Today, many retail outlets where you can buy sea delicacies offer customers not only fresh fish, but also a cleaning service. Sellers usually do not ask for much at all - on average from 10 to 30% of the purchase price. Not wanting to stain the kitchen with scales and trying to save time, many buyers are happy to use this additional service.
But, firstly, this practice is not applied everywhere. Secondly, if you buy frozen fish, it will be simply impossible to clean it in the store. And thirdly, if the service is provided, the procedure is usually performed hastily, at home you still have to get rid of the remnants of the insides and scales, tinker with small pieces of gills, remove fins.
Therefore, everyone who plans to pamper their family with an exquisite meal should know not only the recipe for cooking, but also how to remove the gills from the fish.
Our article will tell about this.
Why do gills need to be removed?
The answer to this question is simple, but first we note that getting rid of the gills is not always necessary. If we are talking about river and lake fish, as a rule, you should protect yourself from the smell of mud. It is in the gills that there is a hotbed of unpleasant odor, which can also affect the taste of the finished dish. Therefore, when preparing perch, silver carp, pike, gills must always be removed.
Gills of sea fish can fill the dish with an unpleasant aftertaste. If you plan to bake the whole fish or put your heads in your ear, you need to get rid of the gills. They can also have all kinds of garbage: duckweed, fragments of aquatic plants and even living creatures.
Being digested, the gills give the broth a disgusting unappetizing hue and completely unnecessary smells. This is the answer to the question of why remove the gills of fish for fish soup.
Gill removal process
Our step-by-step instructions will help you overcome any gills. The process should begin after cleaning the fish from the scales. Consider how to remove gills in fish:
- Turn the carcass belly towards you. Fold the gill cover on one side and make an incision near the frontal mount of the gill arch. To do this, you can use both a sharp knife and culinary scissors.
- Do the same with the second branchial arch.
- Fold the bridle, which connects the branchial arches under the mouth of the fish. Insert a sharp knife through, cut off both branchial arches from the bridle.
- Carefully remove the gills.
- Rinse the carcass under running water, substituting under the stream the place to which the branchial arches were attached.
That’s all wisdom. If you first thought about how to remove gills from fish, you most likely presented a complex and time-consuming process. Perhaps, at the first attempt, he will be so. But with a little hand, you can easily cope with the task.
Precautionary measures
Before removing gills from fish, pay attention to the following. Some species have acquired many protective devices. For example, zander in the process of evolution has grown sharp spikes on the fins. Gills can also have spiky edges.
Trying to tear out the gills with your hand, especially when cleaning large fish, you risk getting hurt. To prevent this, inspect the surface, do not jerk. You can even use ordinary pliers to remove the gills, but you need to pull not at the middle of the arc, but at the very edge. Otherwise, the gills will tear, and you will have more work to do: getting rid of ragged flaps is more difficult than getting a whole organ.
Is it always necessary to remove the gills of the fish?
Some sea fish, especially small ones, do not have a pungent odor. You can not mess with the gills of herring, mackerel, saury. Even with salting completely odors will not occur.
Of course, you should not waste time fighting gills if you do not plan to use fish heads in cooking.