Filleting Fish, Boning Meat and Fowl

The most important lesson to learn in these preparations is to keep the knife finely angled against the bones of the beast. It does require practice and patience at the beginning until you become familiar with the contours of the primary ingredient. Try to relate the size of the knife to the size of the beast. For example, when boning quail, use a small, sharp trimming knife; when boning large fish, use a sharp, 30-cm kitchen knife. When boning birds for ballotines or galantines, make an incision alongside the backbone and then ease the flesh away from the bones moving towards the centre of the breasts. With fish, make your first incision from the tail end of the stomach cavity towards the tail. To remove the chest bones, slide the knife along the centre of the back towards the head, angle the blade against the bones and then cut the flesh away with long, sliding actions.