How to Fillet a Fish

Steps to Fillet a Fish

• Start with a sharp boning knife and a cutting board larger than the fish you’re filleting.
• Rinse your fish and pat it dry. If you don’t want scales, have the fishmonger scale the fish for you before you bring it home. This will save time and mess.
• Holding the pectoral fin firmly with the belly of the fish facing you, make a slash just behind the head and fin, running the length and shape of the gills. You want to cut all the way to the bone until you feel resistance, much as if you were trying pit an avocado. Make sure your knife stops at the backbone.
• Turn the fish around so you can comfortably insert the point of the knife just behind the head. The flat blade of your knife should be resting on the dorsal fin. Make a cut along the entire back from head to tail, running parallel to the dorsal fin. You’ll likely need to make a sawing motion because of the tough skin.
• Using this long cut as a guide, slowly peel back the flesh from the fish while making downward slashes close to the backbone and ribs. Make a cut and pull as you go. Keep tension as you begin your next cut and pull gently. Your cuts should sweep from head to tail in an unbroken motion. As you work your way closer to the belly, the fillet will become thinner, especially where the ribs are. Go slowly and try to stay close to the bones by feeling them with the knife as you cut.
• Once you reach the belly make a clean cut through the skin and voilà!

Tips for Filleting a Fish

• Many people prefer a thin and somewhat flexible boning knife for cutting fish. It can make it easier to skin fillets and cut through a fish’s delicate flesh.
• In general, fish are scaled to prevent chewing on a scale in the middle of dinner, but some, like trout, are rarely scaled.
• Skinning fillets takes practice and a sharp knife. To skin a fillet, start at the tail end. Make an incision where the skin meets the flesh. Then grab the skin with your thumb and forefinger and insert the knife blade into the incision. Keep the fillet flat on a cutting board with the skin side down as you gently saw through the flesh until your knife is firmly between the skin and flesh.
• Now you should be able to push the knife though the length of the fillet, keeping it close to the skin and separating the flesh above. It helps to angle the blade slightly away from the skin and toward the flesh as you get farther down the fillet.
• If the small bones in fillets bother you or your guests, you can purchase boning pliers to remove these bones. After you’ve filleted the fish, you’ll be able to run your hand over the flesh to find the line of prickly spots where the bones are. They’re usually close to where the backbone or ribs were. They have to be pulled out one by one, but the result is a totally boneless fillet.

Put your filleting skills to the test with our recipe for fish tacos.