Clean fillet. Fish cutting

step by step recipe with photo

The principle of filleting is the same for all types of fish, but some of them are easier to cut, some are more difficult, and some simply do not make sense. The larger the fish and the fewer bones in it, the easier it is to separate the fillets, and the greater its yield. Catfish, trout, large pike perch and silver carp, for example, make great cuts of meat. Sea fish - hake, pollock, mackerel, herring are easily butchered. But for a small river fish - crucian carp, small carp, perch, silver carp - it is better to find another application, since their loin is very thin, and the extraction of small bones will lengthen the process at times.

We need

• sharp knife
• board you only use for fish products
• kitchen scissors
• scale scraper
• any fish

Fish cutting process

1. Rinse the fish in running water. Lay on the board with your head facing you. It is advisable to use a plastic or glass board. You can cover the wooden one with foil or parchment. Using a scraper, scrape off the scales from the tail to the head. You can also clean it with a regular knife, but it is safer with a scraper. To prevent the scales from scattering throughout the kitchen, lower the fish carcass in a bowl of water, and do this procedure under water. After cleaning, rinse the fish well.

2. Now take your kitchen scissors and trim off the fins on all sides and the tail.

3. Use a sharp knife to rip open the abdomen starting from the head and continuing to the tail. Remove all insides. Place the fish in a sink and rinse well under running water. Take a washcloth or cloth and remove the black films.

4. Dry the washed fish with a paper towel or napkins inside and out.

5. Flip the fish with its back facing you. At the base of the head, make an incision with a knife, resting against the spinal bone.

6. With a sharp knife, begin to separate the sirloin by pressing the knife blade against the ridge. If your hands slide over the fish, you can dip your fingers in salt.

7. Descend gradually to the belly along the entire length of the fish. Stay as close to the fish skeleton as possible to minimize fillet loss.

8. One fillet is ready. Turn the fish over and cut off the second fillet in the same way.

9. Remove small bones from both fillet pieces with tweezers. Do not throw away the backbone and head. You can make delicious fish soup from them. Just remove the gills and eyes first.

10. Trim the sirloin pieces and start preparing delicious meals! If desired, the skin can be removed. If you fry the fillets, it is better not to remove the skin. Delicious experiments for you!

Note to the hostess

1. Wooden planks are common, accessible, but unhygienic. Glass substrates are much more expensive and vulnerable to the kind of mechanical stress that is inevitable when cutting up most types of fish. An ingenious kitchen gadget - a dense silicone mat: with excessive force, it can be slightly scratched, but difficult to cut through; it does not slip even on a damp countertop, does not accumulate odors. It is easier to wash it than a porcelain saucer (by the way, they do it in three waters: cold, hot and cold again). Previously, high-quality silicone products were expensive, but now they are cheaper. For those who regularly cook seafood, such equipment is a must have.

2. Gills, eyes, fins and other unappetizing fragments of the carcass will certainly go to the waste bucket. It is doubtful that the hostess will immediately go to empty it into the garbage chute. Meanwhile, after a short time, the trimmings will begin to smell strong and unpleasant - the fish spirit will surely seep through the lid. Useful advice: inedible parts of fish should be placed in a reliable, whole plastic bag, or better, in several, right during the cutting process. Then the neck of the bag will need to be tightened with a pharmacy rubber band. Now you can throw it away.

Fish is a valuable food product. Any fish dish begins with cutting it. Processing fish requires adherence to certain rules, so it is important to know how to properly cut fish.

Most often we are frozen. You should know that thawing of fish fillets should be carried out at room temperature, and the whole carcass in cold water. It is unacceptable to thaw fish in hot or warm water, as it loses its beneficial properties. If you are buying fresh fish, ask the seller to slaughter it.

After the fish has thawed, it is rinsed under running water and proceeded to butchering. For this procedure, you will need a long, sharp knife and a cutting board. If you are butchering carp, carp, bream, pike, etc., then you will need a grater or a special scraper for. Our material deals with cutting salmon (red fish), but this method is also suitable for processing any other fish.

