In order to cook delicious and healthy fish dishes, you need to know how to clean the pike so as not to litter the entire kitchen with small scales and injure your hands. Possessing necessary knowledge and skills, it is not difficult to do this. There are only a few features of how you can quickly free the predator from the scales and butcher the carcass for cooking this or that dish.

Preparatory work

IN warm time if possible, it is better to clean the fish on the street, 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 accessories in advance so that you do not have to wash your hands several times during the work.

  1. Absolutely all utensils and accessories should 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.

  2. Completely empty the sink, prepare a cork so that you can draw water into the sink (or use a large container).
  3. 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 tree, which will then be difficult to get rid of.
  4. To prevent the board from sliding on the countertop during work, you can lay it under it wet wipe Or an old towel.
  5. You will need a carving 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 that you can buy at a hardware store. It is best if it comes with a container for scales.
  6. Wearing working gloves (at least on the left) will make it easier to hold the fish and reduce the likelihood of injury.
  7. You can cook a couple of pinches of coarse salt. If you sprinkle the tail of a pike with it, then it will not slip out of your hands during operation.

These preparatory work it is desirable to carry out when cutting any fish not peeled from scales.

How to properly clean a pike

Pike do not have such sharp spines on their fins as perch, ruff or pike perch. But this predatory fish. In her mouth, in several rows, there are needle-sharp teeth bent inward, which can be severely injured. Care must be taken when removing the gills, as they also have sharp spikes.

With certain skills, you can quickly clean the pike:

  • First, you need to rinse the fish well to wash off the adhering dirt and mucus from it.
  • In order not to litter in the kitchen, it is better to clean the pike under water. To do this, you need to 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, with a knife with a wide blade, with prying movements against the scales, the pike is cleaned from all sides. In this case, the knife should move under 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 - use a special cleaner.
  • Next, remove the fins. This can be done with a knife, cutting them in the direction from the tail to the head, or with kitchen shears.
  • Cut the cartilage between the head and belly, after which the belly should be carefully opened. To do this, holding the pike with its head towards you, with the sharp tip of a knife, pierce the skin near the head (a deep puncture should not be done, as it can damage gallbladder) and, holding the blade at a slight inclination, cut the belly to the anus, trying to penetrate as little as possible inside. If everything is done correctly, then the contents of the entrails will not stain the abdominal cavity. In addition, if there is caviar inside the fish, then 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, one should try to separate the gills, cutting them with the tip of a knife near the head and lateral cartilages. After that, the giblets are freely removed from the carcass along with the gills.
  • In a large pike, you need to examine the liver. If the gallbladder is not damaged, then the liver can be separated and used for food.
  • At the last stage, the air bubble (white film along the spine) and blood clots under it should be removed.
  • It remains to rinse the belly and rinse the pike itself from the outside.

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

It should be borne in mind that fresh pike is cleaned better than one that has lain 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 thaw completely.

Separating 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 it is not difficult to cut a pike and separate the bones. If you have the skills, this can be done very quickly - in a couple of minutes. Moreover, other types of fish are cut similarly. The order of work is as follows:

  1. The head can be separated from the body to make it easier to work, although this is not necessary.
  2. The carcass should be put on its side with its back to itself and, holding the carcass, make an incision along the ridge with a sharp knife, bypassing the dorsal fin from above (then the spinal bones will be below the knife blade).
  3. With a few light movements, the knife blade should be deepened in the upper half of the carcass until the ribs are felt under it. You have to be careful not to cut them.
  4. Placing the plane of the knife parallel to the ribs, remove the pulp from them.
  5. 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.
  6. We turn the carcass over and similarly remove the fillet from the second half.

You do not need to throw out the head and spine. They are useful for cooking fish soup, fish hodgepodge or broth.

There are a lot of small bones in the pike, but they can be easily disposed of. When preparing minced meat, twist the meat twice in a meat grinder, then mix with onions, salt and let stand for several minutes. There will be no bones in the cooked cutlets.


If it is planned 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 bones.

There is practically no fat in pike, 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 sharp, 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 butchered carcass with lemon juice and after a few minutes it will disappear.

If everything is done correctly and accurately, then delicious meals made from pike are able to surprise and delight family members and guests.

