Filleting whole cooked fish

[Hassouni]

I cook whole fish for 2-3 people a lot, usually grilled or baked. I've been to restaurants that serve whole grilled fish (often branzino), and they present the whole fish and fillet in front of you in a very neat manner. 

 

I have a lot of trouble doing that. I find it difficult to cut through the fish neatly, and it ends up being served in large chunks rather than 1 piece. 

 

Does anyone have any advice?

[Unpopular Poet]

I would like the same advice.

[FauxPas]

I cook whole fish for 2-3 people a lot, usually grilled or baked. I've been to restaurants that serve whole grilled fish (often branzino), and they present the whole fish and fillet in front of you in a very neat manner. 

 

I have a lot of trouble doing that. I find it difficult to cut through the fish neatly, and it ends up being served in large chunks rather than 1 piece. 

 

Does anyone have any advice?

 

What type of knife do you use? Filleting knife? 

 

Are you looking for something different or more detailed than this:

 

http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/how-to/article/how-to-fillet-and-serve-whole-fish

[Hassouni]

I've tried it with all kinds of knife and nothing seems better than anything else. Last night I actually used something resembling a filleting knife, no dice.

 

I think part of the problem is that when I cut slashes into the sides of the fish (as I've always done after seeing it mentioned in countless recipes), those slashes expand and make clean cuts difficult

[FauxPas]

I've tried it with all kinds of knife and nothing seems better than anything else. Last night I actually used something resembling a filleting knife, no dice.

 

I think part of the problem is that when I cut slashes into the sides of the fish (as I've always done after seeing it mentioned in countless recipes), those slashes expand and make clean cuts difficult

 

Oh, I think I see what you mean - the fish falls apart into pieces because of the slashes? So you can't neatly pull the top fillet away? Is that it? 

 

I'm not even the best person to answer this question, because I don't cook whole fish that often. When I do, I don't make slashes. I just put some lemon slices or whatever in the centre of the fish and fold it back together and cook it. I am usually cooking whole salmon and that's a fairly firm-fleshed fish, so maybe that's part of the issue? 

 

Do you need to do the slashes? 

 

I should let someone else answer at this point though!!!  

[Franci]

Slashes on the sides of the fish are usually meant for uniform cooking. That said, I almost never do it.

Also, in the US when you buy fish they almost alway trim the dorsal fins, it's something that I don't like and alway ask to refrain from doing it, because it makes cleaning much harder, all the small lateral fins cannot be pull out with the dorsal fins and lifting the fillet neatly is more difficult. If it's a poached or roasted fish I can do with a fork and a spoon.

Watch this video maybe it's helpful

[huiray]

In those restaurants you have been to where you admired their dissection and serving of the fish did the fish have those slashes in them?  If not there's your answer.

 

For myself I find that undercooked fish (even a bit) tends to not "release" from the bone - especially if it is still just slightly red/pink (red, in the case of salmon bone-in steaks, for example) next to the bone.  It will "tear", and come off in pieces with some slight force needed.**  Overcooked --> comes off the bone fine but the rest tends to either crumble a bit, or be rubbery depending on the fish.

 

Do you do E/SE Asian style meals at all?  Consider eating the fish family-style in the E/SE Asian manner.  Chopsticks.  Serving spoon & serving fork if needed. Personal fork-and-spoon for folks who prefer them. Those slashes can be left in, no problem  Everyone helps themselves to pieces of the fish as they eat along from the one platter on which the fish is presented, artfully arranged to your satisfaction.  (Flip the fish over if you like; remove the central bone if you have superstitions about that)

 

The video Franci posted shows a filleting and deboning of a branzino which is then, one might note, served still as "one fish" on the same platter, being carried to the table where one could speculate it will be eaten "family style", maybe?    (And hopefully someone will pick out the fish cheeks, those two prized morsels that so many simply throw away with the rest of the head and the yummy collar-bone flesh as well...)

 

** ...and I tend to eat my whole fish with chopsticks anyway...

[huiray]

Slashes on the sides of the fish are usually meant for uniform cooking. That said, I almost never do it.

Also, in the US when you buy fish they almost alway trim the dorsal fins, it's something that I don't like and alway ask to refrain from doing it, because it makes cleaning much harder, all the small lateral fins cannot be pull out with the dorsal fins and lifting the fillet neatly is more difficult. If it's a poached or roasted fish I can do with a fork and a spoon.

Watch this video maybe it's helpful

 

Youtube video

 

Yes, it is annoying.  In Chinese/Asian groceries they will tend to leave the fish "intact" - but in other places one needs to tell them specifically to leave the fins on.  In the large "international market" here one has choices pictured in diagrams for folks (speaking various languages) to choose how they want their fish prepared.  I once asked specifically for "intact fins all around, three slashes" (choosing the appropriate numbered picture) and the guy went and mangled it anyway by chopping off the fins before I could stop him...I refused the fish.  Also, even apart from the aid the fins render in taking apart a fish, a finless/trimmed fish on a platter always seems to me to look mutilated, like an armless, legless murder victim on the coroner's bench.

 

For myself, I don't find filleting of a whole fish to be needed and also find it to be wasteful.  My 2¢.  There is a lot of flesh and juicy stuff lost from scraping off all those belly bones, chopping off beyond the collarbone (see my comment above about yummy collarbone meat**), the pulling-off of the dorsal, ventral and pectoral fins...with a pair of chopsticks I would suck the flesh off those bones...:-) 

 

** Hmm, I suddenly feel like going for some nice grilled hamachikama...

[Franci]

The video Franci posted shows a filleting and deboning of a branzino which is then, one might note, served still as "one fish" on the same platter, being carried to the table where one could speculate it will be eaten "family style", maybe?    (And hopefully someone will pick out the fish cheeks, those two prized morsels that so many simply throw away with the rest of the head and the yummy collar-bone flesh as well...)

 

In my area the head would not get wasted. From the video the people at the table commenting are Northerner Italians (not the waiter) and probably  not educated in fish eating.

In my house my children fight for the cheeks, luckily there is one for each.

BTW, that is the general technique for cleaning the fish at the table that I think it's taught in hospitality school in Italy and that's the way I've always seen done in my area (a sea town in the South of Italy).

[Hassouni]

Franci - what is the spoon scooping away after the spine was removed?

 

Huiray - I do E/SE Asian meals all the time, but when I'm dining with others they're not used to using chopsticks to eat a fish from a communal plate. If I fry or steam or broil fish for myself, I often use chopsticks.

 

By the way I almost always get fish from the Korean supermarket, they tend to leave all the fins on.

Edited June 11, 2014 by Hassouni (log)

[Franci]

Franci - what is the spoon scooping away after the spine was removed?

 

Are you referring to the belly cleaning? With the spoon the waiter  is lifting and pushing up all the membrane covering the fish belly and any fish bone. If it's done pretty quickly,  when the fish is still quite warm, peels off very easily, as soon as it start cooling down sticks to the meat and gets more difficult to lift. It's a good thing to check also for green spots that are bitter.

[Hassouni]

Interesting, I've never even noticed...

[scubadoo97]

Are you referring to the belly cleaning? With the spoon the waiter  is lifting and pushing up all the membrane covering the fish belly and any fish bone. If it's done pretty quickly,  when the fish is still quite warm, peels off very easily, as soon as it start cooling down sticks to the meat and gets more difficult to lift. It's a good thing to check also for green spots that are bitter.

I wasn't sure if it was inards or just albumin that collected from cooking