Filleting fish: step by step

How it works

1. Scale the fish from tail to head if you want to eat the skin. Otherwise you can skin the fillets later.
2. Lay the fish on its side with its back towards you. Cut at an angle behind the gill cover and pectoral fin down to the backbone.
3. Turn the knife flat and run it from the head towards the tail along the backbone. Press the blade lightly against the bones as you go.
4. Work the fillet free over the rib bones and cut it off at the tail. Then turn the fish over and do the same on the other side.
5. Cut the rib bones off the fillet with a flat knife. You can remove the thin belly flap at the same time.
6. Feel along the centre line with your finger for pin bones and pull them out with fish bone tweezers in the direction they grow.
7. Skinning: lay the fillet skin side down, hold the tail end firmly and slide the knife flat between skin and flesh. Pull the skin rather than sawing.
8. Check every fillet once more for bones and anything unusual, and put it in the fridge, covered.
9. You can use the frame with head and bones for a fish stock.

Tips

• Pike: in the upper half of each fillet there is a row of Y-bones. Feel for them, cut at an angle along both sides and lift out the narrow strip.
• Carp and bream: score the fillets. To do this, lay them skin side down and cut across them at 2 to 3 mm intervals down to just above the skin. This makes the bones so short that they hardly bother you once fried.
• Sharpen your knife first. A blunt knife tears the flesh and slips more easily.

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