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How To Fillet A Fish
Like most things in life, there are many different ways to fillet a fish, and for the most part, the method chosen is simply due to personal preference. Although the following is one of the methods we use, the actual pictures & descriptions were sent to us without any crediting information. If anyone knows the originator please let us know so we can credit their work. In the meantime, here is a simple but comprehensive approach to filleting fish:
Step 1 – The Equipment:
You don't need to spend a fortune to get a knife that will work well... in fact, most of our fillet knives cost under $20.
It's also a good idea to have a sharpener for the knife so you can touch it up as you go. A sharp knife makes all the difference when filleting so do yourself a favour and keep it sharp.
Once you've got a sharp knife, you will need a flat surface to lay the fish on. Any piece of board or countertop that is big enough will do just fine. We use a 3/4 inch wooden (butcher block) cutting board.
It's also a good idea to have a sharpener for the knife so you can touch it up as you go. A sharp knife makes all the difference when filleting so do yourself a favour and keep it sharp.
Once you've got a sharp knife, you will need a flat surface to lay the fish on. Any piece of board or countertop that is big enough will do just fine. We use a 3/4 inch wooden (butcher block) cutting board.
First things first is to make sure you're comfortable with where the fish is placed. It's all a matter of personal preference so do what feels comfortable for you. The object is to make the cuts while safely keeping the fish secure.
Step 2 - Cutting the first fillet:
Once you've got your knife sharpened & your workspace established it's time to fillet. We're assuming you've already gutted your fish - if not please see how to clean a fish now.
Make the first cut just behind the gillplate, in the first soft section of tissue. Make this cut straight down, perpendicular to the backbone. Cut all the way down to, but not through the backbone.
Once you've cut down to the backbone, make sure you cut and free the lower (belly) section also.
While holding the knife against the backbone, turn it 90° so the cutting edge faces the tail and the blade is parallel to the backbone. Then, while holding the belly flap up with one hand, start cutting towards the tail, with the blade parallel to the backbone, or angled just slightly towards the backbone, so it rides against it. You want to use the backbone as your guide. In the other axis, the tip of your blade should be angled a little towards the cutting board, as shown... you do this so your cut comes closer to the dorsal fin, you don't want to leave a thick strip of meat on the carcass above the backbone, you want it to end up on your fillet!
At first, you'll be cutting through the rib bones, so the first part might take a little effort... this is why you want a nice sharp knife! Continue to hold the belly meat up so it doesn't get accidently cut by the blade, and work the blade along the backbone, back towards the tail. Notice how close the blade is to the dorsal fin... you want to pass just above it, leaving the most meat possible on your fillet.
Again, you want the blade to pass just along the anal fin, and right along the backbone also, leaving as much meat as possible on your fillet. Notice the angle of the blade, angled slightly towards the backbone... you want to use the backbone as a guide... you don't want to go too deep and dig into the backbone, and you don't want to go too shallow and leave some meat on the backbone... it's a delicate balance, one that takes practice.
At the tail of the fish, run your blade out along the backbone, and then angle slightly upward, through the skin.
And there it is ... the first fillet off the bone. We will rib and clean up this fillet after we cut the next fillet.
And there it is ... the first fillet off the bone. We will rib and clean up this fillet after we cut the next fillet.
Step 3 – Cutting the second fillet:
Once you've got your first fillet cut, put it aside and flip your fish over.
Once you've got your first fillet cut, put it aside and flip your fish over.
How you hold the fish is a matter of personal preference, but I find it easiest to cut my second fillet with the fish situated as shown. Again, cut down just behind the gillplate, perpendicular to the backbone, through the entire fillet, but not through the backbone.
Again, once you reach the backbone, turn your blade 90° and face the cutting edge towards the tail and perpendicular to the backbone. Hold the belly meat up and start cutting through the rib bones, moving the blade towards the tail.
On this second fillet, I think it's very important to have the fish right at the edge of the cutting board, so my chubby knife hand can hang over the edge... if not, my knuckles would be scraping on the cutting board in order to get a good cut along the backbone.
