How to easily clean pike at home. Video: how to clean and cut pike into cutlets

Few people know the secret of how to clean pike. Firstly, these are the fishermen themselves. For them, this is a familiar and long-familiar matter. Secondly, these are their wives. They inevitably have to master this difficult art.

Main stages of the process

In order to prepare any dish from fish, you first need to clean it. This rather tedious process consists of several steps:

Primary processing. The fish must be rinsed well under running water to remove any debris and unpleasant mucus on the surface.
Removing scales. This is the most time-consuming part of the process. The carcass must be laid out on the table so that its tail is on the right, and its head, accordingly, on the left. Then, using a sharp knife, slowly scrape off the small scales from the head to the tail.
Using the same knife, separate the tail and dorsal fin.
Rip open the belly of the fish, making a neat cut in the head area and gradually moving towards the tail.
Having opened the belly, take out all the insides and remove the thin film located along the spinal bone.
Cut off the head and rinse the carcass clean again.

To finally understand how to clean a pike, you need to understand the intricacies of each of the listed stages.

Important details

In the complex process of preparing fresh fish for further culinary processing, there are several important points that need to be understood in order to have a complete understanding of how to clean pike:

1) First you need to remember that for such work you will need a large amount of water and a very sharp knife. As you know, pike scales are very small and need to be washed off periodically during cleaning. In addition, the fish itself is covered with a layer of natural mucus. It's not easy to remove. This will require a lot of water.

2) It is necessary to scrape scales from the surface with smooth, confident movements, holding the knife at a slightly angle to the fish. This will make the job much easier and prevent small scales from flying all over the kitchen.

3) You need to cut the belly very carefully. Do not stick the knife deep into the body of the fish. This can damage the gallbladder and spoil the meat. A smooth cut from the head to the anus will be sufficient.

4) When removing the insides, you can see a thin transparent film near the spine, under which there are small bloody clots. All this must be removed.

Fish scales perform a protective function, but are completely unsuitable for food. However, it is worth noting that it contains many rather rare and at the same time useful substances. Therefore, if the pike is used exclusively for cooking, then it does not need to be cleaned. This leads to two ways to properly clean a pike:

1) The scales along with the entrails are removed before cooking.

2) The scales, along with the skin and bones, are separated from the meat after cooking. This option is used if you are going to cook, for example, fish cutlets.

There is one more golden rule. The scales need to be removed only when the insides are removed. You should not separate these two processes, since they are fundamentally interrelated with each other. Sometimes you come across fish with rather dense scales. In this case, the fish should be slightly steamed by dipping it briefly into a container of boiling water. And, of course, every housewife knows how to properly clean a pike so as not to cover the entire room with scales. In addition to a sharp knife, you will also need a regular plastic bag. The cleaning process will take place inside it, which will prevent the possibility of waste being thrown around.

If you only need meat

Before you start processing fresh fish, it is better to decide in advance what will be prepared from it. For example, I want to make pike cutlets. In this case, only meat will be needed from the entire carcass, and you can choose from two already known options. Most often, housewives follow the usual path and process fresh fish. In this case, you need to figure out how to clean pike for cutlets. Here the usual process is repeated step by step:

Rinse the fish under running water.
Clean the scales with a knife or a special scraper. To avoid scattering debris, the pike can be placed in the sink, having first closed the drain hole and filled it with some water.
After the scales, remove the entrails, and then trim off the tail and all fins.
Now you need to carefully remove the fillet from this gutted fish using a special knife. And the small bones that remain in the pulp can be removed using ordinary tweezers.

Now it becomes clear how to clean pike for cutlets. All that remains is to grind the fish pulp in a meat grinder. In principle, the skin does not need to be removed. It will be completely invisible in the general mass.