How to cut fish into fillets - cutting method

1) Place the cutting board in front of you and place the fish on top of it. You will need to cut off the fish's head, so make an incision close to or around the gills.

2) Now cut open the lower belly of the fish so that the intestines remain intact. To do this, it is better to make an incision with the tip of a knife, and not with its blade. The insides of the fish are carefully removed so as not to damage the gallbladder. Otherwise, the fish will be bitter. If the gallbladder still bursts, then the meat is rubbed with salt and washed under running water or cut off. The gutted carcass should be cleaned of blood and rinsed thoroughly.

3) Your next action should be to cut along the fish's back from head to tail. The blade of the knife should be as close as possible to the spine of the fish, and the fin should be gently bent and the cut should be continued. Thus, you have a fillet that needs processing.

4) Place the fillets, skin side down, on a cutting board. Cut off the bones along the edge of the fillet with a knife. Moreover, the movements should be directed away from yourself.

5) Now comes the turn of the second fillet, the bones and spine from which are removed in the same way. In the process of cutting, you get a head with a tail, a spine with bones and two fillets. The remaining bones in the fillet are removed using special forceps.

6) And, of course, the fillet should be skinned, so it is placed on a cutting board (skin side down). Press the skin of the fish against the board with your left hand, and with the other hand, using a knife (blade down), carefully separate the meat from it. The fish is ready to cook!

It may seem daunting at first glance how to properly cut fish, but doing it constantly, you can get used to butcher fish quickly and skillfully!

To eat three fish dishes a week.

Freshly caught fish is rightfully considered the best. Nevertheless, cleaning fresh fish seems to many to be too laborious process, and fillet making is aerobatics.

That is why showcases with already cut chilled fish are so popular in supermarkets. Unfortunately, in reality it turns out to be too expensive and not always fresh.

We learn to masterfully wield a knife and save money.

Learning to clean fish

The easiest and most affordable fish cleaning tool - butter knife with small teeth or short vegetable knife.

You can also use more convenient devices - special fish scalers of various designs. However, a regular knife is sufficient.

Start brushing the fish from the tail, holding it with one hand. To keep your fingers from slipping, you can dip them in coarse salt.

Make sure to remove the scales at the base of the tail, dorsal and pectoral fins of the fish.

To gut the fish, insert the tip of a knife into the anus on the abdomen and make an incision towards the head while holding the carcass. Do not immerse the knife deeply to avoid damaging the insides.

You should cut through the fish to the base of the lower jaw, halving the bony portion that lies between the front fins.

It is most convenient to remove the insides by grabbing them with your fingers at the base of the head. Pull out the entire intestine. Then use a knife to gently scrub the liver, which is attached to the spine, and remove the film lining the peritoneum: it can be bitter.

If you will cook fish with your head or are going to put it away for storage - be sure remove the gills... The easiest way to do this is to carefully cut them off with scissors at the attachment points of each branchial arch.

Rinse thoroughly fish in cold water. Now it can be cooked whole or cut into fillets.

Learning to cook fillets

To "get" fillets from peeled fish, you need a thin long and slightly curved knife, which is called - sirloin... However, fillet can be made an ordinary chef's knife, which is found in almost any kitchen.

Begin cutting the fish with a long slit along the spine from head to tail. This will produce a dense and flavorful fillet.

Make sure that the knife goes directly over the bones of the spine, but does not cut them.

Then use a knife to trim the meat around the head if you haven't removed it. Now begin to carefully cut the fish lengthways, grabbing and trimming the ribs.

Repeat this on the other side. Then carefully insert the knife under the rib bones from the side of the spine and cut them together with the edge of the peritoneum.

Decide if you want remove skin... If the fish is intended for grilling or frying, it is better to leave the skin, as it will not allow the finished meat to fall apart.

For stewing, boiling, steaming or baking with other foods, skinless fillets are better suited. Begin to loosen the fillets by carefully trimming the skin around the tail. Hold it with your fingers and slide it smoothly with a knife, separating the meat.

