How to clean a herring fillet. Cleaning a carcass from bones in different ways

Today, many housewives do not even think about how to clean the herring, because you can buy a ready-made product, cut into pieces, and even without bones. In fact, there are many reasons why it is better to refuse such an approach. Firstly, there is no way to check the freshness of an already processed carcass, which is often used by unscrupulous manufacturers.

Given the amount of spices and aromatic additives in such semi-finished products, even after opening the package it will be impossible to determine the quality of the product. Secondly, packaged herring costs many times more than a self-processed product. Finally, the taste of “home-made” and “ready-made” herring is nothing to even compare.

How to choose fresh and tasty herring?

A good housewife should not only be able to properly clean herring, but also know how to choose a fresh, high-quality product. Many traditionally prefer products in cans. In this case, you can only check the expiration date of the workpiece, which is already a lot. But when buying a bulk semi-finished product, we pay attention to the following points:

• Be sure to inspect the gills, they should be a uniform dark red color. We click on any area - if a bruise forms, the component salting technology has been violated.
• "Rust" on the scales is unacceptable. This is a sign of fat oxidation, which is seen in old or improperly stored herring.

Tip: Those who love herring with milk or caviar should choose pot-bellied fish. You can even check what is contained inside the abdomen. To do this, press on the abdomen, then part of the milk or caviar will appear from the hole in the region of the caudal fin.

• The carcass of high-quality fish is dense and elastic, without spots, streaks and damage on the surface.
• The most delicious is herring with a thick back. And if you want to choose a less salty billet, then you should pay attention to specimens with red eyes.

A high-quality semi-finished product smells pleasant and appetizing. Of the additional notes, only the presence of smells characteristic of spices used in salting is allowed.

In order to properly and quickly clean the herring, and even not to face additional troubles after that, you need to carefully prepare for the process. Spending a few minutes on this can save you a couple of hours.

• Be sure to check the sharpness of the knife that we will use. A blunt tool will not only slow down the process, but also reduce the quality of the product.
• You should take care of the presence of gloves and an apron in advance. The smell of herring strongly eats into the skin, and is washed off with difficulty. And the abundance of salt does not affect the skin in a positive way.
• The cutting board is also recommended to be protected from a specific smell, otherwise, within a few weeks, all the components cut on it will smell like fish. We cover the workplace with several layers of paper, cling film or just plastic bags. An additional plus of the reception is that after that the board does not even have to be washed.
• If the herring or its insides still got on the skin, board or oilcloth that covered the table, problem areas should be washed with cool water. After that, we wipe them with lemon juice, then no traces will remain.

Initially, you need to decide what will be done with the fillet, peeled from the skin and bones. If it immediately goes into a dish or on the table, you should not put it in the refrigerator. In a few minutes at room temperature, nothing will happen to him, but in the refrigerator all the products will smell. If you have to wait with cooking, it is better to put the product in a glass jar or wrap it in cling film.

Herring cleaning methods and their nuances

Before you clean the herring from the bones, it must be properly prepared. Regardless of how the product will be brought to the state of the fillet, the following pre-treatment must be carried out:

• We wash the herring under running water, put it on the prepared workplace. First of all, we cut off the head from the carcass.
• We cut the abdomen, acting from the head to the tail. Immediately remove the fins located at the bottom, they should detach without any problems.
• We extract offal from the abdomen. While some people love milk, it's best to throw it away with the rest of the trash. For further use, only caviar will fit. We clean the product carefully and carefully, you need to completely remove all dark films, because of them the meat has a bitter taste.
• Once again, we wash the workpiece under running water, inspect it and proceed to the next stage of processing.
• Cut the meat on the two halves of the abdomen into thin strips. It is better to throw it away, due to the presence of very small bones that cannot be removed.
• We make an incision along the line of the ridge and remove a large fin. By the way, it is not necessary to use a knife for this, you can simply separate the meat with your hands. It remains only to remove the skin. To do this, we hook the film and carefully remove it, moving from top to bottom.

