The secret of how to clean a pike, few know. Firstly, it’s the fishermen themselves. For them, this business is familiar and long familiar. Secondly, these are their wives. Involuntarily they have to master this difficult art.
The main stages of the process
In order to prepare a dish from fish, it must first be cleaned. This rather tedious process consists of several stages:
- Primary processing. Rinse the fish well under running water to remove any debris and unpleasant mucus on the surface.
- Scale Removal. This is the most time consuming part of the process. The carcass must be laid out on the table so that its tail is on the right, and the head, respectively, on the left. Then, with a sharp knife, slowly scrape off the small scales in the direction from the head to the tail.
- Using the same knife, separate the tail and dorsal fin.
- To tear up the fish’s belly by making a neat cut in the head area and gradually moving towards the tail.
- Having opened the belly, take out all the insides and remove the thin film located along the spinal bone.
- Cut off the head and rinse the carcass thoroughly again.
To finally understand how to clean a pike, you need to learn the intricacies of each of these steps.
Important details
In the complex process of preparing fresh fish for further cooking, there are several important points that you need to understand in order to have a complete understanding of how to clean pike:
1) First you need to remember that for such work you will need a large amount of water and a very sharp knife. As you know, pike scales are very small and should be washed off periodically during cleaning. In addition, the fish itself is covered with a layer of natural mucus. Remove it is not easy. This will require a lot of water.
2) It is necessary to scrape the scales from the surface with smooth confident movements, holding the knife somewhat at an angle to the fish. This will greatly facilitate the work and prevent the scattering of small scales throughout the kitchen.
3) The belly must be cut very carefully. Do not stick a knife deep into the body of the fish. So you can damage the gall bladder and spoil the meat. A smooth cut from the head to the anus will be enough.
4) Removing the insides, a thin transparent film can be seen near the spine, under which there are small bloody clots. All this must be removed.
Having completed all of the above, we can assume that the secret of how to clean a pike is fully mastered.
Some useful tips
Fish scales have a protective function, but are completely unsuitable for food. However, it is worth noting that it contains many rather rare and at the same time useful substances. Therefore, if the pike is used exclusively for cooking, then it can not be cleaned. From here two methods of how to properly clean a pike follow:
1) Scales with entrails are removed before cooking.
2) Scales along with skin and bones are separated from meat after cooking. This option is used if you are going to cook, for example, fish cakes.
There is another golden rule. Remove scales only with extraction of entrails. You should not separate these two processes, as they are fundamentally interconnected with each other. Sometimes fish with fairly dense scales come across. In this case, the fish should be slightly steamed, dropping it briefly in a container of boiling water. Well, of course, every housewife knows how to clean a pike properly so as not to cover the whole room with scales. In addition to a sharp knife, you will also need a regular plastic bag. The cleaning process will take place inside it, which will prevent the possibility of waste spreading.
If you need only meat
Before proceeding with the processing of fresh fish, it is better to determine in advance what will be prepared from it. For example, I want to make pike cutlets. In this case, only meat is needed from the whole carcass, and you can choose from two already known options. Most often, housewives go the usual way and process fresh fish. In this case, you need to figure out how to clean the pike on cutlets. Here the familiar process is repeated step by step:
- Rinse fish under running water.
- Clean the scales with a knife or a special scraper. To avoid scattering debris, the pike can be laid in the sink, after closing the drain hole and collecting a little water into it.
- After the scales, remove the insides, and then trim the tail and all the fins.
- Now with this gutted fish you need to carefully remove the fillet with a special knife. And the small bones that remain in the pulp can be removed using ordinary tweezers.
Now it becomes clear how to clean the pike on cutlets. It remains only to chop the fish pulp in a meat grinder. Skin, in principle, can not be removed. She will be completely invisible in the total mass.
Camping cleaning
Processing fish at home is, of course, convenient. But what about those who decide to do this in nature? Which fisherman does not want to cook an ear or fry a couple of pikes from a fresh catch? To do this, you need to prepare it. And how to clean a pike from scales right on the street without the usual conditions and tools? But fishermen are a people accustomed to everything. Any of them can do it in literally 2 minutes. For such purposes, each of them always has a small device in their travel bag. It can be easily done with your own hands. To do this, you need a piece of the board with a length of not more than 20 centimeters and a couple of metal corks from glass bottles. The board needs to be cut lengthwise to make a blank for the handle. In order not to injure your hands during operation, it is better to process and sand it with sandpaper. On one side, fasten plugs one after the other with ordinary nails. Such a simple device is easy to make at home in advance. But at the right time with its help you can clean even the smallest fish.
Quick and easy
Butchering pike is a lengthy and rather dirty process. But experts came up with a way to clean a pike quickly and with virtually no debris. For this you will need: cutting board, knife and fork for fillet. Now you need to correctly perform the following steps:
- Place the washed fish on the board.
- Cut the middle fin, and behind the front, make a cut towards the head.
- Having reached the ridge, turn the knife and then cut along the ridge down to the tail. It turns out exactly half the carcass. Then turn the soulmate over and do the same with it.
- At each half, separate the ribs, carefully cutting them with a sirloin knife. You can hold the fish with a fork at this time.
- Now, alternately, in each half, separate the skin along with the scales. To do this, put a piece of fish on the board with the skin down and carefully cut it with a knife, slowly moving it along the table.
The result is two pieces of pulp of pike meat. And the fish is cleaned without dirt and without scales.
If you need to fry the fish
To fry the fish, it must first be prepared. No one will put the whole carcass on the pan, with scales and entrails. In any case, the fish must first be brought into a semi-finished product state. You can do this job in different ways. Here you need to know how to clean the pike for frying, depending on the method of its preparation. For example, to make fish in batter, you need a filet. You can get it using the method described above, and not bore yourself with cleaning the scales. This will greatly reduce the time that should be spent on cutting pike. Work is fast and, most importantly, clean. If you want to fry the fish in the usual way, you will first have to tackle the scales, remove all unnecessary, divide the cooked carcass into portion pieces, and then proceed to the main process. In any case, the choice is always up to the hostess, because it depends on her how well and tasty the dish will be prepared.