Fillet (cut)

Fillet of dory

A fillet (or filet) (UK /ˈfɪlɪt/, US /fᵻˈleɪ/; from the French word filet /filɛ/) is a cut or slice of boneless meat or fish.

Meat

Beef

In the case of beef, the term most often refers to beef tenderloin in the United States, especially filet mignon.

Chicken

Chicken fillets, sometimes called inner fillets, are a specific cut of meat from the chicken. There are two fillets in a chicken, and they are each a few inches long and about 1 inch or less wide. They lie under the main portion of the breast just above the ribcage around the center of the sternum. They are separated from the main breast by filament.

Chicken fillets are very popular in supermarkets in many countries. They can come attached to the main breast itself or separated from the breast in packages of generally four or more fillets.

• 
  Raw chicken fillets
• 
  Fillet of pork

Fish

In preparation for filleting, the scales on the fish should be removed. The contents of the stomach also need careful detaching from the fillet.

Fish fillets are generally obtained by slicing parallel to the spine, rather than perpendicular to the spine. Cuts of fish performed perpendicular to the spine are known as steaks or cutlets, and often include bone. The remaining bones with the attached flesh is called the "frame", and is often used to make fish stock. As opposed to whole fish or fish steaks, fillets do not contain the fish's backbone; they yield less flesh, but are easier to eat.

Special cut fillets are taken from solid large blocks; these include a "natural" cut fillet, wedge, rhombus or tail shape. Fillets may be skinless or have skin on; pinbones may or may not be removed.^[1]

A fletch is a large boneless fillet of halibut, swordfish or tuna.^[1]

There are several ways to cut a fish fillet:

• Cutlet
  • This fillet is obtained by slicing from behind the head of the fish, round the belly and tapering towards the tail. The fish is then turned and the process repeated on the other side to produce a double fillet
• Single
  • This fillet is more complex than the cutlet and produces two separate fillets, one from each side of the fish.
• "J" Cut
  • This fillet is produced in the same way as a single fillet but the pin bones are removed by cutting a "J" shape from the fillet

• 
  Filleting hake
• 
  Japanese utensils used to fillet large tuna
• 
  Two men filleting and salting fish, 1878
• 
  Automatic knives for filleting fish

See also

• Fish fillet processor

Meat
Main articles Entomophagy Fish Game Livestock Meat Poultry Seafood
Poultry and game	Alligator Chicken Crocodile Duck Goose Grouse Kangaroo Ostrich Partridge Pheasant Bat Pigeon Quail Rabbit Snake Turkey Venison
Livestock and minilivestock	Beef Bison Black soldier fly maggots Camel Cat Crickets Dog Elephant Frog Goat Grasshoppers Guinea pig Horse Lamb and mutton Llama Mealworm Mopane worm Palm grub Pork Veal Yak
Fish and seafood	Alligator Anchovy Basa Bass Carp Catfish Cod Crab Crappie Crayfish Dolphin Eel Flounder Grouper Haddock Halibut Herring Kingfish Lobster Mackerel Mahi Mahi Marlin Milkfish Orange roughy Pacific saury Perch Pike Pollock Salmon Sardine Shark Shrimp/prawn Sole Swordfish Tilapia Trout Tuna Walleye Whale
Cuts and preparation, precooked	Aged Bacon Barbecued Braised Burger Charcuterie Chop Corned Cured Cutlet Dried Dum Fillet / Supreme Fried Ham Kebab Liver Luncheon meat Marinated Meatball Meatloaf Offal Pickled Poached Roasted Salt-cured Salumi Sausage Smoked Steak Stewed Tandoor Tartare
List articles	Beef dishes Chicken dishes Countries by meat consumption Fish dishes Food and drink prohibitions Goat dishes Lamb dishes Pork dishes Sausage dishes Sausages Seafood dishes Smoked foods Steaks Veal dishes
Related subjects	Animal rights Bushmeat Butcher Cannibalism Carnism Christian vegetarianism Cultured meat Ethics of eating meat Factory farming Feed conversion ratio Meat cutter Meat paradox Meat tenderness Pescetarianism Plant-based diet Preservation Psychology of eating meat Red meat Semi-vegetarianism Slaughter Slaughterhouse Veganism Vegetarianism White meat

References