How to properly fillet a pike. Cutting a pike for making cutlets How to quickly fillet a pike

Pike, along with carp, is a freshwater fish. It is valued for its incredibly tasty meat. Some people refuse to cook it due to lack of skinning skills and do not know how to butcher a pike. It is especially important not to damage the entire roast carcass. There are affordable and easy ways to cut freshwater fish that do not require much time and effort.

Cleaning and cutting pike carcasses

The pike has rather dense and hard scales, which can be quite difficult to clean in the usual way. In order not to damage the fish, it is important to know how to skin a pike. To remove the scales from the fish, you will need a sharp knife and a place for cutting, which can be used as a deep washing sink.

After removing the scales, wash the fish and dry it with paper towels. After that, you can start removing the insides. At the beginning of this procedure, an incision is made starting from the bones behind the gills on the left side of the head to the spine. The incision should be made carefully so as not to damage the gallbladder. After that, an incision is made in a horizontal direction at the anus and the intestines are removed.

Only then can the head be completely removed, especially carefully cutting it off near the gallbladder. The head is separated from the body along with the intestines. The carcass is cut along the belly, the films are removed and washed. In this state, it is ready for filleting.

The method of cutting the carcass into fillets

A special sharp knife will help to beautifully cut the carcass into fillets. It is applied to the ridge of the fish and carried along horizontally. The same action is carried out on the other side of the carcass. Divide the carcass into two halves. Backbone with leftover meat is usually used to make broth.

From the fillet parts, it remains only to remove the skin. How to remove the skin from a pike in this case, inexperienced fishing enthusiasts often do not know.

This can be done with the same knife. It is pressed very tightly against the skin and carried along the sirloin. There may be some meat left on the skin, which is quite natural.

Removing skin from fish stocking

There are several ways to remove the skin from a pike. You can find a lot of advice on this, including how to skin a pike with a stocking. For many, this method is the easiest and most convenient. This process is carried out in several stages:

In some cases, you have to butcher the fish right after catching it in nature. In this case, you can clean it in a similar way, and bake it entirely on a fire. To do this, the carcass is coated with clay and laid on coals.

Pike dishes

Fish dishes often become a decoration of the festive table. You can cook many delicious and original dishes from pike. One of these recipes is stuffed pike.

The recipe for its preparation is quite simple and you can take the most affordable products: fish (2 pieces), onions (1 piece), carrots (1 piece), white bread, chicken egg (1 piece), spices to taste. The dish is prepared in several stages:

Bake the fish in a preheated oven at 180 degrees, about 40-50 minutes. To prevent the dish from falling apart before serving, it is necessary to leave the fish on a baking sheet so that it cools naturally.

Cutlets made from the meat of this fish can be no less tasty. They are incredibly tender and delicious. For cooking, available products are taken: pike fillet (500 grams), lard (100 grams), white bread (2-3 slices), milk (100 grams), onion (1 head), egg (1 piece).

Breadcrumbs are necessary for deboning cutlets before frying. Spices are added to minced meat according to taste and desire. Sunflower oil is needed for frying. Preparation takes place in several stages:

Ready cutlets are laid out on a preheated pan. Fry them for a few minutes until golden brown. For better steaming of cutlets, you can cover the pan with a lid for a few minutes.

Compared to other inhabitants of water bodies, pike is one of the most delicious freshwater fish. To decorate the festive table, you can cook a wide variety of pike dishes.

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Pike is one of the most delicious freshwater fish, rich in useful trace elements and saturated fatty acids. Many goodies are prepared from it, which practically no one can refuse, and each housewife has her own special recipes. However, the preliminary cutting of fish does not cause much enthusiasm for many, since this is a troublesome business and requires patience. You need to know how to clean a pike correctly, how to gut and butcher it.

Pike cleaning consists of 5 main stages:

1. Fish preparation;
2. Scale removal;
3. Cutting out the gills and removing the head;
4. gutting;
5. Flushing.

And in each of these stages there are subtleties that are better to follow.

• Before butchering a pike, it should be thoroughly washed from river mucus under running water;
• Next, you should clean the scales. And so that the scales do not scatter, it is better to hold the fish at an angle and put polyethylene or newspaper under the board;
• Then the anal, dorsal and caudal fins are cut off from the fish. The knife should be held against the scales. At the same time, they move against the scales, and hold the fin;
• Next, you need to gut the fish. To do this, you need to pierce the skin near the head and draw a knife to the very tail. The knife is not stuck too deep, so as not to pierce the gallbladder.

