Cutting fish

Usually we are dealing with two types of fish: raw (sometimes still alive) and frozen. If you have to deal with live fish, you will first have to pin it. To do this, take a small sharp knife and make the end of the knife a deep incision on the throat, between the head fins, and then let the blood drain.

Cutting fish that has been frozen should only be done after defrosting. It is best to let the fish thaw naturally. If there is no time to wait, then you need to put the fishin water - but only in cold, hot water the fish will become tasteless and flabby. Defrost the fish, rinse it with clean water, after which you can begin to cut it.

Cutting fish begins with scaling. Usually scales are cleaned with a knife or a special grater. If you are dealing with fish of the percids family (perch, ruff, pikeperch), you will need to firstcut out the sharp dorsal fin, and then clean the scales. To remove the fin, make shallow incisions on both sides with a sharp knife along the entire length of the fin. After that, take the fin with a towel and pull it away from the tail in the head.

After cleaning the scales, the cutting of the fish continues evisceration (removal of fish entrails). First you need to make a long bellylongitudinal incision from the head to the caudal fin. After this, you need to carefully remove the liver and gall bladder. It is very important not to crush the bubble: if the bile gets into the fish - it will be bitter. If you still hurt the gallbladder, you need to rub the fish with salt or just cut out the parts that bile into it.

After this, you need take out the remaining insides and gills. Cut along the film coveringspine, and rinse the fish thoroughly in cold water. Water needs to be changed several times. If you can not wash the blood from the vertebral bone, you need to clean it with a knife.

Gutting fish, it needs chunk starting with the head. This is done as follows. First you need to cut the top half of the fish carcass to the spine, then lightly cut it (for this you need a sharp knife) and cut the bottom of the fish carcass as usual.

If you are large fish weighing more than one and a half kilogramsfirst, you must carefully divide it into twoparts with a sharp knife. It is necessary to put the fish on its side and cut the meat from the head to the tail along the spine with one layer. But the meat needs to be cut not completely, but only to the ribs. You will receive the fillet, which you will need to separate from the bones. Then, each half of the fish should be cut across into pieces. In part of the pieces there will be bone, in part - no.

If you are going to cook stuffed fishor any other dish from whole fish, it is not necessary to cut it into two parts. If you are going to make fish fillets with sauce or fish cutlets, then do not forget remove meat from the ribs.

If you are going to make a fish roll, fish cutlets or another chopped dish from fish, then the cutting of fish will be done differently. You need gutted fish without scaling, and then, still without touching scales, cut the fillets. After this, the scales are removed from the finished fillet along with the skin (like a glove).

These are only general tips on how to cut fish. Cutting fish of different species can have its own characteristics, about which we will tell you in our next article.