Cutting fish into fillets is not an easy task at first glance. However, the devil is not so terrible as he is painted. Filletting is the process of separating fish meat from the skin and backbone, as well as from inedible parts such as the head, tail, fins and small bones. Undoubtedly, the first time cutting will seem like a feat, but for the fifth or tenth time you will not even notice how the fish will turn into fillets.
It is necessary
- • Any fish.
- • Two knives: short and filleted long.
Instructions
Step 1
Take any fish (you don't have to gut or clean the scales in advance), make an incision around the gills and open the lower abdomen so as not to hurt the intestines. It is best to do this with the tip of a knife.
Step 2
Pull out the gills and remove the intestines, clean from blood clots and rinse the inside of the fish with water.
Step 3
Use a knife to make an incision near the head that reaches the bone. At this stage, it is important not to decapitate the fish, but only to cut the meat up to the spine.
Step 4
Make an incision along the back of the fish, from head to tail. It will turn out oblique, since on the way there will be a fin, which should be carefully rounded, and then continue to cut clearly along the back. The closer the knife blade goes to the spine, the more meat will remain on the fillet. At first, in order to make sure that the blade has not moved away from the bones, you can gently lift the cut piece of meat and look.
Step 5
When the cut fillet can already be held by hand, you can bend it back and gently continue to cut the meat along the border with the bones with a knife. As a result, you should end up with two pieces of fish: one completely deboned, the other with the backbone with the rest of the bones.
Step 6
Turn the fish meat side up and do the above again. A slightly easier way - without turning the fish over, use the tip of the knife blade to tear off the short bones from the meat along the entire piece. In 3-5 cm from the tail, push the blade deeper and slide it towards the tail, and cut the skin from below where the meat ends. This will separate the tail of the spine from the meat. Next, lift the severed tail, and with a knife, carefully separate the spine from the meat. That is, instead of cutting the meat off the spine, as you did before, you carefully cut the spine from the meat.
Step 7
Cut off any remaining fins on the fillet.
Step 8
As a result of the performed manipulations, you should have two pieces of fish fillets on the skin and a skeleton. The latter can be put on the ear or given to the cat, and small bones should also be removed from the fillet and the meat should be separated from the skin. The bones can be removed with fingernails, tweezers, or not removed at all.
Step 9
Use a fillet knife, if you have one, to separate the meat from the skin. Place a piece of fillet on a table or a flat board, skin side down, with one hand press the skin to the table, and with the other, slide the knife parallel to the table along the skin, separating the meat from it. It is important that the blade of the knife goes exactly parallel to the surface on which the fish lies - if it snaps up, the meat will remain on the skin, if, on the contrary, goes down, cut through the skin.
Step 10
The fillet is ready. Cut into pieces that are convenient for you and use as you wish.
