How to Fillet Fish

Transcript Hi, I’m Brendan McDermott. I’m a culinary instructor and teach knife skills at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. I also do some cooking videos with some friends called Working Class Foodies, where we try and bring local and sustainable food and try and keep it cheap for people who are …

Transcript So when handling fish, I know some people don’t really like the feel of fish or even lobsters and stuff like that. And I understand that. Generally, try and get your hands on as much as you can. You really feel it, understand it, be able to control it a little easier. But if …

Transcript So after you’ve filleted your fish and you want to get out the little pin bones, or any of those little pieces that my be up closer to the neck; those little bones that go into the fillet. They do sell little fish de-boning tools and stuff. But honestly, I just really a like …

Transcript So, when picking out tools for cleaning and fabricating fish, always of course, a good boning knife or a good fillet knife is very important. Another thing that you might want to do is just run to a hardware store and pick up a pair of needlenose pliers. I tend to like these more …

Transcript When cleaning clams, what you want to do is you want to scrub them down either with a little sponge or a nice little brush and some cold water. Don’t try and use soap or anything like that. Just use a little bit of cold water and a brush and really just make sure …

Transcript So, what we’re going to do is we’re going to clean off some mussels. When you buy your mussels, they should have a little beard on them. Sometimes you’re purveyor will actually clear those off for you. You really want to get your mussels from a really credible, good fish store. You don’t want …

Transcript Some things to know about when you are going to start prepping fish. Whenever you get a piece of fish, you want to make sure its fresh. You can always check the eyes to make sure that they are nice and clear. That’s always a good indication. you can also check to make sure …

Transcript All right. We’re going to actually cook off some mussels. What we want to do is we want to make sure our pan is really nice and hot. That is key. You really want to make sure that that pan is almost smoking hot. You can always test is by taking a little bit …

Transcript What we’re going to do today is we’re actually going to clean and cook up some Prince Edward Island, PEI mussels, or Prince Edward Island mussels. Mussels are pretty awesome. They’re really, really good, really easy to cook, and they’re really easy to take care of. What you’re looking for with mussels is to …

Transcript What we have here today are some really nice clams. When you’re buying clams, what you’re looking for is something kind of like oysters or even mussels. You want to make sure that they’re sealed. This is probably a strong key that they’re still alive. You want to make sure that they stay nice …

Transcript When filleting a fish, what you really want to do is, well, whenever you do anything, whenever you’re doing any kind of prep, whatever the meat, always make sure that you have a really nice sharp knife. A sharp knife is a safe knife. I know we’ve heard that before, but it’s very very …

Transcript What we’re going to do today is shuck oysters. Shucking oysters is actually a really easy process but you have to be careful because you can really get hurt doing this if you do it incorrectly. What you really need is you’re going to need an oyster knife, or a shucking knife. They’re pretty …

Transcript So what I’ve done is I’ve drawn the knife down here and down the other side, just kind of releasing some of that skin. You can see they got a good, solid backbone and skull there. I’m going to take my knife and just come up right next to the fin, draw that first …

Transcript So what we’re going to do today is we’re actually going to fillet catfish. There’s a couple of different ways to do this. Some people like to get into skinning, which mean that you would cut a line right around the head, then use pliers to kind of just pull the skin down, almost …

Transcript So, the first thing you want to do when you get your oysters, is you want to clean them. They tend to be really sandy, kind of dirty and gritty. And if you’re going to be eating them out of the hard shell, you really don’t want to get all that dirt and shell …

Transcript When you are looking for salmon in a store or something when you’re buying it, what you’re really looking for is something that is pretty fresh. You can either look at the eyes and make sure that they’re nice and clear. They may have a little bit of haziness to them, but they shouldn’t …

Transcript When you’re buying a catfish, what you’re looking for is, again, something like any fish, something that doesn’t smell too funky. You really want it to be nice and actually have virtually no smell at all. They are bottom feeders, so when gutting them, you may get a little bit of a smell. But, …

Transcript So what we’re going to do today is we’re going to skin the fish. Now whether it’s been scaled or not, it really doesn’t matter. It’s pretty much the same process. If you’re not going to eat the skin, you really don’t have to go through the scaling process. It helps sometimes when you’re …

Transcript When buying a flounder, or a fish in general, what you’re really looking for is something that’s going to be fresh. Some people like to look at the eyes and see, you know, make sure that they’re nice and clear. Others like to look at the gills and really make sure that they have …

Transcript So once you actually have the filet removed, you can actually just take it off and filet it as you would any other fish and just bring it close to the edge and remove the skin. The other way that a lot of people do it with catfish is that because it is kind …

Transcript Once you’ve gotten your point A to point B and you’ve cleaned out, following that ribcage, you’re just going to take your knife and keep following that line. You can see the knife kind of running up to the pin bones. The pin bones are pretty soft, but you may need to crack them …

Transcript So what we’re going to do is we’re going to pull out pin bones on the fish. This, again, can be used for just about any process, whether it’s striper, snapper, salmon, anything that has those big, long pin bones. All you really need are some nice needle-nose pliers. You can spend some money …

Transcript Today what we’re going to do is clean some catfish and gut it. One of the first things you want to do is, catfish tends to come sometimes with this really kind of slimy outside. You can always, it’s just stuff from the water, from their skin, nothing bad, but you don’t want it. …

Transcript So once you’ve made your initial point A and point B, and drawn a line down the center of the fish you now can start doing your fillets. Now this line should approximately be lined up with their spine. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to take our fillet knife and …

Transcript So, when scaling a fish, there’s a couple different ways to do this. They do have tools for it. When you buy a fish, try and have your fishmonger or the sales person to actually scale it for you, because it can get pretty messy. So, unless you have a backyard or a nice …

Transcript So what we’re going to do today is we’re going to fillet salmon. If it still feels a little slippery to you and you’re having trouble holding it, you can always take a hand towel and just kind of protect your hand, and also give you a little bit of guide. What we’re going …

Transcript Once you’ve broken down your four fillets, you can always save the bones, clear out the row and whatever guts may be left and you can actually use the bones to make a really wonderful fish soup or fish stock, which will last for months in your freezer. What we’re going to do now, …

Transcript So what we’re going to do is we’re going to skin a salmon filet. This technique is pretty much used for all fish. Some of the smaller fish, you just need to use maybe your thumb and your index finger. Some of the bigger fish, even as big as large 100-pound tuna, you may …

Transcript So today we’re going to break down a flounder. I’m just going to talk quickly about what to look for on the fish, then we’re actually going to go over fileting it, taking it apart, and then we’ll go over skinning. So what you really need to know about when looking for a fish …

Transcript What you want to do is you want to start off with a point A to start your cut, and then get to a point B. Point A is actually starting up around their eyes over here, because what they have is a skull that kind of goes around. Their gill line and their …