How to Fillet a Salmon

Video guide to filleting a salmon

An easy way to fillet a salmon

Whole salmons are a great delicious bargain so it’s really handy to know how to fillet one. It sounds like a really daunting task but it’s much easier than you think. So ask your fishmonger for a scaled and gutted salmon with the fins cut off.

How to start to fillet a salmon

The first thing to do is cut across the fish, just behind the head, down to the backbone. Do the same with the tail end. Just cut down to the bone. Then, starting at the head end, cut along the back of the fish, which loosens the side of the fillet. Then, starting at the head end, start cutting through the fillet and work along the backbone.

Keep as close to the bones as you can. If you cut through some bones, don’t worry, you can remove them later. Or you can try to lift the fillet off any bones as you go along. Don’t worry if you don’t have a fish-filleting knife. Any thin flexible knife will do the trick. You fillet the other side of the salmon in exactly the same way.

How to remove bones and slice a salmon

Okay, when you’ve cut through just lift the fillet off and you’re ready to check for bones. So just run your fingers over the flesh and just pull out any with tweezers. You can get special ones or just use cosmetic ones, just make sure they’re spotlessly clean.

Neaten up the edge of the fillet and then all you have to do is slice across to get lovely individual fillets and you can make these as large or as small as you’d like but about 5 to 6 centimetres wide is a good rule of thumb.

So that’s all it takes to fillet a salmon and these pink juicy fillets will make all sorts of incredible and delicious great value meals.

See more Salmon recipes