Cleaning on the go

Processing fish at home is, of course, convenient. But what about those who decide to do it in nature? What fisherman wouldn’t want to boil fish soup or fry a couple of pike from a fresh catch? To do this, you need to prepare it. How can you clean a pike from scales right on the street without the usual conditions and tools? But fishermen are a people accustomed to everything. Any of them can do this in literally 2 minutes. For such purposes, each of them always has a small device in their travel bag. You can easily do it yourself. To do this, you will need a piece of board no more than 20 centimeters long and a couple of metal caps from glass bottles. The board needs to be cut lengthwise to create a blank for the handle. To avoid injuring your hands during work, it is better to process and sand it with sandpaper. On one side, secure the plugs one behind the other using regular nails. Such a simple device is easy to make at home in advance. But at the right time, you can use it to clean even the smallest fish.

Simple and fast

Cutting pike is a long and rather dirty process. But experts have come up with a way to clean pike quickly and with virtually no debris. For this you will need: a cutting board, a knife and a fillet fork. Now you need to correctly perform the following steps:

Place the washed fish on a board.
Cut out the middle fin, and behind the front one make a cut towards the head.
Having reached the ridge, unfold the knife and continue cutting along the ridge right up to the tail. It turns out exactly half the carcass. Then turn the other half over and do the same with it.
Separate the ribs from each half, carefully cutting them off with a fillet knife. At this time, you can hold the fish with a fork.
Now, alternately, separate the skin from each half along with the scales. To do this, place a piece of fish on the board, skin side down, and carefully make a cut with a knife, slowly moving it along the table.

The result is two pieces of pike meat. And the fish turns out to be cleaned without dirt and without scales.

If the fish needs to be fried

To fry fish, it must first be prepared. No one will put the whole carcass, scales and entrails, into the frying pan. In any case, the fish must first be brought into a semi-finished state. This work can be done in different ways. Here you need to know how to clean pike for frying, depending on the method of its preparation. For example, to make battered fish, you will need fillet. You can get it using the method described above, without bothering yourself with cleaning the scales. This will greatly reduce the time it takes to cut the pike. The work is done quickly and, most importantly, cleanly. If you want to fry fish in the usual way, you will first have to deal with the scales, remove everything unnecessary, divide the cooked carcass into portioned pieces, and then proceed to the main process. In any case, the choice is always up to the hostess, because it depends on her how well and tasty the dish will be prepared.

Fishermen consider it a great success if they catch a pike. She has very tasty and healthy lean meat. It contains a lot of unsaturated fatty acids, micro- and macroelements. You can prepare delicious dishes from it, and few people will refuse them. But there is a small “but” - this is cutting the fish. Most women don't know how to clean or don't know how to cut a pike. And this is easy to do if you know a few tricks and secrets. You should find out in advance how fish is properly cleaned and cut. This work is painstaking and requires patience.

The predator lives in fresh water bodies, is bony, has sharp teeth, and can easily be injured by it. Although it is difficult to cut, if it is prepared correctly, the meat will be juicy, tender and unique in taste.

To clean frozen fish, prepare it. Take a bowl of cold water, pour a little salt into it and dip the pike in it. The carcass should be completely covered with water. You can also defrost it in the microwave.

When the carcass is ready, rinse it and dry it. First, it should be cleared of scales; for this, use a knife or grater.. It must be removed starting from the tail towards the head. Take a sharp knife and cut off the fins on the abdomen along with a thin strip of skin. Then make a cut along the line of the gills. Open the belly and remove the internal organs. Gutted fish can be filleted.

Important! When removing the entrails from the fish, handle the gallbladder carefully. Make sure it doesn't break. If bile gets on the meat, it will taste bitter. And if this happens, rinse the carcass under running water. Before filleting the pike, read some helpful tips:

If you follow all the instructions, cutting the pike will take you only 2-3 minutes. The main thing is that it is cleaned immediately after catching or defrosting.

Before you fillet the pike, you need to carefully cut it into two parts. To do this, run a knife along the ridge of the carcass from the gills to the tail. As a result, you will have one fillet, and the second part of the fish remains with the ridge and head.

Cut off the pike's head. Separate the meat from the ridge. Place the second part of the carcass with the spine down and cut out the flesh with a sharp knife. Remove the bones from the bottom of the fillet.

Remove the skin. Place one piece skin side down and press it from the tail side to the board with a fork. Using the knife in your other hand, pull up from the tail and separate the skin from the meat. Carry out the same procedure with the second piece. Now you know how to clean a pike.

