# Bones in fish



## Jeni78 (Dec 14, 2008)

Can anyone tell me which fish don't have bones?  I know tuna steaks are safe...but what else?  Orange Roughy?  Tilapia? 

I'd like to add more fish to my diet but really hate dealing with fish bones.  

Hoping to expand my fish shopping to more than just tuna...!


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## texasgirl (Dec 14, 2008)

All fish have bones. There are some that the bones are so small, that when cooked, can be eaten. Salmon is one.


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## Jeni78 (Dec 14, 2008)

Okay, that might have been a stupid question.  I mean, which fish have bones that are small enough to eat or which fish, bought in filets, are usually boneless or with really small bones?

Or suggestions for eating more fish without having to deal with bones.  

Thanks!


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## kitchenelf (Dec 14, 2008)

I know you are probably going to pull your hair out with this answer, BUT, even if a fish is in fillet form there is ALWAYS a chance of bones.  

I have never found salmon bones pleasant to eat unless you are talking about canned salmon, then they are edible, IMHO.

A fish in steak form should have fewer bones and the bones, due to the way it is cut, should be more to one side, or in the center.

The individually wrapped tilapia found at Sam's have been totally bone free so far.


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## texasgirl (Dec 14, 2008)

Salmon have edible bones, I don't care for it though, lol
Most fish that you buy in stores with seafood dept are really good about getting bones out. You can ask them and I will bet they can give you lots of advise. Although, I'm sure if you can wait a little while, you will get plenty here too.


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## Jeni78 (Dec 14, 2008)

Thanks!  I am in MN so we eat a lot of walleye but everything else is flown in and most is frozen.  There is a fresh market here but I consider it more special occasion as it's far for me to drive to and also expensive.

I hate sunfish - it has tons and tons of bones.  I hate having to pick food out of my mouth while eating...


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## prepcook525 (Dec 14, 2008)

*pull them out*

Get a pair of pliers and pull the bones out yourself that's just what they do at the market.


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## CharlieD (Dec 14, 2008)

generally speaking, the salt water fish will have one main bone, kind off like a spine and usually it is easy to de-bone it. The fresh water fish has a lot of small bones that comes out of the spine and are hard to pull out. I like ocean perch. But generally speaking fish in our neck of the wood suck. It is never fresh, it is never cheap, well maybe polackh(sp?).


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## Jeni78 (Dec 14, 2008)

Hey CharlieD, since you are from here too...any recommendations on fish from places like Cub?  Coastal Seafoods and Whole Foods are better but I don't frequent them.

Thanks!


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## CharlieD (Dec 14, 2008)

Cub is my choice for shopping. I love ocean perch, cat fish is good, tilapia filet, halibut an sea bass are more on expensive site but are an excellent choice no matter how you cook. It more depends on how you cook it rather than type of fish.

P.S. Where in MN are you from?


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## ChefJune (Dec 14, 2008)

Walleye is the best!  (imho) but you will always have bones to deal with.  Me, I like it so much it doesn't matter!


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## Jeni78 (Dec 14, 2008)

I'm in Plymouth, just outside of the twin cities.

I love walleye too!  Very rarely I find bones in it but I've never made it myself either.


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## buckytom (Dec 15, 2008)

a little fyi: not all fish have bones.

those belonging to the class chondrichthyes (sharks) do not have bones, but a cartilaginous skeleton.


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## ChefJune (Dec 15, 2008)

buckytom said:


> a little fyi: not all fish have bones.
> 
> those belonging to the class chondrichthyes (sharks) do not have bones, but a cartilaginous skeleton.



....if you want to eat shark.  It's not bad, but far from my favorite fish.


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## JoeV (Dec 15, 2008)

ChefJune said:


> Walleye is the best!  (imho) but you will always have bones to deal with.  Me, I like it so much it doesn't matter!



Did someone say Walleye...?







