PURPOSE: To obtain a homogeneous fish material for secondary processing, in a short time, by pelletizing boiled fish meat and drying the pellet.

CONSTITUTION: (1) Guts are removed from raw fish body without removing oily belly meat. The step may be skipped in the case of small-sized fish such as sardine. (2) The fish is boiled at about 90W98°C for 1.5W2hr. (3) The boiled fish is pelletized with a pelletizer by extruding in the form of strings under pressure and applying vibration to the string. (4) The pellet is conditioned to a predetermined water-content or thereabout by heating under a condition corresponding to the kind of the fish since fish has different meat quality and contents of water and oil according to the kind. (5) The pelletized material is dried for about 0.5W1 day. (6) The dried pellet is used as a material for secondary processing.