Corey’s Seafood Handling Hints

Corey Jardine is a third generation fishmonger following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, J.S Jardine, who founded Kithener's T&J Seafoods in 1967

Skinning

1. A sharp knife is favourable for skinning, however, too sharp and you will find it
difficult to avoid cutting through the skin.

2. When using a full side (full fillet, head to tail) it is best to begin skinning at the tail. For
a centre cut or neck fillet, it is best to begin on a thick corner (not a belly flap corner)
and preferably a square corner.

3. An angle of 20º to 30º for your blade is most effective.

4. To start filleting you want to use an exposed piece of skin or the tip of the tail to
anchor your index and middle fingers from your non-dominant hand. With your knife
you want to cut into the flesh until you reach the skin.

5. With the fish firmly anchored, you can now begin to slide the blade down carefully
between the flesh and skin.

6. Fish have a layer of fat between their skin and their flesh; the thickness of the fat
varies with the type of fish. The key to skinning is finding this fatty layer, once your
blade hits it, it will glide through like butter!

7. In order to keep your knife within this layer of fat, you must apply enough downward
pressure to make sure your knife does not travel up into the flesh, while being careful
not to apply too much downward pressure and slice through the skin. Before you
begin skinning the fish, feel the outside of the skin to see how tough it is; if the fish
has a very firm and tough skin it will be less susceptible to tearing and being cut
through.

8. After you are finished skinning your fillet, you may flip it over to realize some skin had
been left on. If it is a large piece you may have to apply the above techniques to
remove it, if it is small you can simply trim it off.

Steaking

1. Place non-dominant hand firmly on side of fish with the fish facing sideways towards
your dominant hand.

2. Have a sharp knife firm in dominant hand perpendicular to the direction of the fish.

3. A sharp knife is important as it helps the initial slicing of the skin – a dull blade will
result in slipping and possibly a cut.

4. Lean with strength into the first slice, pressing forward and fluidly through the spine
of the fish.

5. The backstroke slice is next – you pull the knife back towards you while pressing
down and slicing the skin, finishing the steak/roast.

Filleting

There are two common methods of filleting most fish. They are commonly referred to as a chef’s
cut and a fisherman’s cut. In either cut, you must first remove the head of the cleaned fish by
lifting the fin behind each gill and making an incision towards the centre of the head on each
side. Once you make the second incision (with the blade in as deep as possible), you then slice
the head off as if it were a steak (see steaking).

Chef’s Cut

In a chef’s cut, the flesh of the fish is removed from the spine with the ribcage attached.

1. Place the exposed spine of the fish facing the direction of your dominant hand.

2. Use your non-dominant hand to lift the belly flap of the fish up. This belly flap should be
pointing away from you.

3. Place the blade (with a firm grip) on the top of the spine with the angle of the blade at
10º to 20º high.

4. Slice through to the tail firmly and carefully while leading the cut by slicing through the
ribcage bones first.

5. It is important to angle the blade downward and with pressure so that you don’t leave
flesh on the bone (keep in mind too much pressure and you will cut through the spine or
into the flesh on the other side).

6. Now that you have a side of fish all that is left is to trim off the ribcage. When trimming
off the ribcage angle the blade upwards towards the bone and apply slight upward
pressure.

Note: Pin bones found in many fish can be pulled out with tweezers or needle-nose pliers.

Fisherman’s Cut

In a fisherman’s cut, instead of cutting through the ribcage as you would in a chef’s cut, you
slice over top of the ribcage with the blade angled downward with slight downward pressure.
This leaves the cage attached to the spine of the fish. This method of filleting is slightly more
difficult and I would not recommend it to beginners, as it is easy to leave a lot of flesh on the
ribcage, which results in waste.

IMPORTANT!
When making any cut with a knife be mindful of the blade and both of your hands. Take your
time and never struggle to make a cut especially through bone or cartilage.