Culinary art only at first glance may seem easy and laid-back. In reality, it consists of hundreds of little things. Only knowing and understanding them, you can cook a good dish. Food preparation is often no less important than cooking. This is especially true for meat and fish products. Today we will consider such a question as the technology of primary processing of fish. Grade 6 in schools where there are subjects "Technology" or "Cooking", superficially examines this topic. And that means you and I can do it.
The sequence of primary processing of fish:
- Thawing frozen fish.
- Cleaning from scales.
- The release of fish from pollution and inedible parts (head, fins, tail).
- Casting, or giving the fish the desired shape.
We will consider each stage separately.
Thawing
Typically, the initial processing of fish begins with thawing. 90% of fish are caught far from the coast, so it can be on the road for months. So that the fish does not disappear, it is frozen directly on ships, and sometimes even pre-gutted. One way or another, such a fish needs to be thawed. It would seem that it can be complicated? In fact, with illiterate defrosting, fish can lose their nutritional value and taste.
This procedure is not at all complicated: you need to fill the fish with cold water in a ratio of 1: 2 and wait from 1.5 to 4 hours. Thawing time depends on the size of the fish. So that the product does not lose nutrients, water can be salted. For 1 kilogram of fish take up to 15 g of salt.
Defrosting in hot water
To speed up the process, many people fill the fish with warm or even hot water. This cannot be done. The fact is that when a fish lies in water whose temperature exceeds 40 degrees, some of the proteins denature. Consequently, the amount of moisture that they hold is reduced, and the loss of muscle juice during cutting increases. The outer layers of meat become flabby, the smell of stale fish appears.
If the fish is thawed in water with a temperature of up to 20 degrees, then it will absorb moisture and increase in mass by 5-10%. This will compensate for the loss of moisture that inevitably occurs when storing frozen fish. And salt is added to water in order to compensate for the loss of minerals that occur during thawing of the product.
Thawing in the air
It is recommended to thaw frozen fillet completely without water and at room temperature. Valuable fish species are also thawed in the air . You just need to put the fish on the table and cover it with plastic wrap to prevent moisture loss.
Re-freezing thawed fish is not recommended, as it can lose a lot of juice. At the same time, her taste will decrease sharply. For the same reason, it is undesirable to mechanically influence thawed fish (squeeze, beat, etc.).
Additional processing
It is recommended that river fish be processed immediately after thawing. So that the pike does not smell of a swamp, it must be washed in cold, very salty water. If the smell of mud comes from the fish, it is also soaked in a strong saline solution. Most of all troubles are brought by burbot and eel - breeds of fish whose skin is abundantly covered with mucus. To make it clean and bright, you also need to use salt. The fish is literally smeared with gruel, which includes salt and ash mixed in a 1: 1 ratio. After 5-10 minutes, the fish are washed. There is no trace of mucus.
Sea fish also often have a specific smell. To get rid of it, cleaned and washed fish 15-20 minutes before the start of the heat treatment should be sprinkled with lemon juice or low concentration table vinegar. Sometimes, to eliminate the unpleasant odor of the fish, cucumber brine is added to the water during cooking, and when allowed, tomato. Also, it will be useful to add bay leaf, celery and other spices.
Now it’s worth starting the next stage, which involves the primary processing of fish - cleaning.
Fish cleaning
Primary processing of flake fish involves cleaning. Thawing fish to the end is not recommended. In a semi-frozen state, it is much easier to undergo further processing. Cleaning is carried out in different ways, depending on the type of fish and the prepared dish. However, there are some of the most common ways to clean and cut.
The first method is relevant in the case when the fish is served in its entirety, "on bones" or in pieces without bone removal, in a fried or boiled form. Scales can be removed quite simply, especially if the cook’s arsenal has special devices. If they are not, the scales are cut off from the skin with a sharp sirloin knife. In this case, you should be careful not to cut through the skin. Another option is to scrape off the scales with a grater. So that the scales do not fly apart, it is recommended to place the fish in a tank of water.
Primary processing of fish, a brief description of which does not give a complete picture of the technology, has a lot of nuances. For example, there are quite a few tricks that make it easier to remove scales from fish. They are relevant for some marine fish species whose scales are small and dense. For example, to facilitate the cleaning of mackerel and horse mackerel, they are placed in boiling water for 20-30 seconds. The same thing is done with tench and flounder. If further cooking of fish is supposed, then it can be completely not cleaned of scales. After cooking, she herself will perfectly depart.
Another trick aimed at facilitating the cleaning process is to wet the fish with vinegar. The scales are rubbed with vinegar and left for a while to absorb. And so that during cleaning the fish does not slip out of your hands, you can first dip your fingers in salt.
Fish cutting
Primary processing of fish after cleaning and washing involves butchering. First, the fins are removed. In those species of fish that have particularly sharp fins, in order to avoid cuts, the dorsal fin is removed before removing the scales. To do this, deep incisions are made around them. Then, grabbing it with a napkin, you need to pull, starting from the tail.