Useful properties of pike

Pike is a freshwater fish from the pike family. In length, it grows up to 150 cm, its weight is from 2 to 35 kg. It is valued for its satiety and low calorie content. It is best to choose fish weighing 2–2.5 kg for the table, as its meat is tender and juicy. The most popular dish is stuffed pike.

This fish has many useful properties.

  1. It has a low calorie content: 100 g of meat contains only 84 calories and up to 3% fat.
  2. It is a natural antiseptic. Natural antiseptics are much more useful than chemical ones, as they help to cope with various infectious diseases, strengthen the immune system.
  3. Contains many vitamins, macro- and microelements.

The content of vitamins, macro- and microelements in 100 g of pike meat - table

How to clean a pike with boiling water and lemon without problems - useful tips

To reduce the time for cleaning fish and make everything quick and easy, use the helpful recommendations.

  1. Cleaning live pike is faster and more convenient. A frozen carcass should be cleaned immediately after the scales have thawed.
  2. It is convenient to work in rubber gloves, and put on cotton ones on top. So the risk of damage will be minimized, and the pike itself will not slip.
  3. The knife needs to be sharpened well.
  4. If the fish has a characteristic river smell, it can be rubbed with lemon juice.
  5. To speed up the process, the pike must be scalded with boiling water. You can also put it in a bowl and pour warm water with the addition of vinegar.

The correct and easy way to clean, gut, cut fresh fish

If it is possible to clean the fish on the street, and not in the apartment, it is better to do this, because there will be no problems with cleaning the kitchen due to scales and splashes. In the case of cleaning pike in the kitchen, you will need to perform a number of actions, regardless of which pike is used - frozen or fresh.

  1. From the table where you will cut the fish, remove all kitchen items, and cover the stove and furniture polyethylene film or newspapers.
  2. Remove the sink from the dishes and clean. It will need to soak and wash the pike. A large bowl will also work.
  3. Prepare a large glass or plastic cutting board. Wooden is not suitable, as odors eat into it. To prevent the kitchen board from driving around the table, you need to put a damp cloth under it.
  4. It is necessary to use a pre-sharpened narrow knife or a special tool for cleaning fish.
  5. To comply with safety rules, wear gloves - they will protect your hands from damage and allow you to more firmly fix slippery fish during the cleaning process.
  6. Pour salt into a small box. You will need it for powdering the tail. Thanks to this, it will not slip out during operation.

How to remove mucus, clean and gut fresh and live pike

When cleaning the fish, you must be careful, as you can get hurt on its teeth or gills.

  1. Rinse the pike well under the tap to remove the mucus.
  2. Fill half of the sink or bowl with water and lower the fish into it.
  3. Pour the carcass with boiling water. You can not all at once, but gradually. First one side, clean it, and then the second.
  4. During cleaning, hold the fish by the tail and remove the scales in the direction from the tail to the head with a knife or a special tool.

  5. Remove fins with scissors or a knife.

    6. Cut the cartilage located between the abdomen and head, make an incision in the abdomen. You need to put the fish with its head towards you and make a puncture near the head with a knife, cut the cut line to the very tail. The puncture must be shallow so as not to cause damage. internal organs, otherwise abdomen will be stained with the contents of the entrails.

  6. Carefully remove the giblets and remove the gills with a knife.
  7. If the fish is very large, the liver can be carefully separated from the gallbladder and cooked from it into fried liver with onions and bacon, salads and other dishes.
  8. Lastly, remove the air bubble and blood clots underneath. This is a white film that is along the ridge.
  9. Thoroughly rinse the inside and outside of the pike.

How to cut fish into fillets and for minced meat

Most housewives know that pike fillet makes amazing minced fish for meatballs and juicy dishes in batter. To make them really tasty, you should pay attention to the procedure for cutting pike into fillets.

  1. Remove the head from the carcass.
  2. Put the fish with its back to you, make a neat cut along the ridge. Perform these steps several times until the cut reaches the ribs, being careful not to damage the bones of the ribs, do not cut the fillet along with the bones.
  3. Raise the knife and carefully cut the loin from the ribs of the pike.
  4. If necessary, remove the fin, pull out the bones with tweezers.
  5. Lastly, remove the skin. A piece is placed with the meat up, after which the knife is inserted between the loin and the skin and the skin is carefully cut at an angle. Hands need to hold the skin.

