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    Clean A Fish

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    Maria Musial
    To clean a whole fish: 1. Scale the fish by scraping from tail to head with a knife or scaler. 2. Cut fins from the fish's sides and pull them out along with attached bones. 3. Make a cut from the fish's anal opening to gill openings and remove innards with fingers or spoon.

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    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Clean A Fish

    Uploaded by

    Maria Musial
    104 views2 pages
    To clean a whole fish: 1. Scale the fish by scraping from tail to head with a knife or scaler. 2. Cut fins from the fish's sides and pull them out along with attached bones. 3. Make a cut from the fish's anal opening to gill openings and remove innards with fingers or spoon.

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    Clean a Fish

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    To clean a whole fish: 1. Scale the fish by scraping from tail to head with a knife or scaler. 2. Cut fins from the fish's sides and pull them out along with attached bones. 3. Make a cut from the fish's anal opening to gill openings and remove innards with fingers or spoon.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    104 views2 pages

    Clean A Fish

    Uploaded by

    Maria Musial
    To clean a whole fish: 1. Scale the fish by scraping from tail to head with a knife or scaler. 2. Cut fins from the fish's sides and pull them out along with attached bones. 3. Make a cut from the fish's anal opening to gill openings and remove innards with fingers or spoon.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    How to Clean Whole Fish

    M
    1
    ost of us buy our fish cut to orderif we want a fillet, we buy one; if we want a whole fish, scaled and gutted, thats what we ask for. But there are times when you may want to butcher a fish yourself; and although its difficult to do as good a job of filleting as someone who practices all day long, there is no single

    aspect that you cant do adequately with a minimum of practice. What follow here are general rules for most finfish. For tools, you will need three knives: a sharp ten- or twelve-inch chefs knife; a paring knife; and a boning or fillet knife with a six- to eight-inch-long blade that may be either flexible or rigid.

    Scaling
    2 3

    Removing Fins

    1. Rinse the fish and place it on a flat surface. Holding the fish by the tail, use the back of a knife, a spoon, or a fish scaler, and begin scraping from the tail toward the head with short, authoritative strokes. Scale the whole fish, including the belly and back, and rinse it well.

    2. Use a boning or paring knife to make a 18 -inch-long cut on each side of the fin. Make both cuts on an angle, so that you form a V with the fin in the middle.

    3. Use your hands or a pair of pliers to pull out the fin, along with the bones that attach it to the fish.

    Gutting
    4 5 6

    4. With a sharp, small knife, cut a slit from the fishs anal opening to the gill openings.

    5. Pull out the innards with your fingers.

    6. Use a spoon or knife to scrape out any innards that remain. Rinse the fish.

    Beheading
    7 8 9

    Gilling
    (Dont bother if beheading.)

    10

    7. Make a cut on either side of the fishs head just above the pectoral fin.

    8. Hit the back of your knife with a rubber mallet if you have trouble cutting through the fishs thick neck bones.

    9. Snip the gills at the bottom with a knife or scissors to detach them.

    10. Next, snip the gills at the top and remove with your fingers. They can be sharp, so be careful.

    16 Cooks Illustrated March/April 1995

    The Tail
    11 12

    Cutting Steaks

    11. Cut off the tail. 12. Using a sharp, heavy knife or cleaver, cut through the fish to make steaks of the desired thickness, usually an inch or so. Try to make the cuts even and clean. If the central bone gives you trouble, rest the knife against it and whack the back of the knife with a wooden or rubber mallet, as pictured in illustration 8.

    Filleting
    13 14 15 18

    Removing Pin Bones

    13. Lay the fish on its side, and make a top-to-bottom cut behind the gill cover.

    14. With the back of the fish toward you, make a long cut along the back from the gill cover to the tail, following the line of the central bone. Lift the flesh as you cut, to reveal the central bone and make the job easier.

    18. Remove pin bones with needle-nose or similar pliers, as shown, or by cutting a zip-strip, making a V-shaped cut on either side of the bones and pulling out the V with your fingers. 15. Turn the fish so that the belly is toward you and, again, make a long cut from gill to tail. The tip of the knife should meet the first cut at the central bone, and the fillet will be released.

    Skinning
    19

    16

    17

    16. The thin belly flap may contain a row of bones. Use your fillet knife to cut underneath them from each side, forming a V shape. 17. Lift the V out entirely.
    ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALAN WITSCHONKE

    19. Make a small cut at the narrow end of the fillet and grab the skin. Use a sharp knife, held parallel to the skin, to run between the skin and flesh.
    March/April 1995 Cooks Illustrated 17

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