Hi my name is Dan, and this video supports my online sushi course on Udemy.com
and you can learn more about the video lectures in the link below.
In this lecture, you're going to learn how to break down an entire salmon and prep it for sushi.
And to do this, I suggest using both the Deba
and the hollow ground slicer. This is a very affordable knife and does an excellent job.
So if you plan filleting salmon often, it's a great investment.
The way I'm going to show you how to fillet might come across as being unorthodox.
but I believe this is one of the more effective technique for beginners to pick up,
in terms of speed and efficiency.
It's also much easier to learn than the traditional method, which can split to me if it's handled too
aggressively and if that happens it's tough to cut it for sushi purposes.
To start, always dry out the fish as much as you can on both sides before you start filleting.
This way the fish won't slide around so it'll be safer to work with.
And also it would be a good idea for you to request your fishmonger to scale at first.
To make this process less messy at home.
Then next, you'll want to remove the head with the deba.
And to do this, first position the fish with the head on the left side and belly up,
then lift up the pectoral fin and cut at an angle behind it until you hit the spine.
Then flip it over, and repeat the same cut on the other side,
except this time once you hit the spine,
use the heel of your blade and give it a heart thrust to cut it through.
You can use your other hand to help,
and the reason why you want to cut that angle is because you can maximize the yield and leave little meat behind.
You can tell by the v-shaped cut this was done properly
Now position the fish so the head size on the right with the belly side up and
have to fish as close to the edge of the counter as possible this is because
you'll need space for your cutting hands so you can slice at an angle.
And make sure to cut above the spine this is very important and once you're set up you'll
want to run the blade all the way through in a fast slicing motion and
hold a belly flap with your other hand as you cut
And after the first fillet comes off the second step is easier, but this time
you'll want to cut just below the spine but try to angle two blade slightly
upwards this way you can get a cleaner cut and leave as little me possible on the backbone.
And as you can see, there's really not much meat left on the bones when you fillet it this way.
And this part can be scraped off so don't throw it away.
You can cut this into smaller pieces by cutting between the disc
this is softer and much more blade friendly.
Now what a tip we do is spoon to me off the bone but be very careful not to scrape off the pin bones.
These will run about halfway down the fish right next to the spine.
And it's very important to scrape towards the tail so you don't go against the pin bones.
And you can do the same to the tail portion but this part doesn't have any
pin bones so you can be a little bit more aggressive with a spoon and try to
guess much meat off as you can
Afterwards, you're left with a few ounces of salmon tartare and you can use this
to make items like spicy salmon rolls or hand rolls.
So onto the fillets, first, you'll need to trim out the belly tag along with the fin.
And this is where you'll need to use your deba knife again.
And on one of the fillets, you'll need to do a bit more trimming. So start off by
cutting off the rear fin that was left behind and then turn the fillet around
and slice out the white membrane from one end to the other.
If you have a sharp knife this is very easy to do. It might look a little
difficult in the video but that's because I'm standing about three feet
away from the camera with my arms totally stretched out to get this angle.
But if you're standing over there fish it's much easier to do.
Next, you'll need to use tweezers to remove the pin bones and this will run about halfway down the filet.
and it's best if you can start from the very front because you need to pull the bones in the same direction as the head.
So that we don't rip the me going backwards, and there are always a couple of bones hiding a very front so start with those first.
Once you get those out you can start working on the rest by holding down the
fish with one hand I'm pulling with the other. Again make sure to pull in the
direction of the head, because if you go the other way the fillet weld rip apart
and sometimes as you're pulling the bones might snap in half so just
remember to go back and pull the rest. And once you get all the bones out it's
a good idea to always run your finger along it just to make sure you got every one.
Next I'm going to show you how to prep the fillets for sushi but keep in mind
that this is what I think is the most practical method for home users because
many restaurants were prepared differently depending on their operation
To start cut a small piece off on the front so we end up with a straight edge
next measure out each cut roughly the width of four fingers or about three
inches across and the logic is because this will be the length of the nigiri
that you'll learn how to cut later and it's a good idea to portion these into
smaller pieces for those at home this way you can freeze them and only take
out what you need at a time and also by leaving the skin and the ribs on this
will act as an extra protective layer while it's in the freezer and I'll show
you how to remove this part later in the course
Now if you plan on using a lot of salmon then you can portion it into larger
pieces like the way I'm measuring it out and this is typically how it's done in
some restaurants before it's frozen
and once you're done portioning the fillets you end up with a couple of tail
pieces and these are normally a bit more fibers so they're usually cut into small
pieces for sushi rolls or other applications and remember the two front end
pieces that was cut off well those can also be cut into smaller
pieces once the bones and skin is removed
Next you'll need to prep them for the freezer normally I use daily paper or
paper towels to cover each piece then wrap it with plastic film this way the
paper will help prevent the me from getting freezer burn and also help
absorb some of the water when you're ready to defrost it.
and here's something to remember unlike other fish, salmon freezes very well and
maintains his quality for a longer period compared to other fish and that's
because it doesn't have as much of a drip issue after it's been frozen and it
maintains this texture color and flavor quite well and if you're somebody that
wants to eat raw fish every week and don't want the hassle of buying fresh
fish all the time then freezing salmon fillets is really the way to go because
they'll last for several weeks in the freezer before the quality starts to
diminish this isn't something you can deal with tuna or white fish like
snappers without the use of an IQF freezer and color treatment
now I know that for many of you purchase an entire salmon and filet at home isn't
really practical so instead I suggest if you trust your local fishmonger it's a
better idea to ask them to scale a fish and fillet it for you and then you can
use the information you learn from this lecture to portion it and prepare for
the freezer once you get home but if you're a fisherman and catches your own
salmon or you don't trust the sanitary standards at your fish shop then I hope
this video is helpful if you decide to fillet yourself.
and one last thing usually I don't always advocate freezing fish for a while consumption because
this is depending on the species of fish but in the case of salmon I recommend
freezing it for sushi for both farm-raised and especially wild fish and
that's because they're known to carry parasites like anisakis & tapeworms
although farm fish are less likely to get infected there's still possibility
since most are raised in open pens but generally for other fish it varies from
species to species for example tunas not on a list if you
want more information on parasite destruction I made a PDF file that you
can download where there is much more information on this topic.
okay I hope you enjoyed this video this is actually a preview of my sushi course on udemy if
you want to learn more about preparing salmon for sushi there are more
information in the course that shows you how to break it down even further for
nigiri and sashimi applications also there are over 40 video lectures that cover
many other fundamentals such as learning how to prepare sushi rice how to cut
different vegetables how to make different types of sushi rolls and much
more and aside from just video lectures there are also PDF files of recipes and
resources you can download so if you like to learn more use the link down below.