How to fillet herring. How to clean a herring from bones - Top tips

You should not deprive yourself of a delicious fish snack, just because you can’t cut a herring. Whole slightly salted fish is much tastier and more tender than ready-made pieces in the package. The process of cleaning herring and cutting it into fillets can be made easier if you follow the tips in this article.

How to cut a herring - product selection

One of the secrets of a delicious dish is a quality product. Therefore, it is important to choose the right fish.

• By the gills, you can determine not only fresh fish, but also salted. Press lightly on them. If blood came out, then the technology was violated during the salting.
• Also, a slight coating of “rust”, which occurs as a result of the oxidation of fish oil, speaks of improper preparation. If it is present, you can be sure that the fish meat has also suffered.
• Choose carcasses without visible damage and bright spots. A good product can be identified by elastic and firm meat.
• A fish with a thick back will be much tastier.
• If you like slightly salted herring, then choose fish with red eyes.
• Determine the presence of caviar and milk by a thick tummy. Or press the belly of the fish closer to the end of the tail, the caviar will appear through the hole in this place.
• Even when all of the above points indicate a quality product, you should not neglect the smell. If it is sharp, then the product is damaged.

How to cut a herring - the progress of work

The final result will depend on how well you cut the fish. With this method, you will get two neat fillets that can be cut into portions or used in a dish.

• Prepare a large cutting board, knife, paper towels, and a waste bag. The board must be only for fish, as its material quickly absorbs the smell.

Advice. If you do not have a separate cutting board for fish, then cover it with a plastic bag or wrap it with cling film.

• Cut off the head and tail of the carcass. They are not used, so you can safely throw them away. Also make an incision along the belly of the fish. This must be done in the direction from the tail to the head.

Advice. Use a sharp knife to cut the carcass. This way you will make neat cuts and do not damage the meat.

• Remove all the insides from the fish. Milk is left for the dish, like caviar, the rest of the parts are thrown away. Rinse the inside of the fish well or pat dry with paper towels. Then, with the tip of a knife, scrape off the film and the remaining entrails.

Advice. When cleaning the belly, direct the knife from the ridge to the cut so as not to damage the meat.

• If necessary, rinse the fish again and pat dry with paper towels.

• Remove the fins. Start with the tail: pry it with your finger from the tail to the belly incision and jerk it off the carcass.

• Remove the pelvic fins next. Just pull them out with a sharp movement from the tail towards the head.

• In the same way, remove the fin on the back. Or carefully cut it out.

• With a knife, cut the back of the carcass into two parts, but not completely.

• Also cut the skin at the bottom of the fish (near the tail).

• It's time to skin. Lay the fish on its side. Slightly pry it near the cut on the tail and carefully separate it from the meat. Pull the skin towards the head, but up. That way you won't tear out the meat. Do the same on the other side.

• When you have completely removed the skin, rinse the carcass again under running and only cold water. Let dry or blot with paper towels.

• The most difficult process has come - the separation of the fillet from the bones. Take the fish in your hand and stick your thumb between the tail of the carcass and the ridge as shown in the photo.

• Now pull the fillet up with one hand, and hold the rest of the skeleton with the other.

• As a result, the entire spine will remain on the lower fillet, while the upper piece is completely ready.

Advice. You can remove most of the bones along with the spine if you slowly separate the fillets. A quick jerk will break the bones.

• To separate the backbone from the meat, slide your finger under the bone again and begin to remove it from the tail of the fillet.

• At this stage, it is important not to rush and carefully separate the spine, otherwise the meat will tear into pieces.

• Although most of the bones come out with the spine, short and small ones still remain. Run your finger along the inside of the fillet and pull out the bones.

• Herring is completely ready to be used in your favorite dish or cut to the table.

If you approach the process of cutting herring correctly, you can quickly and easily cope with such a difficult task at first glance. After all, a fish cut with your own hands is much tastier than a factory fillet, and even cheaper. Bon appetit!

