How To Remove and Preserve Snapper Head Bone?

[Berleyguts]

Hi everyone! Can anyone please tell me how to remove and preserve the “head bone” or lump from a snapper? I tried cutting around it yesterday but after going to the hospital 2 weeks ago when I lost a fight with an avocado seed and a knife, I thought there had to be a better way! The head’s in a bag with salt in the bin at the moment. Thought it might make a nice record of my catch.

Edited February 29, 2020 by Berleyguts
FFS

[61 crusher]

You could also leave it outside in the shade near some ants & they’ll remove all the meaty bits & it won’t smell till you work out how to remove the bone, might be a good idea to attach it to a ground spike though in case a cat takes a liking to It

[Berleyguts]

23 minutes ago, 61 crusher said:

You could also leave it outside in the shade near some ants & they’ll remove all the meaty bits & it won’t smell till you work out how to remove the bone, might be a good idea to attach it to a ground spike though in case a cat takes a liking to It

Yeah, thanks... the dogs will love that!

I did some googling and found instructions on how to preserve the jaws of a snapper. Basically they bake the heads, eat the meat (won’t be doing that now it’s been in the bin for about 24 hours 🤮), then clean and bleach them. Looked a bit fiddly glueing everything back together but they did look pretty good. Generally no bumps on snapper in NZ though.

Edited February 29, 2020 by Berleyguts
FFS

[bookwa]

50mm piece of ginger sliced fine, one clove garlic same, half cup of green ends off shallots and one tablespoon squid brand fish sauce, in one litre of water or more if necessary.  Drop the well scrubbed head in and bring to boil then simmer gently for twenty minutes.  Then you have fantastic stock and the head will be easy to clean!  Put it in the dishwasher to perfectly clean it!

i never throw out snapper heads or frames!

[JonD]

My daughter has done a few baked in the over then soaked in hydrogen peroxide (from Woolworths). Then its a case of glueing them back together. Bleach is to harsh and may stuff them up. They have done so many now that they buy paroxide in 4lt tubs.

My daughter also discovered how goos the meat around the heads is compared to the fillets (which are also good).

 

[zmk1962]

On a similar note, Maria (wife) decided to make a Thai curry with the blue eye cod heads we caught last Tuesday. I was surprised how good it was and how much good meat we’d wasted previously.  The frames went to a fish stock. No wastage from us going forward. 
cheers Zoran 

[back cruncher]

Hi all...put the head in a bucket full of water.do a partial water change every few days just to reduce the smell somewhat.the bacteria will do the work for you.if you put bleach or peroxide it will kill the bacteria.ive done this dozens of times with boar heads over the years.if you boil or cook the head you dry the bones out.

btw...nice snapper baz.

[kingie chaser]

Never done a fish head but done a couple of deer head/antlers & you need to remove all the soft tissue.

Boiling it out is the easiest time & cost effective, then scraping & or jet blasting the flesh(not to close, could be to much for small fish?).

 

This might interest you Baz

https://www.instructables.com/id/Preserving-Shark-Jaws/