How to clean pike for cutlets. How to clean a pike: step by step instructions How to cook a pike without peeling the scales

Fish is a food product rich in vitamins, often used in the diet menu. There is a variety of types, and even more methods of preparation. Many fans prefer pike, whose meat is rich in protein and has excellent taste. Regular eating increases human immunity, the body becomes resistant to various infections, pike meat contains antiseptic substances.

Preparation

To make the dish quick and easy to prepare, it is important to properly prepare the pike. The processing is as follows.

  • Get rid of the smell of mud.
  • Remove bones.

Butchering a carcass is a dirty occupation and few housewives do it willingly. But the desire to get a tasty and healthy dish will make you sacrifice a manicure. Knowing how to properly cut it, everything will end quickly. We will need:

  • Handy knife.
  • Cutting board.
  • Running water.
  • Paper towels.
  • bowl or other suitable container.

Classic cutting of fresh pike

How to get rid of mucus

To get rid of mucus, the pike must be washed under the tap, then lowered into a container of water and left there for 30 minutes. After that, rinse again and proceed to cutting.

How to properly remove scales

Pour boiling water over the fish and the scale will be removed more easily. It is best to use a knife with a thick blade for cleaning. It is necessary to move against the growth of scales.

How to gut

With the help of a thin sharp knife, an incision is made in the abdomen, the insides are removed. The tail and all fins are cut off using scissors. The finished carcass is washed under running cold water. Next, cooking from pike. If these are fish cakes, then fillets are separated. Fried or baked fish requires prior deboning.

Milling

At 1 cm from the gills, an incision is made deep into the ridge without cutting it. An incision is also made along the back. Using a knife, starting from the head, carefully cut the fillet on one side. Then turn the carcass over and do the same manipulation on the other side. From the inside, remove the film and remove the ribs.

Video tips

Features of cutting frozen pike

To easily deal with frozen pike, you must have a sharp knife, cutting board and tongs. The step-by-step cleaning step looks like this.

Ingredients

Servings: 4

  • pike 1 PC

per serving

Calories: 82 kcal

Proteins: 18.4 g

Fats: 0.8 g

Carbohydrates: 0 g

15 minutes. Video recipe Print

    Rinse the pike in running water.

    Trim all fins and tail.

    Make a shallow incision around the entire head.

    Make an incision along the entire abdomen and back.

    Use tongs to grasp the edge of the skin from the side of the head and gently pull it off.

    Then cut off the head.

    The fish is cut into pieces, 5 cm in size - it is easier to separate the fillet from the ridge and small bones.

Preparation for cooking

The basis of preparation is the correct cutting, cleaning of bones, scales, skins. Pike is prepared in various ways, which we will consider below.

frying

To fry a pike, you need to cut the carcass into pieces about 5 cm in size. In a separate plate, mix flour and salt and pepper, in another - break a couple of eggs. You can lightly salt them. Heat up a frying pan with a little oil. Each piece:

  1. Roll on all sides in flour.
  2. Dip completely in the egg mixture.
  3. Send to the pan and fry on both sides until golden brown.


To cook pike fish soup, you need to throw potatoes, a whole onion and salt to taste into boiling water. When it is ready, it is the turn of fish and cereals (you can use rice, barley, millet). At the end, you can add bay leaf, fresh dill.

fish cakes

Grind the pike fillet, add the egg, spices, onion, a couple of tbsp. spoons of flour, mix. The dough should turn out like pancakes. Fry in a small amount of oil.

baking

One of the cooking options is baking in the oven. Cooking time about 30 minutes. You can use foil if you like. The fish will turn out juicy, tasty and healthy.

Ingredients:

  • Pike - 1 carcass.
  • Hard cheese - 100 gr.
  • Spices to taste, salt.
  • Mayonnaise or vegetable oil.
  • Fresh tomato - 1-2 pieces (depending on size).

How to cook:

  1. Cut the prepared carcass into 3 cm pieces. Put in a bowl.
  2. Pour salt, spices, oil (or mayonnaise) and mix. Leave for 30 minutes, let marinate.
  3. Put the finished pieces on a baking sheet or foil.
  4. Place a circle of tomato on top of each piece, brush lightly with mayonnaise and sprinkle with grated cheese.
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Pike is one of the most delicious freshwater fish, rich in useful trace elements and saturated fatty acids. Many goodies are prepared from it, which practically no one can refuse, and each housewife has her own special recipes. However, the preliminary cutting of fish does not cause much enthusiasm for many, since this is a troublesome business and requires patience. You need to know how to clean a pike correctly, how to gut and butcher it.

