Dealing with a Yellowtail Loin

So you’re hungry for some yellowtail sushi. You go to your local Asian grocery, looking for yellowtail and you see these big vacuum-packed frozen bags labeled “Yellowtail loin”. You confirm with one of the employees that it’s boneless and skinless so you think you’re good. You open one up an see sort of triangular, trapezoidal, tapering piece of fish that’s thick on one side and thin on the other, and you’re like “What the f**k is this shit?”.

That was my first reaction when I got a frozen yellowtail loin in the mail. It was intimidating, and finding answers on the internet was annoying, so I’ll try to keep this as possible.

Here’s a really over-simplified diagram of a yellowtail loin:

The first thing you should do is cut a small slice of the fish off. Any part of the loin is fine (except for that tough chewy part that’s at thinnest part of the fish.) Okay, now take that slice and eat it. What did you learn? Yeah, all parts of that loin are edible and delicious. So no matter what you do, you’ll have delicious raw yellowtail to eat at the end of it.

The way that I start is I chop off the tail portion. That portion is going to be really sinewy, so if I’m feeling wasteful, I throw it out. If I’m not feeling wasteful and have time to burn, I’ll mince it up (using a blunt knife), mix it with some spicy shit, and stick it in the fridge/freezer for spicy yellowtail rolls/gunkans.

Then you have the belly. This is the most delicious part, but you have to work for it, so again, your choice. Either chop off all the yellowtail that’s covered by that cartilage and throw it out, or carefully peel away the cartilage.

Last part. The back of the loin is the bloodline. It has a very irony flavor. You can slice it off completely and throw it out OR grill it with some sauce and eat it. It tastes delicious cooked, and it’s super healthy.

Once you’ve dealt with all that, you’re left with some delicious yellowtail. If you’re making rolls, cut it up into carrot-stick size pieces (length-wise along the loin) and use it.

If you’re aiming for nigiri, then chop it up into saku blocks like my diagram below.

Congrats, you’ve cut up your first yellowtail loin!