For 2 more ways to clean herring from bones, see the video:

Calories: Not specified
Cooking time: Not indicated

For many holidays, housewives serve delicious or on the table, but not everyone can quickly clean it correctly. It is important not only to clean the herring correctly, but also quickly without bones. Guests really don’t like it when the herring is presented simply cut into pieces. Guests will have to try hard to remove the bones, get all their hands dirty, and this is not even a holiday when all the guests are dirty. So in such a situation, if you decide to serve everyone's favorite herring on the table, then clean it and I will help you with this. I know an easy way to clean a herring quickly and without bones.




- 1 slightly salted herring.

Tools:
- White paper,
- knife,
- scissors.

Recipe with photo step by step:

Cut off the head and tail from the herring. Usually no one eats the tail and there is practically no meat in it. There are also many small bones, so it is better to cut off the tail. 2-3 cm tail will not make the weather. With him, there will only be more trouble and trouble, and when you clean the tail from bones and peel, you will understand that there is not enough meat there.




Also cut off all the fins with scissors. Of course, they can be cut with a knife, but you have to make a good effort. You can also damage the fish with a knife, and with scissors you can easily cut off all unnecessary parts.




With a knife, cut the abdomen from the side where the head was.




Now remove all the insides from the abdomen and wipe the fish from the inside with a napkin to clean everything as expected. There should be no black veins and remains of the intestines, they will be bitter, and the herring will deteriorate and become tasteless.






Make an incision with a knife on the ridge of the herring, where the head was. The incision is literally 1-1.5 cm.




Grab the edge of the peel and remove, or rather, how to pull it off the herring. Also pull off the skin on the other side of the herring in the same way. Of course, you will have to get your hands dirty, but you can wear gloves and then everything will be in order.




Now we grab the edges of the herring from the head and remove the fillet, slowly pulling it towards the tail. Thus, you will have a cleaned herring fillet in your hands. We also remove the second fillet from the herring, where the ridge with bones remains.




It turns out two herring fillets, but the bones still need to be removed if small ones remain. Small bones are easy to remove with tweezers. The fillet is almost ready.






The fillet is almost ready, it remains to cut it into slices, pieces.




Serve to the table, garnished with herbs and onions. Onions take either white or purple, it is more tender and not very sharp. When serving, herring is traditionally poured with fragrant vegetable oil. Can be cooked for such a herring

Many modern housewives buy herring fillet and use it in the preparation of a variety of salads and snacks. However, often purchased canned food is second-rate, prepared by unscrupulous producers from fish that has lost its taste.

Therefore, it is better to purchase whole herring, remove bones, skin, fins and use it for making nutritious snacks. Then you can appreciate the freshness of the fish and cook really tasty and healthy dishes. How to clean a herring will be discussed in this article.

To quickly separate the bones from the fillet and cook it in a few minutes, you first need to prepare the work surface and tools.

To clean the herring, it is better to separate a separate board, but you can wrap it with cling film so that there is no smell left and no fillet residues that have eaten into the wood or plastic. Instead of a film, you can use a dense plastic bag.

You can wear latex medical gloves or rub your hands after washing with lemon juice to get rid of the fishy smell.

For cleaning you will need:

• sharpened knife;
• gloves (for example, medical);
• tweezers. It should be at hand. With it, you can remove small and thin bones from the fillet, which are located near the ridge;
• paper towels or napkins. They are needed to remove intestinal films and blood;
• trash bag.

Various ways to clean herring

Consider several methods of cleaning fish, their advantages and procedures.

Classical

The classic way to clean a herring from bones consists of several stages.

1. The fish is placed on the board and the head is separated with a knife, and then the tail.
2. Holding the herring by the fin from above, carefully cut it off.
3. Passing the knife through the hole that remains, cut the belly and remove the insides of the herring. If you like milk or caviar, do not stick the knife deep inside so as not to damage them. Gently push the abdomen and free it from the insides.
4. Caviar and milk can be used to make sandwiches or snacks.
5. Turn the fish on its side and cut from one side, and then from the second strip half a centimeter wide. This allows the belly fins and hard parts to be removed.
6. Remove the black film with a paper towel or with your hands, it gives a bitter taste to dishes. Rinse the fish both outside and inside under tap water.
7. Lay the herring back to you on the board and make a hole with your thumb in the part where the fin is on top. Move up, dividing the herring into 2 halves, and then do the same, moving down.
8. Put the herring on the board and pick up the skin with a knife, grab its edge and quickly remove it. Do the same with your other half.