Pike cleaning consists of 5 main stages:

  1. Fish preparation;
  2. Scale removal;
  3. Cutting out the gills and removing the head;
  4. gutting;
  5. Flushing.

And in each of these stages there are subtleties that are better to follow.

  • Before butchering a pike, it should be thoroughly washed from river mucus under running water;
  • Next, you should clean the scales. And so that the scales do not scatter, it is better to hold the fish at an angle and put polyethylene or newspaper under the board;
  • Then the anal, dorsal and caudal fins are cut off from the fish. The knife should be held against the scales. At the same time, they move against the scales, and hold the fin;
  • Next, you need to gut the fish. To do this, you need to pierce the skin near the head and draw a knife to the very tail. The knife is not stuck too deep, so as not to pierce the gallbladder.

The entrails are pulled out of the pike, the film that is along the ridge is removed, as well as the blood mass that is under this film. You can gut a pike with or without a head. The cartilage that is between the abdomen and the head of the fish must be cut. It is necessary to thoroughly wash the fish several times, especially in the belly area, in order to completely wash out all the mucus, the remnants of the entrails.

Cut off tail and head

Now you need to remove the skin from the fish. The pike has a dense elastic skin, it will be removed easily. Next, cut the fish along the ridge into two halves. So get two strips of fillet with small bones in the upper part. The knife should be directed at an acute angle and cut off the part with the bones. If the bones remain on the pulp, then the largest of them should be removed immediately, and the small ones will then be crushed and become invisible. The second strip of the resulting fillet should be turned upside down and cut off.

After washing, the pike is cut into pieces or only the fillet is cut, if it is necessary for the preparation of any dish. That's all, the fish is cleaned, now you can read recipes and start cooking delicious dishes.

How to quickly clean a pike?

There are other faster recipes and ways to butcher a pike. It does not need to be gutted and the skin removed. You just need to clean it and immediately start cutting along the ridge. When the first strip of the fillet is cut off, not only the backbone will remain on the other, but also all the insides, they will need to be separated from the pulp. All fillets should be carefully separated, starting from the tail. Experienced anglers are advised to use tongs or tweezers. It is necessary to hook them on the edge of the skin and pull it off.

If you have to butcher a frozen hard pike, it is better to gut the fish first, remove the skin from it and cut it into pieces. Only after that, a ridge should be cut out of each piece, leaving the fillet.

Nuances when cleaning scales

Cleaning a pike from scales is also not an easy task. The scales of this fish are quite hard and small. However, it is necessary to do this, because many recipes for pike dishes involve taking fillet or minced meat. You need to follow certain rules.

You will need a very sharp knife and water. To begin with, the pike is washed from mucus and debris. Scales should be scraped off, moving from tail to head. Thus, the pike should be cleaned on both sides.

Scales should be removed in one of two ways. Either just peel it off, or remove it along with the skin. It is necessary to remove it either with a special knife for cleaning fish, or with a chef's, but very sharp knife.

To facilitate cleaning of the scales, before starting, the fish should either be doused with boiling water, or slightly frozen.

To remove the scales along with the skin, you need to make incisions around the head and pull off the skin like a stocking. Do not rush into this matter, as the skin will tear, so it will be more difficult to remove.

You can make an incision along the ridge, then the skin can be torn off on each side separately.

Also, before cleaning the scales, the gills should be removed. If the skin is removed entirely, then the gills can be left, since the carcass with them is much more elastic.

Before you start cooking pike dishes and look for recipes, you need to familiarize yourself with the rules for processing this toothy beauty.

A few important rules

  • It is best to clean freshly caught fish. If it lies down for several hours in the refrigerator, then it will become much more difficult to clean;
  • The fish should be placed with the head to the left, and the tail, respectively, to the right;
  • The knife should move only strictly along the spine, cutting off the lower part;
  • Since the tips of the ribs of the pike are rather soft, you can cut two-thirds of their length and cut, deflecting the knife towards the peritoneum of the fish.

The danger in a pike is its sharp teeth, which can be seriously injured. You can wear yellow rubber household gloves, and cotton over them. So the risk of injury will decrease, and the fish will not slip out of your hands.

To cut the pike for further preparation of dishes from it, it is worth working hard. There are recipes for how to do this quickly, and by following certain rules that experienced anglers and housewives offer, you can simplify this process and make it faster.

Pike, along with carp, is a freshwater fish. It is valued for its incredibly tasty meat. Some people refuse to cook it due to lack of skinning skills and do not know how to butcher a pike. It is especially important not to damage the entire roast carcass. There are affordable and easy ways to cut freshwater fish that do not require much time and effort.

