Filleting a roundfish is easy if you follow these steps. Just be sure to use your sharpest knife, whether it’s a fillet knife or a chef’s knife.
Course Technique
Keyword Culinary 3, Fish, Seafood
Instructions
Before you fillet a whole fish, it should be scaled. Doing the job yourself isn’t difficult, but it’s messy because the scales tend to fly all over and you find them in weird places around the kitchen for days. Scale the whole fish submerged in water or inside a plastic bag to make cleanup easier. Hold the fish firmly by the tail and scrape the knife from the tail to the head of the fish removing the scales in a stroking motion – they should flake off quite easily.
Rinse the fish under running water and pat dry. Position it on a cutting board with its back towards you. Using a sharp knife held behind the gills and side fin, cut straight down halfway through the fish to the backbone, being sure to include the meaty spot right behind the top of the head.
Turn the knife parallel to the board (at a 90-degree angle to your first cut) and cut along the spine from head to tail, removing the belly flap with the fillet. You’ll need to apply a fair amount of pressure at first to break through the rib bones. As you cut, press down firmly on top of the fish to steady it.
Finish removing the fillet by cutting all the way through the skin at the tail. Repeat steps 1 through 3 on the other side of the fish.
Remove the rib bones and belly flap by cutting under the top of the rib bones to the bottom of the fillet at a 45-degree angle. There is some meat here, but on small fish it is minimal. (On larger fish like tuna, this fatty belly is thicker and very flavorful.)
Finally, check for pin bones. Some fish have little bones that run along the midline of the fillet and are nearly impossible to see. To remove them, feel along the fillet to locate each bone and then pluck it out with a pair of clean needle-nose or fish pliers. Pull the bones out in the direction they are pointing, as you would a splinter.