Frozen Pacific Mackerel Boning Process

Frozen pacific mackerel are nice to be cooked and eaten alone or mixed with other ingredients to make tasty recipes. Mackerel is a small size of fish that very popular as sea food along with tuna, sardines, and salmon. Many people buy Pacific mackerel in either frozen or fresh and canned mackerel because they are cheaper and easier to be found at food stores. Mackerel rich in omega 3 fatty acids which is good to lower the risk of heart disease and contain high quality protein to build muscle tissues so it is a good food for dietary and bodybuilding.
Unfortunately, due to their small size, frozen Pacific mackerel products are often sold with the bones. Picking the bones out during eating is somehow very troublesome. The bones in frozen fish are not as softer as the bones in canned fish product. During canning process, the mackerel in can will go through some high heat cooking processes to make the bones softer as well and thus you do not have any difficulty to eat the whole fish, while a whole fresh or frozen mackerel will have tougher bones. That’s why; finding out how to debone Pacific mackerel will surely help you when eating them. Besides, it will save your money as well because buying fish with bones are cheaper while expand the fish you will be able to enjoy aside mackerel. Learn how to do it here.

How to debone a whole fresh or frozen pacific mackerel?
Boning fish process at home needs patience, but the end result is worth the time. Before we start to bone the fresh or frozen pacific mackerel fish, you need to prepare these things:
-          Sharp knife
-          Tweezers
-          Scissors
-          Rolling pin
 Now, follow this instruction to debone the fish carefully:
1.      If the mackerel still have the heads attached, remove it.
2.      Cut along the fish belly and open it, place the mackerel on the cutting board or counter with the flesh side down.

3.      Next, you need to loosen the fish spine by tapping the fish firmly using rolling pin.
4.      Tap up and down the spine pointedly using the rolling pin’s handle.
5.      Flip the mackerel over and then separate the bones from it by pulling the bones upward and cut them with the sharp knife if needed.
6.      You need to take the bones carefully plus slowly to ensure that all the bones come up and you will be able to remove them completely. For smaller bones, you can use tweezers to get rid them.
The boning process of mackerel above can be applied for other fishes as well and do not forget to always use caution when working with sharp objects like the knife. Moreover, for extra warnings, always follow the food safety rules when you are working with any fish.
The good news is if you still want to eat the bones, you can cook the fish to make the bones softer. How to do it? Try these steps below:

-          Put oil or butter on cooking surface of cooking pot or dish
-          Clean and wash the fish then place the mackerel on the oiled cooking surface
-          Add sliced onion around the mackerel
-          For stronger flavor put pepper, salt, and garlic powder
-          Place the pot lid/ cover the cooking pot and oven the fish with 200 degrees Fahrenheit
-          After about 3 hours, the mackerel are well cooked while the bones are as soft as those canned mackerel or canned sardines
You can try above tips to cook other fishes and to make their bones softer. Accidentally swallow fish bones are nightmare especially if the bones are tough enough. Meanwhile, if you buy canned mackerel instead of fresh or frozen pacific mackerel with bones, you can enjoy the bones because they are already soften by the canning process. Bones are good to be eaten due to their calcium content, but please always make sure than the bones are safe or edible to be eaten.

If you do not have enough time to do the boning process or cook the fish, alternatively you can simply find fish or mackerel which already boneless but usually they are more expensive than frozen pacific mackerel or fish with bones.