Introduction to sushi making: How to cut nigiri and sashimi (chapter 2)

So what happens if you buy a huge salmon as such?

Due to high demand of requests from friends who wants to know how to do this, I will use pictures to illustrate how I slice my salmon into sashimi and nigiri.

As you can see, I have given instructions to my fishmonger to take the skin off for me. This was because I was in a rush for time. Normally I take the salmon skin off myself for hygiene purposes.

First of all, orientate yourself with the salmon. You can see that there is a line in the middle of the salmon. If following the above picture, on the right is the thicker part of the salmon so this is used for sashimi, the left is wider and thinner so this part is used for nigiri. 

Divide the salmon in the middle.

when I say middle, can you see the line in the middle of the fish? The line has to be towards the nigiri (the thinner side) side as shown below.

Slice the part with the line off as shown in the pictures. This is because that part is quite ‘fibrous’. But it won’t be wasted, save it for making rolls.

There you go! the whole strip where the line was is completely sliced off now!

Flip the nigiri part over and trim off all the salmon fats…

After trimming all the fats, slice off the side to make it look neater. You can save the trimmings for the rolls so don’t throw them away.

Now we can start slicing. The most important thing about slicing is make sure the blade of ur knife is at 90 degrees to the salmon lines. This is how you get lines on the nigiri pieces which makes it look pretty. Can you see from the above picture how that is done. (I am regretting not photoshopping the photos and putting in arrows to illustrate better)

Angle your knife at 45 degrees.

Slice in one direction and one motion preferably from the end to the tip of the knife. Not in a sawing motion!

There you have sliced off the firs nigiri piece.

Repeat the steps to slice the rest…

There you have got all ur nigiri pieces lined up.

Now for the sashimi! Turn the other part of the fish around and start trimming the fats.

Turn the sashimi part back again to its original position after trimming the fats and start slicing as above. Approximately 1cm thick? Again, slice in one motion starting from the end of the knife to the tip of the knife. No sawing motion or you going to destroy the fish!

I supposed a video of me doing this would help. But hope the pictures useful! Speaks a thousand words~

Now you have loads of sashimi to eat to your heart’s content!!!