How To Fillet Every Fish | Method Mastery | Epicurious

– I’m Mike Cruz, Manager of
Greenpoint Fish Wholesale,and I’m here to show you
how to filet every fish. To filet fish, I usually
have around three kniveswith me, depending on
the size of the fish. One of these butcher
knives, it’s really goodfor cutting through heads. This seven inch curved filet knife,and a little five inch guy. You also need a pair of scissors,a steel to keep your
knife sharp, a scaler,and a good pair of tweezers
to get those pin bones out. Sardine.
I think people kind of
think of sardines assomething grandpa has in a tin tucked awayand hasn’t touched in like 10 years. Sardines require no tools to prepare. Any scales that you see
on here totally edibleand are always served
whole, if they’re fresh. To prepare a sardine, you’re
gonna open that gill plate,grab it from the gills and pinch them out. Once the gills are free, you’ll
grab it from the collar hereand without much pressure
it tears right off. Now, holding on to the
collar and the gills,and using your finger to
sort of open up the belly,you’ll take out all the guts. As soon as you do that, the rib bonesstart separating on their own. And touching one side of the spine,you can use your fingers
sort of like a knife,and just run it straight down. And do the same exact
thing to the other side. Make sure you’re completely free. Then pick the spine up from the center. You’ll sort of slip the tail through,pull these up and take them out. And then you will have
a butterflied sardine. Porgy.
Porgy is a classic East Coast fish. I always look at porgies
as the pigeons of the sea,which is not a bad thing. I say that usually because
they have some crazy colorsin them when they first
come out of the water. Lots of purples and greens and blues. It’s a classic fish
fry spot fish for sure. To start, we’ll grab our scaler,get that fin out of the way. Start peeling scales back,making sure you’re going diagonalagainst the grain of
the scales from the tailtowards the head, making
sure you’re gettingeverything out of the way that’s gonna getin the way of your knife. If you have difficult scaling these fish,just play around with the
position of the scaler. It just kind of depends on the fishand how much trouble the
scales are giving you. Skeletal structure’s
gonna be pretty basic. You pull this up, get right downunderneath that collar, and come out. You make your first cut at the head. Porgies can be skinny sometimes,so especially important to make surethat you’re staying tight to the bones. Crack through pinwheels on the
ribs, pushing down on them,peeling the filet back. One thing I think people don’t give porgyenough credit for is its fat content. And you’ll feel it as you cut
this how oily the fish is. That’s porgy filet. Boston mackerel.
This fish is highly oily,
definitely has a strongfish flavor, which is
great because it is a fish. Super good for you, super
high in omega fatty acids. Really good for brain
development and things like that. This fish is awesome,
and my personal favorite. Boston mackerel is a
great fish to eat whole,whether you just pull
the guts out and throw itin your oven or butterflying it,and that’s what I’m gonna show you today. With this guy, open up the gill platesand just snip the very tip there. Work around the membrane and open it up,being really careful not to
puncture too many organs,and you’ll open this guy up. Get your scissor into
the tip of the gills. Gently pinch and twist
and pull up and out. Get a paper towel to
clean off the insides. This blood is fairly strong flavored,so you don’t wanna have too much of ittouching the actual filets. We’ll start from the
tail, just stay on topof these small fins
here, make your first cutreally shallow, making sure
you’re on top of the bones. Opening up that belly
cavity, just gently crackingthrough the rib cage and following throughto the other side, cracking
the remaining pin bones. Once you have that side
free, flip the fish over. Starting from the head and
just using the very tip,just start cracking through those bones. And being careful not
to cut all the way downthrough the skin. Then with your scissors
you’ll cut right in the middleof the tail to get into the bones. Once you here, you can
just pull out and crack. Face the head away from
you and just get right upagainst those ribs and just gentlywiggle your knife underneath them. Same thing on this side,
and just follow them,kind of pulling them away
from the flesh as you do it. With these guys, because
their bones are so smalland brittle, it’s totally fineto leave the pin bones
in and eat it as is. Branzino.
