Processing walleye wings, cheeks, ribs and eggs

This is the second part of a two-part series about processing walleye.

At this point in the processing of eight walleye, we have 16 cheeks, 16 fillets, 16 ribs, eight wings and a few skeins of eggs.

The next few steps are conducted at the kitchen sink. The walleye wings only require a quick rinse. These are steamed using a deep skillet with the eight wings resting on a removable rack.

While the wings are cooking, the main fillets are rinsed and placed on a cutting board. Each is inspected for bones. There is a row of small pin bones, which must be removed. A cut is made on the left and right side of these bones.

The narrow piece of meat containing these bones is pulled up and out of the fillet. A final cut at the upper edge of this piece and just above the pin bones removes them.

The cheeks are next. Each is inspected and they are normally clean, with little attention required. The cheeks are a delicacy. My preference is to cook them in a little olive oil and garlic. Sixteen walleye cheeks, eight for each person, make a great appetizer at the beginning of a meal.

Now it is time for ribs. Some people, such as Kris Chudomelka, are able to remove the meat from the ribs during the filleting process, but I have not been able to perfect this skill.

Instead each rib is placed on a cutting board and the meat is sliced off the ribs following the natural curve. Each piece of meat is rinsed and checked for remaining bones. This process takes a bit of time and many anglers throw the ribs away, but over a pound of meat, sometimes a pound and a half, can be salvaged from the ribs of an average limit of walleye. This meat can be used for tacos, sandwich spread, walleye cakes or any other dish using walleye pieces, such as on a salad after being seasoned and cooked.

When the wings are fully cooked, they are allowed to cool. The meat is removed from the fins and skin. The resulting meat can be used for the same dishes as the rib meat.

The packaging process

Now it is time to package the various pieces. The cheeks are put in re-sealable plastic bags, labeled and frozen. The rib and wing meat is packaged in the same manner.

The fillets are packaged using a FoodSaver machine, one fillet per bag and each one labeled with the date. Once the rib meat, wing meat and cheeks are frozen, they are removed from their current packaging and sealed in a FoodSaver bag. This is easier to accomplish when they are frozen together as a group instead of 16 individual cheeks for example.

My procedure to process eight walleye may seem excessive and time consuming to many anglers, but to me it is simply normal. My friends know it is not my lifestyle to waste one ounce of meat of any type.

The most recent account of eight walleye ends up this way: 7.4 ounces walleye wing meat; 18.1 ounces rib meat, 4.1 ounces cheeks and 81.44 ounces of fillets. This equals 6.94 pounds of editable walleye meat from eight fish.

Sometimes the eggs are saved to feed my cats. Toying with the idea of making caviar using these eggs has entered my mind, but my mind will not allow my hands to complete the task.

However, an account of breading and frying walleye eggs was presented to me recently. This idea has appeal and a couple egg skeins were saved for such an experiment.

A small skein was placed on the cutting board and sliced twice, lengthwise, making three pieces. These were dredged in flour, then a chicken egg, flour again and fried in oil.

Tartar sauce was placed on the plate along with the fried eggs. There was a pause on my part as the fork approached the eggs for the first time.

Now comes the problem, I liked the fried walleye eggs. However, freezing them uncooked didn’t seem appropriate, as they may not stand the freezing and thawing process by retaining the same texture.

The solution involved breading the eggs, cooking and then freezing them. Freezing the cooked eggs is the answer. I tried cooked, frozen and then thawed walleye eggs and they are, yes, delicious.

Remember, I hate to waste any edible piece of a game fish, animal or bird.