To prepare fish dishes, it is important to properly cut it. The choice of cutting method depends on the purpose of the product. Sometimes the hostess needs pieces of fillet for a delicious dish, and sometimes a whole fish. Also, the cutting mainly depends on the species of fish.
Given all of the above, distinguish the following methods of cutting fish:
- Gill. Only gills are removed, sometimes also part of the insides.
- Chilled. The pectoral fins with the lower part of its abdomen and entrails were removed from the fish.
- Half gutted. An incision is made along the pectoral fins and the stomach and intestines are removed.
- Cracked with a head. It is necessary to make a cross section between the chest floats throughout the abdomen, remove all the insides, caviar and blood clots.
- Headless. With such evisceration, the head is cut off and all the insides of the fish are taken out.
- Carcass of fish. Headless fish with elongated entrails, but also with a cut tail fin.
- The fillet is half a piece of gutted fish with a head and tail cut off. Also, cutting fish on a fillet requires the removal of viscera, ridge and black film.
Butchering fish with scales (carp, catfish and pike, zander, bream, etc.) has its own characteristics. First you need to remove the dorsal fin. To do this, make small cuts with a knife on both sides of it, and pull it out with a sharp movement in the direction from the tail to the head. After removal, they begin to cleanse the fish from the scales, for which they use a knife or grater.
The next step when cutting fish with scales is its gutting: an incision is made from the head to the caudal fin along the abdomen and the liver and gall bladder are taken out. Sometimes such butchering of fish can damage the gallbladder, and if its contents get on the fish, you need to immediately rub it with salt. All remaining entrails are also removed along with the gills, and the film with which the fish is covered is carefully cut along the vertebra and removed.
After this, the fish must be thoroughly washed several times with cold running water to remove all the blood collected on it. A well-washed carcass is cut into pieces of the desired size, starting from the head. You need to cut from the back to the spine, then cut the ridge and cut the rest.
To get the fish fillet, it is necessary to cut it along the ridge and divide it into two parts, one of which will remain without a spine. On the other side, you need to carefully separate the ridge and remove all the bones. If fish meat is needed for cooking cutlets, then it should be done differently: cut gutted fish, but do not remove the scales and film. After all, the skin is removed much easier with the scales.
Recommendations for cutting certain types of fish:
- Catfish. When cutting large enough fish, it is better to remove the entire skin completely using the “stocking” method, but if it is medium-sized, you must first gut it and remove the mucus along with the skin.
- Cod. Butchering fish of this species requires the mandatory disposal of black skin, which is toxic to humans.
- Lamprey. This is a kind of fish that you do not need to cut for cooking, but it is important to remove the top film correctly: it should be rubbed abundantly with salt and washed well with water.
- Horse mackerel. Before cutting horse mackerel, it is advisable to pour boiling water over it several times, since it is covered with rather rigid scales, which are difficult to remove.
- Flounder. To remove fins, scales and a dark film, it is best to place the fish in hot water for several minutes.
- Sturgeon. Almost all representatives of this type of fish in scales contain characteristic formations - small bugs that cannot be removed together with the scales, so the fish must be placed in a container with hot water to get rid of them.
Choosing the right ways to cut fish, depending on its type, you can avoid unpleasant situations associated with various errors.