The entrails are pulled out of the pike, the film that is along the ridge is removed, as well as the blood mass that is under this film. You can gut a pike with or without a head. The cartilage that is between the abdomen and the head of the fish must be cut. It is necessary to thoroughly wash the fish several times, especially in the belly area, in order to completely wash out all the mucus, the remnants of the entrails.

Cut off tail and head

Now you need to remove the skin from the fish. The pike has a dense elastic skin, it will be removed easily. Next, cut the fish along the ridge into two halves. So get two strips of fillet with small bones in the upper part. The knife should be directed at an acute angle and cut off the part with the bones. If the bones remain on the pulp, then the largest of them should be removed immediately, and the small ones will then be crushed and become invisible. The second strip of the resulting fillet should be turned upside down and cut off.

After washing, the pike is cut into pieces or only the fillet is cut, if it is necessary for the preparation of any dish. That's all, the fish is cleaned, now you can read recipes and start cooking delicious dishes.

How to quickly clean a pike?

There are other faster recipes and ways to butcher a pike. It does not need to be gutted and the skin removed. You just need to clean it and immediately start cutting along the ridge. When the first strip of the fillet is cut off, not only the backbone will remain on the other, but also all the insides, they will need to be separated from the pulp. All fillets should be carefully separated, starting from the tail. Experienced anglers are advised to use tongs or tweezers. It is necessary to hook them on the edge of the skin and pull it off.

If you have to butcher a frozen hard pike, it is better to gut the fish first, remove the skin from it and cut it into pieces. Only after that, a ridge should be cut out of each piece, leaving the fillet.

Nuances when cleaning scales

Cleaning a pike from scales is also not an easy task. The scales of this fish are quite hard and small. However, it is necessary to do this, because many recipes for pike dishes involve taking fillet or minced meat. You need to follow certain rules.

You will need a very sharp knife and water. To begin with, the pike is washed from mucus and debris. Scales should be scraped off, moving from tail to head. Thus, the pike should be cleaned on both sides.

Scales should be removed in one of two ways. Either just peel it off, or remove it along with the skin. It is necessary to remove it either with a special knife for cleaning fish, or with a chef's, but very sharp knife.

To facilitate cleaning of the scales, before starting, the fish should either be doused with boiling water, or slightly frozen.

To remove the scales along with the skin, you need to make incisions around the head and pull off the skin like a stocking. Do not rush into this matter, as the skin will tear, so it will be more difficult to remove.

You can make an incision along the ridge, then the skin can be torn off on each side separately.

Also, before cleaning the scales, the gills should be removed. If the skin is removed entirely, then the gills can be left, since the carcass with them is much more elastic.

Before you start cooking pike dishes and look for recipes, you need to familiarize yourself with the rules for processing this toothy beauty.

A few important rules

• It is best to clean freshly caught fish. If it lies down for several hours in the refrigerator, then it will become much more difficult to clean;
• The fish should be placed with the head to the left, and the tail, respectively, to the right;
• The knife should move only strictly along the spine, cutting off the lower part;
• Since the tips of the ribs of the pike are rather soft, you can cut two-thirds of their length and cut, deflecting the knife towards the peritoneum of the fish.

The danger in a pike is its sharp teeth, which can be seriously injured. You can wear yellow rubber household gloves, and cotton over them. So the risk of injury will decrease, and the fish will not slip out of your hands.

To cut the pike for further preparation of dishes from it, it is worth working hard. There are recipes for how to do this quickly, and by following certain rules that experienced anglers and housewives offer, you can simplify this process and make it faster.

Reading 8 min. Published on 01/12/2019

Cleaning the pike from scales is the first step in the culinary processing of the product. The second step in the preparation of fish is gutting and cutting. Pike meat is white, clean and soft. It is perfect for cutlets, pies and baking in the oven.

How to properly clean and cut the pike into cutlets read in this article

Top 3 easy ways to scale fresh pike

For high-quality cleaning of fresh fish, ordinary and special knives, serrated scrapers, and forks are used. The fish is scalded with boiling water and treated with a stream of water.

If you have to fry whole pieces, it is advisable to remove the scales with minimal damage to the skin.

