Perch is a delicious fish that can be cooked in various ways. Its meat is sweet and very tender. But how often mistresses deny themselves the pleasure of eating such a fish only because it is quite difficult to clean it!
Contents:
- How to clean
- perch with
- kitchen knife by removing
- skin with
- scales. How to gut the
perch. This exercise is quite laborious and dirty, as during the cleaning process it is possible to stain the whole kitchen with scales. But experienced chefs and housewives have found ways to quickly and easily deal with the cleaning of perch, and will gladly share with you their recipes.
From another fish the perch is distinguished by rather small scales resembling a kind of carapace. Its fins are very sharp, since the group of perches refers to predators. This must be remembered when you begin to clean and cook the perch.
How to clean a perch: rules and sequence of actions
The main rule that a hostess should remember is that it is much easier to clean a fresh perch than a perforated or stale perch.
- The first thing to do is to get rid of the fins so that they do not get pricked during cleaning. Take sharp scissors and cut the fins, which go from above along the ridge and from below on the belly. Also, it is necessary to trim the tail and small fins near the head.
- If you plan to cook fish with your head, the next step is removing the gills. Carefully protrude the holes above the gills, knife or culinary scissors, cut the places of their connection with the head and remove. Everything should be done very carefully, on the gills there are sharp denticles, which can be injured.
- After this, proceed to scaling. This procedure is carried out against the growth of scales, so you need to clean from the tail to the head. There are several ways to clean:
- with a knife;
- skin removal along with scales;
- special devices.
We clean the scales of the perch with the kitchen knife
The first method is the most common. First, prepare a cutting place. Take a plastic or glass board. Wooden scoop is not recommended, as it absorbs odors very much, and it will be difficult to get rid of the smell of fish. If, except for the wooden board, there is nothing, wrap it with food film or a usual cellophane bag.
Put the fish on the surface and, holding the tail, gently move the knife towards the head, tearing scales. You should not hurry, otherwise you risk washing the kitchen of scales scattered on all sides. This method is the most dirty and takes a long time, because the scales will still fly around the board.
Removing the skin with the scales
If you want to keep your kitchen in order, then it's worth trying to peel the perch by removing the skin along with the scales. It is not difficult to do this, the trick is to put the fish, freed from the fins and head, into the freezer and wait until it freezes a little. Then put it on the cutting board and, gently prying the skin with a knife, remove it with scales.
This method is good if the fish is needed for stuffing, cooking rolls or for pickling. If you are going to fry or bake a perch, then it is better to look for other ways.
Devices for cleaning perch
The stores sell quite a few all kinds of devices that are excellent at cleaning any fish scales. But in order not to waste money, you can come up with several home devices.
For the first device you need a small wooden stick, nails and beer iron covers. These covers should be nailed to a stick, and you can easily clean the perch scales. Such an adaptation can easily be made and used in the field.
The second non-expensive way is to clean the perch with a metal brush. To do this, take the fish and under a small stream of warm water scraper remove scales from the tail to the head.
How to gut the perch
After you have got rid of scales, the fish needs to be gutted. For this, a sharp knife needs to cut the belly along in the direction from the lower fin to the head. Carefully get the contents out so as not to damage the gallbladder( if it is crushed or scratched, the fish will be bitter) and rinse under running cold water. Now you can proceed directly to cooking.