Fish is a valuable and irreplaceable food product due to the high content of biologically active substances and fatty acids, vitamins A and D, microelements: calcium, phosphorus, iodine. Fish dishes are absorbed by the human body much easier than meat ones. But in order to cook them, the fish must first be cut into fillets. Read about this later in the article.

Fish cutting and processing. What it is?

Butchering a fish means removing scales and entrails, removing the head, fins, bones and skin. Processing includes the following operations: thawing, soaking, cutting, preparation of semi-finished products and dishes. Fish can be scaly, scaleless and sturgeon. Processing and cutting fish of each group has its own characteristics.

So, flaky rocks are subjected to the following procedures:

• Removing scales.
• Gutting.
• Rinsing.
• Butchering.
• Secondary washing.
• Cooking semi-finished products and dishes.

Cutting fish with a bone skeleton of scaly rocks is done in the same way, only instead of removing the scales, their surface is cleared of mucus.

How to check the quality of fish?

Attention should be paid to the gills. If they are bright red, then the fish is fresh. When you come home, heat the knife blade and drive it into the pulp. After 30 seconds, take it out and smell it. The fish is fresh, if there is no putrid smell, and the meat at the cut site has a dense consistency and the bone has not darkened.

Fish cutting methods

• Gutting is the most common method used for the majority of fish. It consists in the following: an incision is made along the abdomen from the tail to the head. Internal and genital organs (caviar, milk) are removed completely, blood clots are removed from the spine. The head is not cut off. But if the fish is very large, it must be removed.

• Cutting fish is carried out in another way, which is called gill. In this case, the gills and viscera are removed. Remains: caviar, milk, fat.
• For salmon and sturgeon fish, bean cut is used. The head and tail are removed. The fish is cut into two halves along the spine. The viscera and spine are removed.
• The fish is cut into a layer. In this case, it is cut along the back to the very tail, the insides are removed. The head incision should be in the middle of the parietal part and continue along the back. The head can be left, or you can remove it as you like.
• Cutting fish into semi-layers is used for large species such as bream, carp. One incision is made along the entire spine, starting on the right side, from the eye to the tail. The other is on the left. All entrails are removed, the blood is cleaned.
• Fish such as catfish, perch, barbel are cut on the back or balyk. The head, viscera, and abdomen are removed. The abdominal part (tesha) is cut a couple of centimeters below the side line and ends at the fin of the anus.
• Cut into fillets.
• Cut into pieces 15 cm long or more. To do this, use gutted, headless fish.

Choosing a fillet knife for cutting

If a person plans to cook fresh fish, care should be taken to choose the tool that will be used to cut it. It is faster and easier to work with the right knife. A device for filletting with a blade length of 19 cm is considered to be universal. Cutting fish with a fillet knife does not require extra effort.

However, it is not always possible to purchase a universal tool. Then you can get by with a fillet knife with a blade of 10-23 cm. The size of the fish will tell you how to work. If it is small, such as a herring, a short knife blade is fine. It is better to cut pike, carp, perch with a blade of medium length. Big fish like salmon are long. Nowadays, Damascus steel knives are very popular. Their blades are decorated with an exquisite pattern, so it is impossible to confuse them with others.

How to cut a red fish correctly?

Fish from the salmon family is considered a very healthy product due to its high content of fatty acids that lower bad cholesterol.

1. Butchering red fish begins by washing and drying them with any absorbent cloth. To reduce slipping, the cutting board is placed on a damp towel, and the fish is placed on its dry surface with the ridge towards itself, head to the right.
2. Next, a sharp knife is taken, and a transverse incision is made below the head to the very ridge. Depending on your desire, you can immediately cut off the head, which, along with the tail and fins, is sent to the refrigerator and further used to prepare fish soup. In order not to hurt the abdomen with a knife, it must be slightly raised.
3. Then the fish is turned over with the other side to itself, and its second half is removed, similar to the first.

Fish fillet

So, filleting the fish is complete. But you still need to work with him: all the rib bones are cut off, and the tummy is cleaned or cut off, at your discretion. But that is not all. You will need tweezers with which to remove all the small bones in the direction of their location. Now the fillet is completely ready for further processing and preparation of various dishes from it.

