Simple tips on how to clean scales from a perch: recommendations from fishermen and housewives. How to quickly descale a perch

Perch is a tasty and nutritious fish. They cook a lot with it various dishes. The product is boiled, fried, baked. But most owners don’t know how to clean scales from a perch. There are some features of this procedure. They are described in the article.

The benefits of fish

The perch is distinguished by spiny fins on its back and bright red fins on its belly. The fish has tiger-striped scales. It is small in size and weighs no more than 3 kg. There are exceptions among sea bass, which can weigh up to 14 kg. The small size makes the fish prey for larger individuals, birds and humans.

River perch is found in fresh water bodies, and sea perch is found in coastal parts. Low-calorie fish fillet. It contains many vitamins and microelements. Perch fillet increases the level of salts in the body, so it is not recommended for people who are prone to gout and urolithiasis.

Adaptations

How to clean a perch? The procedure is performed with several devices that make human labor easier:

Board. This tool is unique because it helps to clean almost any fish. There is a special clamp on the board, so both hands will be free. In this case, the product will not slip, so it will not fall on the floor. The disadvantage is that the scales scatter to the sides.
Scissors. For cutting, special stainless steel scissors are produced. Thanks to them, you can quickly remove the fins, tail, and head of the fish. This means that they can cut the fish's spine and remove the bones. Scissors are not used for all cutting, but only at some stages.
Steel knife. The device has a wide blade that helps in cutting. The knives are equipped with comfortable handles that do not slip.
Knife-file. This product has a double-sided sharpening, on one side there is a wave blade (for vegetables, bread, cheese), and the second has a serrated blade (for fish).
Drum machine. This product is designed to remove scales from fish. There is an abrasive effect inside the drum, which simplifies the work. The fish is placed in it, poured with water. As the drum rotates, the skin peels off.
Scraper knives. The device replaces a scale removal machine if the amount of work is small. Scraper knives make human work easier and minimize the appearance of debris. In addition, the procedure does not harm the carcass.

What is needed?

How to quickly clean a perch? Please note that freshly caught fish is easier to clean. The procedure begins with the removal of fins. This is required to protect against injuries that can be caused by contact with sharp thorns. Only then can you perform the remaining operations: remove heads, entrails and scales.

Without special devices it will not be possible to remove the scales. To work you need:

A container of water in which to wash the fish.
Cutting board. It is preferable to choose plastic, as wood absorbs odors. After work, the product should be washed thoroughly.
Sharp knife.
Thick paper.
Kitchen scissors.
Gloves made of cotton material.

Removing scales from skin

How to clean a perch without removing the skin? This cutting method is useful if skin is not required for cooking. First, the head and fins are cut off from the perch, and then the carcass is placed in the freezer. It should freeze, but only slightly, and then you need to remove the skin along with the scales.

Then the insides are removed. High-quality washing after cutting is considered a mandatory operation. This method may not be suitable for every cooking method. If the fish is boiled or fried, then without the skin you won’t get a tasty dish. But if you cook cutlets or salt them, then this method will be excellent. But still, fish fillet is tasty and healthy.

Field cleaning

Such processing will be simpler, since there is no need to control cleanliness, as in the kitchen. Therefore, you can use a simple device made from beer bottle caps. It will take a few minutes to receive the device. An old grater will come in handy. The device allows you to quickly and efficiently remove scales.

A steel fillet knife is used to obtain fillets. How to easily clean a perch? First you need to make an incision around the head, starting from the neck and continuing to the ridge. Then the fish must be placed on its side, and then the knife is inserted near the head and turned so that the fillet is cut from half the ridge.

After cutting the bones from the belly, the fillet is separated from the skin. The same work is done with the other half of the perch. If you have experience, this procedure will take no more than 1 minute.

