IamA fish filleter for a major uk supermarket AMA!

Why would you create an AMA three hours ago and not answer any questions?

My guess is that he was redditing while filleting fish , didn't pay attention to the filleting part and cut his hand . That would be the only logical explanation .

i have a slash proof glove!

TIL it takes 5 hours to filet a fish

8 hours of it non stop takes 2 mins per fish on average

A better question is why this person would create an AMA? First a janitor and now the fish guy from the supermarket?

i come across the janitor AMA on facebook and thought you know what ill do that

sorry mate first time on reddit wasnt sure how it worked plus i ended up going to Blundell Park to see Grimsby Town

He's a cunt!

i am cunt ill give you that one

Have you ever had sex with a fish?

Do you like fish sticks?

no i dont like fish full stop never had it once

Have you?

Do you find parasites in the fish?

Fish Monger here, yes. You find parasites in tuna, cod, drum fish, and a lot of other species. They're all edible once the fish is cooked, you've eaten them before.

http://i.imgur.com/fZA5owF.jpg

Sometimes the move around on the table when you prod them out with your knife. ;)

then you should cook the fish properly

Salmon?

salmon can get louse

in cod yes but its normal cod are bottom feeders once cooked they are harmless

We have a thing called standard operating procedure for everything in Australia, except filleting a fish. Do you guys have a manual you follow ?

yes we do

what is your pay like? Compare to rent for reference please.

Supermarket guys in the US don't make much, the meat cutter have a union and mongers don't. So smart guys who are good with knives gravitate towards meat usually. I work in wholesale seafood and that pays very well if you know your stuff.

I see, you work in US or UK like OP?

Grimsby UK

i earn 4 times what my rent is but im paid by the hour. Piece work filleters can earn 3 times my wage if there skilled and fast

not bad. whats stopping you from doing piece work?

only been doing it 9 months i am getting better and faster all the time so maybe in the next year i will

Do filleters often forget to remove the bone at the head of the fillet behind the gills? I find that from Waitrose to Tesco I often have to remove that myself.

only a lazy one! thats the whole point of the job removing the bones and obtaining as much meat as possible

How often do you just end up snacking on raw fish bits? What is your favorite way to prepare fish at home?

i never snack on fish bits i dont eat fish. some do snack on the smoked fish i hear that it is nice

What is the hardest fish to filet?

salmon is suppose to be really hard to do

What's the atmosphere like after the recent announcements?

Ouch. Maybe instead of firing 900 people, the guys at the top that fucked things up in the first place should take a little pay cut?

well david potts did cut down the staff working at the stores HQ and set about hiring 5000 more staff for the shop floors so its not all doom and gloom i suppose

i work in the factory which is new and doing incredibly well. its never nice to hear of people losing there jobs but if the stores are not viable

What she order?

far too much

What's the hardest fish to filet kn your opinion?

Other guy who worked in a fish factory in Iceland. Most fish were simply cutting around bone, easy enough. Salmon and cod were the hardest. Salmon, because you had to pry out each individual bone with pliers (and they were tough). Cod, because after filleting you had to individually remove nematodes with the end of your knife.

P.S. fun fact, the cutting floor NEVER smelled fishy, we had thousands of pounds of fish but the place was cleaned after each day, though my clothes smelled like the ocean after a day of no wash.

I worked in Western Australia as a fishmonger and the shop was cleaned everyday but still smelled fishy, and my clothes in summer would smell the worst! Especially when you catch the bus home and you would smell like sweat AND fish, people would get in the bus then their face would screw up and get off again. no one would sit next to me hahaha

Must have been how cold it was outside! But it never had a bad smell, a little ocean-y but never bad.

when i was young i worked in a factory that only processed frozen fish and i cant ever recall going home stinking of fish

High five fellow fish working fellow icelander! Hate cutting European Hake B2 size, sometimes they are of so low quality that they are almost falling apart.

at the moment we only do cod & haddock but in the near future we will be doing other species like hake. yeah i know what you mean on the quality sometimes the haddock we get is too soft to fillet to a standard im happy with

i find cod really easy to do haddock can be hit and miss for depending on size and how firm the fish is once it gets to the factory floor

How do you skin both sides of a sole? So bloody thin these things...

never done a sole but i heard its a lot easier then you imagine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0vk6gz0edE this is our factory

Know I'm late to the game here, but I REALLY like Morrison's fish counter and really like the guys like you who do a great job. What's the secret to great poached fish? I generally end up kind of boiling it and it never absorbs the flavour of the herbs, wine, whatever I put in....

Sorry i should of said i work in the factory not the store. i dont eat fish so would have no idea how to cook it

Last time someone in the supermarket filleted a fish for me he practically minced it. I took it away and paid anyway because I'm British. What is the etiquette in this situation?

i work in the factory and not the shop but if i was you i would asked for a different one.

Do you like your job? Good benefits?

yes i enjoy it as for benefits i do recieve discount at morrisons stores and can get a full english and a coffee for £1.30 every day

Do you have to wear a trilby?

I had to google what a trilby is no i dont. we do wear hair nets and a hard hat though

What's the most annoying fish to work with?

A frozen Cod!

I read this as "IamA Fish Filter"

Anyway, how much seafood fraud/misbranding goes on?

There's a lot of illegal stuff in fish markets, often times fish labeled cod is definitely not cod. But the good restaurants/grocery stores/etc. Will know what to look for and who to buy from, which is why the good ones make the most money, they sell good fish!

Right. And be smart. You're not getting Red Snapper at $6.99/lb. If it is too good to be true, it is.

Very True!

Hahaha good question mistakes do happen. as i only fillet in a factory environment i dont get to see it packaged and labelled

Is it fun work? I love fish fishing and harvesting my own meats, and think it would be interesting all of the fish you see. Does it pay well? Is it boring and monotonous?

i work in the factory not the supermarket and i can honestly say it is a right laugh. as for the pay if your good you can earn £800 pw i get paid hourly and its not bad i take home £350 + pw

Where I worked we would do hundreds of fish a day. It's like working on an assembly line.

Snap

What precautions do you do to minimize parasites ending up in products that are being sold?

There is only so much i can do if i see a worm i do remove them. there is not alot you can do with cod being a bottom feeder

I've met a few guys behind meat counters and they all seem to be really friendly and a bit crazy.

What's the craziest thing you've ever done or seen on the job?

we tricked our supervisor into thinking a workmate was having a heart attack it was quite funny watching him panic and seeing his face after he realised it was a wind up

What's the best way to get the taste out of your mouth afterwards?

no idea i dont eat fish i am from Grimsby and have never had fish n chips

Worms in fish meat. How prevailant are they?

In Cod they are very prevailant but they are bottom feeders so it is expected. Other Fish its rare to find worms

How many Bears, can Bear Grills, grill, if Bear Grills could grill bears?

5 or 6