Branzino is a farmed European sea basscommonly eaten whole,
sometimes you see filets. This I think is probably one
of the best introductory fish,super low maintenance. You can cook this any sort of wayand it’s probably gonna be delicious. Like with everything else,
the scales need to come off. Another great way actually to scale a fishif you’re doing this in your houseand you don’t wanna get
scales everywhere isto fill your sink with water
and scale the fish under water. Branzino’s a pretty buttery fish to filet,in that the meat kind of just
wants to come off the bone. So when you’re coming
through the collar here,you really wanna be gentle
to only use the very tipof your knife, you
don’t wanna put pressureand start puncturing any organs
that might damage the flesh. So what you’ll do is start
your first cut towards the headand just very gently go down
and just open up the spine,except for when you’re gonna
have to come up to the ribs,you’re gonna wanna put
a little bit of pressureand just crack through them
and then go over very gently,being careful not to touch any organs,and using small but smooth
cuts and freeing up your filet. Going on the second
side, free up the collar. And when I go to my
second position on a fish,I like to use the length of my bladeto make that first cut. That’s because the
tail’s a little skinnier,kind of wobbles a little
bit while you’re cutting it. And I’m pushing down on the ribsto flex them out of my way. Once those are free, you can pretty muchput your knife in and
just follow straight down. And you’ll trim up that belly membraneand you’ll have a nice fileted branzino. Striped bass.
This is actually a farm
raised striped bass. Most of you that will be familiarwith wild striped bass
here on the East Coast,you’re gonna see that this
is obviously very different. But with striped bass fisheries beingat such critical conditions
as they are right now,it’s probably a pretty good alternativefor us to start looking
at farm raised stripers. With this fish, we’re
gonna have to scale it,and with these fish particularly,you can clean up the collars,
and those are delicious. And now we’re gonna gut this guy. Cut here, enter with
your scissor facing uptowards the collar and towards the belly,cracking this open, and
just pinch the gills,not cutting through them. You’re gonna twist and go up and out. And you should get most of it with it. This guy, we’ll just take a paper towel,clean the inside out, now
we’re gonna cut this guy. Pulling taut, I’m gonna
make a sharp angle cut,free up the collar, and
then just gently come downon the back of the spine. Angling up to crack those pin bonesand get through the belly. And the same thing to the other side. Actually just got stuck there. A good thing to do when
you get stuck actually,say you crack through
the scales and itselfand you have half the
filet free and part of itstill sort of stuck on there,
lift up where you’re stuckand just get the very tip of your knifeand just start scraping little by littleuntil you get those bones free,pushing down and angling your
knife towards the skeletonuntil you’re freed up. And don’t get too stressed,
it’s okay, finish your cut. What I’m trimming away
actually is essentiallythe stomach lining, which
sometimes can be a bit tough. As I mentioned before,
these little collarsactually make for some
very delicious eating. If you broil them with a
little bit of soy sauceor something like that,
they’re pretty muchthe spare ribs of the fish world. Sea bass.
Black sea bass is a local fish. This one came in from Massachusetts. They’re a great mild fish, they’re perfectfor pan frying, baking, cooking whole,crudo, all sorts of things. This is a very versatile,
very delicious fish. So we’ll take our scaler, you
can put a pretty good amountof pressure on this fish, but
you don’t wanna go too hardand risk puncturing the skin. You take your scissor, just make one cut,insert your knife, and just start to cut. Peel open, and that should take
everything out in one shot. Some crabs, actually, is
what he’s been eating. This is just one half of the crab. Now you clean your cutting boards. Cut behind the head, open up the collar. You’ll enter your knife
in through the backand make a shallow cut
just along the back,just opening up so you can see the bones. Make another cut, make one here,and you should be good to go. Now you’ll come over the
spine on the other sidefor the rest of the filet. What you’ll do is you’ll angle
your knife pretty harshlyand put quite a bit of
pressure down onto the bones. And then when coming up over the ribs,you’ll have some pin bones
that you need to crack through. And you’ll just start at
the tail, use your momentum,and just go right through them. And then sharp angle
to get over those ribs,get all the belly meat,
and finish your filet. For the other side,
you just flip her over,do the same thing, so you have a sea basswith two nice filets and hopefullynot too much meat on the bones. And save that for some soup. And you’re just gonna trim, there you go. Two black sea bass
filets ready for dinner. Arctic char.
Char is a salmonoid, pretty much a crossbetween a trout and a salmon. Mainly farmed, usually in
Scandinavian countries. You can pretty much expect everythingthat salmon has to offer,
just little fatty here,a little more buttery. Definitely a very forgiving fish to cook. Easiest way to filet these fish isto pick it up from the fin, put a fingerright below the eye
just for some leverage,and I would just cut right behind the headon a diagonal and just chop the head off. That goes away, you can make soup. What you’ll do is you’ll
start at the top of the spine,just make a small cut, just opening it up,and then very gently follow that line. Then once your filet is
free from the back half,flip your knife over,
enter in from the tailwith just the tip and just run it along. Flip back over and finish your cut. And all you wanna do is
trim up this rib section,leaving as little waste as possible. And there you go, arctic char filet. Red snapper.