But the recipes for many of them do not involve the use of fillets with skin. To remove it, you need to lay each layer down, make an incision with a knife in the tail area and remove it. The flat surface of the knife should fit snugly against the table. For this, the fish is placed on its edge. The skinless fillet is ready. This is followed by washing and cutting it into pieces across the fibers. If the fillet is boiled, it is cut at right angles, so each piece will retain its shape. For frying, fillet cutting is carried out at an angle of 30 degrees, so the pieces are better fried.

How to butcher sturgeon?

This species of fish lacks a bony ridge, and the surface is covered not with scales, but with bony plates-bugs in several rows. An interesting fact: all sturgeon, except sterlet, go on sale gutted. The exceptions are specimens obtained by ice fishing. Frozen fish is on sale. It takes 6-10 hours to defrost it at room temperature. In order not to damage the fish during cutting, you need to prepare the necessary accessories in advance: a sharp knife, a hatchet and a container for caviar.

Better to buy live fish. But if there is no way to do this, they get by and frozen. The main thing is to pour hot water over the sturgeon after defrosting. Then the mucus will come off it, and the scales will be easier to remove. If you come across fish with caviar, cut the belly carefully. First, the caviar is taken out, and then the insides. Be careful not to damage your gallbladder. Otherwise, the fish will be bitter and have to be thrown away.

Butchering of sturgeon fish begins with the removal of the head together with the pectoral fins and humerus. Then bugs and fins on the back and abdomen are cut off, the viziga is removed - a vein that runs along the entire ridge of the fish. It is poisonous and cannot be eaten without special treatment. To remove the vizig, the sturgeon is taken by the tail, the skin at the tail is cut in a circle, rises, and the vizig slips out by itself. Only then is the tail fin detached. The most difficult job has been completed.

Butchering the fish continues. Its formation into links begins. To do this, the fish is cut along the back, starting from the head. After the links are cleaned and washed from blood clots. Large links are cut up and down into several pieces so that the pieces are conveniently used for portioning.

Sturgeon fish processing

After the cutting is completed, they start processing, which can be different. It depends on the further use of fish fillets for cooking.

• If it is necessary to cook the fish, then first it is scalded with boiling water and cleaned from the small bugs remaining during cutting on the abdomen and sides. Then it is washed with cold running water. This is done in order to remove the clumps of protein formed during scalding from the surface. In order not to lose the shape, each piece is tied with twine.
• For the preparation of individual dishes, it becomes necessary to fry until tender or lightly simmer in a hot frying pan a whole link of fish or cut into portions. First you need to cut off all the cartilage, scald and peel off the bugs, and only then fry.
• Sterlet is cleared of bugs without first undergoing scalding, after defrosting in a natural way. But in the fish, which they plan to allow whole, the bugs on the back are separated after heat treatment. If they think of boiling it, frying it or letting it simmer in small pieces - before carrying out this procedure.

Cutting and processing of different types of fish

• Catfish, eel and burbot have a remarkable processing characteristic. The skin of these fish is removed with a stocking. Only then the head, tail, fins are removed, the abdomen is cut, and the insides are taken out. Then the fish is washed with cold water.
• Cutting the flounder begins with the removal of the fins, head and tail. Better to do this with a hatchet. Then take out the insides. The white part of the skin is cleared of scales, and the black part is removed, starting from the tail. Next, the flounder is cut into two halves lengthwise and cut across into pieces.
• When cutting navaga, the skin of the fish is first cut along the entire back, and then the lower jaw is removed. Only after that, they begin to remove the skin on both sides, starting from the upper jaw. Hands will not slip when rubbed with salt. Then the insides are removed through the incision on the back and the fins are cut off. The abdomen is not cut. This is necessary to preserve the eggs inside the carcass. Gutted fish is well washed under cold water.

