A fillet is the most common, and popular, cut of fish. However, whole fish holds its shape and flavour better than fillets, and your fish will be much fresher if you buy it whole and fillet it yourself...
A fillet is the most common, and popular, cut of fish. However, whole fish holds its shape and flavour better than fillets, and your fish will be much fresher if you buy it whole and fillet it yourself.
To fillet a whole round fish:
- Rinse fish under cold running water
- Lay the fish on the cutting board. Using your free hand, press down on the fish to pin it to the board
- Slice down the backside of the head with your knife, as if beginning to cleave the fish into its two halves
- Place your knife inside this cut, positioning it neatly between the fish's bones and its flesh, and cut from head to tail. Keep the bottom of the blade tight against the bones, so that these are separated from the fillet
- When the fillet is all but freed from the fish, hold it in one hand and snip it loose at the tail, holding the knife blade tilted downward for this last cut
- Cut away the "comb" of tiny bones that will edge your fillet
- Once one fillet has been cut from one side of the fish, turn it over and proceed as with the dark side up
- Begin by making a shallow cut in the top of the fish's head, bringing the tip of your knife blade just shy of the backbone, and continue as you did with the first fillet.