Herring cleaned! It remains to remove the bones using tweezers, cut it into portions and serve.

For the "fur coat"

Here is one of the recipes for cutting fish intended for the famous fur coat salad.

First, lay the herring on the board, cut off the tail and head of the herring. Then open the belly from the caudal fin down forward to the end. Remove the entrails from the fish.

Rinse milk and caviar under tap water, put in a bowl or container and refrigerate. Throw the rest of the insides in the trash.

Move the knife from the ridge to the edges, clean the inside of the abdomen, scraping off the black film: first one side and then the other. Rinse the herring under tap water. Cut off with quick movements all the fins below - the caudal, dorsal and ventral.

Make an incision along the back of the fish with a knife, dividing the herring into 2 parts, a little short of the end. Lay the carcass on its side and pry the skin from the tail with your fingers. Then gently pull it forward and up with your hand. So you will remove the entire skin from both sides.

After that, you should separate the fillet from the fish ridge: start from the tail, carefully dividing the fish into 2 halves and, pressing your finger against the bone, move to the head and separate the meat. Do the same with the second half of the herring.

It remains to carefully remove with your fingers the small bones remaining on the herring, without violating the integrity of the carcass.

Rinse the fillet, cut it into cubes, and voila - you're done! You can start preparing a "fur coat".

Punching

This cooking method will show you how to quickly peel a herring without removing all the pits.

You must first gut the carcass, cut off the fins and remove the skin. Then the herring needs to be washed and an incision made on the back. Hold it so that 4 fingers are inside, and the thumb is on the cut on the back of the fish. Then you should squeeze your fingers, squeezing the meat and separating it from the ridge.

First, separate 1 half of the fillet, and then the 2nd, and then remove the bones using tweezers.

In one move

There is another option for cleaning fish from bones. First, the skin is removed from the carcass, the insides and fins are removed from it. Holding the herring by the tail with 2 hands so that its side is facing you, tear it a little with your hands, moving your fingers away from each other, holding the herring very tightly so that it does not slip out. Holding the carcass by the tail with 2 hands, “tumble” the fish onto yourself, the herring will describe a circle around the tail.

Then cut the herring with a sharp movement, spreading your arms to the sides. In one hand you will have a back and a ridge, and in the 2nd two strips of the abdomen. It remains to carefully separate the back from the bones with tweezers or fingers. Put the fillet on a plate and cut into portions and use for cooking.

How to remove small bones?

To quickly separate fish meat from small bones, wrap it with a paper towel and tap it several times on the table. After that, the bones will easily fall behind the main part of the fillet.

Use tweezers to remove any remaining bones.

The fresher and larger the fish, the easier it is to separate the bones and skin. When choosing, pay attention: if the gills are reddish and elastic, and the eyes are not cloudy, this is an indicator of its freshness.

The video on our website will help you quickly learn how to clean a herring. Cutting may seem difficult at first. Having “gotten the taste” and having tried cleaning the fish several times, you will get the hang of it and stop buying canned herring with vinegar in oil for cooking “fur coats” and other dishes.

Herring can be taken from the Pacific, Atlantic or Black Sea, its full-fledged replacement is mackerel, trout or salmon, with these types of fish, dishes will also turn out very tasty.

