Fillet a Fish

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Bruce Marnie again for Expert Village in this segment we're going to talk about actually filleting the fish. Producing nice fillets from a whole fish that's already been gutted what we're going to do is start with I prefer the knife with a curve edge. However, you can use a knife with a pointed tip either way the most important thing is as I mentioned earlier is that they're both very sharp. What I like to do with a curved edge here on the knife I like to start along the dorsal surface of the fish and follow the back bones or the ribs I should say. All the way to the central backbone so what we're going to do is make a continuous cut starting from the base of the fins all the way down following the vertical ribs of the backbone. All the way down to the central backbone of the fish, then we're going to turn the fish and do the same thing on this side following this fin all the way down the ribs of the backbone, all the way into the central part of the fish. Then we're going to turn the fish crosswise to us lift the fillet and just slice it right off the backbone in one complete piece. Now I can't emphasize enough how important it is to have a sharp knife and also to have it slightly wet, the moisture on the knife from the kitchen faucet keeps the knife from dragging on the flesh. So you want to start with a wet knife that's very sharp I use my left hand with the knife in my right hand and I use my left hand to roll the fish in this manner. So as I make my cut the fillet rolls away from the knife blade, notice how I'm going down here right along the backbone of the fish. Right along the ribs and I'm not sawing back and forth repeatedly I'm making smooth deliberate cuts and you want to do this to avoid ripping the flesh. The wideness of the knife is important for following the backbone the ribs here on the backbone and your thumb is important to peel the fillet back. So it doesn't endure secondary cuts from the knife, next once we've cut all the way to the backbone of the fish all the way up to the base of the skull. Next we want to make a cut right at the base of the operculum with the knife following all the way down right behind the pectoral fin. So we're going to cut down just like this at an angle all the way to the backbone but not through. And the knife point should come out just behind the pelvic fin, so right behind the pectoral fin is the side fin of the fish and the pelvic fin just make a diagonal cut down to the backbone, so your cut should be similar to this."