For cutlets, you will need to grind or chop the pulp with a knife into minced meat. And the sirloin part can be baked, fried, or served with sauce. Potatoes and other fresh and baked vegetables will serve as a side dish.

The remaining head, spine and fins make a wonderful broth. But to prevent it from being cloudy, do not forget to remove the gills and eyes. The skin does not need to be removed if you plan to fry or boil the pike.

The meat of this fish is dietary, very useful for both adults and children. There are countries where food made from it is a delicacy. It contains B vitamins, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium. It helps remove toxins from the body, normalizes blood pressure and improves mental activity. Of course, pike meat is hypoallergenic and is not considered dangerous to the human body, however, before purchasing or catching this fish, take an interest in the ecology of the reservoir.

Do not forget that fish are prone to the accumulation of toxic harmful compounds that are dangerous to human health. It follows from this that if pike is caught in a dirty pond, then when consumed, an allergic reaction, general intoxication, intestinal infection or indigestion may occur. All these diseases are accompanied by the following symptoms:

cramping abdominal pain;
elevated temperature;
prostration;
chills or fever;
a sharp drop in pressure, etc.

I would also like to say that eating pike is prohibited for people who have individual intolerances or allergies. And although this is a dietary product, you should not abuse it. And to avoid extra pounds, fish should be consumed in small quantities and steamed.

Has your husband returned from fishing and asked you to make delicious cutlets from the pike he caught? Or did you buy frozen fish? This article will tell you how to fillet pike. To do this you will need a kitchen knife and, in fact, the fish itself.

Cutting process

If you need to cut frozen pike, you must first prepare it for this. Pour cool water into a deep bowl, add a little salt and place the pike in it. The water should completely cover the fish. You can also defrost it in the microwave.

When ready to use, rinse thoroughly under the tap and dry a little. Next, you can move on to the question of how to cut a pike. Using a sharp knife, cut off the fins on the belly, taking a thin strip of skin. Next, make a cut along the line of the gills. Carefully open the belly and remove the entrails.

Now the fish is gutted, and we will look at how to fillet a pike. Carefully separate the fish into two halves by running a knife along its spine from the gills to the tail. As a result, you will end up with one piece of pike fillet. And in the second half, the spine and head remain.

Next you need to separate the pulp from the ridge. Using a sharp knife, turn the other half of the fish ridge side down and carefully cut off the fillet. Remove the bones from the fish. To do this, remove them from the lower edges of the fillet, where the entrails were located.

Now let's take care of the skin. Place the fillet skin side down. Take a fork in your hand and press the fish from the tail side to the board. With your other hand, separate the fillet from the skin by running the knife upward from the tail. The same will need to be done with the second piece of fish. Your fillet is now ready.

What to cook?

Now you know how to fillet pike. It can be used to prepare delicious cutlets, as well as fry, stew, bake and boil. Pike meat is useful for older people and children to eat, as it is dietary.

It is curious that in some countries food made from such fillet is considered a delicacy. Pike meat contains a group of B vitamins and is rich in phosphorus, potassium and magnesium. It helps cleanse the body of toxins, normalizes blood pressure and has a positive effect on mental activity.

Precautionary measures

Take all precautions before filleting pike. It is better to wear the ones sold in hardware stores. Wear regular cotton over them. The fish will not slide. The risk of accidentally cutting yourself will be minimal. And after cutting the pike, your hands will not smell like fish, and the gloves can be washed or simply thrown away.

In the question of how to properly cut a pike, there is one important point: when cleaning the fish from the entrails, it is necessary to handle the gall bladder carefully. It is very thin and sometimes breaks. You need to prevent bile from getting on the fillet, otherwise the meat will be very bitter. If you cannot avoid a spill, rinse the fish thoroughly under the tap.

Remember your safety! The knife blade should always point in the opposite direction to the hand that is free. If you cut fish with your right hand, always point it to the right. At this time, the left one will be located on the opposite side and will not be able to meet the sharp blade.