Cutting fish. Scheme

• Defrost fish.
• Remove the head and pectoral fins.
• Cut off dorsal bugs.
• Remove the rest of the fins.
• Take out the vizigu.
• Divide the fish into links.
• Scald with hot water.
• Clean small abdominal and lateral bugs.
• Rinse the fish well under running cold water.
• Tie the links with fish twine.
• Cut off the cartilage.
• Cut into portions for frying.
• Scald the fish a second time.

The cutting scheme for other fish species: scaly and non-scaly - is about the same. Only instead of bugs, scales or mucus are cleared.

But the scheme, like cutting, for a particular type of fish has its own characteristics and sequence of actions. Read on in the article.

How to cut salted fish?

Fresh and salted fish are cut essentially the same way. But salty contains about 20% salt. Therefore, before preparing any dish, you first need to soak it. Butchering salted fish begins with cleaning the scales. After the head, fins and tail are removed, they are soaked separately. Next, the carcass is cut into portioned pieces. For information: scales from salted fish are difficult to peel. To facilitate the process, the fish is placed in cold water for one hour. And they soak it in two ways:

1. Pieces of fish, cut into portions, are placed on the wire rack in the bath. Cold water must flow continuously. She washes the fish and drains. Soaking lasts 6-12 hours.
2. Chopped up salted fish is filled with cold water, which changes every hour. The outer layers quickly release the salt to the water. It takes time for it to leave the layers inside the fish. Therefore, the longer it is soaked, the less salt will remain in it. Here everyone decides for himself how long this procedure will take: 6 or 12 hours.

Soaked salted fish is immediately cooked and cannot be stored for a long time.

Scaly fish must first be scaled off. To do this, put the fish on a cutting board or simply on a table and, holding the tail with your left hand, remove the scales with your right hand using a knife or a special grater. Fish with tight-fitting, hard-to-remove scales can be dipped in boiling water (for 15-30 seconds), and then scraped off the scales with the blunt side of a knife. After removing the scales from the fish, all fins must be removed. If the fins are relatively soft, scissors can be used to remove them.

Fish cleared of scales and fins can be gutted. You can gut the fish through the cut abdomen, through an incision at the head or through the back, depending on the further use of the fish.

Most often, the fish is gutted through a cut abdomen. An incision is made on the abdomen of the fish, starting from the head to the tail. Then, through this incision, the insides are carefully removed, trying not to damage the gallbladder. If the bladder is still touched and the bile spills, you should immediately rinse the fish, and rub the places where the bile got into it, rub it with salt or cut it out, otherwise the fish will acquire a bitter taste.

After removing the viscera, you need to cut off the film covering the bottom of the vertebral bone, clean out the kidneys and the dark film lining the abdominal cavity of the fish. If the film lining the abdominal cavity is light, then it is usually not removed. Remove only black and dark gray films.

When cutting halibut, the skin is usually removed from the dark (eye) side of the fish's body. But the head is first cut off with an oblique cut, while simultaneously opening the abdomen to remove the viscera. Then the scales from the light side of the fish are scraped off and the fins are cut off.

In fish without scales, but with thick skin (for example, catfish, eel), the skin is sometimes removed during cutting. For this, the skin around the head of the fish is incised. Then, grabbing the skin with your fingers (through a dry napkin or first dipping your fingers into salt so that they do not slip), they peel it off. After that, the abdomen is cut open, the entrails are removed and the head is cut off.

Through an incision at the head, the fish is gutted if it is prepared for stuffing or if you want to cook it uncut. In this case, the abdomen of the fish remains intact.

Through the slit back, the fish is gutted when it is cooked for or stuffed. For this, fish with large dorsal fins are usually used. When gutting such fish, incisions are made on both sides of the dorsal fin, then the fins are removed and the insides are taken out through the same hole.

Small and medium-sized fish are often gutted without opening the abdomen. To do this, separate the head and part of the viscera with it, and through the hole formed, the abdominal cavity is cleaned.

With any method of cutting fish, if the head is left, the gills of the fish must be removed. Fish cooked with gills takes on a bitter taste.

The cut fish must be thoroughly rinsed several times with cold water.