in this video I will be demonstrating how to break down a whole salmon and this technique can be used for any number of fish that have the same shapes of salmon being symmetrical and having a one flay on each side so you want to start by making an incision right underneath that pectoral fin right up by the head and cut all the way back towards the spinal cord then you're gonna flip that around and you're going to do this on the same side so I'm gently lifting up that flap I'm cutting in right behind that up upper pectoral fin you're gonna bend the head back detaching it from the body and use your knife to detach the skin now this can be roasted and used I don't know I like to roast on wood fire oven and just eat it as a snack now next you need to remove the first side and the top side this is easier than the bottom side and the way you're gonna do this is by running your knife along the spinal column and notice how every time I move the fish I'm as gentle as possible so you're gonna move that you know pull that knife down the spinal column and see how I'm using my thumb on my non knife hand on my left hand to hold that flap and I'm drawing that knife straight through straight down trying not to saw or song as little as possible now as you get towards the end you're gonna have to saw a little bit just to move through that that spinal column and get that tail piece off and then you're gonna gently roll the salmon fillet onto a sheet tray and you can see that we have a nice intact salmon filet without a bunch of hack marks going down it and that comes from drawing your knife down along that spinal column and as long as you always are staying along that spinal column when you draw your knife down you're gonna get a nice good yield on your fillet now the second one is a little bit tougher mainly because you have this dorsal fin back here so you want to make a slice right above that dorsal fin because what happens is as you try and remove the second side while you're sliding along that spinal column that dorsal fin is gonna get in your way so you want to make a slice just like this and somewhat detach it but you don't have to remove it completely now you want to take your knife and insert it right above this spinal column and you're basically going to want to trap the spinal column between the flat blade of your knife and your cutting board and again I'm going to use my fingers of mine on knife to hold the flesh up in a way from my knife blade that way I'm not chunking it as I go down so here I'm making my first incision and I'm drawing it down going to pull back that belly flap with my fingers so my knife blade doesn't catch on that and chunk the belly flap and you'll notice that I'm also using my thumb to keep the separated flesh up above the spinal column now I'm trying to show you a little bit of a better angle here and you really shouldn't be moving your fish around this much like I am doing right here but once you get to the dorsal fin you want to cut on the top side that dorsal fin not underneath but on the top side drawing your knife all the way down the spinal column and as you draw your knife down the spinal column you're gonna try and move the fish as little as possible and then roll that side of this of the salmon or any fish that you're doing off of that spinal column and if there's any bit of belly flap still attached to the rib cage then you can remove that as well just by drawing your knife through you always want to draw your knife through and long shallow strokes instead of sawing or hacking at it and those long shallow strokes are going to allow you to readjust your knife cuts without having a sod hack piece of fish now you can take your just a spoon and scrape down that spinal column and remove all of the flesh and this is going to give you a better yield and you can use this in fish cakes you can use it as a ravioli filling anything that you would use sort of minced fish meat in this case salmon you can use that in those purposes now next you want to trim up and portion your salmon and you're gonna do this by first you have to remove the rib cage and you see how the rib cage is kind of curved here and you want to start by taking the tip of your knife and detaching the rib cage right at the top and get right in between those bones and those flesh now in general butchery terms you always want to flex towards the bone because when you flex towards the bone you're not going to miss and hit the flesh so see how I'm cutting just a small little line detaching the top portion of the rib cage and I'm gonna go back do another shallow stroke all the way down the rib cage again sand watching the the rib cage and the knife blade in between my hand one smooth motion alone way down peel that back readjust my cutting and again sandwich that that ribcage and I belly flat between the ninth blade in my hand and again a nice smooth cut drawing that knife down along that side until I eventually remove the ribcage and a portion of that belly flap now it's not too important to get all about that white subcutaneous fat off of that belly portion you can remove that later just by basically trimming now this can go in your scrap pile which your later go back and pick off most of that good flesh and again use that for ravioli fillings fish cake whatever you want we actually tend to use it for a smoked salmon pate which I'll put a link to in the show notes now if you're not going to be serving the skin with the fish it's time to remove it and make a little slit just to make it opening towards the tail and you're going to run the knife along the skin and you want to always flex your knife blade towards the skin of your fish because the skin is very tough and if you're flexing towards the skin then you're not going to chunk the flesh and once you get a good hold of the skin with your opposite hand you want to push that knife blade away from you while pulling on the skin the fish trying to saw as little as possible with larger fish sometimes you have to solve a bit more but as long as you focus on keeping the blade of your knife flexed towards the skin of the fish you're going to be able to remove that skin with a very nice yield at this point it's time to remove the pin bones which run down the length of the fish about 3/4 of the way down and you want to do this by starting at the head of the fish and using your fingertips and running your finger tips down the center of that fish along the line of pin bones and they'll prickle up at you and you want to use a pair of tweezers as they prickle up and there's no real easy way to do this except you know just get used to kind of working your way down the fish using your fingertips to prickle up those pin bones and once you find one you grab it with a pair of tweezers and then you can see here I have a wet towel and it makes it a lot easier for me as I pull each pin bone out to place that pin bone on the wet towel and I'll easily remove it from my Weezer's and as you slowly work your way down fingering those pin bones and as they pop up you want to remove them and always go back and check a couple of times to make sure you've removed all the pin bones because especially in a restaurant no one wants to get a bone and they're nice beautiful fillet of fish now after the pin bones are removed it's time to do final trimming and portioning and this will differ depending upon your final application of how the fish will be served me personally I like to trim off the belly leaving that even loin that goes all the way down the length of a fish and it's nice even thickness and this belly is great if you just quickly sear it and serve it pretty much rod it's with a little seared crust on the outside and you can do all sorts of great stuff with this so obviously don't want to throw that away but trimming off that bellies gonna give you an equal thickness flight every time you portion it which is going the only real way to make sure that the fish cooks evenly when you go and pan roast it or whatever technique you're using so here is going to cut about six to seven ounce portions and normally I'm shooting for about seven portions per side of salmon and this is just the size that that we're serving while we're portioning out the salmon you can portion it to whatever size you like now with most my fish I like to briefly brine them in a five-percent brine solution for about anywhere from twenty to sixty minutes and then all rinse under cold water and this will keep them nice and moist and also seasoned from the inside out during the cooking process if you have questions or comments for this video or you would like some more information you can find them in this episode shownotes at Stella culinary comm /ck s40