1. Before you clean the herring, we strongly advise you to sharpen the knife. Be sure to take a sharp knife for cutting fish, as this will allow you to properly cope with the task - quickly and without unnecessary hassle. A dull knife will tear the fibers when cutting, and a perfect fillet will not work.
2. Wear rubber, plastic, vinyl, or latex gloves to avoid leaving the flavor of salted fish on your hands. To protect clothes from stains, we recommend using an apron, you can cover the table with a sheet of paper or cling film.
3. For different types of products, it is better to use different cutting boards, this rule also applies to fish. To prevent the cutting board from getting an unpleasant smell, cover it with white paper or a layer of cling film. After eviscerating, the paper or film can be removed, wrapped in bones, entrails, fins and other waste, and then easily discarded.
4. After cleaning the fish, it is better to wipe the board with a sponge, which should be moistened with dishwashing detergent and rinsed with water. If that doesn't work and the ambergris remains, sprinkle your hands and board with lemon juice.
5. To make it easier to clean the herring, you can dip it in hot water or hold it in cold water, to which you should add a few drops of vinegar.
6. If the herring is too salty, soak it in a strong tea infusion, then it will become tastier.
7. To prepare a brine for barrel fish, you can take half a liter of water, add 1 tablespoon of sugar and salt, pour over the brine and refrigerate for 24 hours. To make the ambassador stronger, leave it in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
8. To make herring tastier, you can make a marinade for onions: pour a few teaspoons of vinegar or citric acid into water, a little sugar and mix thoroughly with pre-chopped onions, and then leave the onions in the marinade in an enamel container for several hours in the refrigerator.
9. If you do not immediately use the fillet, after cleaning the fish, put it in the refrigerator, wrapping it in cling film beforehand.
10. To cook herring from scratch, you can buy fresh fish, cut it into pieces, put it in a jar and pour it with a solution of water, vinegar (or citric acid), mayonnaise and add onions. After she has stood for 12 hours in this marinade, the bones, if any, will become soft.

Conclusion

There are many recipes with herring: mincemeat, “fur coat”, fish rolls, etc. We hope that the article was useful in cutting herring, and you are convinced that the task is within the power of an inexperienced cook.

Interesting culinary experiments and enjoy your meal!

Herring is one of the favorite products of Russians, their pride. Not a single festive table is complete without one or another herring dish. Its only drawback is the abundance of small bones. How to properly butcher a carcass to get rid of them? ?

Of course, many may object, they say, in any supermarket you can buy ready-made peeled herring fillets, but the thing is that in terms of taste it is inferior to ordinary herring with bones.

How to properly clean a herring

Every housewife certainly has her own secret, how to properly clean a herring. Sometimes, when guests are on the doorstep, and you need to prepare a delicious snack in a matter of minutes, you should know a few subtleties on how to clean the fish from the bones.

Step 1. To do this, you will need a cutting board, baking foil, a sharp knife, a thin vegetable knife, tweezers and a plate where you can put the peeled fillets. To avoid the smell that remains on the board after cutting the fish, it should be covered with foil.

Step 2. First you need to separate the head and tail with a sharp knife. Some hobbyists leave the head for decoration, then the gills should be removed.

Step 3. Then, with the same knife, cut open the belly of the fish along its entire length, scraping out all the insides from there along with the protective film. If there is caviar or milk, you can clean them, rinse under water and leave, as there are many lovers of eating them.

Step 4. On the prepared carcass, we make an incision in the tail, then, with a leisurely movement, carefully, so as not to damage the surface, remove the skin.

Step 5. On the back of the already cleaned carcass, make a shallow cut with a thin knife and remove the fin. With the same thin knife, carefully cut the herring into 2 halves. Carefully remove the ridge from one half.

Now, how to clean herring from bones, everyone knows and will not get into trouble if necessary.

How to clean a herring for a fur coat

As you know, in order to cook everyone's favorite herring under a fur coat, you need to grind all the ingredients. Herring fillet should also be cut into small cubes. But you also need to try so that the guests do not get any bone stuck in their throats. Young housewives should know how to clean a herring for a fur coat so that not even small bones remain.

In the above way, it is necessary to process the herring carcass in order to extract the finished fillet. It should be rinsed under water and lightly dried with a kitchen towel.

It remains only to check the fillet for the presence of small bones, and if there are any, remove them with tweezers or hands.

How to clean salted herring

Sometimes when buying it turns out that the herring was too salty. In order not to spoil the taste of the finished dish, it should be processed. How to clean salted herring, few know, but the secret is that it only needs to be soaked in water, milk or tea.

Step 1. Very salty herring should be soaked in water for one and a half or two days, periodically changing the water.

Step 2. You can soak hard and salted fish in milk for 5-8 hours.

Step 3. If the herring is soft, it can be soaked in sweetened tea for half an hour or an hour. This will give it elasticity and remove excess salt.

Step 4. After excess salt has been removed from the herring, and it has regained a delicate taste, it is necessary to cut it without leaving it for long storage. To do this, you need to know how to quickly clean a herring.