To clean the meat from the bones and get a tasty, whole and tender fillet, you can use one of the following methods:

• First option. We cut off the tail of the fish, once again run our thumb along the entire length of the ridge, dividing the meat into two halves. Then carefully remove first one part of the fillet from the bone skeleton, then the other. If the fish is fresh or not stale, after such a separation, only a few long bones will remain in the fillet. They must be carefully removed, having received the finished product. But if, during the manipulation, a lot of bones remained in the meat that broke off from the skeleton, this indicates that the quality of the carcass is not too high.
• Second option. It is used by professional chefs, because it allows you to get the perfect fillet in one movement. We take the fishtail with both hands, clamping in each half. We rotate the fish from ourselves. When the carcass is already going down, we move our hands in different directions, as if tearing the product into two halves. As a result, we get a clean fillet in one hand and a fillet with a bone skeleton in the other. From the second blank, you need to remove the spine, then we examine both pieces for bones, which we carefully remove.

It turns out that preparing a semi-finished product for the process of creating a snack or a multi-component dish is not at all difficult. After several practical exercises and honing skills, manipulation will take only a few minutes. The finished product can be served immediately under vegetable oil and onions, added to salads, put on herring oil. You can also put it in a glass jar and sprinkle with mustard powder. The result is a fragrant and tasty snack made from natural ingredients.

0

When buying herring in a store or market, you need to choose fresh oily fish. Herring fillet, cut at home, will undoubtedly be tasty and fragrant, but first you have to tinker with it a little.

Cleaning fish is a painstaking task, but the effort will not be wasted. In addition, with some experience, you can turn a whole carcass into tender pieces of fillet in a matter of minutes.

The herring is covered with the remains of brine and fat, which have a very specific smell. In order not to have to wash the kitchen later, before cleaning, you need to prepare the workplace. You will need the following accessories:

Cutting board

For fish it is better to have a separate board. You can protect any other from the herring smell by wrapping it several times with a film or laying it with thick clean paper. Newspapers cannot be used for this, because they contain harmful printing ink. After gutting the fish, the film can simply be removed, collecting waste into it, and discarded.

Knife and tweezers

A kitchen knife must be sharp. It is difficult to cut the skin evenly with a blunt blade, it will be difficult to remove. A beautiful cut of the pulp can only be obtained with a perfectly sharpened blade. It is convenient to extract small bones that are deep inside with tweezers.

Hand and clothing protection

It is especially difficult to wash the skin of the hands from the smell of salted fish. To avoid this problem, you can wear thin household gloves. If your hands are still a little dirty when working with herring, fresh lemon juice will help remove unwanted flavor. A thick kitchen apron will protect your clothes.

Fish preparation

At the first stage, the purchased whole fish is prepared for final cutting. Then comes the separation of the pulp from the bones.

Washing

First, the carcass is rinsed under the tap. Water easily washes away brine and possible contamination. After washing, it is recommended to blot the fish with a napkin so that the wet skin does not slide on the board. It is not necessary to peel off the scales from the herring. Usually it flies around before the fish gets to the cutting table, and the remains will be removed along with the skin.

gutting

The herring is laid on its side and its head is cut off. Then the belly is cut open along its entire length. This must be done carefully so as not to cut the gallbladder, the contents of which have an unpleasant bitter taste. The entrails are taken out and thrown away.

If caviar is found in the herring's stomach, it can be separated and then used for sandwiches. The milks found in males are not so tasty, but there are lovers who prefer them to caviar.

Fin removal

Longitudinal incisions are made on the back on both sides of the dorsal fin and removed. The ventral fins are cut out with a knife or scissors. You can also separate the narrow strips along the edges of the abdomen, because they contain many small bones.

The tail does not need to be cut off, it will go into the bin along with the spine. Then dark films are removed from the walls of the abdomen, the fish is washed from the inside and dried with a paper towel.

How to properly clean a herring

The presence of a large number of small bones in herring deters many people from buying it. But in fact, getting rid of the skin and bones is quite simple.

How to take off the skin

There has long been a dispute about the method of removing the skin: whether to start from the head or from the tail. In practice, you can shoot it in any direction. The skin is picked up from one end of the fish and torn off the carcass with a smooth movement.

It is easier to grab the edge of the skin if it is not wet, but wiped with a napkin. In fresh fish, the skin will come off in one layer. If it breaks, it will have to be removed in small fragments.

How to remove bones

No one likes the crunch of fish bones in a salad or on a sandwich. When cutting a herring, the bones are removed in two stages. First, fingers separate both halves of the fillet from the spine. Together with the ridge, large bones and ribs attached to it are removed.

