Salmon Filleting blast from the past ....

I had someone ask about salmon fillet technique so I decided to look up this old post. I will add pictures in a moment because they are easier to do from the phone. For posterity I am going to leave the old post the way it was ... Anyone remember who TTM was?

Zee and TTM mentioned this weekend that there is an interest in a filleting technique series. We were hoping to do a video installment for Cabezon but we got distracted catching fish...
I dug through some old photo's and found a series of pictures a for Salmon filleting that I figured would be a good start.
Let me know what you think.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS A SHARP KNIFE. Should have some flex but not a noodle knife. Too much flex is dangerous and give bad results. NEEDS TO BE SHARP!! not just kinda sharp .... really sharp! If you are only ok at sharpening knives pay some one to sharpen your knifes. Machine sharpening doesn't count and will destroy your knives.

Ok first off ... I do not claim this fish! It is a late season Native caught springer that my mom bought at the farmers market in Portland.


I prefer to fillet all my salmon after I have gutted them. I know it is a bit of a pain in the ass for the Sporties but you get much better results and more meat. This is my slow cut method for large salmon over 10 pounds or so. Slower but higher yields for the Kings. From a gutted fish you can get over 80% meat recovery.

All strokes of the knife should be long pulling strokes. Angle the knife back and let it do the work. Use every inch from the handle to the tip. 8-10" knives work best. 6" are passable but you will get jammed up on big fish. 6" are great for rock fish!

Cut the head off.


Cut from the back of the belly cavity to the tail and up to the back bone. This is a key step that pays off later.


Lift the belly and run you knife on a high angle and make a shallow cut just through the belly bones and pin bones. All the way to the tail.


Lay your knife flat against the vertical bones and give a little down pressure as you glide the knife back. Drawing from the head to the tail.


Repeat on second side. I don't move the fish. Just cut up instead of down.





Remove anal fin and belly fins and collar.



Removing the belly bones is easy if your technique is correct.
Remember always cut from the head to the tail and make long drawing strokes and put pressure towards the bones to keep tight and avoid meat loss. This means lifting your knife as you remove these bones.





NOTE: It is much easier to cut on a smooth board but longer to clean up so at home I tend to use newspaper.

Nice. ...not that old, I've got it bookmarked still. Great stuff, but ya still make it look easy. Drawing a blank on TTM, though.

I was seriously just wondering about some efficient fillet techniques.  THANK YOU for posting this.

Rory used to go by TTM

Rory used to go by TTM

Sort of .... Rory aka Rordizo aka Rordawg aka my brotha from anotha mutha .... used to go by TheTallMan

His native name is "single handedly responsible for early San Juan chinook closure"

Great stuff Bill!

You'd think having been in the fish business since i was 14, I could fillet a fish efficiently, but I am not so good at it.  My grandmother would never let me do it since she had her "own way".  lol.

While you should always strive to improve technique and recovery yields, there are ways to maximize the yields even if you are terrible at filleting.  Because we tend to catch a few fish and every summer we go dipnet a few hundred reds, speed becomes more important.  The point is I whack out fillets and a few of them leave substantial meat left on the bones becasue I suck at it.  What I do next is simply scrape the backbone with a spoon to get every bit of meat off the bones and it yields excellent Salmon burger material, or if frozen for a couple of days, makes awesome inner ingredients for a sushi rolls.  I do it while raw, but I know others who throw the bones and all into the oven and bake them.  Then the meat just falls off.  That can be used in a variety of ways as well. 

Thanks for sharing this again Bill.  its always interesting to me the different methods utilized in filleting a fish. 

For bigger fish, I like to use an electric carving knife to cut the fillets off the backbone.  It's fast and effective.  Then I use a fillet knife to remove the ribs and trim up the fillets.

When removing the fillets from the backbone, I don't try to cut right against the bones which stick straight up from the backbone, because if I do, on most kinds of fish there is some yucky meat along those bones which I will then need to trim off the fillets.  But I want to try the filleting technique described in this posting. 

Funginnin, when you are cutting the rib bones off the backbone from inside the body cavity, how to you avoid gashing up the meat behind the rib bones?

For bigger fish, I like to use an electric carving knife to cut the fillets off the backbone.  It's fast and effective.  Then I use a fillet knife to remove the ribs and trim up the fillets.

When removing the fillets from the backbone, I don't try to cut right against the bones which stick straight up from the backbone, because if I do, on most kinds of fish there is some yucky meat along those bones which I will then need to trim off the fillets.  But I want to try the filleting technique described in this posting. 

Funginnin, when you are cutting the rib bones off the backbone from inside the body cavity, how to you avoid gashing up the meat behind the rib bones?

Shallow high angle cut with a sharp stiff knife ....
All filleting I do is  as tight to the bone as possible. 

Victorinox 12" scimitar per my son the fishmonger at Whole Foods.

Funginnin, when you are cutting the rib bones off the backbone from inside the body cavity, how to you avoid gashing up the meat behind the rib bones?

Shallow high angle cut with a sharp stiff knife ....

So rather than cutting through the ribs at a right angle, do you cut them at an angle down towards the backbone, so your knife hits the backbone after cutting through the ribs?

Victorinox 12" scimitar per my son the fishmonger at Whole Foods. "

That's the knife I use for large salmon. It cuts through those pin bones like they're not even there.
T2

Sort of ...
The cut is not steep enough to hit the spine, rather I'm aiming to hit the vertical coming off the spine.
The goal is to get your blade to cut flush to the top bones.
For this I like a curved blade with a little flex to it.

Victorinox 12" scimitar per my son the fishmonger at Whole Foods. "

That's the knife I use for large salmon. It cuts through those pin bones like they're not even there.
T2

12" scimitar with a Graton Edge!

-Allen

Victorinox 12" scimitar per my son the fishmonger at Whole Foods. "

That's the knife I use for large salmon. It cuts through those pin bones like they're not even there.
T2

12" scimitar with a Graton Edge!

-Allen

Personally I find the scimitar to be too stiff. I prefer the 8" breaking knife and for big kings I'll use the 10" breaking knife.