I CATCH my own fish, CLEAN my own fish, and COOK my own fish. Since there is so much of ME in my fish, I take great pride in presenting MY fish bone-free because of how I clean it. It is checked a final time after thawing from the freezer to insure there are no bones. You simply need to run your hands over the fish on the inside of the fillet to check. 

There are a lot of videos on You-Tube about filleting and de-boning fish, you just need to Google them. Everyone cooking fish should be proficient in the knowledge of cleaning fish, if for no other reason than to check the work of the person who originally cleaned the fish.

This Saturday evening I'm cooking and serving Panko breaded walleye for our neighborhood Christmas gathering at our home. Pop on over for a bite...


Oh, and small panfish (bluegills and sunfishes) are among the tastiest fresh water fish you can eat. Yes, they are a pain to clean, but are worth it because of their flavor.


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## radhuni (Dec 15, 2008)

I like to chew fish bones. I can even eat fish that have lots of bones like Hilsha (_Tenualosa ilisha). _My father used to call me 'beral' means cat.


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## FincaPerlitas (Dec 15, 2008)

By definition, fish filets are supposed to be boneless but occasionally the fish monger will miss a few.  It's very easy to detect them by simply running you hand along the fish.  You can either trim them off with a knife or remove them with pliers or tweezers.  Tuna and swordfish steaks should always be boneless.

If you have a decent fish market in the area, just ask them to recommend a cut of fish and to check it over carefully to remove all the bones, including any pinbones.


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## Kuijt (Jan 3, 2009)

You are wright joeV, but what is the best manner for filleting, on youtube there are to much videos of the same fishes i think and everyone use a different manner, i've made one FISH FILLETING SITE with filleting videos (40) about the best filleting manners of salt-and fresh water fish. The manners i show in my videos are also using in most of the fish filleting factories. 

some filleting video's:

Walleye
mackerel
Tuna



Regards


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## Kuijt (Jan 3, 2009)

Monkfish: tasty fish without pinbones, he has only one bigbone in the middle!!


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## AllenOK (Jan 3, 2009)

JoeV, nice 'eyes!  While I lived up in MI, we had a walnut-breaded walleye fillet on the menu.  Unfortunately, while we lived there, I wasn't into fishing.  Now that I'm down here in OK, I got into fishing.  Luckily, I can still catch walleyes in some lakes or tailraces.  I think the tailrace I normally fish has 'eyes, but I've never fished for them.

Normally I think of 'gills like that as flathead catfish bait.  PeppA, on the other hand, wants to eat them.  I remember a LOT of folks up in MI eat 'gills.

When I was a kid, I would occasionally clean and cook some 'gills.  However, I didn't go to the trouble to fillet them.  Just scale the, cut off the head, pull out the dorsal and bottom fins with pliars, clean the innards out, rinse, bread, and cook.  Once cooked, pull the fillets off with a fork; they'll slide right off the bones.

I also agree with getting a pair of small pliars to remove pin-bones with.  I have a small pair of jeweler's pliars that I keep in my drawer at work to remove pin-bones.  I rarely find any in the fish we get, but when I do, it's easily taken care of.

I think cod fillets rarely have bones in them.  Whiting fillets don't usually have bones either.


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## Maverick2272 (Jan 4, 2009)

Um, OK I need to go on a fishing trip next summer!!! Walleye, Sunfish, Bluegill... all yum yum yum! 
Trout, Bass, catfish, Perch...... I could on forever! But the question was about bones. Yea it can be a pain (and man it hurts to get one stuck in your throat!), but if the fish monger is good, or you are, you can pretty much get most of em out. Dad always filleted his by cutting down just behind the gill, then slowly and carefully following the spine down to the tail. This almost always resulted in little to no bones in the fillet.