The remaining bones can be difficult to see. It is easier to run your fingers along the fillet strip and pull out the bones found by hand or with tweezers.

Methods for cleaning salted herring

Experienced housewives have different tricks to clean the herring. But there are two main ways to separate meat from bones: regular and fast.

Traditional

The herring, whose head and fins have already been removed, is placed on the board with its back to itself. The thumb of one hand is inserted into the incision in the back closer to the head. Then they begin to gradually separate the meat from the ridge, moving the finger in the direction from the head to the tail.

Having reached the tail, carefully remove the abdominal part of the fillet from the ribs. Thus, a half of a fish without bones is obtained.

The second half, remaining on the mainline, is removed in the same way, turning the fish over with the other side up. The bones remaining in the meat are removed with hands or tweezers.

How to peel a herring quickly in one motion

For those who are already good at handling fish, there is a quick and effective way to cut it. This method is used where rich catches are not uncommon and it is necessary to speed up the processing process. The fish is taken by the tip of the tail with both hands. With one hand on the half from the side of the abdomen, the other - from the side of the back.

You need to hold it very tightly so that the carcass does not slip out of your fingers. Now spin the fish in the direction “away from you”, and when it finishes the turn, spread your arms to the sides with a sharp jerk. In one hand, a ridge with a back should remain, and in the second - two halves of the abdomen already cleaned of bones. Now the back fillet is separated, and the tail is cut off.

You can clearly see how to quickly cut a herring from the bones in the video.

Serving options

Herring is used in cooking in various forms. From fillet pieces (to boiled potatoes with butter) to multi-layered salads. When cutting fish, it is desirable to consider how it will be consumed.

Fillet

To get the perfect oily fillet pieces that will decorate the festive table, you need to act as carefully as possible. It is better to use the classic way, and leave the effects and speed for an informal dinner.

The fish is gutted and cleaned of skin and fins. Then, with a sharp knife, deepen the incision in the back a little. From the side of the tail, the fillet is cut, as if separating it from the ridge. Now the incised tip is pulled up, pressing the rest of the carcass to the table. When half of the fillet is evenly and beautifully removed, the herring is turned over and the same is done on the other side.

For salad

Salad fish is usually cut into small pieces and mixed with other ingredients. Therefore, the flat surface and the shape of the fillet are of little importance. You can use a simple and quick way of punching. In this case, the bones are first removed, and then the skin.

Take the herring in your hands so that the thumb is in the incision on the back, and the rest in the abdomen. Now you need to squeeze your fingers, separating the fillet from the ridge. If you make careful and smooth movements, most of the bones will remain on the ridge, and by removing the skin, we will get the finished fillet.

How to choose and clean fresh herring

When choosing fresh fish, you need to pay special attention to its quality. Such a herring is not only easy to clean, but it will also be really tasty. Fresh herring should be firm to the touch, have red elastic gills and shiny skin.

The abdomen should not be so soft that the bones separate from it themselves. This leads to suspicion that the product has already been repeatedly frozen and thawed again.

The typical maritime scent will finally convince you that the fish is in good condition.

The herring is washed and its belly is cut open. The insides and films are cleaned with a knife, caviar and milk are left for later use. It is not recommended to rinse the fish from the inside, if a lot of blood has been released, it is better to wipe it with a paper towel.

After removing all the fins, the thumbs are inserted into a deep dorsal incision and the flesh is carefully separated from the bones.

A truly fresh herring will not turn into minced meat with this method, and the skin will be removed from it with a single stocking, easily lagging behind the elastic pulp. To make it easier to remove small bones with tweezers, put the fish in salted water for 15 minutes.

Experienced housewives accumulate a whole collection of valuable tips over time. These little things greatly facilitate the culinary processes, including butchering fish.

• Clean the herring in advance. If possible, do not do this just before the guests arrive - your hands will smell like fish.
• After gutting, thoroughly rinse the carcass and separate the fillet on a clean board. This is the only way you will get even beautiful pieces of salted herring.
• If friends came to visit suddenly - surprise them with a quick and spectacular cutting of a herring "by the tail". This method is not suitable for raw fish.
• To make the bones easier to separate, first wrap the herring with a paper towel and tap it on the table several times.