Cleaning and cutting pike carcasses

The pike has rather dense and hard scales, which can be quite difficult to clean in the usual way. In order not to damage the fish, it is important to know how to skin a pike. To remove the scales from the fish, you will need a sharp knife and a place for cutting, which can be used as a deep washing sink.

After removing the scales, wash the fish and dry it with paper towels. After that, you can start removing the insides. At the beginning of this procedure, an incision is made starting from the bones behind the gills on the left side of the head to the spine. The incision should be made carefully so as not to damage the gallbladder. After that, an incision is made in a horizontal direction at the anus and the intestines are removed.

Only then can the head be completely removed, especially carefully cutting it off near the gallbladder. The head is separated from the body along with the intestines. The carcass is cut along the belly, the films are removed and washed. In this state, it is ready for cutting into fillets.

The method of cutting the carcass into fillets

A special sharp knife will help to beautifully cut the carcass into fillets. It is applied to the ridge of the fish and carried along horizontally. The same action is carried out on the other side of the carcass. Divide the carcass into two halves. Backbone with leftover meat is usually used to make broth.

From the fillet parts, it remains only to remove the skin. How to remove the skin from a pike in this case, inexperienced fishing enthusiasts often do not know.

This can be done with the same knife. It is pressed very tightly against the skin and carried along the sirloin. There may be some meat left on the skin, which is quite natural.

Removing skin from fish stocking

There are several ways to remove the skin from a pike. You can find a lot of advice on this, including how to skin a pike with a stocking. For many, this method is the easiest and most convenient. This process is carried out in several stages:

In some cases, you have to butcher the fish right after catching it in nature. In this case, you can clean it in a similar way, and bake it entirely on a fire. To do this, the carcass is coated with clay and laid on coals.

Pike dishes

Fish dishes often become a decoration of the festive table. You can cook many delicious and original dishes from pike. One of these recipes is stuffed pike.

The recipe for its preparation is quite simple and you can take the most affordable products: fish (2 pieces), onions (1 piece), carrots (1 piece), white bread, chicken egg (1 piece), spices to taste. The dish is prepared in several stages:

Bake the fish in a preheated oven at 180 degrees, about 40-50 minutes. To prevent the dish from falling apart before serving, it is necessary to leave the fish on a baking sheet so that it cools naturally.

Cutlets made from the meat of this fish can be no less tasty. They are incredibly tender and delicious. For cooking, available products are taken: pike fillet (500 grams), lard (100 grams), white bread (2-3 slices), milk (100 grams), onion (1 head), egg (1 piece).

Breadcrumbs are necessary for deboning cutlets before frying. Spices are added to minced meat according to taste and desire. Sunflower oil is needed for frying. Preparation takes place in several stages:

Ready cutlets are laid out on a preheated pan. Fry them for a few minutes until golden brown. For better steaming of cutlets, you can cover the pan with a lid for a few minutes.

Compared to other inhabitants of water bodies, pike is one of the most delicious freshwater fish. To decorate the festive table, you can cook a wide variety of pike dishes.

Attention, only TODAY!

It is unlikely that anyone will refuse to feast on a pike fish soup or a piece of fried fish, but not everyone knows how to properly clean a pike, and this significantly hinders its preparation. But it is not difficult to overcome this difficulty. Use the recommendations below and cook pike without difficulty.

A bit of theory

  1. To begin with, thoroughly wash the fish under running water, regardless of whether it is bought or freshly caught. The main task is to clean it of debris and mucus;
  2. Grab a fish cutting board or put it in the sink to start scaling. To do this, the head should be on your left, and the tail, respectively, on the right. Using a special sharp knife, begin to gradually remove the scales in the direction from the tail, while holding the head firmly. Make sure that the blade of the knife rests on the fish at an angle - this will help the scales not to fly apart. When one side is cleared, you should proceed to the second;
  3. The next step is to remove the dorsal fin, tail and ventral fins. To do this correctly, you need to hold the fin with the fingers of your left hand and holding the knife in your right, carefully cut them off in the direction against the growth of the scales;
  4. Next comes the ripping of the belly. It is necessary to stick the knife shallowly near the head and move down to the end. Remember that with a deep penetration of the knife, the probability of piercing the gallbladder is very high, and the spilled bile will give the fish bitterness;
  5. Carefully remove the innards and the white film that is located along the fish ridge. This is necessary in order to remove the blood that is near it;
  6. Now cut off the head and rinse the fish thoroughly under running water. If desired, remove the bones from the pike.

