How to cut salmon - step-by-step recommendations, description, video instructions

How to properly cut salmon: step by step

• We clean the fish from scales. In addition to a knife, you can use any device for cleaning fish. The tail can be held with a paper napkin, which will reduce slipping in the hand.
• Rinse thoroughly with water, washing away blood and scales.
• We cut and remove the insides, if any, and separate the caviar. Don't forget about the film on the abdominal cavity. We send it for washing again.
• Separate the head, tail and fins. We do this carefully so as not to prick ourselves. If your plans include fish broth, cut off the tail and head, leaving the flesh on them. Be sure to cut out the gills so that the broth does not taste bitter.
• Cut the top part of the carcass crosswise into slices of about 2 cm. These will make good steaks.
• The bottom part remains, which needs to be cut along the ridge. If there is meat left on it, you can add all this to the fish soup. And the resulting meat can be used at your discretion - salted or fried.

Ideal fish
Thus, by properly cutting salmon , you can get fish soup, fried steaks and salted fish.

How to salt fish correctly? We'll show you how to cut up a whole red fish for salting!

Red fish has a high nutritional value and a very pleasant taste. Experts talk about how to cut red fish for salting, which knife is best to choose for these purposes, whether it is necessary to remove the scales first, or whether this operation is optional.

Before salting fish, you need to learn a number of rules that will help you do it quickly and efficiently. Salmon, pink salmon, salmon - all these types of fish are distinguished by a reddish tint of meat. You can prepare very tasty salty delicacies from them. Of course, red fish can be baked or fried, but most often housewives prefer to salt it. When fried, it is too fatty, and the salty product is used very sparingly. Red fish is often used to make sandwiches.

In order for salmon, pink salmon, and salted salmon to turn out tasty and tender, you need to learn how to properly cut the raw materials. When choosing fish at the market, you should give preference to chilled products. It has a denser consistency and high nutritional value.

If it is impossible to buy a chilled semi-finished product, it is quite acceptable to purchase frozen fish. It must be defrosted before cutting. It is best to do this in natural conditions. The fish should be placed on a plate and defrosted at room temperature. Experts even advise defrosting such products in the refrigerator. It turns out that the slower this process goes, the better the quality of the semi-finished product will be. Under no circumstances should you defrost in warm water or a microwave oven. This fish is not suitable for salting.

It is most profitable to buy uncut semi-finished products. Before starting processing, you need to wash it under running cold water. Red fish is usually sold already gutted. If we are talking about whole fish, it is necessary to cut into the abdominal cavity and remove the caviar or milt. The abdomen must be cleaned of films and remaining entrails to get rid of bitterness. Next, cut off the head and remove the fins.

It is most convenient to salt red fish in the form of fillets. Salmon, pink salmon, and chum salmon are quite large in size. In the form of a carcass, it is quite difficult to salt them. The fish can simply go bad due to insufficient salting of the central part of the semi-finished product.

Many housewives would like to know whether it is worth removing scales from fish before cutting, or whether it is necessary to leave skin on the fillet. It is not at all necessary to clean the semi-finished product from scales. It is customary to salt red fish with the skin on, and then remove it after salting. This is necessary in order to maintain the shape of the fillet. Without the skin, it falls apart and is quite difficult to prepare.

To cut the carcass, you need to make deep cuts along the ridge of the fish, and then carefully remove the fillet from the rib bones. A wide and fairly flexible knife is ideal for this. The flexibility of the tool is needed in order to perform cutting with minimal losses. There should not be a lot of meat left on the bones. However, the ridge and head can be used to prepare fish soup.

Using tweezers, you can pull out the large bones in the upper part of the fillet, and then proceed directly to salting. Red fish is salted mainly in a dry way. The fillets are rubbed with salt on both sides, and then the halves are pressed together, wrapped in parchment and put in a cool place. The amount of salt should be selected individually. It depends on the desired taste characteristics of the finished product and the size of the fillet. Its thickness is especially important in this case.

