How to fillet Gurnard

Gurnard is a beautiful looking fish sometimes referred to as angelfish. It remains very much underrated, making it good value. With this quick and easy to follow video guide you too can prepare a delicious fillet or two in no time under the guidance of our expert mongers!

Fishmonger Matt's top tips for filleting fish:

  1. Make sure you're working on a clean, dry and secure chopping board as well as placing a damp cloth underneath to prevent the board from moving.

  2. Use a sharp knife with flex in the blade approx 6 inches long.

  3. ALWAYS cut away from yourself, keep the sharp pointy thing away from your body!

  4. Maintain clean and confident strokes with the blade, the more cutting you do, the poorer the fillet.

  5. Put adequate pressure on the blade by maintaining a consistent downward pressure to maximise yield against bone, be cautious not to apply too much, however!

  6. If you're a complete novice, firstly welcome! Secondly, practice filleting on cheaper fish such as mackerel to avoid disappointing cuts on expensive fish.

  7. If in doubt, leave it to the professionals and order superb fillets of the freshest fish in Cornwall. We don't mind if you take the credit!

Get Fresh & Delicious Gurnard here

Fish For Thought Recommends:

As this is quite a bony fish we recommend you let us do the hard work and scale, fillet and pin it. The fillets work well pan-fried to crisp up the skin. Chef Adam has some great recipes which can be found here:

The best Gurnard Recipes

Is Gurnard healthy for me?

Of course! Gurnard is an excellent source of Omega 3 containing similar amounts to bass!

Is Gurnard sustainable?

It most definitely is, and you can read about it here:

Is Gurnard Sustainable?