Dishes from pike loved by many people. Proper organization of the fish preparation process will give the table a truly delicious dish. In pike it is practically absent fat. Fish is rich proteins, beneficial microelements. We will look at how to clean pike in this article.

Preparatory stage

Before starting work it is necessary to carry out a number of preparatory procedures:

First of all, prepare your workplace and tools.
An important point is the use of gloves. Hands need to be protected from wounds.
Pike has many dense scales. Bone plates may fly apart during cleaning. You should put the dishes away and cover them with a cloth.
You will need a large basin filled with cold water.
When working, it is better to use a cutting board made of plastic or glass. The wooden board will be saturated with the smell of fish.
Place a napkin or towel under the board. This will prevent the board from sliding on the table surface.
It is preferable to use a device like a grater with a container. Or a knife with a large blade will do. They cut the fish. To clean the scales you will need a smaller knife.
After washing the pike with water, treat its tail with coarse salt. The fish will become less slippery.
You should not try to stick your hand into the pike's open mouth. Many sharp teeth can easily hurt.
Be careful with the gills. The organs of water respiration have large spines.
Cleaning fresh pike is easier than cleaning pike that has been sitting for a long time. Proceed to cleaning frozen fish after waiting for the scales and skin to thaw.
The presence of the river smell discourages those who want to feast on it. To solve the problem, it is useful to use lemon juice.

Rules for cleaning pike

The cleaning process requires thoroughness and accuracy:

The product must be thoroughly rinsed with water to remove dirt and mucus.
It is recommended to clean pike of scales using water. Then there will be no trash spreading around the kitchen.
Hold the fish by the tail. Movements with the knife should be made towards the head. The knife blade is positioned at an acute angle. Then the scales will not scatter to the sides, but will smoothly lie on the plane of the knife.
After removing the scales, the fish must be rinsed with clean water to ensure that scales are completely absent.
With the pike on a cutting board, remove the fins using kitchen shears. This operation can be done with a knife.
The dense cartilage located between the head and belly should be cut. This will allow you to open the belly, remove the entrails, and remove the gills.
Separately clean out the air bubble and blood clots.
It is important to rinse the fish again.
From the internal parts of pike, caviar and liver are used as food. Make sure there is no damage to the gallbladder. It needs to be removed. Caviar is a pleasant delicacy and is actively used in cooking.

The procedure for cleaning pike without problems requires compliance with certain rules The product contains a lot of bones and has a pungent smell of mud. Properly cooked fish will decorate the table, delight family members with its aroma, and improve health. Meat recommended by doctors to strengthen the body's resistance to various infections, occupies a special place in culinary recipes.

In order to prepare tasty and healthy fish dishes, you need to know how to clean a pike so as not to litter the entire kitchen with small scales and not hurt your hands. Having the necessary knowledge and skills, this is not difficult to do. There are only a few features of how you can quickly free a predator from its scales and cut up the carcass for preparing a particular dish.

Preparatory work

In warm weather, if possible, it is better to clean fish outside, where there are no problems from scales flying to the sides and splashes. In the kitchen, before cleaning the pike, you need to prepare the place and the necessary supplies in advance so that you do not have to wash your hands several times during the work.

Absolutely all utensils and accessories must be removed from the cutting table and the nearby gas stove; it is better to cover the stove and nearby furniture with paper or polyethylene.
Empty the sink completely, prepare a stopper so that you can fill the sink with water (or use a larger container).
Prepare a cutting board of sufficient size. It is desirable that it be made of plastic or glass. A fishy smell is absorbed into the wood, which will be difficult to get rid of later.
To prevent the board from sliding on the tabletop while working, you can place a damp cloth or an old towel under it.
You will need a cutting knife, preferably with a wide blade. You can clean the pike with the same knife, but it is more convenient to use a special cleaner, which you can buy at a hardware store. It is best if it comes with a container for scales.
Wearing work gloves on your hands (at least on the left one) will make it more comfortable to hold the fish and reduce the likelihood of getting hurt.
You can prepare a couple of pinches of coarse salt. If you sprinkle it on the tail of a pike, it will not slip out of your hands while working.

It is advisable to carry out these preparatory work when cutting any fish that has not been scaled.

