Filleting Fish

I know this has been touched on before in various contexts but having read the recommendations for Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's 'Fish' book I bought it last week and have to admit it is a great read. However, there was one part of it that I found ran counter to what I had been told before and this is to do with filleting. He suggests 'Insert the tip of the blade into the vent. Gently slice the blade through the belly flesh, moving from the vent along the belly of the fish in a straight line to its 'throat', to within a centimeter or so of where the gills slits meet.'

In my view if you do this you risk contaminating the knife tip with the contents of the lower gut (the fish's sh*t, basically) and transfering this contaminate to the flesh of the fish. I was instructed to cut around the vent, making sure not to cut into it or the lower gut or any part of the gut and then proceed up the belly line.

I'm sure people can argue that you will be washing the fish, etc, but I was surprisd to see that Hugh F-W did not touch on this point. While there may be good intent with gutting fish and immediatly wash the cleaned carcase, the distraction, for example, of fresh bites might sidetrack you from washing your cleaned fish. There is also the risk of contaminating the working surface where washed fish may eventually end up being repositioned.

Anyway, any views or comments welcome.

FWIW.

I would check this site out on how to fillet fish

http://www.filleting-fish.com/

The man is a master at it.

Cheers,
Trev

I always start at the pectoral fin then the back, but either way the work surface is covered in s*** after a few fish are filleted, just rinse them it'll be fine.