Whole Fresh Salmon

I couldn’t resist buying this whole salmon from, dare I say it, Tescos, when I saw it was half price. Many people were asking the fishmonger to fillet theirs for them, which, just out of interest, was taking ages! But surely that’s half the fun? Well, I didn’t know, having never filleted one before, but thought it might be.

The first challenge was getting it out the bag as I wanted to use this to sit the fish on whilst on the surface, if that makes sense! So, having worked with the OH to release said fish from it’s minimal packaging, there he lay. The fish, not the OH! How to begin? Scale it! I found a blunt, serrated knife and, moving from the tail up to the head, scraped it along the flat, silvery protection.

At this point, words fail me, so I’ll give you notes and leave you to the video. Pictures speak much louder than words here:

For a first time, the job wasn't too bad with not much left on the bones, but there are obvious points for improvement: look before you begin to slide the knife along to check it’s at the right angle; don’t cut the ‘fin’ into the fillet!

I was left with only this…

To recap, the points are this:

scale

cut the large sides

remove pin bones

remove ‘vein’

cut fatty edges off (reserve for tartare!)

slice into fillets

Along with rather a lot of salmon fillets, 17 to be precise, I also saved the more fatty trimmings for tartare, the bits I didn’t get off first time, (there was only a ramekin full!), and popped the rest into a pan to make stock. I know salmon isn’t the best fish with which to make stock, being rather oily, but I couldn’t bear to waste them!