These are usually caught
in the Gulf of Mexico. Fish that likes to eat a lot of shellfish,a lot of crabs, a lot of sweet things. This fish is pretty popular
with Caribbean foodsand things like that, but it could bein a really good ceviche,
really great tacos. Crudo is a great option, all of it,it’s great, it’s good fish. First we have to scale it. Now fileting snapper,
they have some prettyaggressive rib bones actually. That’s something that
you should look out for. And they’re pretty steep, so
you’ll make your first cutbehind the head, open up the collar,go along the back gently. And these guys have some
pretty flaky flesh as well,so you’ll wanna take care to
not be rough with the filet. And when you come to
the ribs, the first onecurves in slightly,
the second one follows,and then they become sort of normal. So you’ll wanna have that sharp angle,get that extra meat around that first rib,that second rib, and
then just like normal. Just follow it down, finish out your cut. One thing that’s gonna make
this even a little easier,beyond having a really sharp knife,is making sure that while you’re cuttingyou’re keeping your knife clean. Any extra bits, scales,
flesh that’s on there,it’s probably gonna end
up getting you stuckand ultimately damaging the filet. That’s red snapper. Catfish.
This guy you usually see fried, blackened,some sort of pretty aggressive treatment. Trying to be nice to the fish. They come from some pretty
gnarly waters sometimes,but ultimately it is a good thingthat we’re eating so much of them. They are an invasive
species, they eat everything,and they’re very, very resilient. Because of the waters they come from,you do not want to puncture the belly. You do not want the smell of
catfish guts in your house. For catfish, you’ll make
your first cut rightin the back of the head, and
then I like to put my knife inand feel where the base
of the spine is and twist,and you’ll make your first cut like that. And then really gently follow the back. Once you feel yourself
get to the rib cage hereon the top half, stop and start
focusing on the rest of it. You’ll cut all the way down
to the spine and free it up,going over to the other
side, freeing all that up. And then when you come back
and flip your knife over,stay tight to those ribs and
sort of just raise the angleof your knife a little
bit more, little bit moreuntil you’re over them
and the meat becomes freeat the top like that. Once this little section is free,you can flip your knife back over,and you’ll start to see the ribs. Once you see that, that’s
when you wanna come insort of a sharp angle,
avoid everything in there,and finish your filet. Other side is same, just a cut right here. And sometimes they have
a pretty thick bone herealong the top fin, and
you’ll have to angle upand sort of over that,
finish the rest of it,avoiding the belly and freeing it up. This is garbage. And now I like to switch
to a slightly bigger knifeto skin the catfish. You’re gonna wanna make a
very slight incision hereat the tail, and as you go
in, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle,and start to make your
knife as flat as you canso that you’re up against the skin. Leaving a little bit
of meat here at the endjust for something to grab onto. And there’s two ways you can skin these. You can either wiggle your knife,wiggle your knife, wiggle your knifeand hope for the best, or
one of the easier ways,you can grab on to that
piece of meat that you leftand pull the skin,
leaving the knife stable. And as you go you can twirl
the skin around your finger,have some fun with it, and finish. And then you’ll have
skinless catfish filets. Trout.
Steel head trout is a
farmed species of fishrated green for sustainability. Very similar to a rainbow trout,maybe a little closer to salmon in flavor. They’re strong flavored, fatty,
really good for poaching,baking, anything you do with salmon,you do with steel head trout. This one has very small scalesand are extremely sticky. These guys can be pretty
slimy and sort of difficultto deal with if it’s your first time,but just cut right through the head. Again, you can see the
fish has main spine,bone on each side, you
can just start there. You wanna aim to be pretty
much on top of the fins. And with this you wanna makereally gentle slow movements. This is not the most
forgiving fish to filet. Again here you’ll just crack
through all the bones hereand get into the belly. This you wanna put a lot of
pressure down on that belly. They’re very flexible, so
they’re not gonna break. Other side is similar, start at the tail. Finish your cut. We’re gonna trim up the belly membrane. That’s steel head trout. Tilefish.