Continue to hold the belly meat up, and cut along the backbone. Angle the knife so that you minimize the amount of meat you leave on the carcass.
A different camera angle, showing how to hold up the belly meat. You do this so that you don't accidently cut through the belly meat while you're concentrating on cutting through the rib bones. Make sure you don't cut yourself while doing this... using a Kevlar glove for your non-knife hand is not a bad idea.
After you pass the belly cavity, you can let go of the belly meat. Continue to use the backbone as your guide, and carefully angle the blade so that it rides just over the anal fin, again, maximizing the amount of meat on the fillet.
Run the blade along the backbone and at the very end, angle it away from the backbone and cut through the skin near the tail.
Step 4 – Ribbing the fillets:
Because of the way we fillet (cutting through the rib bones leaving them on the fillets), we then need to go back and remove the ribs to have nice-looking, bone-free fillets.
Because of the way we fillet (cutting through the rib bones leaving them on the fillets), we then need to go back and remove the ribs to have nice-looking, bone-free fillets.
Again, fish placement is very important when cutting fish. For ribbing, we prefer to place the fillets with the bellies away from us, and at an angle. Make sure you have plenty of room and place the fish in a way that feels comfortable to you. The first thing to do is remove the first one or two ribs from the front of the fillet. Remove them with an angled cut of the knife. These ribs are positioned slightly different than the rest of the ribs and if you don't remove them first, they cause problems in this next step.
Starting near where the backbone used to be, cut just under the ribs. To do this easily takes a delicate touch. You want to angle the knife so it's angled slightly up, towards the ribs, maximizing the amount of meat you leave on the fillet.
You also want to put a little pressure down on the knife lengthwise, giving it a slight bend, so it follows the ribs more closely. This is where a true fillet knife comes in handy, because true fillet knives have the proper blade thickness that allows you to bend the blade with just the right pressure.
Continue to cut and lift the ribs out. You may leave a little bit of white belly lining in place, this is fine. You can either leave it (many people do) or trim it out later.
Completely detach the ribs and belly lining.
Step 5 – Trimming the fillets (part 1)
Now that we've remove the ribs, we need to do a little delicate "finish" work to make the fillets look really presentable. Much of this is a matter of personal preference, some people don't do much trimming at all, others go hog-wild... so feel free to improvise and do what you think is practical.
The first thing to do is remove the ventral fins. Some people like to remove only the fin, while others (like me) prefer to remove a bit of belly meat and fat along with it... I find the easiest way to do this is to poke through the fillet just above and forward of the fin... from the inside, you will see where the cartilidge is. Be very careful not to poke yourself with the knife while doing this...
Now that we've remove the ribs, we need to do a little delicate "finish" work to make the fillets look really presentable. Much of this is a matter of personal preference, some people don't do much trimming at all, others go hog-wild... so feel free to improvise and do what you think is practical.
The first thing to do is remove the ventral fins. Some people like to remove only the fin, while others (like me) prefer to remove a bit of belly meat and fat along with it... I find the easiest way to do this is to poke through the fillet just above and forward of the fin... from the inside, you will see where the cartilidge is. Be very careful not to poke yourself with the knife while doing this...
Hold the belly meat tightly and run the blade back and around the fin cartilidge.
Run the knife all the way back to the anus and take a little bit of the gristly meat off on the way... you'll see the difference in the texture of the meat.
Now hold the meat you just trimmed away, and turn the blade around and cut forward from the fin. Some people prefer to leave this belly meat on the fillet, some people like to remove it and smoke it. some say it's the tastiest part of the fish, as it has the most oils. Other than the internal organs, this belly meat also tends to have the most toxins in it, so I prefer to remove it... it's all a matter of personal preference.
If you have any white belly lining left on your fillet, you can trim it off.
Trimming the belly lining off takes a tricky bit of pressure... press down on the knife to make it flex against the fillet, and angle the blade so that it cuts just under the belly lining and "skins" it. Remember, practice will help!
