The vegetables are boiled, the mayonnaise is bought, everyone is in anticipation of the signature salad “herring under a fur coat”, and only the salted herring lies alone on the table, not showing any interest in what is happening. A knife is taken in hand, a position of slight confusion and a dumb question in the eyes, which is repeated in a whisper on the lips - how to clean a herring?
Slowly, my mother, my dear man, walks into the kitchen, rustling with slippers and sniffing through her nose!
Mom is an honored catering worker, behind her shoulders is a technical school, work as a waitress, cook, pastry chef. Everyone respects her, sometimes you want to be like her.
She unceremoniously takes the knife away from me, rolls up her sleeves in a businesslike way and says:
- Look, now I'll show you how to quickly clear the bones of a herring.
Having made a confident incision, as the executioner cuts off his head. Turns around and goes to the sink, displeased, washes the knife and starts sharpening.
- The knife must be sharp, otherwise your work will turn into a nightmare.
Work continues. Gliding smoothly with a knife from a place that until recently was crowned with a head, she makes an incision along the abdomen. From start to finish. It takes out all the insides, scrapes off the remains and sends them to the trash.
After such dirty work, the cutting site does not look the best. Mom starts doing a little cleaning. Washes the fish inside under the tap, removes internal films that can be caught with nails. After the saddle, it is taken to a cutting board.
Work continues. Holding the silver body of the herring with one hand, she makes another cut along the entire back. This is the beginning of the second phase.
With confident movements, using her thumb, she slightly lifts one half of the fish, thereby separating it from the ridge. Fillet is easy to manipulate.
There was one herring - there were two halves. Now cleaning again. All small specks that were not visible before are removed.
Grasping the edge of the ridge, and slightly lifting it, she pulls it out of the herring and proceeds to search for the remaining bones.
Stripping along the edge of each half in the area where the belly used to be, cuts off a small strip along the entire length and sets it aside. This part does not look appetizing, so there are no questions whatsoever.
Turning a part of the herring upside down, mom tries to grab the edge of the skin with her nails. This does not work right away. Further, the thin skin is torn, and all attempts begin anew. Finally, triumphantly stepping from foot to foot (she succeeded), slowly, centimeter by centimeter, she exposes the side of the herring shiny with fat.
Mom throws the knife into the sink, then washes her hands for a long time, each time sniffing for a herring scent. He turns to face me, presses on my nose, as if it were a button and says: "Study, student!" This is how quickly the herring was peeled.
New Year's herring under a fur coat is the central dish of almost every table. And here, too, there are nuances: the salad must necessarily contain fish without bones.
You can always buy ready-made fillets in the store, but store fillets are usually generously filled with marinade with harmful additives. Still, it's better to learn how to pickle 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, detach the head from the carcass and slit the belly of the fish from head to tail. Get rid of the insides. If you are lucky enough to have caviar in your belly, you can use it for sandwiches. It turns out to be 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 cut along the ridge, from head to tail.
Remove the dorsal fin immediately. 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 in two. Hold the herring firmly by the tail with both hands, in one hand - one part of the tail, in the other - the other. While holding the fish in this way, wrap the herring around the tail, while a small tear will already appear near the tail.
Carefully, slowly, slowly 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 fillet parts. Remove all remaining bones from them. An ordinary table fork will help you with this.
Under the remaining side bones of the herring, insert the fork teeth, pull them towards you and remove. If you do this carefully, there will be no bones left.
Once the bones have been removed, the fillets can be cut into portions or used for salad dressing.
Lightly salted herring, if you bought it in the store, and did not salt it yourself, should be rinsed with cold water before that. how to clean it. We spread the herring on a board convenient for cutting. It is advisable that you have in stock different boards for cutting fish, meat and vegetables - for example, fish, how not to wash the board, can leave a smell. It will be subtle, but why risk it?
We retreat from the head of the herring 1-1.5 cm and make a small incision. At the place of the incision, we gently cling to the skin and pull it. So the skin is easily removed. This must be done on one and the other side of the herring.
Cut off the head and the edge of the abdomen. We take out all the insides from the herring. You can scrape the belly of a herring with a knife. To delete everything exactly. Very often a dark film forms in the middle of the herring - it will taste bitter, so it is better to get rid of it.
With a sharp knife we make an incision about 3 cm long on the back. In depth, it should reach the ridge of the fish.
