Fish is one of the most popular products that primitive people used for food. It was then that the basic rules for its processing were laid. When embarking on such a process, it is necessary to clearly understand how to cut fish in order to obtain a product suitable for further processing. Subsequently, it can be used to prepare a variety of dishes.
Sequencing
Every housewife should know how to cut fish, because this is one of the most valuable food. It must be included in the daily diet. Those who do not know how to deal with seafood correctly risk as a result of inept actions to get only a shapeless mass that can be used only in the form of minced meat. So how to cut fish?
In most cases, the whole process consists of several stages:
- Scale Removal. This is done with a sharp knife or a special scraper, hold it in your right hand. At the same time, the left should tightly press the head of the fish to the table. Movements begin from the tail and gradually move along the carcass in the direction opposite to the growth of the scales.
- Fins removal. Abdominal growths can simply be cut with kitchen scissors. To extract the dorsal fin, it is first required to make two longitudinal incisions along it.
- Gutting. Here you can act in two ways: through the gills or belly. The first option is used if the fish will subsequently be cooked whole. Near the gills, you need to make an incision and pull out through it the entire contents of the abdominal cavity. If fillet or slices are required, then an even incision must be made from the anus to the head, and then the guts must be carefully removed.
- Removing the film that is located near the spine.
- Sanitary treatment. The carcass prepared for further work should be thoroughly washed under running water.
After that, the fish can be cut into pieces and cooked in any convenient way.
Original Product Features
Housewives very rarely manage to process a fresh product. Usually, before he gets to the table, he already manages to undergo some preparation. Fish that is sold in stores can be: live, frozen or salted. The difference between the initial conditions of the products significantly affects the methods of their processing. Therefore, it is better to figure out how to cut fish of different quality in advance. With a living individual, everything is clear. Work with it is described a little higher. In the case of a frozen product, you must first bring it to normal. That is, the fish should thaw. This is best done at room temperature. To prevent the surface from drying out, the carcass can be wrapped in paper or put in cold water, adding a little salt to it. Do not use warm water for such purposes. This will cause the meat to become flabby and tasteless. After thawing, the fish will assume its original state, and its cutting will be similar to the previous version. Salted fish needs to be soaked. Such a process is usually carried out in steps. First, the whole fish should be put in cold water for 40 minutes. Only then can you start processing. After this, the semi-finished products must be soaked several more times, periodically changing the water. Sometimes it takes a whole day.
Popular semi-finished product
Recently, more and more often, fillets are used to prepare fish dishes. Getting it is easy. You just need to understand how to cut fish. The photo in this case is very convenient, as it helps to see with your own eyes what the product should look like at each intermediate stage. First of all, the carcass should be freed from the scales, scraping it with dexterous movements from tail to head. Then you need to cut the fins so that they do not interfere with further work.
The next point will be the extraction of the insides and the removal of the black film inside the abdomen. The head can also be removed. For fillet, it is clearly not needed. Now comes the most important moment. It is necessary, starting from the head, to make a longitudinal incision along the entire carcass so that the knife directly slides along the ridge. It turns out one piece of fillet. The remaining body must be turned over and a similar cut made so that the ridge is below. Now ready-made fillets can be washed and safely used to prepare your favorite dishes.
Work with a valuable product
Among all the variety, red fish is the most popular. It has been highly appreciated since ancient times for its excellent taste and special useful properties. Salmon and sturgeon fish that belong to this species are divided into three classes:
- Caspian and Black Sea sturgeons (stellate sturgeon, sterlet, bester, beluga, as well as Amur, Siberian, Danube and Russian sturgeon).
- White Sea and Baltic salmon (trout, salmon, Finnish salmon and goat), as well as Pacific individuals (pink salmon, sockeye salmon, chum salmon, sim and chinook salmon).
- White-pink and white salmon (taimen, nelma, coho salmon and whitefish).
In order not to spoil the precious product, it is necessary to clearly understand how to properly cut red fish. It is clear that any incorrect movements can permanently ruin the product. Most often, such valuable meat is used in the form of fillets.
It is boiled, salted, smoked and even fried. And such a semi-finished product is being prepared as follows:
- First, as usual, you need to remove the scales. Sometimes fish is sold in stores without it.
- If there are viscera, the carcass must be gutted.
- The remaining body is divided into four parts.
- Now you need to remove the head by making two cuts. The first goes at an angle closer to the head and cuts the ridge, and for the second, the knife rotates in the opposite direction.
- The next step is to remove the fin on the back. Two cuts are made on either side of it, and then the middle is simply squeezed out by the fingers.
- With a special thin knife, cut the fillet from each piece.
- With gentle movements of the blade to separate the skin.
The remaining clean meat can be used for its intended purpose.
Preparation of the product for frying
For each method of cooking fish, there is a variant of its preparation. With daily use, people rarely salt or smoke such foods. Most often they are fried or just boiled. It is also delicious and very fast. This raises the question of how to properly cut fish for frying. Here, in principle, there are no particular difficulties. Keeping the already known sequence, you must first clean the skin of scales, if any. Then you need to cut off the head and remove all the fins. This is done if fillet is planned for frying. And so you can limit yourself to cutting large protrusions with scissors. Then you need to cut the belly and take out all the insides along with the black film that covers the inner cavity. The cleaned carcass can only be cut into pieces.
The knife must be sharp so that the meat does not wrinkle during processing. The thickness of each piece should be no more than two centimeters, so that the product could well fry and not remain moist inside.
Finishing the finished product
One of the options for cooking fish is smoking. Depending on the conditions and technology used, it can be hot or cold. The resulting product must also be prepared for food. And for this you should know how to cut smoked fish. Each method has its own subtleties.
For cold smoking, the following processing options are used:
- whole fish (uncut);
- gill;
- gutted carcass with and without a head;
- sidewall;
- layer or semi-layer;
- fillet;
- back;
- tesha;
- slices;
- pieces.
For hot smoking, in addition to whole and gutted carcasses, fillets, pieces and rolls are used. After that, prepared fish meat is supplied for further processing. Before serving, the product can be divided into portions or even remove all bones and skin, leaving only juicy flavorful meat. Although for some people it is this process that gives great pleasure. In addition, the product may lose its presentation, which is extremely undesirable.