Fish weighing up to 200 grams (goby, roach, omul, smelt, mackerel, horse mackerel, trout) are usually used in their entirety without cutting the carcass. After removing the scales in such species, the dorsal, then the anal fin is cut out first. Then an incision is made on the abdomen. Through it, the insides and gills are taken out, and the head is left. Then the fish are washed.
Blasting
The technology of primary processing of large-sized fish involves additional plasticization. The procedure consists of three stages: removal of the dorsal fin, cutting the filet on one side and cutting the filet on the other side.
This is done as follows. The cleaned and gutted fish is laid sideways on the table so that the tail is on the left. Then, with her left hand, she needs to be pressed to the table, and with her right hand, make an incision under the pectoral fin to the spine. The pulp is carefully cut from the bone to the tail. It remains only to separate the finished fillet from the spine and do the same on the other side.
Skin removal
When the fish is intended for cutlets or knives, the fillets are cleaned of skin. In this case, you can not scrap off the scales beforehand. It is worth removing the skin, starting from the tail, with extreme caution. The fact is that if the skin breaks through or erupts, removing it will be much more difficult. It is more convenient to do this before plastovaniya.
When fish do not need to plastavat
In some cases, the primary processing of fish is dispensed with without mastication. It all depends on the task of the cook. If the fish is needed to decorate the table, they leave it whole. You can remove the insides without cutting the abdomen. It is enough to make cuts to the spine along the edges of the gill covers and, chopping off the head, pull out the insides that will be attached to it. Then the tail and pectoral fins are chopped off, after which the pectoral and anal fins are cut. The carcass is thoroughly washed and cooked either whole or cut into round pieces.
Some types of fish (horse mackerel, sunflower, dash) have very sharp fins and spines. Because of this, the procedure for cutting them is very difficult. These types of fish after gutting are cooked whole.
Blood clots and bile
Gutting does not end with the primary fish processing technology. 6th grade school is unlikely to study, but nonetheless. For all fish species, blood clots are located in the abdominal cavity along the ridge. And in some (codfish, saber-fish and others), the abdominal cavity is covered with a black-gray film. Blood clots, as well as the film, must be removed. This can be done by scraping with a knife, rubbing with salt, gauze or a brush.
With special care, it is worth taking the gall bladder out of the fish. If it is torn, then the fish runs the risk of being damaged. Bile spilled on meat will give it a bitter taste. Therefore, the places that got bile, you need to thoroughly wash and rub with salt, or even better - just cut it out.
Why remove the skin?
The technology of primary processing of fish includes the removal of the head (especially the sea), its fins, tail and skin. Many do not understand why remove the skin. There are types of fish (flounder, sea eel, catfish, and others), whose skin becomes denser during heat treatment. And with a navaga, it decreases so much when frying that it deforms the meat. In addition, the skin of many fish is poorly absorbed by the human body. There are also species in which, due to saturation with sea salts, the skin has an unpleasant odor, which manifests itself during heat treatment. Therefore, to be sure of the quality of the prepared dish and its appearance, it is better to remove it.
All thick-skinned and scaleless breeds remove skin very simply. This is most conveniently done by dividing the gutted fish into two fillets. The skin is carefully cut with a knife using the same technology as described above.
Individual species
When preparing burbot, eel, or large catfish, their skin is incised around the head and removed entirely, separating it from the pulp. It turns out a kind of fish stocking. And then they begin to gut the abdomen, cutting it. After that, the fins are separated and the head with tail is chopped off.
Flounder is cleaned a little differently. First, an oblique incision from the ocular side separates the head. At the same time, the abdomen is opened and the insides removed. Then, the scales are scraped off the bottom of the fish and skin is removed from the top. After this, blood clots are scraped off the vertebrae, the fins are cut off and the meat is washed.
Navaga processing begins with an oblique cut of the lower jaw, which also captures part of the abdomen. Through the hole formed take out the insides. Then, cutting the skin along the back, remove it with a continuous layer. After that, get rid of the fins and washed the fish. It remains only to put spices in it and send for heat treatment.
Lin is dipped in hot and then cold water before processing. This is done in order to make it easier to remove the scales. Then it is scraped off with the blunt side of the knife and gutted fish in the usual way.
Lamprey has poisonous mucus, so the fish, before starting to process it, carefully sprinkled with salt and washed.
Saber fish goes on sale already in gutted form. It is not plastered. The fish is simply cut into pieces and cooked. The only thing to do is to clean the fish from the black film and cut off the fin.
