How to Remove Milkfish Bones at Home?

Milkfish bones are numerous and this is why before you eat the fish, maybe you want to clean and remove all of them first making good boneless milkfish seafood to have. Milkfish is known as bony fish with small bones in there and here so when you eat the fish without deboned it first, you maybe accidentally swallow the bones and that’s going to be so uncomfortable. Of course they are certain ways to eat boneless milkfish like cooking milkfish fillet instead of whole round fish with the bones still attached in it or you can get boneless and skinless canned milkfish for simpler choice. Either one is okay, but if you have a skill to debone the milkfish then why not do that at home? 

How to remove milkfish bones at home?
Nothing is wasted when eating milkfish, even the milkfish bones can be used nowadays, for example as polvoron ingredient. In making milkfish bone polvoron, you can marinating the bones overnight and then pressurize it for an hour before grinding it. After that you can dry the bone under the sun and you will get milkfish bones powder, easy right? So, when you work to debone the milk fish bangus, do not immediately toss away the bones, even both the head and tail can be used for extra ingredients for certain recipes or maybe for your beloved cats. So in conclusion, nothing is wasted when buying milkfish bangus/ bandeng.
If you cannot debone yourself, you can buy milkfish that pressure cooked to make the bones softer. In Indonesia, for example, such product called bandeng presto and made so people can eat the fish without need to worry incidentally swallow the bones. Such product can also be found at grocery markets or you can order them online.
Now, back to the topic about how to remove milkfish bones at home on your own? Removing bones in the milkfish is quite challenging because the fish have many bones from large to smaller bones. You need to be an expert when debone and then filleting the fish. Try these guides to remove the bones at home:
1.      If you want to not only debone the fish but also makes milkfish fillet then it is recommended that you buying large size of milkfish so you can get large fillets and it makes deboning process easier too.
2.      Clean the fish with usual way or with chlorinated water. After that you can descale the fish, but it is optional.
3.      Cut the fins by slice the base of the anal fins and pull it forward to remove the fin’s bone too and other visible bones.
4.      Makes a butterfly fillet with sharp knife on cutting board so you will be easier removing the gills as well as the guts or internal organs.
5.      To remove the bones, hold the knife horizontally on the fish fillet. Slowly pull out the rib bones and next remove the spines with the lateral line as well.
6.      After you are done removing all the bones, soak the fish in brine (salt water). If you do not want to use the fish now, you can store the fish in plastic bag and then frozen it inside the freeze with low temperature (minus 40 degrees Celsius is recommended).
If you think that work on the milkfish bones are too difficult then you can buy already filleted milkfish fillets product. In deed that removing bones in milkfish is a complex task and thus if you want to know more then you can find a video from an expert or chef about how to debone milkfish bangus/ bandeng.
Debone milk fish bones requires a lot of practice and time, you cannot done it just once because even an expert need to spend about twenty minutes just to remove bones from one milkfish. However, the skill to remove the bones may become a good business skill to have especially if you are a fishmonger who offers fresh whole round milk fish.
But, there are people who prefer to cook the fish along with the bones or in other words a whole round fish even with the head and the tail still on. They are fine to picking the milkfish bones one by one when consume it. Of course there is some risk like you accidentally swallow the bones, but as long as you careful eating then it is fine.