It is not always possible to eat fresh pike, and then you have to deal with frozen fish. To properly clean it from scales and remove the skin, you will need:

  • cutting board;
  • forceps;
  • sharp knife.
  1. Cut off all fins with a sharp knife.
  2. Make a deep incision in the head area. Then you need to cut the stomach and back from head to tail.
  3. With the help of pliers, pick up the edge of the skin and remove it from the fish.
  4. Remove the head of the fish.
  5. Clean out the insides.
  6. The cleaned fish is cut into pieces 5 cm wide.
  7. The pulp is carefully separated from the ridge.

Useful properties of pike

Pike meat contains a large number of fats, vitamins, micro- and macroelements necessary for the human body. The content of calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, iron, zinc, iodine and many other useful substances make the pike dish not only tasty, but also extremely healthy.

Also, this fish has antiseptic properties that help in strengthening the immune system and maintaining the body's resistance to infectious diseases.

From this, we can highlight the main benefits of cutting and cooking pike carcasses:

  • contains vitamins;
  • many micro and macro elements;
  • few calories;
  • natural antiseptic.

Quick cleaning methods

As everyone knows, cleaning fish is an unpleasant and messy process. There are many lovers of fish meat, but few people want to take on cutting. In order for the pike to be easier to clean, it is necessary to take it alive. Of course, it is not always possible, after catching a fish, to immediately clean it. Although some fishermen winter fishing they do so.

To facilitate cleaning and remove mucus from the skin of the fish, it is necessary to wash it well under running water (warm), and then pour boiling water over it. This must be done several times for cleaning from different sides of the carcass.

Due to the fact that the carcass has already lain down and hardened a little, the cleaning process becomes more difficult. To remedy the situation and make it easier, you can use the tips to eliminate the river smell: grease the fish with lemon or soak in water with vinegar.

If the smell is not a hindrance, you can start cleaning from the scales. If possible, do this on the street, but if this is not possible, then for cleaning it is necessary:

SHOW

HOLD

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 others more quick 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 the pike represent her sharp teeth, which can be seriously hurt. 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, observing certain rules, which are offered by experienced anglers and housewives, you can simplify this process and make it faster.

It is unlikely that anyone will refuse to feast on a pike fish soup or a piece of fried fish, but not everyone knows how to properly clean a pike, and this significantly hinders its preparation. But it is not difficult to overcome this difficulty. Use the recommendations below and cook pike without difficulty.

A bit of theory

  1. To begin with, thoroughly wash the fish under running water, regardless of whether it is bought or freshly caught. the main task- clean it of debris and mucus;
  2. Grab a fish cutting board or put it in the sink to start scaling. To do this, the head should be on your left, and the tail, respectively, on the right. Using a special sharp knife, begin to gradually remove the scales in the direction from the tail, while holding the head firmly. Make sure that the blade of the knife is attached to the fish at an angle - this will help the scales not to fly apart. When one side is cleared, you should proceed to the second;
  3. The next step is to remove the dorsal fin, tail and pelvic fins. To do this correctly, you need to hold the fin with the fingers of your left hand and holding the knife in your right, carefully cut them off in the direction against the growth of the scales;
  4. Next comes the ripping of the belly. It is necessary to stick the knife shallowly near the head and move down to the end. Remember that with a deep penetration of the knife, the probability of piercing the gallbladder is very high, and the spilled bile will give the fish bitterness;
  5. Carefully remove the innards and the white film that is located along the fish ridge. This is necessary in order to remove the blood that is near it;
  6. Now cut off the head and rinse the fish thoroughly under running water. If desired, remove the bones from the pike.

To clean the pike qualitatively and quickly you need:

  • Use only well-sharpened knives, both for removing fins and for removing scales;
  • Immediately start cleaning the fish after buying or fishing, because after a few hours it will be much more difficult to clean the pike;
  • If, after washing, the fish still smells like a river, then sprinkle it with lemon juice.

Try these tips next time and see if you can actually clean a pike quickly without a lot of effort. Who knows, maybe after that this particular fish will become your favorite!

