without grinding it down.
Kira with a comically large bamboo cutting board. No need to spring for this one. Picture the largest whole fish you plan on purchasing - and choose a cutting board large enough to accommodate fully.
Photo by Jake Stein.
6. Big ol’ cutting board / kitchen towel combo
A large cutting board, particularly one with a routed edge, is your ideal working surface. We like wooden ones because they are gentle on our sharp knives. A thin kitchen towel placed under the cutting board will keep the cutting board from moving around, and makes cleanup easier if the edges of the towel extend beyond the cutting board, catching any stray organic material.
7. Vacuum sealer + bags
There’s no going back once you get a vacuum sealer - they make freezing seafood for long-term storage so simple and effective. The oxygen-free environment inside the back keeps your frozen seafood from changing color and texture (freezer burn) for long periods of time.
A suggestion: use the vacuum-sealer only for what you plan to freeze - if fresh fish sits around in a vacuum-sealed bag at temperatures of 38 degrees and above, you could risk growing some ‘evil’ anaerobic bacteria. We are not down with botulism.
8. Freezer paper
If you have some kind of loyalty to Zip-Loc bags, or, for reasons of limited space, zero intention of welcoming a vacuum sealer into your household - wrap a chunk of fish in this specialty freezer paper. Tightly wrapped and taped shut, then bagged to freeze, the paper slows oxidation by allowing fewer oxygen particles are in contact with your seafood. Keep the shiny side in, and try to get full contact with the fillet or loin (boneless cuts work best).
9. Cleaver or ‘breaker’ knife
Cleavers and breakers can have similar purpose (parting tough sections of bone/skin/cartilage), but are used differently. A cleaver activates the forearm in a chopping motion leveraging the weight of a heavy blade. A breaker requires controlled snaps of the wrist to briskly tap the blade against the fish - severing the desired area.
Photo by Jake Stein.
We saved this heavy-hitter for last, because this is for seafood-lovers who are going from JV to varsity. How? By bringing home a 20-pound whole fish, a giant species of local crab, or a tuna head. Yes! We are so proud of you. With these heavier knives, which are awesome at going through large bones, tough joints, and heavy shells, you won’t have to put much of your own muscle into it.
Don’t forget - nothing on this list is necessary. We believe anyone and everyone can handle whole, local seafood at home, even without these gadgets. But there may be something on this list that helps you feel just a little more prepared to take on San Diego seafood in its whole form! And we would like that for you.
Meet the Author
Emily Miller
Project Direction
Emily Miller has six years of experience as an at-sea commercial fisheries observer, and six years of experience as a field consultant/community liaison in coastal fishing communities, which underpins her interest in resilient economies, seafood supply chains, and grassroots solutions for the challenges facing small-to-mid-scale producers and harvesters.
A biracial and bicultural background is foundational to her interest in hearing and validating diverse perspectives on fishing practices, resource uses, and seafood culinary traditions.
In her personal experience, the most precious form of capital is trust, and the second most precious is wild seafood. Both add tremendous value to her quality of life, are difficult to restore once compromised, and are essential to the longevity of fishing heritages.