If the fish is very large, you can cut the fillet into several pieces or even cut into small pieces. This will reduce the salting time. You can also salt red fish in the form of a carcass, cut into pieces perpendicular to the ridge, but this is not very convenient. In its finished form, such a product will still have to be cut additionally.

To make the fish truly tasty, you need to choose coarse salt for salting. It is better if it does not contain any additives that can add bitterness or other foreign taste. Fine salt penetrates the meat too quickly. As a result of this, the upper layers of the fillet are salted very well and become dense, but in the center the fish is not salted enough, since the dense structure of the tissues does not allow the salt to penetrate further.

To cut red fish before salting, you do not need any specific skills. Every housewife can do this on her own at home. For these purposes, it is best to use a fairly long and flexible knife with a wide blade.

How to fillet salmon?

1. In order to cut the salmon, we clean the scales without pressing too hard with a knife so as not to touch the delicate meat.
2. rinse the fish under running water, removing any stuck-on scales.
3. Using a sharp long knife, we separate the head obliquely along the line of the gills. If you want to leave the head on the ear, you can separate it evenly, leaving a strip of meat below the gills for greater richness of the broth.
4. the tail according to the same principle: just above the location of the lower fin, if it is planned for broth, and before the fin, if it is not needed.
5. along the ridge , starting from the place where the head was. This must be done carefully, strictly along the ridge, without pressing down either the knife or the meat.
6. We repeat the procedure on the other side, removing the ridge.
7. With a clear, sharp movement of the knife, we remove the upper fin, grabbing the spinal bones.
8. It is customary to cut off the belly (this area is called tesha), since it is quite fatty. Many housewives do not do this, but this is a matter of taste.
9. The rib bones are carefully trimmed and removed.
10. Using tweezers, remove the remaining bones in the dorsal area.
11. Not all housewives remove the skin either. And if you want to leave the fillet without skin, you can skip the first and second steps.

Filling
In front of you is a ready-made fillet that can be prepared at your discretion.

How to cut salmon for salting?

Fresh fish is best suited for this purpose, but frozen fish can also be used. There are fans of large whole pieces, but it is still more convenient to cut the salmon immediately into portioned pieces.

1. We start by removing the dorsal and ventral fins, carefully cutting them.
2. Remove the head and front fin.
3. We remove the skin by lifting it from above and carefully separating it from the carcass in the direction of the tail.
4. We cut off the tail along with the remaining skin at its tip.
5. Separate the fillet from the bones, cutting the fish along the ridge.
6. We make a deep cut into the carcass between the back and belly.
7. Carefully separate the carcass and fillet so that the smallest bones do not come off the skeleton.
8. We repeat the same procedure now on the reverse side.
9. Remove the meat by running a knife along the bones.

This way you have four parts of pulp that can be used for pickling. By the way, everything that remains as a result of cutting (head, fins, tail, ridge) can be used to prepare fish soup.

For pickling

Advice. Usually it takes at least a day for salting. But if you cut the salmon into small pieces, add salt and spices and mix it all in a glass container, after 2-3 hours you can taste the deliciousness.

How to properly cut and salt salmon

Today we will learn how to fillet a whole salmon carcass. This is a wonderful product, ingredient and basis for many delicious dishes. You cannot check the quality of the finished packaged fillet; Unscrupulous sellers can take advantage of this. That’s why I always buy whole fish, cleaned of scales and entrails – the quality is guaranteed and it’s cheaper. You just need to cut it correctly.

Ingredients: fresh salmon - 1 pc., salt - 2 tbsp., sugar - 1 tbsp.