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Well, now we put the knife aside - we will work with our hands. With our fingers we penetrate the incision, grasp the ridge and, holding it, as it were, open the herring, dividing it into a ridge and a sirloin. We do this with both hands - with one we hold the ridge, with the other we help to separate the fillets. This is a very fast process. Believe me, it takes longer to describe it than to do it.
Peeling herring is one of the most unpleasant procedures in the kitchen. There is a lot of fuss about extracting numerous bones from this fish, and it will also saturate the whole kitchen, chopping board and hands with a fishy smell. But there is technology that will help to clean the herring quickly and without bones.
Ways to properly and quickly cut herring into pitted and skinless fillets.
Most modern housewives prefer to buy ready-made herring fillets and use it for making snacks and savory salads. But as practice shows, it is precisely such a milled fish that often has low quality.
For this reason, it is best if you buy whole herring and remove skin, fins and bones yourself. In this case, you will be able to more correctly assess the freshness and quality of the product, thanks to which you will definitely be able to prepare a delicious snack from it. We will talk about how to peel herring without unnecessary problems in our article.
If you think it is very difficult to peel the herring on your own, then you are deeply mistaken. If you show a little patience, you can quickly get a high-quality fillet. All you need to do is prepare a cutting board, a sharp knife, and a few paper towels.
Simple Tips:
If your goal is the perfect fillet for slicing, then you need to clean the fish in the classic way and do everything as carefully as possible.
So:
If you plan to use herring fillets for salad making, then you can use the so-called pushing method for this. This method differs from the previous one in that you first have to get rid of the ridge of the fish and only then remove the skin from it.
So:
Those who want to cleanse the herring from the bones in one stroke can use the method, which we will introduce you a little below. But remember, in order for you to get exactly the result that you expect, you need to hold the tail of the fish very tightly.
In view of this, if you feel that it starts to slip, then simply cover each part of it with a paper napkin, and then divide the fish into fillets.
As you already understood, if desired, the herring can be very quickly cleaned of skin and bones. If you want to simplify this process as much as possible, then use the method described below.
In this case, you can get a beautiful pitted fillet literally in a matter of minutes. True, you must remember that it is easiest to peel the largest herring in this way.
So:
A large number of people refuse to eat herring due to the presence of small bones in it. But if you don’t buy ready-made fillet, but try to make it yourself, you can just get rid of the seeds. If you will mill pickled or salted herring, then you will need to arm yourself with ordinary tweezers and gradually remove all bones from the fibers.
But keep in mind that in the region of the ridge, the bones are placed deep enough and for this reason they sometimes cannot be seen with the eyes. In view of this, it will be better if you first remove all visible bones, and then begin to gently probe the fillet with tufts of fingers and remove whatever you find. You need to finish this procedure only after your fingers stop finding bones. If you will remove bones from frozen fish, then it will first need to be peeled from the skin and milled, and then literally put in slightly salted water for 15 minutes.
After this time, the fish will need to be removed from the brine, rinsed, and then easily remove all the bones with tweezers. And finally, we want to tell you about a radical, but very fast method of removing small bones. In order to get rid of them in one motion, you will need to take and carefully draw a longitudinal line with a knife along the top of the fillet (its width should be approximately 5 mm). By doing this, you will immediately remove all the bones and you will not have to waste time searching for them with your hands and removing them with tweezers.
If you want to make herring fillet yourself, then you need to choose the right fish for this. If you decide to save money and buy not very high-quality herring, then the perfect fillet will hardly work out of it. Therefore, when choosing this product in the market, in a store or supermarket, first of all, pay attention to its smell.
You don't even have to pick it up for this. You can just go as close as possible to the counter where the herring is and take a deep breath. If it is spoiled, then you will feel a rather specific and unpleasant smell, which will give off rot. Fresh and properly stored herring will have a pronounced marine scent. After making sure the fish smells right, try to feel it, paying particular attention to the belly.
If you feel that it is too soft, then with a high probability in front of you is an old product that has been defrosted many times. Also, be sure to see what color the herring has gills. If they are dark red and elastic, then you can safely make a purchase. And finally, look at the eyes. If they are cloudy, then this indicates that the seller is offering you a completely spoiled product.
Above, we have already introduced you to simple homemade ways to turn a herring carcass into an ideal fillet. And as you probably already understood this task is within the power of any person, even someone who has never cooked anything in his life.
Idea for filing number 4
Idea for filing number 5