Further processing
Now let's take a quick look at how fish dishes are made. The technology of primary processing of fish is very unified, but many dishes require certain additional procedures. Small-pony fish (pike, pike perch, burbot, umbra, bluefish, etc.) are used for minced and sauce dishes, zraz, cutlets and body. Tender and low-boned fish (trout, flounder, sterlet, mullet, mackerel, etc.) is served in boiled, fried or stewed form, with a variety of sauces. Tender but bony fish (carp, crucian carp, ruff, perch, bream) are served only in fried or boiled natural form. Also, all of these types are used to prepare the broth. Primary processing of fish, the description of which we are considering, is only a preparatory stage in the cooking process. This is followed by many more different operations.
For soup, fish are cut across, in oval pieces. And for frying - at an angle of 45 degrees. To make the fish more juicy and aromatic, it is salted, sprinkled with pepper and put in the cold for five minutes.
To prepare stuffed fish (usually zander or pike), it is preliminarily prepared in a special way. Pike is prepared as follows. Having cleaned the fish from the scales, the tail fin is chopped off and the gills are removed from the head. Then, an incision is made around the “neck” near the head fins. Putting a finger under the skin, it needs to be separated in a circle from the meat, then peeled in the direction of the tail. This should be done with extreme caution, because if the skin is torn, the dish will not succeed. The meat left on it is cut. So that the fins do not interfere, under them the skin is carefully cut. Then, when the skin is removed, the spine is chopped off near the caudal fin. Thus, the skin remains with the tail. Next, the meat is gutted, washed and minced.
For example, consider the procedure for preparing stuffed pike. With the resulting carcass after removing the skin, the meat is cut and minced in a meat grinder, passing through a medium-sized grate. The meat is pre-soaked in milk bread, salt and pepper. All this is stirred or even once again passed through a meat grinder. In the minced meat add butter (whether melted mashed), finely chopped greens, garlic and sauteed onions. All this is thoroughly triturated to obtain a homogeneous mass, which is stuffed with pike skin. At the same time, stuffing stuffing should not be too tight so that the shell does not burst. Then the head is sewn to the stuffed skin.
The types of primary processing of fish depend on the characteristics of a particular species. Pike perch is not prepared for stuffing like a pike. Having rid the fish of scales, tail and side fins are chopped off. Then the gills are removed from the heads and the fish is washed with cold water. Then proceed to skin removal. To do this, put the fish on its side, across the table, with its head to itself. Pressing it with one hand, the second make an incision along the body, from tail to head. In this case, you must try not to leave meat on the dorsal fin. Then the operation is repeated, turning the fish on the other side.
After that, putting the fish on its abdomen on the table, with the help of a large knife, the dorsal fin is removed. Begin to do this from the side of the tail. Then you need to cut the meat from the spine and cut through the costal bones. After that, having cut the spine near the head and tail, it is removed. After this, the offal is removed. Zander is thoroughly washed and placed on the table with the abdomen down. Now, on the inside of the fillet you need to cut off the costal bones. It is important that the abdomen remains intact.
When the meat is completely freed from bones, a beveled incision is made along the entire fillet so that the meat can be bent to the outside of the back. Then the fish is stuffed and the minced fillet is covered. It remains only to bandage the fish across in several places (usually about 5) with twine and send it to a deep baking sheet, oiled.
Perch and cod are also stuffed. Carcasses rid of scales, gutting and removing heads. In this case, the initial processing of fish is complicated by the fact that on the inner side of the abdominal cavity it is necessary to cut the costal bones along the spine and remove them without damaging the skin of the fish. You also need to remove the spine. Having put the fish freed from the bones with the back down, a part of the pulp is cut from it, which will go into the minced meat. So we learned what primary processing of fish is. The photo helped us more easily deal with this issue.
Waste
So, we already know what the primary processing of fish with a bone skeleton is, it remains only to figure out what to do with the waste. After cutting the fish, the following residues remain: head, caviar, milk, skin, fat, bones, fins and scales. Some of them can be used. The head of the ocean fish is not used in cooking, which cannot be said about the head of river species. Such heads, along with bones, fins and skin, are used for cooking broths.
On sale you can find sturgeon heads. They must be scalded, chopped and cut gills before cooking. After an hour and a half cooking, the meat and cartilage are easily separated from the bones. Such meat is used for the preparation of soups, jellies, minced meat and other things. Cartilage is boiled to a soft state and used for shredded salted sauces and sauces.
Caviar and milk of the river, as well as some species of ocean fish, are a valuable product. They can be salted, pickled and served as cold appetizers. Paste, forcemeats and casseroles are made from caviar. It contains a lot of proteins and fats, as well as vitamins A and D. However, it is important to remember that the caviar of some fish is poisonous. These fish include: barbel, ottoman, temramul and marinka.
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Finally, it is worth noting that cut fish should not be stored for a long time. Therefore, it is advisable to engage in butchering shortly before the start of the cooking process.
Conclusion
Today we figured out what the primary processing of fish consists of. As you can see, this procedure only at first glance seems simple and laid-back. In fact, this is a very responsible process. It's not for nothing that it is called “Technology of fish primary processing”. Grade 6 (GEF confirms) the school considers this issue superficially. And we delved into it in more detail.