Tilefish is a deep sea fish actually. They are predators for sure. They like to eat sweet
things like clams, crabs. It gives a slight sweetness to the flesh. It’s very similar to red snapper actually. This guy’s so nice you actually don’t haveto scale these if you don’t want to. If you plan on pan frying this fish,the scales actually puff upand add a nice crunchy
element to the fish,so we’re gonna leave this scale on. Make a tight cut and following up along,all the way to the head, pretty
much right above the eye,and cut through the collar. Because there are scales on this fish,it will be a little bit tougher to cut,so you’ll just take it slowand make shallow cuts using momentum. And tilefish are a little unique in thatmost fish’s pin bones just come toabout the first quarter of the fish,whereas tilefish is pretty much
the first half of the fish. So for cracking through the pin bones,you’re gonna need some momentum. You’ll start at the tail and sort of justrun your knife up until
you hear them all crack. And with bellies on these guys,their rib cage actually
folds in quite a bit,so you’ll wanna just really
slowly go along the bellyuntil you start to see
the skin poke throughon the other side, and
then you’re gonna wanna gopretty sharp, get this extra
meat that’s hanging on there. And that should free up your first rib,then you’ll follow it down til
it’s all free and finish it. Same for the other side,
just finish off this side. Trim up that membrane,
clean up your edges,and there you have tile fish. Hiramasa.
Hiramasa is mostly eaten raw. It’s usually a crudo. It can be serve in sushi applications. It’s a really good,
super firm, buttery fish. I would not recommend cooking it. I definitely think raw is
the way to go for this fish. So this we’re just gonna cut some filets. The gill plate on this guy is actuallypretty easily defined. If you pull back, you’ll
see the gill plate rise upfrom the flesh, and that’s exactlywhere you want your knife to go. And just go right straight
down and just open up. Once I’m in, I’ll just spin my knifeand just get it right on top of the bones. Crack through the ribs here. And because this fish is so buttery,also makes it pretty delicate
when you’re cutting it. Same for the other side,
just trim that away. And you’ll reveal a
really nice fatty bellythat’ll definitely rival most
cuts of meat that you eat. That is a hiramasa. Pollock.
Pollock is a fantastic substitute for cod. Everybody loves cod, it’s like
America’s favorite whitefish,but the fact behind cod fisheries is thatthey’re not looking great, and
they’re heavily controlled. More likely than not when you
go to a fast food restaurantor somewhere that’s selling cod,it’s really probably selling this. Same family, super similar
taste, no need to scale it,we’re gonna take the skin off of this one. These guys usually come
guts out, so easy cleanup. And make your first cut. Once you get into there, you can seethe head sort of follows this swoop. And even without cutting it, you can lookat the top of the pollock and you can seethat there’s meat that
kind of goes down two ways. You wanna try and get into that. That’ll give you a nice
entry to your first cut. Pollock is slightly
different in that top sectionof their bones don’t really start untilafter the first set of fins here. So you wanna take care to pay attention towhere you’re going because
you can very easilydamage the filet. For the other side you
just do the same thingand just finish up trimming. Pollock skin is actually pretty tough,so it can handle this
without cutting through. And you wanna just
start wiggling that skinand keeping your knife
as still as possibleand you’ll have nice
skinless pollock filets. Salmon.
Salmon is something that
you’ll see quite often poachedor baked, lends really
well to pan searing though. It’s awesome for obviously sushi, sashimi,things like that. With filets you’re just gonna haveyour standard portion
filet that you’re usedto seeing in supermarkets. And with steaks, the
bones stay in the steak. It just gives you so
much more salmon flavor,and it’s just a fun way to eat them. So today we’re going to cut some steaks. To begin, we’re gonna scale the fish. Take all these off. To steak a salmon, first
thing you’re gonna want to do,make sure you have no scales,
make sure the fish is dry,making it easy to handle,
you can get a good grip. With a large knife that is sharp,
cut the head off. For steaks, I like to do
them like two fingers,maybe three fingers thick. What you’ll do is you’ll take two fingers,sort of make a mark, two
fingers, shallow cut. Same thing all along the whole fish. Also you’re gonna wanna clip any fins. For up here, it’s a little bit easierto just finish that cut
just to free up your belly. I’m just extending from
that original cut we made,flipping my knife, and
cut straight through. Once that’s good, take your big knife,you’re gonna go into that same spotthat you originally made
the incision, one cut down. And then on the way back, you’re
gonna wanna straight down. When you’re going to finish that cut,put your hand flat with
your fingers safely awayand just straight down. Last little cuts to make sure you’re free. And if you have a little
tail portion here,it’s very easy to just filet
it up, have a little snack. And that’s a steaked out salmon. Monkfish.