Few people know the secret of how to clean a pike. First, there are the fishermen themselves. For them, this is a familiar and familiar business. Secondly, these are their wives. They willy-nilly have to master this difficult art.

Main steps of the process

In order to cook any dish from fish, it must first be cleaned. This rather tedious process consists of several steps:

  1. Primary processing. Rinse the fish well under running water to remove debris and unpleasant mucus from the surface.
  2. Scale removal. 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 the head, respectively, on the left. Then, with a sharp knife, slowly scrape off the small scales in the direction from head to tail.
  3. Using the same knife, separate the tail and dorsal fin.
  4. Rip open the belly of the fish, making a neat incision in the head area and gradually moving towards the tail.
  5. Having opened the belly, take out all the insides and remove the thin film located along the spinal bone.
  6. Cut off the head and wash the carcass clean again.

To finally figure out how to clean a pike, you need to learn the intricacies of each of these steps.

Important details

In the complex process of preparing fresh fish for further cooking, there are several important points that you need to understand in order to have a complete understanding of how to clean a 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, the scales of the pike are very small and in the course of cleaning it needs to be washed off periodically. In addition, the fish itself is covered with a layer of natural mucus. It's not easy to remove it. This will require a lot of water.

2) It is necessary to scrape off the scales from the surface with smooth, confident movements, holding the knife slightly at an angle to the fish. This will greatly facilitate the work and prevent the scattering of small scales throughout the kitchen.

3) Cut the belly very carefully. Do not stick the knife deep into the body of the fish. So you can damage the gallbladder and spoil the meat. A smooth cut from the head to the anus will be enough.

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

The scales of the fish 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 may not be cleaned. From this follow two ways of how to properly clean a pike:

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

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

There is another golden rule. You need to remove the scales only together with the extraction of the insides. It is not necessary to separate these two processes, since they are fundamentally interconnected with each other. Sometimes fish with rather dense scales come across. In this case, the fish should be slightly steamed by lowering 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 knife. plastic bag. The cleaning process will take place inside it, which will prevent the possibility of waste scattering.

If you only need meat

Before proceeding with the processing of 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 whole carcass, and you can choose from two already known options. Most often, housewives go the usual way and process fresh fish. In this case, you need to figure out how to clean the pike for cutlets. Here the usual process is repeated step by step:

  1. Rinse the fish under running water.
  2. Clean the scales with a knife or a special scraper. To avoid scattering debris, the pike can be placed in the sink, after closing the drain hole and collecting some water into it.
  3. Following the scales, remove the insides, and then cut off the tail and all fins.
  4. Now you need to carefully remove the fillet from this gutted fish with a special knife. And the small bones that remain in the pulp can be removed with ordinary tweezers.

Now it becomes clear how to clean the pike for cutlets. It remains only to grind the fish pulp in a meat grinder. The skin, in principle, can not be removed. It will be completely invisible in the general mass.

Camp cleaning

Processing fish at home is, of course, convenient. But what about those who decide to do it in nature? What fisherman doesn't want to boil an ear or fry a couple of pike from a fresh catch? To do this, it needs to be prepared. And how to clean a pike from scales right on the street without the usual conditions and tools? But fishermen are people accustomed to everything. Any of them can do it in literally 2 minutes. For such purposes, each of them always has a small device in their travel bag. It can be easily made by hand. To do this, you need a piece of board no more than 20 centimeters long and a pair of metal corks from glass bottles. The board needs to be cut along to get a blank for the handle. In order not to injure your hands during work, it is better to process and grind it with sandpaper. On the one hand, one after the other, using ordinary nails, fix the corks. Such a simple device is easy to make at home in advance. But at the right time with it, you can clean even the smallest fish.

Simple and fast

Butchering pike is a lengthy and rather messy process. But experts have come up with a way to clean the 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 do the following correctly:

  1. Put the washed fish on the board.
  2. Cut out the middle fin, and make a cut behind the front fin towards the head.
  3. Having reached the ridge, turn the knife around and continue cutting along the ridge up to the tail. It turns out exactly half the carcass. Then turn the other half over and do the same with it.
  4. Separate the ribs from each half, carefully cutting them with a fillet knife. Fish at this time can be held with a fork.
  5. Now, alternately, for each half, separate the skin along with the scales. To do this, a piece of fish must be placed on the board with the skin down and carefully cut with a knife, slowly moving it along the table.