Cleaning pike with a fish scraper

On sale you can find scrapers for cleaning fish. In some houses, such devices have been preserved since Soviet times. Now they are sold in hardware stores.

There are dozens of scraper models. The working part of the tool is a serrated blade (or several blades) of steel.

In some models, a plastic container is attached above the brush, in which the scales are collected. When cleaning with a scraper, the scales almost do not fly off to the sides.

Sequencing:

1. The fish is washed of mucus to make it less slippery.
2. The pike is placed on a cutting board (there are boards with a clip on sale that allow you to fix the tail of the fish, which greatly facilitates the work).
3. The fish is held by the tail and the scales are removed by moving the brush from the tail to the head (against the scales).
4. First, the sides of the carcass are cleaned, then the areas near the head and fins. If the fins interfere with high-quality cleaning, they are cut off. scissors.

On sale there are scrapers with blades made of hard plastic. They are good for fish with small scales, but for pike it is better to take a steel scraper.

Cleaning pike with boiling water

Hot water softens the skin of the pike. After heat treatment, the scales are easily separated from the body of the fish.

Sequencing:

1. Water is boiled in the kettle (for large pike, this will have to be done several times).
2. The fish is placed in a basin or in a sink (sink) and poured with boiling water on both sides.
3. Pike is rinsed with cold water and moved to a cutting board.
4. They take an ordinary kitchen knife and start cleaning: the blade is drawn from the tail towards the head. Scales in layers, without effort, are removed from the fish.

Cleaning fish with a pressure washer

The compact pressure washer can be used for more than just washing your car. A pressure jet of water quickly and efficiently separates the scales from the fish.

This should be done in the yard, as the scales scatter to the sides along with the spray.

Sequencing:

1. The pike is placed on the board.
2. Turn on the sink and set the water pressure to medium.
3. The jet is directed to the tail of the pike, at an angle to the fish.
4. The sprinkler is moved along the carcass, from the tail to the head. The scales are completely removed and removed with water. In this case, the skin of the fish remains intact.

In the field, a pike can be quickly cleaned with a homemade scraper. The bottom of an empty tin can is pierced with a nail (from the inside out). Holes are obtained with sharp torn edges.

You need to make 12-15 holes. It will turn out a convenient grater, which can be used to clean any fish with high quality.

❄ Features of cleaning frozen pike

Frozen pike is cleaned without defrosting, with a large kitchen knife. Special knives (Evenk and Yakut) clean perfectly and quickly, in which one side of the blade is even, the other is ordinary, wedge-shaped.

1. Frozen fish is taken out of the freezer (brought into the house from the street).
2. The pike is taken by the tail and set with its nose to the floor.
3. With a knife, they begin to clean the scales, making planing movements from the tail to the head.

To securely fix the carcass, you can use a box or an egg cassette that does not slip on the floor (the fish's nose is placed in it).

Frozen fish is best cleaned with cotton gloves.

Rules for gutting and cutting pike

The pike is gutted and butchered after cleaning the scales.

How to properly cut a pike into cutlets:

• The belly of the fish is cut open and the entrails are pulled out. It is important not to damage the bile, otherwise you can spoil the product.
• The esophagus is taken out along with the gills, leaving the head. Remove the white film running along the belly (aka swim bladder).
• The head is cut off with a knife.

After that, they proceed to cutting the carcass itself. This procedure will differ depending on what you plan to cook: minced meat, fillet, whole pieces or stuffed fish.

For minced meat

If you plan to cook minced meat for cutlets, only large bones (spine) are removed. The vertebral column of the pike is strong and firm. If the pike is small, then the spine can not be removed.

Cutting medium and large pike for minced meat includes the following steps:

1. The fish is placed on a cutting board.
2. The blade of the knife is placed parallel to the spine (in the place where the head was) and the fillet is cut to the tail. The knife should be driven as close to the spine as possible.
3. In the same way, cut the loin from the other side of the fish.
4. The middle part with the spine is removed, it is useful for cooking fish soup.
5. Pike for cutlets is cleaned from bones, but not thoroughly, because. in the process of grinding meat into minced meat, the bones crumble and are not felt in ready-made cutlets. The fillet is scrolled in a meat grinder through a fine grate. For better grinding of the bones, this can be done twice.

For frying fillets

There are many bones in the body of a pike, among them there are massive (spine), medium and very thin. There are a lot of bones and it is difficult to remove them.