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## AMSeccia (Jan 4, 2009)

Not sure where in MN you are, but you should have access to some great perch in that Land of How Many Lakes (!!), which should be relatively bone-free if properly butterflied.  Blue Gill too ... but probably harder to find for sale.  Pollack (dirt cheap), cod, haddock, halibut, orange roughy, flounder (all frozen) are all bone-free.  Tilapia is another one, but that is a farmed fish (not wild caught) and can taste muddy because of how it's raised.  You can cure that by soaking in buttermilk (got that tip from Cooks Illustrated).  If near the Twin Cities, they have a Festival Foods (as do we) and Tilapia is frequently on sale for $3/lb there.  I am originally from MI and live in WI, and we have access to Great Lakes whitefish, which CAN have some bones, but less toward the tail (however, they're easier to see toward the center of a filet because of size).  It really is the nature of the beast, I guess.


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## AMSeccia (Jan 4, 2009)

Holy cooler full o'fish JoeV!  I am so jealous!


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## gadzooks (Jan 4, 2009)

"Everyone cooking fish should be proficient in the knowledge of cleaning fish..." - JoeV

My ex-wife would've said "everyone CATCHING fish should be proficient in the knowledge of cleaning fish."


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## Erinny (Jan 4, 2009)

I know this sounds stupid but when I debone fish I catch I use a super-fine flea comb. My grandfather did too and we never had a problem with bones very much at all, even on catfish.


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## Maverick2272 (Jan 4, 2009)

gadzooks said:


> "Everyone cooking fish should be proficient in the knowledge of cleaning fish..." - JoeV
> 
> My ex-wife would've said "everyone CATCHING fish should be proficient in the knowledge of cleaning fish."



What about "everyone proficient in eating fish should also be proficient in cleaning said fish..." LOL.


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## buckytom (Jan 4, 2009)

Erinny said:


> I know this sounds stupid but when I debone fish I catch I use a super-fine flea comb. My grandfather did too and we never had a problem with bones very much at all, even on catfish.


 
the problem is wrestling one away from one of those super fine fleas, with all of their bling and threads...


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## Leolady (Jan 4, 2009)

Maverick2272 said:


> What about "everyone proficient in eating fish should also be proficient in cleaning said fish..." LOL.


 
This is the right answer!  I catch fish.  I don't eat or clean them.

Carp doesn't have any bones to speak of......


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## AllenOK (Jan 4, 2009)

I'm the person that usually cuts the fish where I work.

And yes, I fish for both sport and food for my family.  I can clean what I catch.  Run a search on "Flathead catfish" plus my handle, and you should hit on a thread I started back in October or September.  I had caught my first (and so far, only) flathead, and was remarking on how different it was from the channel and blue cats that I normally catch.

I'm hoping that soon I'll be able to get out fishing again (once things settle down here at home), and can hook a few stripers (a.k.a. rockfish) at the spot I normally fish at.  There's some big'uns in there!


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## AlanS2323 (Mar 17, 2009)

texasgirl said:


> All fish have bones. There are some that the bones are so small, that when cooked, can be eaten. Salmon is one.



I bought several filets of large salmon from Pike Place market in Seattle the other week and there were bones everywhere.  I have very little fish, so I'm not sure if I got the wrong cut or what, but these bones were not edible at all.


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## ChefJune (Mar 17, 2009)

Jeni78 said:


> Okay, that might have been a stupid question. I mean, which fish have bones that are small enough to eat or which fish, bought in filets, are usually boneless or with really small bones?
> 
> Or suggestions for eating more fish without having to deal with bones.
> 
> Thanks!


 
If you are buying fillets from a reputable fish market, they will have removed the most prominent of the bones.  The fish section at the grocery store, not so much.  However, if you get yourself a pair if tweezers that you don't use for anything else, you can remove those bones yourself before you cook the fish.  Place the fillet on a flat surface (like a clean chopping board) and run your fingers over the top of the fillet. Most bones will protrude from the top of the fish and you can grasp them with the tweezers and pull them out.  It's really very easy to do.

Otherwise, you can eat shrimp, scallops, and other shellfish whose "bones" are removed either before you get them, or the shells are so obvious as to be super-easy to remove.


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