To clean the pike qualitatively and quickly you need:

  • Use only well-sharpened knives, both for removing fins and for removing scales;
  • Immediately start cleaning the fish after buying or fishing, because after a few hours it will be much more difficult to clean the pike;
  • If, after washing, the fish still smells like a river, then sprinkle it with lemon juice.

Try these tips next time and see if you can actually clean a pike quickly without a lot of effort. Who knows, maybe after that this particular fish will become your favorite!

How to properly and quickly clean a pike? Step-by-step instruction
How to properly and quickly clean a pike? Step-by-step instructions It is unlikely that anyone will refuse to enjoy a pike ear or a piece of fried fish, but not everyone knows how to properly clean a pike, but this

Source: izbavsa.ru

How to clean a pike

First, rinse the fish under cold running water and dry with paper towels. After that, the prepared pike is placed on a board (best of all, when the board is glass or ceramic, because a wooden board absorbs strongly the smells of fish and it will be very problematic to eliminate them). With the help of a sharp knife or an additional device designed for cleaning from scales, holding the fish by the tail, make translational movements and thus clean it from scales. Then, in order to properly clean the pike, you need to perform the following actions:

Either with certain kitchen scissors or some other large scissors, the fins are removed. It is necessary to remove both the lateral and caudal fins, and not leaving the fin in place, which is located on the spine of the fish.

After lifting the gill cover, you need to remove the pike gills located under it. This process takes place using a small but sharp knife. The gills are removed by detaching them from their attachment near the bone. To completely remove the gills, cut the cartilage located between the belly and the fish head. Warning the housewives, you need to focus on the extremely sharp teeth of the pike, which in case of careless work on extracting the gills can cut your fingers.

In order to reliably deal with the question of how to clean a pike, you need to learn how to remove the insides without steaming the whole belly of the fish. To perform the extraction of the insides of a pike, it is necessary to cut off the head of the fish from the body in the lower part, using a fork and a spoon, remove all the insides outward. After that, you can remove the skin from the fish and divide it into fillet parts.

You can also clean the pike with a “stocking”. This is the name of the method, the description of which is given below.

With a sharp knife, make an incision near the head, without damaging the bone of the spine and without touching the insides!

As a result of how the incision will be made, break the vertebrae connecting the head of the pike.

Pull carefully, in which case all the insides will come out after the head, gently rinse the pike from the inside.

Similarly, remove the remaining fins (holes after the fins should be covered with a thread before stuffing). Thoroughly beat the pike carcass with a spatula or the side base of a knife (this is done in order to better separate the skin).

With the help of a knife, we begin to remove the skin. We pry off the incised skin with our fingers, then remove it completely. Going to the tail, cut the spine without harming the skin. Now the stocking of the skin has been removed from the pike. Remove the fillet from the backbone. Remove the gills from the pike head. Rinse carefully. The pike is ready for stuffing.

How to clean a pike
We catch pike - a site about catching pike. Techniques, methods, subtleties of pike fishing. Secrets and advice from experts. Everything for successful fishing. Equipment for pike fishing.

Source: lovim-shuku.ru

Learning to clean a pike correctly

Every lover of fish dishes will want to pamper themselves, relatives or guests with stuffed pike, fragrant fish soup or a piece of fried fish. But despite the excellent taste, affordability and place of honor on the menu, few people know how to clean pike, which greatly complicates the process of its preparation. In fact, it is not difficult to acquire such a useful skill. To do this, it is worth showing a little patience and using the effective tips below to successfully cook any dish from a river predator and remember forever how to clean a pike correctly.

Pike is unique in that its meat contains almost no fat (maximum 2%) and is rich in protein. Fish contains antiseptic substances, so it is useful to eat its fillets regularly. But the raw predator has 2 drawbacks: a lot of bones, as well as a vile smell of mud. Such unpleasant features make the delicacy ingredient not a very popular element of home cooking. However, these disadvantages can be turned into advantages, allowing you to prepare an exquisite holiday meal.

How to butcher a pike: preparatory processes

How to remove scales from a pike

To clean the carcass from scales, a scraper, a fork or a pointed knife is mainly used.

If you find caviar inside the fish, then take it out and in no case throw it away with the giblets, because. she is a delicacy. In the process of ripping the pike, hold the knife slightly at an angle so that the film on the roe is not broken.

After the product has been scaled and the insides have been selected, it must be thoroughly washed, moisture removed by blotting with a paper towel, and cutting can begin. By the way, the board should also be washed, removing mucus and scale residues, and then wiped dry.

How to remove the bones in a pike and separate the fillet

In fact, it is not difficult to separate the fillet from the bones, even taking into account the strong bony nature of the river predator. The main condition is the presence of a tool with a thin sharp blade.

