When you've got yourself a whole, gutted fish you'd like to fillet, it's really not that challenging of a method to adhere to. The challenging part is how well you cut the fish, but you'll only get better with practice. If you've just got a huge, fresh bit of salmon with skin, you could skip down to the final section and get right down to skinning and cutting.
Removing the Meat from the Fish
If cutting the meat straight off the fish, you'll need to have a very sharp knife and a strong hand. The secret is cutting off the flesh good enough to get all the excellent meat off the fish. It might be a good idea to start slow until you get a hang of it. Initially, scale the fish by using a sharp knife swiped up against the grain of the scales. If you do this in water, it will prevent the scales from flying everywhere and is still equally as useful; just don't press too much or you'll bruise the fish. If you'd rather go an easier route, a fish scaler is much more your thing. If the fish is scaled, place your sharp knife a ways behind the gill and cut all the way down. Cut down to the backbone and the turn your knife to slice lengthwise along the fish together with your knife parallel to the backbone. Use the spine as the guide and saw right down to the tail and then try and cut off as much meat as possible.
Cut off the bottom and top of the fillet and then there is more undesired meat. You don't have to cut too much off the top, however the bottom has the fat of the fish, which is-surprisingly-not that extraordinary to eat. Just make sure that the fins are not on your fillets of fish. Turn the fish over and do the same thing on the other side of the fish, slicing a clean piece from the fish. You need to now have 2 large bits of the fish with skin. When you'd like you can cut the flesh into fatter pieces now and keep the skin on. Some want to cook salmon with the skin on, but if not, then you'll have to carefully remove the skin as to get as much meat as you can.
Removing Bones
In the event that you'd like to move the pin bones from the fish, grab a pair of clean, needle-nosed pliers or tweezers along with a knife. The bones are usually most visible in the thickest area of the fish towards the middle. Run the rear of your chef's knife along the piece of fish, starting at the head. The bone fragments should stick up through the flesh, making it easier to spot them. You can then use fishbone tweezers, regular tweezers or needle-nosed pliers to pull out the bones. Draw them out at a forty-five degree angle into the head to make it a little quicker to take out. You should now have a boneless hunk of flesh on your hands. You can check to be certain you got all the bones, since their tiny size makes it simple to miss a few.
Taking out the Skin and Cutting to Pieces
As soon as the fish has been cut and deboned, you might want to skin the flesh and cut it into appropriate pieces for supper. It's quite simple to do, just follow these steps:
Get a good pair of clean vice grips (I have a pair that I use for numerous items in the kitchen only). Grip the salmon fillet by the tail end with the vice grips. This gives you a solid grip over the fish. You can easily use your fingers, but it's tougher and slippery. Set the salmon skin-down on a cutting board. Position the knife where the skin meets the flesh of your fillet. Angle the fillet cutlery slightly downward toward the flesh, and, utilizing a light sawing motion, cut between the skin as well as the meat. Pull a little bit onto the skin as you slice with the cutting knife.
Hold the knife flat and up against the fish and cut at a diagonal angle through the flesh. The objective is to get the slice to be as flat as possible so there's an even, flat surface to cook. After all that work of cutting, deboning and skinning, your salmon is ready to cook and serve up. It may look hard initially, but the more you handle the extra tasks of preparing salmon, the much easier it will get. Practice makes perfect.
Removing the Meat from the Fish
If cutting the meat straight off the fish, you'll need to have a very sharp knife and a strong hand. The secret is cutting off the flesh good enough to get all the excellent meat off the fish. It might be a good idea to start slow until you get a hang of it. Initially, scale the fish by using a sharp knife swiped up against the grain of the scales. If you do this in water, it will prevent the scales from flying everywhere and is still equally as useful; just don't press too much or you'll bruise the fish. If you'd rather go an easier route, a fish scaler is much more your thing. If the fish is scaled, place your sharp knife a ways behind the gill and cut all the way down. Cut down to the backbone and the turn your knife to slice lengthwise along the fish together with your knife parallel to the backbone. Use the spine as the guide and saw right down to the tail and then try and cut off as much meat as possible.
Cut off the bottom and top of the fillet and then there is more undesired meat. You don't have to cut too much off the top, however the bottom has the fat of the fish, which is-surprisingly-not that extraordinary to eat. Just make sure that the fins are not on your fillets of fish. Turn the fish over and do the same thing on the other side of the fish, slicing a clean piece from the fish. You need to now have 2 large bits of the fish with skin. When you'd like you can cut the flesh into fatter pieces now and keep the skin on. Some want to cook salmon with the skin on, but if not, then you'll have to carefully remove the skin as to get as much meat as you can.
Removing Bones
In the event that you'd like to move the pin bones from the fish, grab a pair of clean, needle-nosed pliers or tweezers along with a knife. The bones are usually most visible in the thickest area of the fish towards the middle. Run the rear of your chef's knife along the piece of fish, starting at the head. The bone fragments should stick up through the flesh, making it easier to spot them. You can then use fishbone tweezers, regular tweezers or needle-nosed pliers to pull out the bones. Draw them out at a forty-five degree angle into the head to make it a little quicker to take out. You should now have a boneless hunk of flesh on your hands. You can check to be certain you got all the bones, since their tiny size makes it simple to miss a few.
Taking out the Skin and Cutting to Pieces
As soon as the fish has been cut and deboned, you might want to skin the flesh and cut it into appropriate pieces for supper. It's quite simple to do, just follow these steps:
Get a good pair of clean vice grips (I have a pair that I use for numerous items in the kitchen only). Grip the salmon fillet by the tail end with the vice grips. This gives you a solid grip over the fish. You can easily use your fingers, but it's tougher and slippery. Set the salmon skin-down on a cutting board. Position the knife where the skin meets the flesh of your fillet. Angle the fillet cutlery slightly downward toward the flesh, and, utilizing a light sawing motion, cut between the skin as well as the meat. Pull a little bit onto the skin as you slice with the cutting knife.
Hold the knife flat and up against the fish and cut at a diagonal angle through the flesh. The objective is to get the slice to be as flat as possible so there's an even, flat surface to cook. After all that work of cutting, deboning and skinning, your salmon is ready to cook and serve up. It may look hard initially, but the more you handle the extra tasks of preparing salmon, the much easier it will get. Practice makes perfect.
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