The boneless product is prepared in the following order:

1. Cut the fillet along the entire length of the carcass.
2. The pike is turned over and the fillet is cut off on the other side.
3. The remaining spine and tail are cut into pieces and set aside.
4. Ribs are cut from the fillet. They are very thin, if the knife is sharp, there will be no significant loss of product.
5. Cut out the fins.
6. Above the line of ribs, the flesh with bones is probed and two parallel cuts are made along the fillet.
7. The strip with bones is separated with a knife and cut out of the fillet.
8. The remaining bones are removed with tweezers. Get a layer of fish pulp without stones.
9. The skin is removed from the fish.
10. The fillet is cut into portions and the dish is prepared according to the chosen recipe.

For frying in chunks

Preparation for frying in pieces does not take much time.

The carcass is processed as follows.

1. Fins are cut from the pike.
2. Cut off the tail.
3. They cut the fish into pieces 1.5-2 cm thick. If you plan to bake the pike in the oven, the length of the pieces can reach 10-15 cm.
4. If the pike is large, the pieces are cut arbitrarily so that it is convenient to lay them in the pan.

For stuffing

Stuffed pike (with and without a head) is cooked in the oven. For this dish, medium-sized fish are suitable.

Cutting steps:

1. An incision is made around the pike head.
2. With the help of a knife and scissors, the skin is removed from the carcass along with the fins. To make the skin easily removed, the carcass is beaten with a rolling pin.
3. From the rest of the carcass, pike meat is cut (and selected by hand). Only the skeleton of the fish remains.
4. Minced meat is prepared for the filling using fillets, vegetables, herbs, meat, eggs, and other ingredients.
5. The removed skin is stuffed with minced meat, the abdomen is sewn up. The dish is cooked in the oven.

How to fillet pike for cutlets in 3 minutes - video

Useful properties of pike

Calorie content of 100 grams of raw pulp - 80 kcal, boiled pike meat - 94 kcal.

The product can be eaten without restrictions, including people suffering from a number of diseases. An obstacle to use is only individual intolerance.

Fish pies and pies are baked for 40-60 minutes. Salted pike can be eaten after 5-7 days. The fish is cut with gloves on a separate board.

A simple recipe for pike cutlets [with video]

Pike cutlets can be made with a minimum set of products on hand.

Ingredients :

• fillet - 500 gr;
• 1 medium onion;
• 2 slices of white bread (no crust);
• 1 egg;
• half a glass of milk;
• salt and ground black pepper (to taste).

Cooking :

1. From the carcass, freed from scales, fillets are cut, cut into pieces.
2. Bread is soaked in milk.
3. Fillet, onion and soaked bread are scrolled in a meat grinder.
4. Mince add salt, pepper, egg.
5. The mass is well mixed with a pusher.
6. Minced meat is put in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes, then mixed again.
7. Warm up in a frying pan vegetable oil.
8. Cutlets are formed with a thickness of not more than 1.5 cm and fried on both sides.
9. How delicious to serve cutlets, see our previous article.

To make fried pike cutlets especially tender and tasty, it is recommended to fry them in butter or ghee.

Video recipe for pike cutlets from Olga Matvey

Now you know how to clean a pike quickly and cook cutlets from it. And if you still have questions on the topic, ask them in the comments below the article!

Cleaning and cutting fish is a painstaking task that requires patience and experience. But delicious and healthy food, cooked with your own hands - an excellent reward for the work of a home cook.

Pike is a low-fat fish, so it can be classified as a dietary food. Particularly useful and tasty are dishes from fish caught in late autumn. Pike weighing no more than 4 kg has the greatest nutritional value. The meat of an old fish weighing more than 8 kg is hard and inedible, it smells like a swamp. Pike is used for frying, stuffing, making broths, soups, cutlets, it is salted, smoked and marinated.

Fresh pike is covered with a layer of mucus. It needs to be removed, to do this, rinse the fish under running water. To prevent the pike from slipping out, you can put rubber gloves on your hands, and on top - cotton construction gloves, which can then be thrown away or washed. Wearing gloves will reduce the risk of being cut by the fins, gills or teeth of the fish.

Pike can be cut in 2 ways. Lay the fish on a cutting board. Cut off the dorsal and ventral fins, tail. Make a shallow incision along the belly from head to tail. Make an incision in the back. Grab the skin from the side of the tail, helping with a knife. Hold the carcass with your left hand, and with your right hand pull the skin and remove it. Cut off the head, cut the abdomen, remove the insides.