Fillet cutting

It is worth noting that it is almost impossible to remove all the small bones in a pike, therefore, even in elite restaurants, small bones can come across in dishes prepared by professionals in tunics. But still this does not mean that they should not be removed at all. So, cutting the fish fillet is as follows:

Now you know how to clean a pike at home, quickly and professionally, separating the loin from the backbone. This will allow you to cook delicious dishes from lean meat of a predator as often as possible. And perhaps over time you will learn to surprise guests with more and more author's culinary masterpieces from delicious pike.

Learning to clean a pike correctly
Many people know about the excellent taste of pike, but not everyone knows how to clean a pike. If you do everything right, then it will not take you much time.

Source: lovlyavsem.ru

How to clean and cut a pike at home

Without a doubt, pike is the fish that every fisherman dreams of catching, and then cooking some kind of culinary masterpiece from it. No wonder it is quite popular with both anglers and lovers of fish dishes. Pike meat has an excellent taste, but at the same time it is low in calories and contains a small amount of fat, and therefore is considered a dietary product. A huge variety of dishes can be prepared from pike, however, before that, it should be properly cleaned and cut.

What is a pike

The body of these fish resembles a torpedo, it is elongated and compressed on the sides. The color of pike varies, depending on the habitat and the surrounding flora: it is gray with shades of brown, yellow or green, covered with olive spots that create transverse stripes on the sides. Unpaired fins are colored brown with dark or yellowish-gray inclusions, paired fins are orange. The scales of fish are thin and small. The head of the individuals is large, the mouth is slightly flattened and very elongated. The lower part of the jaw is connected to the base of the skull and protrudes slightly forward, the upper part - beyond the front edges of the orbits. Pike teeth are numerous and very strong. The gills are not connected to each other and to the intergill space. This allows the pike to swallow quite large prey.
The maximum length of individuals reaches one and a half meters, and weight - 35 kilograms. However, in average catches, these are fish no more than a meter long and weighing about 12 kilograms.

Can be quite large

The spawning period for pike begins in early spring, in the coastal zone at a depth of about 20 centimeters, immediately after the ice melts. At this time, the water in the reservoir reaches a temperature of a maximum of six degrees with a plus sign. The development of the offspring occurs quite quickly, already two weeks after the end of spawning, larvae appear.

Gastronomic virtues

The meat of these fish is considered dietary, due to the content of a small amount of calories - only 84 per hundred grams. In addition, it is a natural source of vitamins, antioxidants, phosphorus, iodine, potassium, fluorine, zinc and calcium.

The abundance of proteins contained in fish meat makes the product easier to digest than the proteins that make up animal meat, and therefore, this product is very useful for people suffering from digestive problems.

In addition, pike helps to strengthen the immune system and reduce the risk of developing heart arrhythmia.

Pike is fried, boiled, baked, stuffed and salted.

In order for the fish to retain its smell and taste, it should be cooked immediately after the catch, without freezing.

Nutritional features of pike meat

Due to the bony and toughness of pike meat, it is considered third-rate. However, from it you can cook truly culinary masterpieces.

The ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in the part of pike suitable for human consumption is 97%, 3% and 0%, respectively.

Fish fillet can be safely included in the daily menu of overweight people and not worry about the figure, thanks to its low calorie content.

The benefits of pike meat for humans

  1. Rapid breakdown of proteins and fats in the body.
  2. Improving the condition of the heart, blood vessels, skin.
  3. No stress on the digestive tract.
  4. Increasing the overall immunity of the body, as well as its resistance to colds and infections.
  5. Normalization of blood sugar levels.
  6. Reducing the risk of developing diabetes.
  7. Improving the functioning of the thyroid gland.
  8. Prevention of arrhythmias.
  9. Restoration of the nervous system of the body.

Despite the fact that pike meat is considered hypoallergenic and does not pose a danger to the human body, before buying this fish, you need to take an interest in the ecology of the reservoir in which it was caught. Do not forget that the fish itself tends to accumulate harmful toxic compounds that pose a danger to human health. Therefore, if a pike is caught in a polluted reservoir, eating it can cause an allergic reaction, general intoxication, intestinal infections or indigestion. All this can be accompanied by such unpleasant symptoms as:

  • cramping pain in the abdomen;
  • temperature increase;
  • general weakness;
  • chills or fever;
  • a sharp drop in pressure and so on.

In addition, the use of pike is contraindicated for people with individual intolerance or allergies. Despite the fact that pike is a dietary product, it should not be abused, and in order to avoid gaining extra pounds, it is better to eat fish in small quantities and cook it for a couple.