Step 5. The carcass must be freed from the head, tail and entrails. Remove the skin and carefully divide the fish into 2 halves with your hands, getting rid of the bones along the way. That's all wisdom.

No one is immune from unexpected twists of fate. And very often a person finds himself in an unpredictable situation. Therefore, the knowledge of worldly wisdom is always very helpful. Now you know how to clean a herring correctly!

Herring has always been considered the favorite fish of Russians. It is impossible to imagine a festive table without salted fish with onions and sunflower oil or herring under a fur coat. However, not all housewives know how to clean a herring, and consider this process to be very difficult and time-consuming. But having mastered a few simple ways of cutting fish, they will be able to regularly delight their household with delicious herring dishes.

Basic rules for cutting

Regardless of which method of cleaning herring from bones the hostess prefers, she needs to adhere to the basic requirements for cutting this fish. Following them will help make the cleaning process quick and easy:

1. When cleaning fish, you need to use a very sharp knife. This will eliminate cuts and help avoid loss of fish.
2. To clean the herring, you need to have a separate board. This is due to the fact that the fishy smell is absorbed very quickly. That is why it is better to refuse wooden boards. Some housewives use only plastic and glass boards to clean fish. The smell in them is practically not absorbed.
3. The use of paper or cling film allows you to keep the board in its original form for several years. Newspapers should not be used as they contain a lot of ink.
4. To get rid of unpleasant hand odor after work, you can use lemon juice or diluted apple cider vinegar. Also, any glass washing liquid helps to get rid of the smell of fish.
5. Dry your hands regularly with paper towels while cleaning. And you should also wipe the blade of the knife.
6. Tweezers allow you to remove small bones in a few seconds.

Following these rules will allow you to cut a herring without bones or with them in a few minutes.

To clean herring from the bone, you need special culinary scissors, a sharp knife and a cutting board. Some cooks additionally use tweezers for this purpose. There are several cleaning methods.

Classic bone removal

When looking for information on how to clean a herring quickly and without bones, most housewives find information about the classic method of cutting . It includes several stages:

Fillet preparation in German

In Germany, housewives use a different way of cleaning fish. A well-known blogger posted a high-quality video on his page. How to properly clean a herring from bones, says a former teacher who speaks Russian well. First you need to cut off the fins, head and tail of the fish. Then you should remove the skin with a "stocking". Then you need to cut the stomach to take out its contents. After that, the fillet is removed, starting from the head, with the help of the thumbs. The fillet must be removed very carefully so as not to damage. This rule can be neglected if the fish is needed for cutting into a salad..

In unsalted herring, it is much more difficult to separate the fillet. In such a situation, you can find a special video on the Internet. How to quickly cut a herring from the bones using a regular package, many bloggers tell.

First you need to cut the stomach and remove all the insides. Then the fish is placed in a bag and beaten off on both sides with a culinary mallet. Do not hit the fish hard with a hammer, as you can severely damage the fillet. Then the carcass should be removed from the bag, cut off its fins, head and tail. After that, it is easy to divide the fish into two parts. On one part there will be a ridge that needs to be removed. Fillets should be skinned at the last minute..

Instant separation of the ridge

There is a way to clean a herring from bones in one motion. It is suitable if the integrity of the fillet is not important. First you need to cut off the head and fins. Then you should remove the skin from the fish and remove the insides from the abdomen. The tail cannot be cut off.

With your right hand, you should take one half of the tail, with your left - for the second. Then the fish must be turned through the tail 360 degrees. After the carcass turns over, you need to pull the tail in different directions. If everything is done correctly, then in one hand there will be a clean piece of fillet with part of the tail. The ridge will need to be separated from the other part of the fish. The belly of the herring is cut off last. This method of cleaning herring is very popular on the Internet. It is demonstrated online by many bloggers and famous chefs.

It is worth remembering that herring has many small bones that remain after the separation of the ridge. They can only be removed with tweezers. First you need to separate all visible large bones from the fillet. After that, the fillet should be carefully felt and inspected. Most of the small bones are located in the region of the back. By removing them, we get a clean fillet that can be eaten without fear of choking on a bone.

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