Worldwide fishermen and seafood chefs believe using this formula, their tips, and principles, fishermen can create the difference between freshness and a superior product that transcends any other biochemically product taking this type of food to another level. What is the shinkei jime Method for Killing Fish?
shinkei-jime a Japanese method of humanely killing a fish, uses steps from the method of Ike-jime that has been used all over Asia for decades.
- Ike-jime spikes the brain
- shinkei-jime destroys the spinal cord.
- Ike-jime kills a fish so that it doesn’t know it is dying, which helps maintain meat quality.
The shinkei-jime method has been used in saltwater tuna and yellowtail, sport, and game fishing, along with freshwater sport fishing as it provides a rapid slaughter technique. As an alternative to cutting their throats and leaving the fish to die by bleeding or suffocating on a deck or dock.
shinkei jime Method 1
Shinkei Jime is then the next level, destroying the spinal cord to prevent the production of lactic acid and cortisol, both of which lower the quality of the flesh. The process is very specialist and labor-intensive and this is therefore reflected in the price of the fish, but many folk agree with us that the premium is more than worth it. Shinkei Jime is spinal cord destruction that will completely shut down the fish’s nervous system, and keep it from firing fight-or-fight adrenaline to the flesh.
The fish does not know it is dying, and the meat just relaxes and retains a fresh texture. There are a few ways of performing shinkei-jime. There are two methods of performing ike-jime, both of which put the fish out of its misery with very little stress:
The first separates the brain from the nervous system. Cut the fish’s head off from the neck down around the gill (Method 1).
The first method is done after the head is cut off. Find the backbone of the fish; between the backbone and the dorsal fins, you’ll find the spinal cord. Insert a wire or rod into the spinal cord to damage it
Hold on to the fish—it will flail about until you completely damage the spinal cord, but it soon becomes calm and the meat relaxes. The wire or rod inserted should be the same length as the fish. The second method is through the brain spike hole
Japanese Iki Jime Method is the fastest, most humane way of euthanizing fish, eliminating stress & lactic acid & maintaining quality by:
inserting a spike into the brain
- Cutting gills to bleed out
- Inserting a thin piece of wire into the spike hole & down the spinal column……………………………………….read more
shinkei jime Method 2
In this method, it can sometimes be difficult to locate the spinal cord, and it can be especially difficult to insert the wire in a bigger fish like rockfish. Once you insert a wire through the hole and into the spinal cord, the fish’s nervous system will react.
After you have done ike-jime and shinkei-jime, remember to bleed the warm blood completely from the fish. There are many ways to do it.
You can cut the gill and massage the blood out or pressure bleed it. Bleeding the fish slows rigor mortis and helps get rid of that “fishy” taste.
Properly icing down the fish also will delay rigor mortis and maintain top-quality meat. Put the fish on ice to keep it fresh. After you kill and bleed your fish, remove the guts, gills, and blood without exposing the flesh.
You are ready to cool your fish down completely. Insert ice in the cavities and on the skin. This will chill the fish meat from the inside and outside. To chill the fish even better, you want to make an ice slurry mixing saltwater with ice which chills the fish by covering all the contact surfaces.
This is a very important step for tuna fishing. Commercial fishers flash-freeze their catch whole. For sports fishermen, use salt ice slurry on the boat to chill the fish fast. You might have a window of 2 to 4 hours to get the fish chilled before it gets completely stiff and then starts decaying.
When you take the fish out of the cooler to the cleaning table, you will notice that the skin color hasn’t changed and the fish is not stiff. It still will be floppy like a fresh, live fish. Some people say it’s harder to fillet, but the improved meat quality makes the process worth it.
By killing your fish properly and chilling rapidly, you can achieve near sashimi-grade quality with your catch. The next step is to vacuum seal your catch and freeze it at -4°F for
7 days to kill off parasites for sashimi or ceviche (raw) consumption. The better you look after your catch, the better fish maintains freshness and quality.
How Do You Bleed Out a Fish Humanely?
- After killing fish by Humanely-clubbing the head or Spiking the brain
- Sever the main artery inside the gills
- Make a cut at the fish’s tail
- Let muscles & heart pump out the blood
- Hang upside down in a bucket of water to drain blood
- Use current from the stream to wash out blood.…………………………………………………………. Read more
JimGalloway Author/Editor
