Nicholas Gavin is the Culinary Creative Director of ChefSteps, where he develops recipes and is responsible for making all the food look beautiful. Nick has worked at ChefSteps for over a decade; he and ChefSteps co-founder Grant Crilly worked together at Modernist Cuisine. Nick has worked in professional kitchens both in the United States and abroad, most notably at Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Spain.

Nicholas Gavin

Start with cold fish. This is important: Get the salmon (or whatever fish you’re working with) really cold. Salmon flesh has a lot of intramuscular fat, which means it’s also quite soft. Chilled fat is firmer and easier to work with (the same principle applies when you’re cutting up bacon into lardons), making it less likely that you’ll tear up the flesh of the fish when pulling the pin bones. If you are removing pin bones from multiple fillets, work on one at a time, and keep the others in the refrigerator or on ice at your workstation.

Lay the salmon down flat, flesh-side up, on a clean work surface. (We like to set it down on a piece of parchment, too, but that’s optional.) Orient the fillet so that the head/collar side is pointing in the direction of your dominant hand; this will make it easier to pull the bones out.

Using the edge of a chef’s knife, gently brush the blade down the middle of the top loin, from head to tail; the knife should be held at a 45-degree angle. You should hear the pin bones “click” against the knife’s edge. This will encourage the pin bones to perk up from the flesh, making them easier to pull out.

Put down the knife and pick up your fish bone pliers. Starting from the collar side, grip the first protruding pin bone with the tip of the pliers and pull at a 45-degree angle, slightly toward the direction of the salmon belly. If necessary, use your thumb and forefinger to quickly and gently press down on the flesh surrounding the pin bone as you pull to remove the bone cleanly.

Submerge the plier head in a bowl of water to release the pin bone, then wipe the plier head clean using a damp towel. Repeat with remaining pin bones.

Run your fingers gently but firmly down the center of the salmon fillet to check if there are any remaining pin bones.

How to Do It

How do I know I got all the pin bones?
Count them! Depending on how the salmon was butchered and at what point the collar was removed, a side of salmon will have between 27 and 29 pin bones. You can also <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/tips-tricks-all-crab-meat-no-shells">use a black light to check your work</a>.

What if my buddy butchered the fish, and he’s terrible at it? 
Ummmm, okay? You’ll find the pin bones on a side of salmon right between the top loin and the bottom loin, starting from the collar area and going 2/3 of the way down the length of the fillet. And they’re spaced about 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch apart. If you notice you’re only pulling bones out every inch or so, it means you’re skipping bones. Stop, slow down, look closer, and you’ll probably find them just under the surface.

I have fish bone tweezers, not pliers. Will those work, too?
We find that fish bone tweezers aren’t as precise as needle nose–style fish pliers, and there’s a greater risk of mangling the fillet. The grooves in the plier head can easily grip onto a small protruding piece of bone, and the pointed head makes it so that metal barely has to touch the fish at all.

Why are you barely touching the fish in the video?
It’s not because we’re icked out! This is a beautiful fish, and the best way to keep beautiful fish beautiful is to keep it cold! Cold flesh maintains its structural integrity; fish that’s kept as cold as possible until just before cooking or eating tastes clean, fresh, and delicious. The best way to keep fish cold is to keep it refrigerated and to handle it as little as possible with your hot-blooded mammalian mitts. 

In this case, too, keeping the flesh cold makes removing the pin bones easier and helps you not mangle the salmon.

Does this work with other fish? 
Yes, although the numbers might be different: The spacing between the pin bones, the number of pin bones, and the size of the pin bones will vary. But if you stick to the principles—cold fish, minimal handling, fish bone pliers with grooved heads, and pulling at a 45-degree angle slightly toward the belly—you can easily remove pin bones from mackerel, snapper, blackfish, sea bass ... you name it.

What do I do with it now that it’s boneless?
Uhhh, what? Cook it! Or don’t! Smoke it! Eat it raw! The world is your boneless salmon—carpe diem and eat it up!

Frequently Asked Questions

Even the biggest fans of fillets o’ fish share this one, huge gripe: bones! They’re annoying! No one likes doing the whole half-spitting-on-your-fingers as you pull a small bone out of your mouth like a gross magic trick while trying to enjoy a perfectly seared salmon fillet.Of course, if you know how to remove pin bones from a fillet with confidence, you won’t ever have to peh peh peh your way through some salmon <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/easy-grilled-salmon">hot off the grill</a>. The most widely consumed fish in the country, salmon is a great fish to practice your pin bone removal skills. The pin bones are fairly easy to find once you know where to look, but even though the bones are easy to locate, removing them still requires a good amount of care and technique. Salmon is often super fatty, so it consequently has super-soft flesh that can be easily damaged if you overhandle it or mangle it with fish tweezers. Does this sound daunting to you? Fear not, we’ll show you how to do it right! All you need is a nice pair of fish bone pliers, and you’ll be well on your way to never being terrified while eating fish again!Let’s get pinning!WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
Salmon fillet(s), cold 
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Asahi-Industry-Fish-Bone-Tweezers/dp/B07B5SKB3F/?tag=chefsteps02-20">Fish bone pliers</a>
<a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/knife-gifts">Chef’s knife</a>
Damp kitchen towel
Bowl of water

Tips & Tricks: How to Remove Pin Bones From Salmon