We sell or give away the best pieces of every ahi we catch. That is just how it goes when you fish a lot. The loins go out the door, and the fisherman keeps whatever is left. I wanted to show what we actually do with those leftovers, because the head and the scraps turn into some of the best eating on the whole fish. If you have been leaving ahi heads at the harbor, this post is for you.
After a fish gets broken down, the nice cuts leave first. What you are left with as the fisherman is the rough cuts:
People will usually take the collars and the belly. Not too many people take the head. After you see what comes off of one, I think that will change.
Here is a tip that makes everything after this easier. When we fillet an ahi, we cut the jaw right down the middle. The bottom half of the jaw does not really have anything on it, so splitting it costs you nothing, and it makes the head much easier to fit in the smoker or in the pot later. Some people barbecue those jaw halves too.
The rough cuts get cubed up, and the cubes go into the smoker along with the head. Here are the numbers I work with:
At around three hours I will pull one of the cubes, shred it up with a fork, and mix in some mayonnaise with a little salt and pepper. That is a smoked ahi sandwich for my son's lunch, and it is better than any canned tuna. The rest of the cubes get bagged and frozen, so there is smoked ahi in the house whenever we want it.
When the head is done, around the six hour mark, the meat just peels off. I go at it like a turkey and dig out everything I can. There is a big chunk of meat right above the eye that most people never see. Even after six hours in the smoker there is so much connective tissue in a head that the inside stays moist.
When the head comes out of the smoker, it smells like crab or lobster. I think that is because the head is where a lot of the fat ends up on an ahi, so if you are after omega 3 fatty acids, this is the spot. Working through an ahi head is a lot like picking a crab. If you are the type of person who eats the inside of the crab head or the lobster head, all of that same good stuff is in here. Pick through the bones and you keep finding little treasures of meat.
Instead of struggling to dig out every last bit, I get a big pot that fits the whole head, cover what is left with water, and boil it down for about another hour. It works the same way as pigs feet soup or oxtail soup. If you take the time to go through the process, you get a really good soup at the end.
I keep the broth simple with ginger and pepper. When I have them, I like to add celery, carrots, and some saimin or udon noodles. The picked head meat goes back into the bowl, including the pieces from around the eye socket. Those are some of the best bites in the pot.
You can watch the whole process in the video below.
Whatever gelatinous stuff is left after the soup, I mix in with the food for my two big dogs. Between the smoked cubes, the sandwiches, the soup, and the dogs, we try to use the whole ahi as much as possible. That fish gave you everything, so use all of it.
Getting the fish to the boat in the first place is its own subject. I covered how we fight, leader, and gaff ahi in an earlier post, and the lures that get them to bite in my post on why I only run 9 inch lures during ahi season. This one starts where those end, at the cutting board, with the parts most people throw away.
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