Boning Roundfish Through the Stomach

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top 1000La Varenne Pratique
La Varenne Pratique

By Anne Willan

Published 1989

  • About
Fish are usually boned through the stomach unless they are to be stuffed. The head and tail are left on to hold the fish together during cooking. Use a sharp knife with a flexible blade. Here, salmon trout is shown.
  1. Gut the fish through the stomach. Continue the stomach slit on one side of the backbone as far as the tail.

  2. Open the cavity and with the blade of the knife, cut loose the transverse bones lining the flesh.

  3. Turn the fish over and slit the flesh at the base of the backbone on the other side.

  4. With the blade of the knife, cut loose the transverse bones lining the flesh as on the first side.

  5. With scissors, snip the backbone at the tail and head and, starting at the head, peel it away from the flesh with any attached transverse bones.