These fish lie at the bottom of the ocean,and they have a little
angler on their headthat they use as a lure
to attract other fish. And they have massive mouths. If this guy had a head on,it would be the size of this board. Monkfish typically come head off. They are sometimes sold with the head on,usually by request so people
can remove the cheeks. These fish have a prized liver,so you rarely see them with head on,rarely see them guts in. The fish pretty much has one
bone going straight down. Some of this excess skin, we’ll
just pierce it a little bitjust to get it out of the
way, because it is very tough. And all you have to do is line
your knife up perpendicularwith the spine, and you’ll
just make that first cutall the way down to your cutting board. Once you’ve touched that,
you’ll grab this filetand just start going straight down,just following that spine. You can see how tough this skin is. It’s slimy and it moves. Now for the other side,
you’ll just lay it flat down,remove any sort of extra
organs that are on there. You’ll hold from the excess skinand just put your knife
flat against that boneand just follow it straight down. And you can see this fish is
pretty much just one bone,no pin bones to worry about. For the skinning, again,
you just wanna free upany extra skin here. And with this fish you do not want to goall the way down to the skin. Between the skin and the
flesh there’s a membranethat’s actually pretty chewy,
so you wanna do your bestto not get that membrane. So you’re gonna leave a
little bit of meat on there. And you’ll know if you
get down to the skinbecause your knife is
just gonna slip right out. These fish are also known
as the poor man’s lobster. Texturally it is sort of similar. It’s meaty, it has a nice bit to itand a sort of similar sweetness. Mahi mahi.
In the off seasons they come head off,usually they come head on. Heads are nice and square looking,kind of a goofy fish
commonly used in fish tacos. Great applications also in
ceviche and things like that. It’s a pretty mild fish. There’s not a ton of flavor going on. It’s delicate, I would
say, but kind of holdswhatever sort of seasoning
that you’re gonna give it. We’ll start from the head position. Mahi’s filets actually
go all the way to the topof the head, so expose that
collar and go all the way up. When you go all the way up here,you’re gonna wanna make sure
you’re not hitting bones,and get all of those pieces of filet. Despite this being sort of a weird piece,that’s a whole portion
of a taco right there,their spine is pretty tall, so
you’re gonna wanna make surethat you expose it completely
so you can see everything. Once you’re at that point from the tail,almost a 90 degree angle,
you’re gonna come down huggingthat spine pretty tight. When you get to the ribs, you can kind offlatten your knife out slightlyjust to get through the pin bones,and then come right
down and follow through. For the other side you
just do the same thing. With these you’ll trim the belly. Not really looking to save
too much of the belly here,’cause of how thin it is,
so you can kind of just cut. And mahi is typically eaten skinless. Filets get in your way, you flip them upand get rid of the skin. And you have two beautiful
skinless mahi filets. Skate wing.
Skate is an interesting fish. They are in the shark and ray family. You can see this is a saddle cut,and essentially this is the nose here. Usually the body would be here,and they have a barbed
tail that comes out. This fish definitely has a
stronger flavor than most,a very unique flavor. I would call them sort of briny almost. Skate is pretty interesting
in that all alongthe entire fish is covered
with these hooked spikes,so you have to be
extremely careful of that. And because they’re in
the ray and shark family,everything in them is actually cartilage. I know people who have
eaten skate wings whole,and they’ll eat the cartilage
as well, it gets crispy,but filets are definitely common. First thing we’re gonna do
if you have a saddle cutlike this, take a pair of
scissors, just separate them. This outer section of the wingis pretty much all cartilage. So to expose, we’ll start
from all the way back here. They’re a little translucent,
so you can kind of seewhere the meat starts. They typically have a pretty
aggressive knuckle here,and this is gonna hinder you a little bit. So first we’ll take a bigger knife,make an incision here,
and then you’ll justgive it a quick slap down
and just free that off. Now we’ll flip the skate over. We’re gonna put our
knife straight down here,the tip of the wing, cut
through some of the skin,and we’re just gonna give it quick smack. You don’t wanna go all
the way through the skinon the bottom, and it’s
just like skinning a fish. Slowly turn your knife so it’s flat,then you’re gonna wanna hold on here,being careful of any spikes
that are on the bottom,and just wiggle. And we’ll just do the same
thing and take it all the way. So this is a skate wing,
you can take it like this,put it in a pan, sear it, bake it. But one of my favorite
ways is to filet it. Right along here you’ll
feel the cartilage begins. You’ll follow it up to
where that knuckle was. You’ll feel there, and it
curves back down there. With your knife you’re gonna make a scoreright at the top where you felt that bone,follow it all along, do the
same thing on this side,follow it all along,
turn it away from you,and just start your cut. Open it up little by little. And you just wanna stay
hard on that cartilage,working in a semicircular
motion and then finish. The top side is usually fatter,so on the bottom side you’ll
take a little extra caution,make that score, and continue the filet. And this you don’t have to
worry about any pin bonesor anything like that in here. This is ready to go, skate filet. Turbot.
