Fish – Clean an entire fish before or after storing in a freezer

Here is a a basic video tutorial so you can see the basic steps.

The biggest traps when cleaning fish is failing to remove all the guts, leaving bones in the filet, and not removing all the scales from the fish. You can, if you choose, just gut the fish and cook whole stuffed with some aromatics, which can be really good. This guy will show you how. This works very well with smaller fish like trout assuming your guests are used to it.

So to avoid the pitfalls mentioned above, you need to make sure that the cavity of the fish is fully empty before you start the filet. You also want to run your hand over the outside of the fish after your rinse of the cavity to make sure that all scales are gone. The best way to keep bones out is start at the spine and let the fishes rib cage guide your knife down and out. If you want to remove the skin (not recommended for trout but other fish have much tougher skins), just put the filet skin-side down and slide your knife along at a ten degree angle.

Oh, and the most important thing? Use a filet knife that is super sharp, you definately don't want to tackle cleaning with out a sharp knife.

Old filets of fish will be slimy and have an overly fishy smell. When frozen filets are poorly stored, (refrozen/not flash frozen/stored at improper temperature/too old) they have this texture of eating a sponge that makes me wretch, since the delicate emulsion properties of the flesh have been completely broken down. The moisture can be sucked out and the proteinous membranes chewed on like rough, spongey, dough. If you try to skin them, they sometimes come apart in your hands rather than adhere like tissue from a living organism.

When cooked poorly (burnt to a crisp, overseasoned), it's difficult to tell the difference between fresh and old filets.