Oceanic Fish Filleting Step by Step Guides

Every fish filleting guide on the site, in one place, all free, all written out step by step.

Filleting is a different skill from butchery and it rewards a lighter hand. Buying a whole fish is also the only reliable way to know what you actually bought, which matters more with some species than others.

Round Fish

How to Fillet Snapper

The complete introduction to round fish fabrication, and the one I would start on.

How to Fillet a Whole Salmon

The milestone most home cooks want, and more forgiving than it looks.

How to Fillet Sea Bass

Classical seafood preparation, start to finish.

How to Fillet Haddock

The fish that punishes a heavy hand. Fine grained, soft, low in fat.

How to Fillet Grouper

The fish most likely to be something else. Among the most substituted species in American seafood.

Large Pelagic Fish

Big, fast, open water fish. These are closer to butchery than filleting, and you will be working in loins rather than fillets.

How to Fillet Tuna

A powerful animal, and one of the most rewarding jobs in seafood cookery.

How to Fillet Swordfish

The most prestigious milestone in pelagic fish processing.

How to Fillet Mahi Mahi

Large pelagic round fish fabrication, worked whole.

How to Fillet Cobia

The fish that teaches you to stop thinking like a fish cutter and start thinking like a butcher.

The Awkward Ones

How to Fillet Halibut

Flatfish, four fillets rather than two, and the ultimate achievement in flatfish fabrication.

How to Fillet Monkfish

Barely behaves like a fish at all. It does not flake, and it has no pin bones.

Where to Start

Snapper. It is the textbook round fish, the anatomy is easy to read, and everything you learn on it transfers to salmon, sea bass and haddock without much translation. A flexible filleting knife will do more for you here than any other tool.

Once It Is Filleted

Who Is Writing This

I am Chef Alan. I have spent 35 years in professional kitchens, I have formal culinary education in New Hampshire, and I have been honored as a 6-Time 4-Diamond Chef. More about me here.

If a guide is missing something you needed, or a step did not make sense, tell me. Get in touch and I will fix it.

Cook Bolder, Serve Wiser, Eat Better.