High-quality herring is easy to clean and pleasant to eat. Large, fresh, fatty fish will not spoil the mood when cooking and will bring pleasure to all family members and guests. Only at first glance it seems that it is difficult to cut a herring correctly.

After trying a couple of times, every lover of salted fish will only buy a whole herring, and not store-bought preserves. In addition, this delicacy product contains a large number of healthy elements.

Herring can be deservedly called "the most popular fish", which is loved by both adults and children. It is affordable, so many people can afford it. Such slightly salted fish is used as a simple snack, and also included in salad recipes, for example, for cooking the famous “fur coat” and snacks.

Preparation for cutting

The most unpleasant thing about herring is cleaning, because for many this is a very difficult and painstaking task. In fact, if you know some tricks, you can clean the fish quickly and without much difficulty. Below are the most popular and effective cleaning methods that everyone can master.

To begin with, you have to choose the right and high-quality herring, which will not disappoint with taste.

That is why it is better to buy a whole carcass, because it is easy to check how long it has been on the counter and whether the fish is worthy of being on your table. To choose the right herring, pay attention to the color of the gills.

In quality fish, they are dark red, elastic and do not fall apart. Look the fish in the eyes, which should not be cloudy. Do not buy herring that is in spicy brines, as this is how sellers mask spoiled fish.

Herring is cleaned using the following tools: a cutting board, a sharp knife, tweezers for removing small bones, a plastic bag and napkins. It's better to have a separate herring cleaning board, but another option is to wrap it in several layers of cling film. Many people use newspaper to keep the board clean, but this is a serious mistake because the printing ink gets on the fish and, consequently, in the stomach. To avoid an unpleasant fishy smell on your hands, be sure to wear medical gloves. If the smell remains, then use lemon juice. It will help remove the fishy flavor from the board as well.

How to clean herring in the traditional way?

The most common cleaning method takes place in several stages:

1. Put the fish on the prepared board and separate the head and then the tail with a knife. Holding the herring by the upper fin, carefully cut it off;
2. Passing the knife through the hole left after removing the head, cut the abdomen, which will make it easy to get the insides. Look, perhaps you got milk or caviar, which many people eat on bread;
3. Place the fish on its side and cut first from one side and then from the other side strips about 0.5 cm wide. This will remove the pelvic fins and hard inedible parts;
4. From the inside, remove the black film, as it will be bitter. Rinse the fish inside and out under running water;
5. Lay the herring on the board with its back to you and use your thumb to make an indentation where the top fin was located. Move to the top of the fish, dividing the carcass into two halves, and then do the same, moving down;
6. Put the herring on the board and pick up the skin. After that, grasp the edge and quickly remove the skin in one motion. Do the same with the other half. The herring is cleaned, it remains to cut into portioned pieces and serve.

How to clean a herring from bones

If the fish will be used to prepare a snack or salad, or if you want to get separate clean pieces of fillet, then you need to remove the bones.

There are several ways to quickly deal with this task.

• Cleaning herring for fillets. Put the skinned carcass on the board and separate a small amount of meat near the tail so that you can grab it with your fingers. With one hand, hold the herring, and with the other, with translational movements, pull the meat, separated from the bones, up.

It is worth noting that the fresher the fish, the easier it will be to separate the meat from the bones.

To release the other half of the fillet, repeat the steps, extending the spine. If the bones remain, then use tweezers with which you can easily remove them. It remains only to cut the fillet into pieces.

• Cleaning herring in one motion. A prepared carcass, that is, cleaned of fins and skins, can be quickly freed from bones. Take the carcass in your hands by the tail sideways to you. Turn it over, making a turn, and then sharply spread your arms to the sides and separate the carcass in one motion.

If everything was done correctly, then in one hand there will be a ridge with a back, and in the second - two parts of the abdomen. It remains only to separate the back from the bones and the fillet is considered ready for use. For raw herring, this cutting option is not suitable.

• Punching method. Another way to clean salted herring, but it does not completely eliminate the bones. Gut the carcass, cut off the fins and remove the skin. After that, wash the herring and make an incision on the back. Hold the fish in your hands so that 4 fingers are inside, and the big one is on the dorsal incision.

The task is to squeeze the fingers, making squeezing movements, and thereby separate the meat from the ridge. First, in this way, separate one half of the fillet, and then the second. This cleaning option is ideal if the herring is fresh and well thawed.