How to clean and cut fish: instructions with step by step photos

Untreated pike has two drawbacks that can be easily eliminated: a large number of bones and an unpleasant smell of sea mud. However, with the right approach, these shortcomings can be overcome in no time!

Preparation for work

Take a sharp knife and plenty of water

Before you start cooking pike, you need to properly equip the workplace and prepare all the necessary tools. This will take a little time, however, it will help protect the kitchen from scales, and yourself from unnecessary cleaning. Given that fish scales are quite dense and can scatter throughout the room during cleaning, it is necessary to protect the surface near the cutting board from unwanted contamination by covering them with cling film. In a basin or sink (as it is convenient for anyone), draw cold clean water. Prepare a cutting board, large and preferably not wooden, but glass or plastic (wood absorbs the smell of fish very strongly). A towel should be placed under the board, otherwise, during cleaning, it will slide on the table, thereby complicating the process.

When working with a whole fish, in no case should you grab it with your fingers stuck in the open mouth. There are several rows of small sharp teeth that can injure your hands even through thick gloves.

Very sharp teeth

Next, you need to prepare a sharp knife with a wide large blade, which will be convenient to cut the pike. In addition, a smaller knife will also come in handy. It will be convenient for them to remove the scales. If possible, it is better to use not a knife for cleaning pike from scales, but a special device, which is a grater with a container. In addition, during the cleaning process, it is convenient to use coarse salt, which is used to treat the tail of a thoroughly washed fish to remove residual mucus. This trick allows you to firmly fix the fish in your hands, making it less slippery.

Many housewives find it inconvenient to use gloves while cleaning fish. However, they greatly simplify this procedure and, in addition, minimize the risk of injury to the hands from sharp teeth or bones. In addition, gloves will help prevent the fishy smell from being absorbed into the skin, and therefore, you will not have to wash your hands in lemon juice again.

Basic steps in pike cleaning

Before you cook anything from pike, it must be cleaned. This process is not easy and takes place in several steps.

Initial processing

First of all, it is necessary to thoroughly wash the fish, removing the remaining debris and unpleasant natural mucus that completely covers the fish. To get rid of the smell of the swamp, the fish is washed in cold water, with the addition of a large amount of salt. If the aroma of mud is very strong, you should place it in a strong saline solution for 30 minutes, and then rinse with cold running water.

Another way to demucus and lighten a pike is to smear it with a mixture of ash and salt, in a 1:1 ratio. Wait ten minutes and then rinse. There will be no trace of unsightly mucus on the fish.

There is another way that will help facilitate the process of cleaning pike from scales - moisten the fish with vinegar. It is enough to rub them on the fish and let it soak in.

Cleaning fish from scales.

After all the necessary manipulations for the initial processing of fish, you can begin to clean it.

This is the most difficult thing in working with pike. It is necessary to decompose the fish so that the head is on the left and the tail is on the right. Further, with the help of a very sharp fillet knife or a special device, slowly scrape off small scales from head to tail, periodically washing it off with cold water. Movements during cleaning should be prying, smooth and confident, and the knife should be held at a slight angle.

It is necessary to clean against scales

You can also remove the scales from the pike with a grater.

It is better to clean the fish in a wide bowl with water or a sink, then the scales will not scatter around, dirtying everything in the kitchen. Also, to protect the kitchen from contamination with scales, the use of an ordinary plastic bag, inside which cleaning will be carried out, will help.

You can greatly facilitate the removal of dense and small scales from the fish by steaming it a little, placing it in boiling water for half a minute.

If you hold the fish with your fingers dipped in coarse salt, it will not slip out of your hands.

Fish scales, although unsuitable for human consumption, contain many rare and useful substances for humans. Therefore, if the pike is planned to be boiled, the scales can not be cleaned at all, after the end of cooking, it will go off by itself.

Cleaning fish from the insides and fins

After the fish is scaled and washed, it is necessary to cut off the back of the fin and tail. It will be easier to do this with the same sharp filet knife that removed the scales.

To remove the insides, you need to rip open the pike's belly. To do this, make a small incision near the head, and then gradually and smoothly move towards the tail to the anus. You need to cut the skin on the belly carefully, without sticking the knife deep into the body of the fish, as this can damage the gallbladder and spoil the meat.

Rip the belly, it needs to be opened and the insides taken out. The abdominal cavity of any kind of fish contains blood clots near the spine, which are under a thin transparent film. All this must also be removed. You can do this in different ways, as it suits you: scrape off with a thin knife, wipe with a brush, gauze or salt.

