Fish fillet

Fillet means to remove slices of fish flesh from the carcass by cuts made parallel to the backbone.

All the internal organs, head, fins, bones and substantially all discolored flesh has been removed.

When the fillets of a fish are left joined at the backside, it is called a butterfly fillet. The fillet is called kited fillet if it is cut along the back and left joined at the belly.

The fillet has no skin or bones. However many chef preferred receiving their fillets with skin on because it better preserves the quality of the fillet.

There is no waste to a fish fillet. It has low fat content and it doesn’t shrink like the meat do.

Many fish lend themselves very well to cooking with the skin on: basses, trout, salmon, breams and pike for instance.

There are two types of fillet: thin white fleshed fillets and thick white fleshed fillets.

Thin fillets including, flounder, sole, perch, trout, tilapia, ocean, catfish. While thick fillets including halibut, cod, grouper, sea bass, yellowtail.

The best quality fillets are prepared by hand; filleting machines are now in use, though rarely as good as can be achieved by skilled hand operator.

The advantage of fist fillet is that fish fillet require little further processing. Filet also absorb sauces well and can be fried, baked, broiled, sautéed or poached. Fillet also can be sized for appropriate plate coverage.
Fish fillet

Processing of Cod

Processing of Cod
At the processing pant, the cod are washed and filleted, skinless.

Fillets that are to be frozen for the retail trade are packed in 1 lb (454 kg) waxed carton with or without being first wrapped in moisture vapor-proof plastic.

The fillets may have been passed through a weak brine (10 – 45% saturated salt solution) prior to packaging. For purposes of freezing, retail sized cartons of fillets may be placed on trays, the trays placed on racks, and the racks wheeled on top a blast freezer where very cold air is blown over the product, or the cartons may be plate frozen by being placed in trays in contact with refrigerated plates at -28 degree F (- 33.3 degree C).

Some cod fillets are frozen, usually in a plate freezer, and then cut into fish sticks or fish portions that are then breaded in a batter of flour, dried milk solids, egg solids, spices, and flavoring.

The product is then packaged in retail-sized units and held frozen until sold to customers.

Salted cod was once a major export commodity of the United States, only very little cod is now salted in this country. To produce salted cod, the fish are beheaded and split longitudinally; the backbone and the abdominal cavity lining are remove, washed and layer salted in closed casks (brine salting), in open tubs, or simply in open piles on a low platform (dry salting).

Most of the salted cod is produced by dry salting that is done to produce either a lightly salted product or a heavily salted product. The lightly salted product requires many days to complete, has a relatively low salt content (less than 10%), has better organoleptic properties than the heavily salted once, but it is not shelf stable, the heavily salted product requires week to complete, has a high salt content (about 30%) and is shelf stable.
Processing of Cod