Let's begin. We will need a knife - long, thin and very sharp. First we separate the head. Carefully lift the front fin, place a knife under it, and cut at an angle to the center of the head. Turn the fish over and repeat on the other side. That's it, the head comes off easily. They say that fish rot from the head, but they clean it from the tail. I'll tell you honestly: professionals don't do that. Like during the French Revolution, we will clean the fish from the head. More precisely, from the place where she had just been. We place the knife under the ridge and press the carcass with our hands. Carefully cut through the entire fish along the ridge. We take the knife out 5-10 centimeters from the tail. We get a layer of excellent fillet. We put it aside and repeat the procedure with the second half of the fish, only we place the knife over the spine. We take out the knife near the tail. We got two layers of fish. This process takes me a minute, but you shouldn’t rush at first, it’s better to keep your fingers safe. Now you need to separate the tummy. We place the knife at an angle under the large bones, cut through to the beginning of the belly and separate it with one movement along the fish. We take out the remaining seeds with tweezers - there are not many of them, the process will take no more than 30 seconds. All that remains is to remove the white stripe that runs down the center. Starting from the tail section, we trim it and remove it. Remove the skin: from the tail side, insert a knife between the skin and the flesh. Pressing the fish, we cut along the entire layer. That's it, our fillet is ready. We wipe it with a napkin. We got a great fillet; You can use it to quickly and efficiently prepare whatever you want at any time. Believe me, you will not buy fillets of this quality in the store. Plus - we have a waste-free production: heads, skins, bellies, backbone and tail - we don’t throw anything away. All this can be used to prepare wonderful dishes. We make the preparation: separate the narrow tail part, divide the remaining fillet into three equal parts. If you are not going to cook it right away, wrap the fillets in cling film to keep the fish fresh. If the fillet remains in the refrigerator for more than a day, you should remove the film, wipe the fish with a napkin and wrap it in film again. We can use our freshly cut salmon right away. Mix salt and sugar. We take a piece of fillet - now we will salt it. When salting, many people make the mistake of burning the fish. They apply a mixture of salt and sugar directly to the fish, causing the top layer to disappear. We can avoid this very simply: spread a little, literally a drop of olive oil on the surface of the fish. Carefully apply a mixture of salt and sugar on all sides. The amount of mixture may vary depending on the weight of the fish; the proportion is constant. We wrap our fillet in parchment paper and put it in the refrigerator. The next day, our salmon can already be eaten. Beautiful fillets, preparations for many dishes, salted salmon - you made it all with your own hands no worse than professional chefs. Rejoice!

©Uriel Stern Culinary School. How to properly cut salmon and salt the fillet - recipe (video and text) From the series “Dinner in the City”

4 comments on “How to properly cut and salt salmon”

Dear Uriel! I want to thank you for this lesson on cutting fish. I’ve done this many times, but after your webinar it became easier and easier. I got a magnificent king salmon or chinook salmon. The fish is quite big. I did everything according to the instructions and it turned out to be an excellent quality fillet. Thanks a lot.

How to cut salmon into steaks?

1. To cut the salmon into steaks, we clean, gut, wash and dry the carcass.
2. Cut off the head and fins.
3. Now you need to remove the side panel.
4. Remove bones and fin from the side.
5. By inserting a thin knife under the ribs, remove the bones from them.
6. Now we cut in both directions, thus cutting off the remaining bones.
7. Using tweezers, remove the bones from the pulp.
8. We cut off all excess from the sides.
9. Now cut it across the ridge line into slices of about 2 cm.
10. We unfold all the pieces, getting even steaks out of them.

Steak

How to cut a salmon head for fish soup?

• There are no particular difficulties in this process. The main thing is not to be lazy to clean it of any remaining scales and remove the eyes and gills from the head so that there is no bitterness in the broth. To make it foam less, it is better to immerse the salmon head in water for half an hour. This will also wash away any blood left over from the butchering process.
• cut the salmon head again when the broth is cooked. It will become soft and you can easily separate the meat from it, which will need to be returned to the pan.

And do not forget that the tail, belly, fins, ridge - everything that we prudently set aside when cutting our salmon will add richness to the fish broth. Bon appetit!

The easiest way to salt red fish

Salted red fish is an excellent cold appetizer. Moreover, it is universal.