When taking out the insides, you need to remember about the gallbladder and take it out with extreme caution. Its rupture can spoil the fish, as the bile will give it bitterness. If this nevertheless happened, the place filled with bile must be cut out or thoroughly washed and rubbed with salt,

After performing all the manipulations described above for pre-processing the pike, you can begin to create delicious culinary dishes from it.

Cutting fish depending on the dish being prepared

Before cutting fresh fish, it is necessary to decide in advance what will be prepared from it.

When only a fillet is needed

Fillet for minced meat without bones

For example, if you decide to cook fish cakes, you only need fillet for this. It is carefully removed using a special knife from a fish that has already been peeled of scales, entrails and fins. This process is quite long, complex and not entirely clean. However, there is a cutting method that avoids unnecessary difficulties. For him, you need to take a cutting board, a fillet fork and a sharp knife.

The sequence of actions will be as follows:

  • Put the fish on the board and make an incision along the line of the front fin to the head.
  • Reach the ridge and, turning the knife, cut the carcass along the ridge to the tail. Get half a pike.
  • Do the same with the second part of the fish.
  • Carefully cut off both halves of the rib with a fillet knife, holding the fish with a fork.
  • Next, separate the skin from the resulting pieces, putting them on the board with the skin to the table and slowly cut it off with a knife. It must be remembered that the skin must be removed starting from the tail and proceed very carefully. If the skin is damaged, it will be much more difficult to remove it.
  • Remove the remaining small bones from the two resulting pieces of meat with ordinary tweezers.

It remains only to grind the fish fillet in a meat grinder. If desired, the skin can not be cut off - in minced meat it will not be noticeable at all.

When fish is needed for frying

In order to fry a pike, it should be prepared in advance. This is done in different ways depending on the recipe. For example, fillet is used for battered fish. How to get it was described above, while the scales can be removed along with the skin, which will greatly simplify the task.

If regular frying is planned, then you will need to clean the fish from scales, entrails and fins, wash it, and then divide it into portions, holding the knife at an angle of about 45 degrees, and start cooking.

When you need to decorate the table with fish

If you plan to use fish for stuffing or a beautiful decoration of the festive table, it is better to leave it whole. Pike entrails can be removed without ripping open the belly. To do this, you need to cut the edges of the gill covers to the spine, cut off the head and remove the attached entrails along with it. Next, remove the tail and fins.

Prepared fish can be cooked without cutting or divided into round pieces.

If you plan to cook a beautiful stuffed pike, after removing the insides, you will have to remove the skin. To do this, you need to slip your fingers under it and separate it from the meat, tear it off, moving towards the tail (it should look like a stocking). If meat remains on the skin, trim it. If the fins interfere, carefully cut the skin under them. After removing the skin, cut off the tail so that it remains with the skin.

Stuff the removed skin of the pike with the stuffing prepared to taste. This must be done carefully so as not to damage the shell. After that, sew the head to the skin, from which the gills were previously removed.

How to clean and butcher a frozen carcass

Cleaning and butchering frozen fish is much easier than fresh fish. Such a fish practically does not slip, as it is covered with less mucus. Minced meat from frozen fillet is also easy to make.

Cutting both frozen and fresh pike is carried out according to the same principle: you need to separate the fish fillet from the skin and bones. To do this, you will need a good sharp knife, tongs (pliers) and a cutting board.

How to clean and cut a pike at home
How to cut a pike for cooking various dishes. Differences in the processing of fresh and frozen fish. How to make fillet or minced meat.

Have you decided to cook dietary fish cakes or treat your family with a delicious fish dish with spicy sauce? Then we suggest that you pay attention to the pike predator and tell you how to clean the pike from scales and separate the fillet from the skeleton. In fact, such a skill is acquired from the very first experience, but you need to know the little secrets, which we will tell you about.

Pike is a freshwater predator, its meat is almost devoid of fat (only up to 2%), but very rich in proteins. Pike meat contains substances that are powerful antiseptics, therefore, in order to increase the body's resistance to various infections, it is recommended to eat pike meat as often as possible. To attract such a wonderful and extremely healthy product to your family's menu, you will need to know exactly how to clean a pike, and quickly and efficiently.

Untreated pike has two completely surmountable drawbacks: it has a lot of bones and it has a strong smell of mud. It is these shortcomings that make this product not the most popular among home cooks. But these are quite surmountable shortcomings - they can easily be turned into advantages!

Basic rules for cutting pike

Rule I

Be careful with the mouth of the fish! This predator has very sharp teeth and they grow in several rows deep into the mouth. You can hurt your fingers very easily!