Turbot is a flat fish. They lay on the ocean’s floor,cover themselves with sand,
and these two eyes are usedto pretty much look straight
up while they’re hidingto be able to catch whoever they’re after. Turbot is great.
Super buttery, not too heavy in flavor,they’re meaty and yeah, I
would just consider themsort of a decadent fish. What we’re gonna do, we’re
going to start up here,cut behind the head, free up that meat,open up the belly, being careful notto puncture any organs inside. Along the center of the fish
you can see a depression,and that’s where their spine lies. So what you’ll do is
put your knife roughlywhere you think that isand just start cutting straight down. You can free up the tail here too,just to make it a little
easier on yourself. And once you have a better
bearing of where you are,put your knife in and just
slowly start to flatten it out. You’ll crack through some ribs here,again being careful not
to puncture any organs. You can slide your finger underneathto free up any membrane that’s there. And you’ll finish your
cut pressing pretty hardup against the bones, and make sureyou’re not leaving anything behind,and finishing your cut like that. We’ll flip it, and now
you can see the other sideof the spine, so you’ll just
get your knife in sharp angle,cutting up through that,and then it’s business as
usual fileting this side. Here we’ll spin it around,
cut up along the head,free up the collar, find
that middle line here,start your cut, and we’ll
start removing from that side. And then we’ll finish this. The turbot, like all flat fish,will have a dark side and
they’ll have a light side. But there’s no taste
difference between the two. And these will be skinned. Try and get as close
to the skin as possibleon these, wiggle. These do have pin bones
in them, but what’s greatabout flat fish is you don’t need tweezersto take them out, you just feel for themand you just cut them right out. Now you have skinless,
boneless turbot filets. Fluke.
Fluke is another flat
fish, same sort of deal. They lie flat on the
ground, eyes facing up. These fish are a little
more predatory than turbot. They have some pretty aggressive teeth. These are usually served raw. They’re great for baking,
they’re great for pan searing. They have a sweetness to them,super white translucent flesh. With fluke, we’re gonna
do it a little different. Same beginning steps,
we’ll cut behind the head. And what you wanna do to avoid any guts isreally pull a little harder on the finjust to get that belly
away from the innards. To cut fluke, put the tip of our knifewhere your first cut is. You’re gonna keep your
knife in one positionand pull the fish towards you,following the shape of
the fish the whole time. You can come in here, free
up the tail a little bit,and like normal, just start
to really feel out those bonesand open up the filet a little bit. Now, when fileting a fluke,
your first opening cut hereyou wanna really make sure that
you’re on top of the bones. These fish have a set of,
I guess you can call themfalse bones, that make you
think that you are on the filetsand you are not, and you
will go straight downand damage the other half of the fish. And these fish typically have
some pretty large roe sacsin them, so you wanna be
careful not to puncture that. These are the eggs,
essentially, of the fish. So this is a female. On the other side you do the
same thing, open up the head,hold tight, avoid the
guts, open up the tail. Put the tip of your
knife into your incision. You’ll grab the tail and
sort of twist it a littleas you go, and this pretty
much will help keep the partof the fish where your
knife is entering flatand from lifting off of the board. And finish off the filet on this side. And hopefully you’ll have no meat left. You’ll trim up the rib cage. Not really too concerned about
saving the belly on these. They’re not very thick. And switch to a longer knife. Get down close to the skin,
keep your knife steadyand just wiggle the skin underneath it. And skinless fluke filets. Squid.
