We are so accustomed to the fish that are cleaned and stripped for us, that when we make our first steps in cooking, we often avoid buying anything that requires extra effort and manipulation. Everything that is not marked with the word "fillet" is perceived as a product with which you will not have problems: how to clean trout, sea bass or dorado from scales, gut and rids of bones? Not a fish, it's just a chef's nightmare. But while all of the above nuances can be true about some river fish, cleaning the trout is so simple that will make it come back to cooking this fish again and again.
Have you decided what you want to cook from the trout? Then, in the issue of cleansing, you can orient on key dishes, because for different recipes the number of preparatory stages can vary.
Baking whole carcass
If the fish is small and you want to bake or fry it whole, then we assure you: you will cope with cleaning only in 5 minutes. The thing is that trout scales do not look like scales of carp or perch and are very small plates that are scraped off the fish without the application of great physical effort.
- So, first you need to rinse the fish in running water. If the trout is very slimy and such a carcass is uncomfortable to hold in your hands, then it is unlikely that even repeated washing will help you. It's better just to sprinkle the salt with salt to create friction: you still have to salt it afterwards.
- It's best to clean the trout right in the sink: because the scales are loose on the skin, they practically do not scatter around the kitchen, but if something gets to the lockers, the table or the floor, then maybe you just do not notice the pollution. Walls of a sink will relieve you of such trouble, and the collection at a drain will allow to collect all large flakes and will not allow to curl in a waterpipe.
- It is convenient to clean trout with a small knife both against and in the direction of the scales. Particular care must be taken in the abdomen area: the skin color is lighter there, and the scales are much worse, but at the same time there it is tougher than on the sides. Slide your finger along the abdomen from head to tail to make sure that the meal will not be spoiled by a crunch on the teeth.
- If the fish is not gutted, it's not so difficult to do it yourself: cut the abdomen from the anal fin to the gill and take out all the insides. If caviar is caught, you can salivate it, but all the rest boldly send to the trash.
- You do not need to cut a head: just remove the gills so that the dish does not get the wrong taste. In addition, the gills, like a filter, collect not the most useful substances, so it is advisable to remove them if you care about your health.
- Rinse the fish again, and everything - you can bake!
Council
You can not touch the fins and tail: it's no wonder that in many cafes they are left with fish for the beauty of serving.
If you still clean the fish on the board, then let it be a meat board or a separate fish board. Are you going to take a board for vegetables and bread? We advise you to think about the risk of infection by parasites and at least to lay a newspaper.
Sirloin, sushi, slicing for salads
When preparing to prepare a dish in which pieces of trout or its fillets are needed, prepare to add several items to the cutting process. How to clean trout so that it can be added to salad or sushi? You can look at all the basic actions above, but here are the manipulations that we will be dealing with now.
To get delicious slices, we need to remove the skin from trout. With small fish, you can take it off with a stocking, previously cut off the head, but for a small fish, this action rarely makes sense: getting a thick enough layer of fillets from it is very difficult, so this option is used infrequently.
- If the fish is large, then before it is cleared from the skin, it is necessary to cut the carcass. To do this, before cutting off your head, you will need to cut the fish along the back line along the spinal bone. As a result, you will get 2 identical halves, on one of which there will be a ridge.
- The spine with the bones will need to be removed, but it is not necessary to discard it. Most likely, it will be a little meat, and on the basis of the ridge of a fairly large trout can be cooked soup. Fins are also cut out at this stage.
- Well, the last step is to cut the fillets from the skin. If you ever made sandwiches from red fish, you can imagine this process: cutting the fillets, you need to cut the meat, pressing the knife to the board, so that the skin does not leave large pieces. The only thing to work with raw trout and remove the fillets in one piece, you'll have to get some better. The key to success is also a sufficiently strong and long knife: it is desirable that the length of the knife is not shorter than the width of the fillet.
Tip
Start fiddling the fillets from the tail: as the fillet length is less, start cutting meat more conveniently in this direction.
It is not difficult to clean both small and heavy trout if you apply this cutting guide in practice. We are sure that in the future, intending to cook a dish from her tender meat, you will not delay the culinary experiment because of the reluctance to contact with the cleaning of the fish.
We recommend reading: how to clean perch