How to salt fish yourself? With the strong rise in price of imported trout in vacuum packaging, this issue is more relevant than ever. Moreover, the domestic product has continuous advantages, while the foreign one has disadvantages. See for yourself: Norwegian and fish from the Faroe Islands are too fatty, bred in captivity. Although it is beautiful (remember the white stripes - this is fat), it is not at all as healthy and tasty as wild Murmansk salmon or Far Eastern sockeye salmon.

You know what you put in your fish, but what you put on it and how you salted the salmon from the store - it’s better not to even know. . The only downside to homemade salted fish: you have to cut it yourself. But it only takes 15-20 minutes. Advice. It is better not to buy chilled fish. Most likely, this is the same frozen one. The fact is that our fishermen usually freeze it right on the boat. What kind of fish should I get? Almost any red fish is suitable for salting. Coho salmon and chum salmon perform well, but they are a bit dry for stewing and frying. Trout, salmon, sockeye salmon are simply wonderful fish. You can take larger fish, salt only part of it, and use the other part for steaks or fry fillets, you can stew them in sauce... Yes, even pink salmon is very tasty when salted, and by the way, very cheap. Only its appearance is the most modest of all salmon. Pink salmon meat is rather gray and holds its shape less well when cut.

Cutting

Tip: It is very convenient to cut fish with scissors.
They cut everything very easily. You can take a knife of medium length; it will help peel the meat from the ribs. Another tip: it is more convenient to cut fish if it is not completely defrosted. Cut off the tail and head, if any. A lot of fish is sold gutted; cutting it is more convenient and easier. Clean off the scales and then wash the fish. It doesn’t always need to be cleaned, but if there are a lot of scales on the skin, you won’t get rid of them later. Cut the skin along the ridge, going around one or both sides. Use your fingers to separate the ridge on one side, reach the backbone with your hand and separate all the back meat from the bones. Cut out the ventral fins with scissors. Turn the fish over so that the separated part is on the bottom and the bones are on top. Helping yourself with a knife, separate the ribs from the meat, then the tail part of the ridge. If there are films left in the area of ​​the insides, remove them. But the main film goes away along with the ribs. Separate the dorsal fin, and also cut out the fin from the bottom of the tail. And use a knife to separate the ridge from the second half of the fish. It’s also better to start at the top and then tear off the ribs. And you got two halves of red fish fillet. If you wanted to use some of it for steaks, then, of course, you first had to cut them off, and then fillet the fish. Salting
Next is the simplest part. Mix 2 tbsp. sugar and 1 tbsp. salt (per 1 kg of fillet). Sprinkle a thick layer over the meat. Fold the fish so that the skin is facing out. Place in a container with a lid. Cover with film. If the fish is fat, then you can put a small load. No more than half a kilogram. Usually I salt 2-3 kilogram fish and don’t add any weight. The fish itself produces juice and is perfectly salted in it. What to add? Dill goes perfectly with fish. You can sprinkle it on the fish during salting or after. A few pinches of lemon zest will go well with the red fish; it should be added to the pickling mixture. If you want to add lemon when serving, then garnish the fish with thin slices. To make the fish salty and more tender, you can grease it with odorless oil when salting. It happens that pepper, spices, bay leaves, and garlic are added to fish when salting. The taste is interesting, but it is very different from what we are used to.

How much salt?

Lightly salted fish will be ready in just 8-10 hours.
But this is not the safest option, since there may be other life lurking in the fish. Therefore, it is better to salt it for a day or two. It will be saltier, but safer. To stop the salting process, you need to drain the juice that the fish gave. To be safe, cut it into pieces. How to cut?
It is convenient to cut by placing the fillet skin side down. I would not recommend turning the meat onto a board when it comes to our fish. It is very soft and will fall apart instantly. Cut with a sharp knife, slightly diagonally, to get wider pieces. The remaining skin can be used to cover the fish in the tray to prevent airing. Important! Before slicing, check that you have removed all the bones when cutting.