Carefully cut the abdomen and pull out the contents, otherwise the gallbladder may be damaged. In this case, a green liquid will flow out. If it gets on the meat, the dish will be bitter. To prevent this from happening, rinse the fish well under running water. cold water. Make a deep incision on the back of the carcass, it should reach the ridge. Separate the meat from the bones on both sides of the incision. You should get 2 pieces of fillet and a backbone with thick bones.

Cutting pike in the second way is as follows. Cut off the fins and tail. Cut the abdomen, remove the insides. Make 2 transverse deep incisions at the head to the ridge, but do not cut off the head.

Position the fish with the belly away from you. With your left hand, hold the pike by the head, with your right hand, turn the blade along the table in the opposite direction from the hand that holds the fish. Carefully cut the pike along the spine. If the knife at some point rests and does not go further, slightly change the angle of the blade. You should get a fillet with a skin.

Turn the pike over, position it with its back away from you. The fish should lie back on the cutting board. Holding the pike by the head, separate the meat from the ridge with a knife. Rinse the resulting fillet under a stream of cool water to wash away dirt and blood clots. Cut the ribs off the fillets.

Remove the skin. To do this, place the fish on a cutting board, skin side down, with the tail toward you. At the tail, cut the meat to the skin, and then, holding the skin with your left hand, lead the knife along the board, cutting off the fillet. The fillet can be cooked whole or made into minced meat for cutlets. It is recommended not to throw away the head (without gills), fins and spine, but to use it for cooking fish soup.

For greater comfort, you can wear gloves, this way you minimize the risk of injury, and the fish will be easier to handle.

The knife must always be held away from you and cut accordingly, because at any moment it can slip, causing injury or cuts.

Do not forget to carefully clean the scales, it is quite simple to do this: you need to draw a knife against the growth line of the scales, but do it carefully if.

The first step is to cut the abdomen and carefully remove all the insides, since the pike is a predatory fish, inside its stomach there may be its prey, which must also be removed.

It is up to you what you will do with the skin: if you plan to use it for cooking, for example, stuffed pike, then you should put it in the freezer. Her skin is quite strong and there should be no problems with removal. But, one way or another, you should remove it carefully.

Head

Before cutting the pike, it is necessary to make a couple of relatively deep cuts in the head area. So you almost completely cut off her head.

But! An important point: make an incision to the ridge, in no case deeper. Position the pike with the abdominal area away from you. Hold her head with one hand. Be careful, because, and you can easily injure your hand.

Continuing to hold the fish by the gills, run the knife from head to tail, thus cutting it along the ridge line.

If suddenly the knife rests and does not go further, slightly change the angle at which the blade is located and continue.
Half of the work is done. If you see green or green liquid appear on the table yellow color- this means that you touched the gallbladder. In this case, you need to rinse the meat under running water as soon as possible so as not to spoil it.

Do not be lazy and thoroughly rinse all meat that has got bile, otherwise it will have a rather bitter aftertaste. Remember that the bubble is in the head area.

Caviar and milk

Inside the fish there are several parts that can be eaten: caviar and milk. Ripe caviar can be salted, but some experts do not recommend doing this. It is also not recommended to consume pike liver, as pike is a predatory fish, and it can be infected with helminths, which can be very dangerous for humans.

In the event that you do not know how to properly prepare these organs, then just throw them away.
After you cut off one part, you should turn the pike over and repeat the procedure again. Slide the knife closer to the spine and move the knife towards the tail, while holding the pike by the head.

Next, you should very carefully rinse the fillet that we got under running, cold water. The meat must be washed until it turns pink, completely removing all blood clots and impurities. The better you can, the tastier it will be.

in the ear

Do not forget that we still have: the head, fins and spine. Do not throw them away, as in the future you can cook an ear out of them.

If the head is to be used as an ingredient for the fish soup, some simple work should be done:

• First, completely remove the gills. Since you don't know what kind of water the pike lived in, their gills can be very bitter, which, in turn, can transfer this bitterness to the broth. Don't forget about your teeth, because you will be working dangerously close to them.
• it is further recommended to remove the eyeballs, which can also add bitterness to the broth. Removing them is not difficult, just pry them with a knife and pull them out.