Trimming the belly lining off takes a tricky bit of pressure... press down on the knife to make it flex against the fillet, and angle the blade so that it cuts just under the belly lining and "skins" it. Remember, practice will help!
Step 6 – Trimming the fillets (part 2):
OK, so we've removed the ribs, fins, and belly lining, so now we move on to the very optional stuff.
See the white specks? They're actually little pieces of the backbone that were trimmed off when we cut the fillet. Almost everyone just leaves these "knuckles" in their fillet, but you can remove them. Removing them looks better and opens up the fillet a lot more so that any sauces you use in cooking will soak in better... just a minor detail but if you've got the time you've already got your hands dirty so what's a few more minutes!
OK, so we've removed the ribs, fins, and belly lining, so now we move on to the very optional stuff.
See the white specks? They're actually little pieces of the backbone that were trimmed off when we cut the fillet. Almost everyone just leaves these "knuckles" in their fillet, but you can remove them. Removing them looks better and opens up the fillet a lot more so that any sauces you use in cooking will soak in better... just a minor detail but if you've got the time you've already got your hands dirty so what's a few more minutes!
Start by straightening out your fillet so the backbone line is in a straight line... this will help a lot. What you want to do is make a long "V" shaped cut, with the bottom of the "V" underneath the pieces of bone. Angle your knife at a 45° angle both ways... and carefully cut just to one side of the backbone line, with your blade angled towards the center of the line, so the tip of the blade is maybe 1/4" deep in the fish. Cut all the way along the fish, to the tail.
Turn the knife around and make the second cut just to the other side of the backbone line, again, all the way down the fish.
You should end up with a long, triangle-shaped piece of scrap meat that has the pieces of bone on one side.
It will probably still be attached near the tail by a short white piece of gristle. The white piece will still be attached to the skin. Pull up on this white piece and trim it from the skin, and trim off whatever white or gray meat you want trim off near the tail.
Come back and trim off any other fatty pieces near the belly, or any gristle pieces near where the dorsal and anal fins used to be.
Step 7 – Removing the pin bones:
I never used to remove the pin bones - mainly because it can be a real PITA! However, I've also always really hated to get bones in my mouth when I eat fish. So one day I decided that I would start removing the pin bones in my fish. I started doing it, and now I can't stop. I now realize it's well worth the effort, and as it turns out, with one good tool, the effort is a lot less.
The first thing you want to do is to hold the fillet from underneath, so the pin bones poke out a bit more and are easier to get at. A pair of needle nose pliers or a set of forceps works great for this step!
I never used to remove the pin bones - mainly because it can be a real PITA! However, I've also always really hated to get bones in my mouth when I eat fish. So one day I decided that I would start removing the pin bones in my fish. I started doing it, and now I can't stop. I now realize it's well worth the effort, and as it turns out, with one good tool, the effort is a lot less.
The first thing you want to do is to hold the fillet from underneath, so the pin bones poke out a bit more and are easier to get at. A pair of needle nose pliers or a set of forceps works great for this step!
This isn't rocket science, just grab a hold of the pin bone and pull. The angle I have it at here is not the best way to hold the fish. You will probably find it most comfortable if you have the fish placed so that the tail is pointing away from you.
Wiggle the bone a little bit to loosen it. I find it also helps to put two fingers from my other hand on the flesh on either side of the bone, to hold the fillet down as I pull.
Here is a removed pin bone.
Step 8 – That's it folks ... you're done!
Well, if you look at your fillet and it looks good to you, then you're done.
Here is the finished fillet, ready for the grill or oven.
Well, if you look at your fillet and it looks good to you, then you're done.
Here is the finished fillet, ready for the grill or oven.
A sharp knife & a flat surface are all that is needed to successfully fillet a fish. There are many different fillet knifes on the market - don't let em confuse you. We prefer 8" long blades that are narrow and fairly flexible.
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