How to properly clean a pike

Pike does not have such sharp spines on its fins as perch, ruffe or pike perch. But this is a predatory fish. In her mouth there are several rows of needle-sharp teeth curved inward, which can seriously injure you. You must be careful when removing the gills, as they also have sharp spines.

With certain skills, you can quickly clean a pike:

First, you need to rinse the fish well to remove any adhering dirt and mucus from it.
To avoid making a mess in the kitchen, it is better to clean the pike under water. To do this, fill the sink or a suitable wide dish halfway, immerse the fish in it and clean it under water.
Holding the fish by the tail, using a knife with a wide blade, using prying movements against the scales, clean the pike from all sides. In this case, the knife should move at an acute angle to the body of the fish. In this case, the scales practically do not fly apart, but lie on the knife blade. Even better is to use a special cleaner.
Next you should remove the fins. This can be done with a knife, cutting them in the direction from the tail to the head, or with kitchen scissors.
Cut the cartilage between the head and the belly, after which the belly should be carefully opened. To do this, holding the pike with its head towards you, use the sharp tip of a knife to pierce the skin near the head (a deep puncture should not be made, as this can damage the gallbladder) and, holding the blade at a slight angle, cut the belly to the anus, trying to go as little as possible inside. If everything is done correctly, the contents of the entrails will not stain the abdominal cavity. In addition, if there is caviar inside the fish, it will also not be damaged and can be used to prepare delicious delicacies.
Remove the giblets from the anus to the head. Having reached the head, you must try to separate the gills, cutting them with the tip of a knife near the head and lateral cartilages. After which the giblets are freely removed from the carcass along with the gills.
A large pike needs to have its liver examined. If the gallbladder is not damaged, then the liver can be separated and used for food.
At the last stage, the air bubble (the white film along the ridge) and the blood clots underneath it should be removed.
All that remains is to rinse the belly and rinse the outside of the pike itself.

As can be seen from the description, there is nothing complicated about cleaning pike.

It should be taken into account that fresh pike is cleaned better than one that has been left in the air for some time. Frozen fish should be cleaned as soon as the scales and skin are thawed, without waiting for the pike to completely thaw.

Separate the fillet

Pike meat makes excellent minced fish. In addition, pieces of this fish can be baked in batter. In both cases you will need a clean fillet. It should be noted that cutting up a pike and separating the bones is not difficult. If you have the skills, you can do this very quickly - in a couple of minutes. Moreover, other types of fish are cut similarly. The operating procedure is as follows:

The head can be separated from the body to make it more convenient to work, although this is not necessary.
The carcass should be placed on its side with its back facing you and, holding the carcass, use a sharp knife to make an incision along the spine, going around the dorsal fin from above (then the spinal bones will be below the knife blade).
With a few light movements, the knife blade should be buried in the upper half of the carcass until the ribs are felt underneath. You should work carefully so as not to cut them.
Positioning the plane of the knife parallel to the ribs, remove the pulp from them.
After separating the fillet in the upper half, lift it with your hand and, placing the blade parallel to the plane of the table and perpendicular to the ridge, cut off the flesh from the tail.
Turn the carcass over and remove the fillet from the second half in the same way.

There is no need to throw away your head and spine. They are useful for preparing fish soup, fish soup or broth.

There are quite a lot of small bones in pike, but they can be easily gotten rid of. When preparing minced meat, grind the meat twice in a meat grinder, then mix with onion, add salt and let stand for a few minutes. There will be no bones in the cooked cutlets.

If you plan to cook the fillet in pieces, then a few minutes before cooking they should be sprinkled with lemon juice and salt. Salt and juice will dissolve small seeds.

Pike has virtually no fat, but at the same time it is rich in protein. The meat of this fish is not only very healthy, but also very tasty. Pike has a specific smell, quite pungent, especially if the predator is caught in the lake. For this reason, many people do not cook it. But the smell of mud is easy to get rid of. It is enough to sprinkle the cut carcass with lemon juice and in a few minutes it will disappear.

If everything is done correctly and carefully, then delicious dishes prepared from pike can surprise and delight family members and guests.