How to Prep, Roast & Serve a Whole Daurade

“Daurade in French, Orata in Italian, swims only on the other side of the Atlantic. The closest relative we find off the coasts of the United States is porgy, but porgy lacks the meatiness of Daurade. While most of the Daurade we encounter is likely to have been farmed—farmed Daurade typically weigh about a pound—the one shown here is a magnificent wild specimen caught of the European coast a day before we photographed it.

There’s nothing difficult about preparing Daurade; it’s prepped and cooked just like any other round fish, but here we show how to filet it after it has been cooked. Americans rarely eat whole fish because they don’t know what to do with it. It has a much better flavor than fish that’s been cut up into filets or steaks.”

~ James Peterson

1. Remove the fins before roasting. Here we remove the pectoral fin. The main reason for doing this is to avoid cutting yourself.

2. Cut away the dorsal fin, working from the back toward the front of the fish.

3. Now remove the gills: cut through the cartilage where the two gills join at the base of the fish behind the head.

4. Use scissors to cut through where the gills join the fish. Tug at the gills with your fingers to remove.

5. Use the scissors to cut through the belly. Insert one blade into the anal opening and cut through the skin and tissue until you get to cartilage.

6. Use the scissors to cut through the belly. Insert one blade into the anal opening and cut through the skin and tissue until you get to cartilage.

7. The fish is roasted at 500 Degrees for about 20 minutes with the scales on. This eliminates sticking and seals all the juices within the fish.

8. Cut through the skin around the fish to make it easy to remove.

10. Use a long knife to pull away the small bones that hide along the back between the two fillets.

11. Cut along the side of the fish, following the natural line that runs the length from head to tail. Cut as deeply as you can until you run into bone.

14. Starting at the tail, left away the central backbone.

18. Finished Daurade, reconstructed to match the shape of the original fish. Serve with Rice and/or Spinach.