A lot of people want to know how to cut fish to get it ready for sashimi and sushi. Of course, cutting the actual portions requires blocking as well. But it might be interesting for some people to learn how to get the fillets. So, here are:
20(!) steps steps to fillet a medium sized, round fish Japanese style:
(You'll need a chef's/gyuto or deba appropriately sized for the fish, and a long slicer/sujibiki or yanigaba. The first 14 steps are with the chef's/gyuto or deba, the last four with the slicer or yani.)
- Scale the fish, using the edge of your .
- Check to make sure scaling is complete, pick up any scales you may have missed because they were hiding under fins, etc.
- Rinse fish and board, making sure there are no scales left on the board.
- Cut a vent in the belly
- Turn fish so it's back is towards you, and it's head towards your knife hand.
- Make the first head cut: Cut down to the spine without cutting all the way through it. The cut should be located just behind the pectoral fin (behind the gill vent), and end right behind the skull. It should be angled so that the top of the head will be distinctly shorter than the bottom. The cut should be made mostly by "push cut." In any case, it should not require more than a single draw. Sawing is bad fish technique. Don't do it.
- Turn the fish over, belly facing you, head still towards your knife hand. Repeat the previous cut, but this time go just barely through the spine.
- Put down your knife and remove the head. If you weren't too rough, the gill structure should come with it.
- Clean the guts from the vent. Check to make sure the belly is completely cleaned.
- Rinse the fish and board, washing off any blood. Check for scales again.
- Orient the fish as it was before you cut off the head -- head end facing your knife hand, back towards you. Starting at the head end, use your tip to find the spine, and your edge to find the backbones.
- Keep your knife as horizontal as possible and run it down the length of the fish. Allow yourself a little room from the exact center of the back. You should pass the dorsal fin easily. Use the spine as the guide for the knife tip. Make the cut quickly. Don't be hesitant and don't saw. Better to leave a little flesh than to create rough surfaces. Cut through the skin when the knife is very close to the tail.
- When you've completed the cut. turn the fish around so that the belly is towards you and the head faces your off hand. Use your offhand to fold back the flap of flesh at the tail, insert your knife there and make a single cut down the entire length of the fish -- right through the rib bones.
- The first fillet should be free. Lift it off, set it aside and repeat the process. Remember, always fillet with the second side, flesh up.
- Lay the fillets out, skin side up, and cut off the dorsal and anal fins -- if you didn't already remove them because they cut in the way during the filleting.
- Turn the fillets (again!) skin side down with the belly towards you, and the back away. Use the point of your slicer or yanigaba to carve behind the rib bones. You'll have to use several passes to completely cut it out so you can lift the rib cage in one piece. Try to make as few cuts while preserving as much as possible.
- Keeping the fillets with the same orientation, use your slicer or yani to cut a very thin slice off the head end -- on the bias. Cut into the flesh between the skin and the flesh, angling your knife slightly down so it gets right down to the skin but doesn't cut through it.
- When you've got the entire width of your knife in the fish, grab the skin (where you made the entry cut) with your offhand.
- Keeping the edge angled very slightly down toward the skin, wiggle your knife while you pull the fish into the edge. You can move the knife forward if you're working on a short board. Keep pulling until you've pulled the entire fish past the edge, and the skin will come off very cleanly -- while the fish flesh itself will be slick as glass.
- Keep the fillets oriented so that what used to be the skin side is down on the board. Close your eyes and use your fingers to feel for pin bones. Use a special pin-bone remover (which is like a pair of flat end tweezers), flat end tweezers or needle nose pliers to pull out all of the pin bones. You may of course open your eyes, but most people find their finger tips are their most sensitive without visual distraction. Try and pull the bones out in whichever directions do the least damage to the flesh. This can vary from fish to fish and even bone to bone.
Some additional notes:
It seems like a lot of steps, but once you've done it a few times, the whole process goes very quickly. Once the scaling is done, the whole process shouldn't take more than a few minutes -- at most. Less than a minute for the head, and about the same for the actuall filleting. Another minute for trimming and skinning. Taking the pin bones takes as long as it takes -- take your time and do a good job. Unless you're really well set up for it, it's keeping the board and fish clean that will take most of your time.
The particular type of knife matters less than its sharpness. Fish cuts should be glass smooth, and that means a very sharp knife. While I mentioned the types of knives used for this kind of filleting, they only make it easier. You can work with anything -- so long as it's sharp. FWIW, I use a chef's and a slicer.
Sharpness and sharpening are key to doing a good job. Fish sharpness is a little different from meat sharpness. If you reserve separate knives for meat and fish, they both should be sharp -- as sharp as you can cut. But red meat cuts better with a little more coarseness, "tooth" if you will, while fish -- especially for raw presentations -- wants a very polished edge. This has to do with the structures of the different flesh.
At any rate, a 6000# polish (using the JIS grit standard) is about as coarse as you want to get for fish cutting.
Since I know the questions are going begging: (A) It's not a big issue either way with poultry; and, (B) Vegetable prep wants polish, just like fish.
It would be unrealistic to expect experienced people to switch from whatever they're doing to the Japanese technique, unless they have a huge interest in raw fish. But I hope this was at least interesting.
BDL