Video Transcript

My name is Chef Egg with Cooking with Egg TV out of Baltimore, Maryland. And we're here at Fletch Showroom in Philadelphia. Today, I'm going to show you guys at home how to fillet a red snapper. Now we've got a beautiful red snapper right here. At the grocery store they have already half way prepared it for us. And what they have done is sliced down the middle. Removed all the guts and rinsed everything out. They've taken the gills out for us. As well as trimming the top and bottom fins of the fish. So what we are going to do is sharpen up our knife really nicely. And begin the process of filleting our fish. Now you need a really sharp knife to do this cause if you don't have a sharp knife you are not going to make smooth cuts. We're just going to take a dry rag and remove any extra moisture. Keep things nice and dry, nice and safe. So the first cut we're going to make is right down the fish perpendicular to the body, right by the gills. So we are going to take our knife and slice down just like that. Now the next step we have to do is take the tip of our knife and drag it down the back spine of the fish. You want to make long, smooth cuts. Again we make the first cut down the side of the fish right underneath the gills. And then take the tip of the knife and slice all the way down the back bone of the fish. Long smooth cuts and you want to hear those bones. Get your knife right next to the bone and make those long smooth cuts all the way down to the end of the tail. And you can start to see inside. You are going to get a beautiful fillet. And you don't want any waste. That is beautiful, this is our first fillet. I'm going to trim that belly portion off. We are going to feel for any pin bones that are in here. And it's looking really, really nice. So that's fillet number one. So what we are going to do is turn the fish over and do the same thing on the other side. Now the second fillet of the fish is a little bit more difficult because your working kind of opposite to yourself. But take those long, smooth cuts and you should be good to go. You want to trim these pieces up so they look great for the presentation. So this is our finished product right here. As you see we have the red snapper body. And we also have the two fillets. Now these fillets can be pan seared or broiled and they taste absolutely phenomenal. But you can also use this carcass to make a really, really nice stew. My name is Chef Egg with Cooking with Egg TV out of Baltimore, Maryland. And that's how you fillet a red snapper.