The result is two pieces of pike meat pulp. And the fish is 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 a whole carcass in the pan, with scales and entrails. 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 the pike for frying, depending on the method of its preparation. For example, to make fish in batter, you need a fillet. You can get it using the method described above, and do not tire yourself with cleaning the scales. This will greatly reduce the time that must be spent on cutting the pike. The work is done quickly and, most importantly, cleanly. If you want to fry the fish in the usual way, you will first have to take care of 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 cooked.

Pike fillet counts delicious meat, from which you can cook a lot of dishes, among which tender cutlets. But in order not to leave bones, not everyone knows. And this knowledge is necessary not only for young housewives, but also for men who understand a lot about food and cooking.

The pike differs from its counterparts in sharp teeth, which can be hurt if careless handling. But with a few simple guidelines, this can be avoided. Pike cleaning should be carried out in several stages, only with this approach you can get a high-quality cleaned fillet.

Do they clean the pike?

From pike, you can cook both delicious main courses, a quality snack, and a wonderful fish soup. Many inexperienced housewives entering into family life sometimes ask the question do you need to clean the pike to cook the ear, or is it enough to rinse and clean it from the insides?

We can say with confidence: for the preparation of any dish, it is necessary to carefully clean the pike, not only from the bones, but also from the entrails and scales. Before you start cleaning, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Tip 1. Pike should be cleaned immediately after catching or buying, otherwise, after some time it will be problematic to do this.

Tip 2. To clean the carcass, you must use sharp, large and comfortable knives so as not to get hurt, and quickly get rid of the fins, head and tail.

Tip 3. If, after cleaning the fish and washing it, the river smell is not eliminated from the pike, you should squeeze out fresh lemon juice and sprinkle them with a carcass.

Tip 4. The fish should be cleaned with gloves so that the smell is not absorbed into the skin of the hands.

Tip 5. The cutting board must be wrapped with foil or film, you do not have to wash it from the fishy smell.

How to clean a pike from scales?

Before the main cleaning of the pike, it must be cleaned of scales. This can be done in two different ways:

  • scrape it off with a special scraper;
  • remove, together with the skin, without scraping.

Wash the carcass under running water about mucus and debris, place it on a prepared board, pick up a scraper or a sharp wide knife, and moving against the growth of the scales, gradually scrape it off. When cleaning, the fish must be firmly held by the head. First, you should clean one side, then, turning it over to the other side, proceed to the other side.

This process is best done on the balcony or in the yard to avoid long cleaning after cleaning. At the end, it is necessary to wash the carcass and proceed to further cutting.

How to clean a pike for cutlets?

After cleaning the carcass from scales, it is necessary to start cutting it into fillets. It should be noted that the pike contains many small and medium bones. Therefore, you need to know how to properly clean the pike so that the fillet does not contain bones. This must be done in several steps.

Step 1. Lay the fish on a cutting board, carefully remove the dorsal, caudal and lateral fins in turn. Holding the base of the fin. you need to cut against the natural growth of the scales.

Step 2. The next step is to rip open the belly of the pike and scrape out all the insides. Insert the tip of the knife into the area near the head and carefully cut open the abdomen. Carefully, so as not to damage the gallbladder, and prevent bile from spreading, remove the insides out. Next, you need to remove the white film to get rid of the blood.

Step 3. At the end of cleaning, cut off the head and thoroughly rinse the carcass under running water and proceed to cutting or put in the freezer.

To cut fish for cutlets, you should know how to quickly clean a pike. This method also involves separating the bones from the fillet.

Step 1. First you need to remove the skin from the cleaned carcass.

Step 2. Divide the fish in half, into two parts: one with a ridge, the other without it. With the tip of a knife, carefully separate the backbone from the meat, and remove it.

Step 3. Use tweezers or fingers to remove small bones so that they do not get stuck in the throat.

Knowing the technology of cleaning and cooking pike, it will not be difficult to prepare culinary masterpieces from it, and delight loved ones!