Choosing Fish
Choosing fresh fish is important to avoid poisoning. For it is better to go to specialized stores, where there is a constant flow of customers and products do not lie around for a long time. When choosing rely on the following rules:
The eyes of the fish should not be cloudy or sunken.
Pinkish gills should not depart from the carcass.
Look at the color of the carcass to make sure it is natural without unnecessary blotches.
Feel the carcass - meat should be firm with firm scales and no pressure marks.
The smell is not musty or chemical.
Important
It is better to choose the whole fish, as it is easier to hide spoilage of a carcass without a head than with one.
Preparatory Stage
After you have chosen the fish and brought it home, the preparation stage follows:
To prevent the smell of fish from being absorbed, stretch food film on a cutting board, and put waterproof gloves on your hands. If there are no gloves, you can use table salt - rub your hands with it. But this method is suitable if there are no micro-traumas and cuts.
The fish should be well washed in cold water, cut off the fins and the head.
Clean the carcass from the viscera: cut the abdomen lengthwise with a knife, without piercing the gallbladder. Remove viscera, gills, tail if necessary. Rinse in cold water.
Tip
Use half a lemon or a 1:1 solution of 9% vinegar and water to remove fish odor from your hands. Wipe your hands and rinse with water.
How to clean the scales easily and quickly, consider the following.
Methods of cleaning
Let's talk about cleaning fish both with and without a knife.
The most famous is to clean it with a knife from the tail to the head. But this method usually flies scales in all directions and can get into other dishes.
There are more original options:
Scaling with boiling water
With this method, the scales will be easy to separate from the meat, even with your hands. It is important not to overdo it and do it quickly, otherwise the fish will simply boil. The option is more suitable for small scaled species.
Cleaning in water
Convenient because the scales fall directly into the water and do not fly around the kitchen. Clean the fish and carefully drain the water into the sink, and throw the rest in the garbage can separately so as not to clog the drain.
Cleaning along with the skin
When the fish has coarse scales, you can easily clean it with the skin. You need a sharp knife: cut the carcass near the tail or head between the scales and pull so that the skin comes off in one piece. Afterwards, rinse with cold water.
In a bag.
A bag will protect you and the kitchen from fish scraps. Put the carcass in the bag and clean it with a knife so that all the scales remain in it. The main thing is to keep the bag intact.
Fish knife.
There are several types of such knives: with and without a container, in the form of a comb with holes and serrated sharpening, even an electric version of the fish knife. Each type has its own advantages, but the result is the same - a carcass without scales.
Cleaning with a grater
Many people do not know why the grater has a side with small holes and teeth outward. To easily get rid of scales, the grater should be used from the tail to the head. The scales stay on the grater, so this method is considered the cleanest.
Salt cleaning
Salt does an excellent job of removing scales: rub coarse salt on the fish, soak it for about a day and rinse with cold water.
Using a canning jar.
This method is good for outdoor recreation when you do not have a knife handy and for removing large scales. With the edge of the can gently peel the carcass and rinse with water.
Cleaning with a spoon
The fish should first be scalded with boiling water for no longer than two seconds, cooled in ice water, and peel the scales with the outside of a spoon.
With a drill
The original, but not the easiest way to clean from fishermen. The drill can remove particularly tough scales. To do this, you need to fix the fish securely on a board, you can even nail the head. Put a metal brush on the drill and at slow speed start cleaning from the tail. Although the method is fast, but you still have to clean the kitchen.
Under a high pressure of water.
This requires a portable washer that can create enough water pressure to remove scales quickly and easily.
We've looked at different ways to remove scales from fish. We suggest taking one fish recipe for consideration: cook perch with mushrooms and onions in a pan. You will get a very healthy and delicious dinner.
What can you do?
Choose your favorite fish according to the rules in the store, peel from scales in any convenient way and prepare a dish according to a new recipe. Now you know how to spend a fish day properly.
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