On the Path of Study: Semester 9: Seafood Mastery
From the Lexicon, Boning, Fillet & the Butchery Blades
Blades that follow anatomy. BONING (5–6", stiff or semi-flex): rides bones and seams: breaking down chickens, frenching racks, seaming out silverskin; the stiff version muscles through joints, the flexible sweeps curves. FILLET (6–9", fully flexible): the fish specialist bending along the spine, skinning in one drawn stroke. Japan's specialists: HONESUKI: the triangular poultry-boning knife whose pointed authority converts chicken breakdown from chore to craft; DEBA: the thick single-bevel cleaver-knife that heads and fillets whole fish (spine chopped by the heel, flesh drawn by the edge). Butchery blades are where sharpening pays cash: yield percentage (see the menu-economics entry) is literally a function of edge and angle: a sharp boning knife is a raise you give yourself.
Read it in the Lexicon →