Pike is one of the most valuable freshwater fish. It is rich in protein, and fat in it contains no more than 2%. Pike contains natural antiseptics that enhance our immunity. This fish must be present in the diet of each person. However, not everyone likes to cut pike. That is why often the list of dishes prepared from fish is limited to only pike cutlets. Meanwhile, it would be much better to cook stuffed pike. In this case, how to remove the skin from a pike, we will tell in our article. Here is a recipe for cooking stuffed fish.
How to clean pike from scales and entrails?
The dense and stiff pike scales are quite difficult to clean. To do this, you need a sharp knife and limited space. If you do this on the kitchen table, you should be prepared for the fact that pike scales will fly around the room. It is better, of course, to clean the fish in the courtyard of a private house, but in a pinch, a deep sink is also suitable.
Fish cleaned from scales are washed and dried with paper towels. This must be done so that the fish does not slip in the hands. Now you need to remove the insides. To do this, immediately after the gill bones, the scalp is cut from the left side up to the ridge. You need to cut it on the left, because the gall bladder is located on the right, which, when cutting fish, can burst. Then a horizontal incision is made at the anus, and the intestines are cut.
Now the head needs to be completely cut off without touching the gall bladder, and separate it from the carcass along with the intestines. Further, the fish is cut along the abdomen, finally cleaned of films and washed. Now the pike can be cut into fillets.
How to skin and cut pike on filet
For cutting pike on a fillet, you need a special sharp knife for fish. Using it is very convenient. It is enough to attach the knife tightly to the ridge and hold it horizontally along. Similar actions must be repeated on the other side of the carcass. As a result, it will be possible to get two halves of filet with skin. A ridge with leftover meat can be used to make fish broth.
How to quickly skin the pike? Again with a knife. It needs to be pressed as tightly as possible to the skin and just hold it along. A little meat may remain on the skin, but it will be smaller than if you remove the skin with your hands.
How to skin a stocking pike: 2 ways
It is much more difficult to peel pike skin for stuffing. In this case, it is important not to tear or damage it. With the correct execution of actions, you should get a stocking, which will subsequently be filled with minced meat.
Consider two ways to skin a pike with a head cut off. In the first case, all actions will be performed by one person, that is, independently. In the second case, you will need to use the help of another person.
First you need to cut off the head so that the intestines can be pulled out immediately during its separation from the body. Then the skin on the carcass is gently poked by hands at the incision site, and then with the help of fingers it is separated from the meat by at least 5 cm on each side. Now that part of the skin has already been removed, it is necessary to begin to turn the skin outward, like a stocking. The fins are cut with scissors inside in such a way that the skin is not damaged, and the tail ridge can be cut off or broken. The head is also prepared along with the rest of the fish, so the gills are removed from it, washed and cleaned.
The second way to skin the pike is to get rid of the skin as quickly as possible. But to do it yourself is quite difficult, because the slippery pike is not easy to hold. In this case, when the skin is 5 cm separated from the meat, one person will keep the fish upright (you can use a towel), and the other will pull the skin down. In general, these two methods are equally effective.
How to skin pike for stuffing with your head
The methods described above are more suitable for beginners, as professionals separate the skin directly from the head, without cutting it off. Then, when stuffing, the fish will turn out whole. How to remove the skin from a pike in this case?
When preparing the fish, its head is not cut off completely, but remains hanging from the back of the skin. Further, the insides are removed from the body, the head is cleaned and washed, as in the previous methods. How to skin the pike has also been described above. By the way, after removing the stocking, it must again be turned back in the opposite direction.
Cooking stuffing for stuffing
The taste of the finished dish largely depends on how well the filling was prepared. First of all, meat separated from bones must be twisted twice in a meat grinder. Moreover, after the first time, the device will need to be disassembled and the accumulated bones removed. When the meat is twisted a second time, add fried onions and carrots, as well as a raw egg, salt and pepper to taste.
If the fillings seem small, you can add a couple of slices of bread soaked in milk to the forcemeat. It must be well rubbed with your hands and mixed, so that the mass turns out to be a homogeneous consistency.
Fish stuffing process
When stuffing pike, it is important to find the very middle ground in which the fish will look as appetizing as possible. To do this, it is important to put so much stuffing so that the skin does not burst during cooking and does not hang down, which happens in cases where the filling is too small.
If cuts formed during skin removal, they must be sutured with thread, otherwise the stuffing will come out. Before you send the dish to the oven, you need to pierce the skin in 2-3 places with a toothpick so that it does not burst. Pike is cooked for 30 minutes at 180 degrees.