For those of you who fish, have husbands that fish, or live and work in an area that revolves around fishing you may have known, or read somewhere that we here in the Pacific Northwest have had a kick butt season. My husband had gone out almost every weekend salmon fishing in the Pacific Ocean since the day the season opened. This year had been pretty bountiful and if you do the math his limit is two a day, twice a week, four fish a week, for weeks and weeks (give or take), that's a lot of freakin' fish (I don't do math)! I feel a little guilty complaining about "all the amazing fresh salmon". I should remember to feel blessed that I have all this fresh fish but really, when two large salmon arrive at our house ready to be cut and vacuum sealed each day of the weekend, I get this tired feeling all over my body. We don't have a fancy fish cleaning station, and my hands will smell for hours afterwards and I even might find a scale or two located in a strange place on my body. Does anyone feel this way, or is it just me?
One night a few months ago I was eating a salmon steak Steve grilled and I found myself carefully chewing my mouthful afraid my tongue might get stabbed by a bone. I thought, why don't I just fillet the next salmon before vacuum sealing them up so cooking and eating can be a little more enjoyable? What a great idea, I'm a genius!
So, the week after my brilliant revelation Steve brings home a few salmon and sticks them in the fridge. I set aside some time to diligently fillet and vacuum seal our bounty. I sharpen the knives, set the cutting board out, got a small bag ready for bones and other scraps, turned on some good fish filleting music (Gloria Estefan) place the salmon on the sacrificing block, and then I just stood there, looking at this headless, tailless fish...................I just realized that I didn't know how to fillet a salmon. You have to understand that I'm a culinary school graduate and that very moment made me question why I'm still paying off my loan. I remember seeing a salmon being filleted but I don't think I ever did it myself being that my ghetto culinary school had 40 students to one teacher. Plus, I went into pastries and worked mainly in the bakery. After a few minutes telling my ego it was going to be okay I called Steve's mother on the phone to ask if she could help me. That woman knows how to do everything....seriously, she does.
So she arrives with her own knife and cutting board ands walks me through the steps. The whole time dismissing her own amazing capabilities. She does a great job and I give it a shot after her demonstration. I struggled a little and hacked that fillet of fish into a sad crumbly mess, it was like pouring lemon juice on a cut, "Chef Bethel didn't know how to fillet a salmon" and when she tries it looked like a blind person with one arm did it (I have nothing against blind people, FYI. Some of my best friends are blind! or amputees). I knew very well that this fillet method was not "professional" by all means but guess what, half the boats out in the ocean don't go home to gourmet kitchens. They go home to dogs running around, pushing stuff off the counter to make room, chopping and freezer bagging, and then they lay the fish to rest in a big chest freezer in the garage, am I right?
Here is my own mini picture demonstration with written directions so I will never forget. When you view this demo the directions are located below the pictures.
1. First you need to have your husband clean it, then very carefully remove all the fins.
2. Make a shallow slice with your (very sharp) knife down the back of the Salmon, following the backbones. This cut will act as a guide so you don't need to make it very deep.
3. Once the initial "guide" cut has been created go back to where you started and slice a little deeper pulling back the fish fillet as you slice away the meat from that middle bone (not sure what it is, maybe a backbone, or a spine bone thing...whatever).
4. See that round bone thing in the middle of the fish? That is what you are to follow with your knife. Just keep cutting, following the bones and pulling the fish away as you do so. 
6. Take the knife and slice under the bones you just sliced over and along with the first fillet.
7. As you slice under the bones pull up on the bone flap. Eventually the whole bone flap (technical word) will be completely removed. 
Here are the finished fillets. The directions may not be very clear or helpful but the pictures will at least give you a visual.
