In case you've got yourself a whole, gutted fish you'd love to fillet, it's really not that challenging of a method to follow along with. The difficult part is how you cut the fish, but you'll only improve with practice. If you've just got a huge, fresh piece of salmon with skin, you could skip down to the last section and get right down to skinning and cutting.
Removing the Meat from the Fish
When cutting the meat straight off the fish, you'll have to have a very well-defined knife and a firm hand. The trick is removing the flesh well enough to get all the excellent meat off the fish. It may be a great idea to start slow up until you get a practice of it. First, scale the fish using a sharp knife swiped against the grain of the scales. If you do this in water, it will prevent the scales from soaring everywhere and is still equally as effective; just don't press way too hard or you'll bruise the fish. If you'd rather go an easier route, a fish scaler might be more your thing. Once the fish is scaled, place your sharp knife a ways behind the gill and cut straight down. Cut down to the backbone and the turn your knife to cut lengthwise down the fish with your knife parallel to the spine. Use the spine as the guide and saw right down to the tail and then try and take off as much meat as you can.
Cut-off the bottom and top of the fillet where there is more undesired meat. You don't need to cut too much off the top, but the bottom has the fat of the fish, which is-surprisingly-not that great to eat. Just make sure that the fins are not on your fillets of fish. Turn the fish over and do the exact same thing on the reverse side of the fish, cutting a clean piece from the fish. You need to now have 2 large bits of the fish with skin. In case you'd like you can cut the flesh into fatter parts now and keep the skin on. Some choose 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 possibly 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.
Detaching 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:
Obtain a good pair of clean vice grips (I have a pair that I use for various things in the kitchen area only). Grip the salmon fillet by the tail end with the vice grips. This gives you a solid grip over the fish. You can simply use your fingers, but it's more difficult and slippery. Put the salmon skin-down on a slicing board. Position the knife where the skin suits the flesh of your fillet. Angle the fillet knife slightly downward towards the flesh, and, using a light sawing motion, cut in between the skin and the meat. Pull slightly on the skin as you slice with the cutting knife.
Keep the knife flat and against the fish and cut at a diagonal angle over the flesh. The aim is to get the cut to be as thin as you can so there's an even, flat surface to cook. After all that work of cutting, deboning and skinning, your salmon is ready to prepare and serve. It may seem hard in the beginning, 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
When cutting the meat straight off the fish, you'll have to have a very well-defined knife and a firm hand. The trick is removing the flesh well enough to get all the excellent meat off the fish. It may be a great idea to start slow up until you get a practice of it. First, scale the fish using a sharp knife swiped against the grain of the scales. If you do this in water, it will prevent the scales from soaring everywhere and is still equally as effective; just don't press way too hard or you'll bruise the fish. If you'd rather go an easier route, a fish scaler might be more your thing. Once the fish is scaled, place your sharp knife a ways behind the gill and cut straight down. Cut down to the backbone and the turn your knife to cut lengthwise down the fish with your knife parallel to the spine. Use the spine as the guide and saw right down to the tail and then try and take off as much meat as you can.
Cut-off the bottom and top of the fillet where there is more undesired meat. You don't need to cut too much off the top, but the bottom has the fat of the fish, which is-surprisingly-not that great to eat. Just make sure that the fins are not on your fillets of fish. Turn the fish over and do the exact same thing on the reverse side of the fish, cutting a clean piece from the fish. You need to now have 2 large bits of the fish with skin. In case you'd like you can cut the flesh into fatter parts now and keep the skin on. Some choose 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 possibly 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.
Detaching 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:
Obtain a good pair of clean vice grips (I have a pair that I use for various things in the kitchen area only). Grip the salmon fillet by the tail end with the vice grips. This gives you a solid grip over the fish. You can simply use your fingers, but it's more difficult and slippery. Put the salmon skin-down on a slicing board. Position the knife where the skin suits the flesh of your fillet. Angle the fillet knife slightly downward towards the flesh, and, using a light sawing motion, cut in between the skin and the meat. Pull slightly on the skin as you slice with the cutting knife.
Keep the knife flat and against the fish and cut at a diagonal angle over the flesh. The aim is to get the cut to be as thin as you can so there's an even, flat surface to cook. After all that work of cutting, deboning and skinning, your salmon is ready to prepare and serve. It may seem hard in the beginning, but the more you handle the extra tasks of preparing salmon, the much easier it will get. Practice makes perfect.
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