• An easy way to clean herring. In the prepared carcass, where the dorsal fin was located, the thumb should be placed, about 2-3 cm deep. For proper cleaning, move your finger in the direction of the tail, which will divide the carcass into halves. When one part separates, it remains to free the other half of the fillet as well. Using tweezers, remove the bones and use the resulting clean meat for its intended purpose.

Now you know how to properly clean a herring at home. Use the suggested options to find the most suitable option for you.

New Year's herring under a fur coat is the central dish of almost every table. And here, too, there are some nuances: in the salad there must be boneless fish.

You can always buy ready-made fillets in the store, but store-bought fillets, as a rule, are generously filled with marinade with harmful additives. Still, it's better to learn how to marinate it yourself.


WILL NEED
herring
cutting board
sharp knife
gloves for those who do not like the specific smell of fish on their hands
First of all, thoroughly wash the herring under running water.

Then, with a sharp knife, separate the head from the carcass. Cut the belly of the fish from the head to the tail. Get rid of the insides. If you are lucky and have caviar in your belly, you can use it for sandwiches. They turn out very tasty.

Rinse the gutted herring again with running water. Now you have to remove the skin from the carcass. To do this, first make a deep incision along the spine, in the direction from head to tail.

Immediately remove the dorsal fin. And then, gently picking up the edge of the skin with the tip of a knife, remove it from top to bottom.

Now the most important thing! Divide the tail into two parts. Firmly grasp the herring by the tail with both hands, in one hand - one part of the tail, in the other - the second. Holding the fish in this way, wrap the herring around the tail, while a small tear will already appear near the tail.

Gently, slowly, without haste, continue to separate the herring, while all, even very small, bones will remain on the part where the back is. It remains to cut off the tail and separate the spine along with most of the bones from the back. Check the finished parts of the fillet. Remove any remaining bones from them. An ordinary table fork will help you with this.

Under the remaining side bones of the herring, put the cloves of the fork, pull them towards you and remove them. If you do this carefully, there will be no bones left.

After removing the bones, the fillet can be cut into portions or used for salad.

Calories: Not specified
Cooking time: not specified

Before each holiday, every housewife thinks about what to cook, what to serve to long-awaited guests in order to feed everyone deliciously. Without fish, without herring, few people manage a feast, for example, it always happens to be an obligatory holiday dish. Yes, just herring is always at the head of the table, there are always a lot of people who want to taste it, so how not to serve lightly salted herring for all guests. But here it is necessary to clean the herring. Just cutting the herring into pieces and serving it with the bones will be ugly. Yes, and the guests will suffer for half a day with bones, get their hands dirty, then run to wash them. To avoid this, simply make the herring fillet yourself. I will tell you how to clean a herring quickly and without bones. You can quickly cut the herring fillet before the guests arrive and treat everyone deliciously. To give the herring an extra taste and aroma, you can cut a fresh onion to it and pour a small amount of vegetable oil on it. Oil is better to take homemade, fragrant and odorous. So buy a herring and clean it yourself, without any problems, so that there are no bones. There are also ready-made fillets on the shelves, but they are not as tasty as freshly cut fish, so I prefer to buy a whole, tasty, fatty herring and quickly clean it, which I advise you.

Required products:
- 1 salted herring,
- knife,
- scissors,
- clean paper and napkins.

Step by step recipe with photo:

Cut off all the fins of the herring with fish scissors.




Next, we make an incision with a sharp knife along the ridge from head to tail.




We remove, or rather we tighten the skin of the herring on one side and on the other. We begin to remove the skin from the side of the head and pull towards the tail.




Now cut off the head and tail with a knife.

We cut the abdomen to take out the insides.




We leave caviar or milk, they are very tasty, and we throw away all unnecessary parts, entrails, intestines. We clean the abdomen from films with napkins.




From the side where the head was, we begin to slowly remove, even pull the fillet off the bones so that all the bones remain on the ridge.






We do the same with the second part of the fillet. And we get two fillets. Remove small bones with culinary tweezers.




The herring fillet is cleaned, boneless and ready to eat. From it you can cook a very tasty snack - or just serve in portions. If you are worried that your hands will smell like herring, then for this I have one piece of advice on how to get rid of this smell: pour lemon juice on your hands. This will end all your problems. The acid will instantly remove the fish smell. And it remains for me to wish you bon appetit!