How to Fillet a Flatfish (Sole, Flounder, Fluke)

Cleaning up the fillets

Cleaned flatfish fillets

Hank Shaw

You are almost done! now all that's left is to clean up and trim your fillets. The reason you do this is not only for presentation -- which matters, by the way -- but also because the edges of the fillets must be fairly uniform otherwise it will cook poorly: The edges will dry out before the center is cooked through.

• Getting Started
• Placement of the Flatfish
• Cutting a Whole Fillet
• Removing the Guts from the Fish
• Removing the head
• Cutting a double fillet
• Releasing the Fillet
• Skinning the Fillets
• Cleaning up the fillets