How to skin and clean sharks

CLEANING AND PREPARING THE SHARK FOR EATING

If you’ve never cooked those little sharks that you catch in bays and waves, you’re missing out on a great treat. Some call them sand sharks, but they are actually called smooth dogfish sharks (Mustelus canis). At least this is what is caught along the Atlantic coast of North America from Main to Florida.

Note that the dogfish does not have those pointy teeth that cut and tear its prey. Instead, they grind and grind. The dogfish is relatively harmless and shy. They come in various shades of gray and have a white underbelly.

The purpose of this page is not to inform you about sharks, but rather to tell you how to deal with them once caught if you intend to turn them into tasty snacks.

The first thing to keep in mind is that sharks urinate through their skin. This also applies to related species like parsnip and skate. They say that smaller, younger sharks and related species generally don’t taste bad, but I’d rather treat them anyway. The unpleasant taste is that of ammonia. As soon as a shark or a related species dies, the taste and smell of ammonia begin to penetrate. The urea-like compounds in shark blood will immediately begin to break down into ammonia.

Here’s the key to cleaning sharks and preventing odor and taste buildup:

1. As soon as the shark is caught, remove its head, gut it, bleed it and skin it:

What you’ll need: A sharp fillet knife, fine-tipped stainless steel pliers, a towel, a relatively clean surface, cool water, and a cooler with lots of ice. Kevlar or wire mesh gloves wouldn’t hurt if you’re handling a shark with large teeth. You may also want to have a hammer or club to kill a shark that is too large for your ability to deal with before attempting to remove its head. The cooler should be large enough to hold all of the shark meat that you will be storing.

A word of caution. The dogfish shark, as noted above, does not have sharp teeth, but other sharks do, and you need to be careful when handling a live shark with sharp teeth and snapping jaws.

A. Have a relatively clean surface to work on with the shark’s body after the head has been removed and the shark has bled. The idea is to prevent sand and grit from getting into the shark meat. You can remove the head, then use a little water to rinse off the rest of the shark and place it on the clean work area.

B. Place a towel over the head, holding the shark in a stable and secure position, and use a club on the head to kill it.

C. Use the fillet knife to remove the head and allow the body to bleed for a couple of minutes. Run the fillet knife through the underside of the shark; from where the head was removed to where the internal cavity ends.

Remove the entrails.

D. Rinse the sand from the body and the internal cavity where the entrails were removed, and then place the body on your work area.

E. Use the fillet knife to remove all the fins, cutting them close to the body. Cut the tail right where the tail begins to thicken from the underlying meat.

F. Run the fillet knife just under the skin from the end of the open belly cavity to where the tail was removed. Next, run the fillet knife under the skin at the top of the shark where the head was removed and separate the skin from the end of the head to the end of the tail. Sharks skin is now separated from the top and bottom into a left and right half.

G. Shark skin is difficult to remove, but once it is properly started and attached, it can be pulled from the meat. Take your needle nose pliers and squeeze them into a corner of the skin at the top, the end of the head on one side. Pinch a good portion of the skin and then, holding the pliers firmly, roll the pliers one or two times allowing the skin to wrap around the end of the pliers. Grip tightly and pull a few times so that the skin begins to peel off the meat. Poke a hole in the shark with your other hand (a friend comes in handy here) and pull hard to continue tearing off the skin until the entire side of the skin has been removed. Once you’ve ripped off a pretty good portion, you can remove the pliers from the skin and use them to grab the skin near the areas that are still attached to the meat to remove more skin. Do the same with the other half of the skin that has not yet been removed. Since the skin is so tough, you can probably remove the entire section at once. If the skin comes off the main piece, simply pinch the skin again and twist it again until the skin separates further. Continue the process until all the skin is removed.

2. Once you have done the steps in point 1, you will see a dark or red stripe running down both sides of the length of the meat. Use the fillet knife to cut just below the dark surface to remove it. Cut back under it if the darkness or red is still quite pronounced. Depending on the side of your cooler, you can cut the shark into pieces that will allow them to fit in the cooler.

3. Immediately put finished product on ice to keep cold until ready to cook. You can cut the small sharks into 3-, 4-, or larger-inch chunks to fit in a plastic bag when put on ice.

4. Fresh or thawed from frozen, you can soak it in milk or a baking soda soak for about an hour.

Please note this applies to sharks that you have caught and you know are fresh. If you are shopping for shark or skateboard, sniff for ammonia smell. If so, please do not buy it or order another part.

The idea is to prevent the shark from deteriorating and starting the conversion to an ammonia process. In all likelihood, if you follow the handling steps above, you probably won’t have to soak it in milk or baking soda. I just do it out of habit.

TO ENJOY !!!

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