Most people will know
this as rings of calamari,but I think that it can be
used way more appropriately. If you have really fresh, beautiful squid,I think frying it is kind
of doing it a disservice. Doing this thing grilled
or quickly pan searedin a super hot cast iron
for like 30 or 45 secondsis really all it needs. Salt, pepper, lemon,
you’re having a great day. The first thing you
have to do is understandthis is the body, the tube,and then you’ll have
the tentacles down here,and this is the head, this is the eyes. And if you open it up in here you’ll seethat this is the beak. So yeah, their beaks are
kind of like birds’ beaksin a way, they’re very similar,made of like a similar material. They’re very sharp and
they’re terrible to eat. So all of that has to come out. What you’re gonna do is
you’re gonna grab the tube,and inside of the squid
you can kind of feel itjust by holding it, there’s
what feel like a pieceof plastic as its spine. So what you’ll do is, you’ll take a fingerand right where the spine
starts at the bottom,you’re just gonna separate it. And then once you have
it, you’ll just sort ofrun your finger all the way upand sort of hook to grab onto the spine,and you’ll pull everything out. This is the spine, looks and
feels a lot like plastic,but it’s not.
And then you have here
this little silver guysis actually where the ink sac is. And if you puncture that,
there will be black inkeverywhere and you will not get it out. So now to prep squid,
you’ll push the eyes downand just make a straight cut
down right before the beak. And you just throw these away. And then pick up the tentacles
and kind of squeeze gentlyand the beak comes right out. You’ll discard that as well. So now your tentacles are ready to go. For the tube, lay it flat, and you’ll makea really slight cut here, not
even going all the way throughjust enough to kind of give you some spaceto start scraping your knife gently,peeling the skin back. And scaling squid can be quite chewy,so you don’t want it. Now what you’ll do is you’ll
make a straight cut downvery gently, being careful not to cutthrough the second layer. Once you get to that second layer,you’ll start to curve
your knife kind of similarto skinning the fish,
and if you got it right,you hold your knife in that position,you pick this up and you
just peel it all off. Come back, lay it down on this side,and you just sort of scrape
off any extra skin that’s left. And there you’ll have it, the clean squid. Octopus.
Octopus are incredible
creatures, highly intelligent,super delicious, and very intimidatingto cook for most people. It’s a great option,
it’s decadent, it’s rich. More likely than not be finding
this as a frozen product. A lot of the times they’re
coming from Spain or Portugal. Once you have it thawed
out and in front of you,very similar to squid in that
they have a beak as well. Little bit bigger than a squid’s. Pretty sharp too, so you
wanna be careful of that. They have a set of eyes here at the top. And this is their head cavity. So what we’re gonna do is just cut rightin between the eyes and sort ofwhere the tentacles start
to meet, right there. Put those aside for now. We’ll do the same thing
right above the eyesand just get them out of the equation. Then you wanna flip the head inside outand just make sure you’re
moving any sort of innardsthat might be in there,
of course taking careto not break the head
open, we’ll flip it back. So now when you have the
head cleaned and ready to go,you’ll hold it taut and make
a really small incision,not cutting through the octopus,just to get the skin to
separate from the flesh. And just peel away any skin,
and it is pretty tough,so you’re gonna have to put a
little bit of muscle into it. You wanna just take care
and not be brutal with it. It can withstand quite a bit of pressure. I’m grabbing this pretty hard,but I’m not white knuckling the octopus. And just work slowly in batches. And you’ll have a cleaned head. And now go back to the tentacles. What you wanna do, this is the beak here,flip it, and with your finger here,just push like a button and
it should expose itself. And from here you’ll just take a knifeand just remove that whole section there. And you can see actually
how sharp that is. It looks a lot like a bird beak. Next step would be cooking it. And then you will butcher
it once it’s done. This is a cleaned octopus. Hopefully today I’ve made fisha little less intimidating for you. People should consider fish
a little bit more like meatand a little less like this foreign entitythat they’re super afraid
of and they have to goto a restaurant to get. Nothing terrible is going to happenif you overcook a fish one timeor your fish sticks to the
pan and you kind of ruined it. These are learning mistakes. You take those and you
just don’t repeat them. There’s nothing sustainable
about eating one speciesall the time, it’s super importantto just expand your pallette
and try different things. I think it will open you up a lot moreto experimenting in cooking
and it’s a lot more fun.