Rule II

Before cleaning the fish from scales, it must be very thoroughly rinsed from mucus and dirt under running water. Next, blot moisture.

Rule III

Before you clean the pike, take care of the amenities. There should be enough space for cutting the fish so that you can lay it out on the board and have room to move your hands.

The cutting board should not move on the table, it should be stable on the countertop, so place paper towels lightly dampened with water under it. Or, to be safe, dampen a linen towel with water and place it under the board.

Rule IV

The knife must be very sharp, with a wide blade and a comfortable handle, otherwise it will be difficult to qualitatively separate the fillet.

To clean the carcass from scales, we use a special scraper or a wide sharp knife. We grab the tail with one hand, and with the other hand with a knife, we begin to separate the scales with frequent prying movements against the direction of its growth.

With this method, the scales will not scatter throughout the kitchen, but will remain on the knife blade. Keep in mind that the scales of the pike are small, hold the knife slightly at an angle so that the scales bounce onto its blade.

We put the fish on its back with its head towards us, fix the head on the board and hook the fins in the middle part of the abdomen with a knife and cut off in the direction of the head.

Next, with the tip of a knife, we cut open the abdomen in different directions from the middle fins, open the insides and clean them out. If the pike has caviar, then we take it out. This is a real delicacy! When ripping open the pike belly, hold the knife not parallel to the tabletop, but slightly at an angle so as not to break the film on the calf.

After cleaning the fish from the scales and separating the insides, we wash it, wipe off the moisture and proceed to cutting it. Before cutting, we also wash the board from scales and wipe moisture.

How to clean a pike and separate the fillet from the bones

In fact, it is very easy to separate the fillets, even with the excessive bonyness of this predator. The main thing is a sharp wide knife with a thin blade. Such knives are always present in the kitchen set of every housewife.

  • To securely hold the pike head, we cut the intergill bone and grab the head by the gills with the left hand. We put the fish on its left side, make a vertical incision just below the small fin under the gills.

  • Carefully cut to the ridge and end the pressure as soon as we feel a crunch. This means that we have reached the ridge and must stop, otherwise we can break it.
  • We turn the pike with its back to us and make a shallow incision along the back. You will feel freedom of movement as there is minimal back bone.
  • Next, put your left (or right, if you are left-handed) palm on the fish, lightly press it against the board and insert the knife into the cut under the gills. We set the blade of the knife parallel to the board and begin to cut the fillet, moving the knife in the direction of the tail, along the ridge.

  • Raise the blade of the knife a little, otherwise it may enter the ridge and then the fillet will be with bones. With palm pressure, we control the direction of the blade - for quality work. Having separated the fillet on one side, we do the same procedure on the other side.
  • We cut the head and ridge with a thin layer of the remaining meat into pieces and leave it for a delicious fish soup. Or we cook it immediately after cutting or freeze it in the freezer, knowing that on any day you can use the head with the ridge for fish soup without laborious preparatory work.
  • We are engaged in the fillet part. You should know that it is very difficult to completely get rid of small bones in a pike. Even in fashionable restaurants in Europe, small bones can be found in pike fillets, although the local chefs certainly know how to clean a pike, right? When eating pike dishes, care must be taken not to choke on them.
  • We put on the board one of the loin parts separated from the ridge. We cut off the fin and begin to separate the ribs. We insert the blade of the knife between the film with the ribs and the pulp on the stomach and, prying the film with the blade, separate it together with the ribs. We direct the knife blade upward, moving it from the back to the stomach. We do the same with the film of the second fillet.

  • Now we need to separate the fillet from the skin. This is a familiar procedure that we often repeat with other types of fish. With two fingers we grab half of the fish by the tail, insert the knife blade between the skin and meat and start cutting the fillet so that the knife blade is slightly directed down (at an angle to the board) - it’s easier to remove the fillet cleanly and without loss.

In order not to lose the direction of the blade, cut the meat across the grain into several pieces, but without cutting the skin. Run your finger over all the pieces that you have separated from the skin. Pry out the largest bones with culinary tweezers or small pliers. It will not take much time, and when eating a dish of predatory fish, you can not be afraid of a traumatic event for the throat.

Well! The fillet is beautifully folded on a flat plate. If it still has the smell of mud, then getting rid of it is as easy as shelling pears, simply sprinkling them with lemon or lime juice.

Now that you have seen how to clean the pike and how easy it is to separate the fillet from the ridge and skin, dishes from the dietary meat of this predator will appear more often on your menu, and over time you will become a true master of pike delicacies - you just have to say: “According to pike at my command, at my will…”

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