Using boiling water

How to quickly remove scales from a perch? In order not to waste time, you can take boiling water. Depending on the length of time the fish remains in boiling water, the perch is cleaned of scales and skin together. This period is determined experimentally. The skin is easily removed; you just need to pry it off with a knife. Removing scales is just as easy.

Cleaning sea bass

Sea bass's fins have glands containing poison, so you need to work with it extremely carefully. Although this component is not dangerous to humans, if it penetrates wounds, it will cause non-healing wounds on the body, and they are painful.

If there sea bass how to clean it? Before the procedure you need to wear gloves. Then the fins are removed. For further processing You can use the following few tips:

For quick fix To remove scales, use boiling water, in which the fish is immersed for a certain period.
The procedure is simplified in another way: the perch is placed in rock salt overnight, and in the morning it will be cleaned very simply.
If the fish is needed for smoking, no cleaning procedure is required.

Cleaning small fish

Often when winter fishing you can bring a lot of small fish. Its processing is quite complicated. How to clean a perch without causing a lot of trouble? You need to do this with the skin. This requires a sharp knife. First you need to make 2 cuts along the upper fin to the tail. Then the skin is lifted with a knife and the scales are torn off.

If the knife is not sharp, the work becomes more difficult. This method allows you to quickly get the job done. Although you won’t get a dish with a golden crust, you can try a delicious fish fillet. You can use boiling water to make the task easier. To do this, you need to boil water and place the perch in a colander, lower it into boiling water.

Cleaning river perch

How to clean river perch? Fresh fish easier to clean. The cutting method is almost the same. First you need to remove the fins. The work must be performed with personal protective equipment and cotton gloves. This will not only protect your hands from injury, but also prevent the fish from slipping out. Then the head of the perch is removed.

Having secured the carcass by the tail with a fork, you need to remove small scales with a knife. Its particles can fly in all directions. You can put it in the freezer first. After freezing a little, its scales and skin are removed. This method is not suitable for frying or baking.

If you only need to remove scales, you need to work hard. A product with beer bottle caps or an old grater - you will have to work hard with such devices. Now in the trading network there is various products, including those intended for cleaning fish. They make work quick and easy.

Scissors

How to remove scales from a perch using scissors? The cutting method is the same as with a knife. You need to remove the fins, and then cut open the belly and remove the entrails. If you have experience, you can clean up to 1.5 kg of fish in 15 minutes with scissors. These are the basic answers to the question of how to quickly clean a perch.

If you pay attention to the matter, then all the work will be done easily. Just choose any convenient way, and also remember about safety precautions. Then the cleaning procedure will be comfortable.

Perch - very delicious fish, the meat of which is enriched with microelements that have a beneficial effect on the human body. Cleaning the product can sometimes be difficult, especially if you don’t know how to clean a perch correctly and don’t have enough experience in it.

Simple solutions to the issue

The main difficulty in cleaning river fish is removing the scales, which are quite small in perch: they fly into different sides, and the fish itself tries to slip out of your hands or jump off the cutting board. Some housewives solve these problems like this:

Before cleaning the product is placed in plastic bag to clean the scales of the perch directly in the bag, leaving the kitchen clean;
They use knitted gloves, which makes it easy to hold and clean the fish quickly, and also not to get hurt by the scales;
To avoid cutting yourself, the sharp fins are removed first.

The easiest way to clean a perch is to use a regular sharp knife. Having acquired the skill, this can be done very quickly: press the perch to a flat surface, pull by the head until a characteristic crunch is heard, peel off the scales from the middle to the belly, then clean the rest, moving against the direction of the scales. To achieve good results, you can use the following tips:

- Freeze the fresh product a little, then it will clean better and faster;

Or do the opposite: pour boiling water over the fish for a few seconds. The top layer will become softer;

Salt will also help soften it: you need to sprinkle it on the fish overnight, and then rinse and clean the river perch;

If the meat is used for minced meat, you can remove the skin along with the scales. To do this, cut along the back of the fin on both sides, pull out the fin, make an incision at the head and pull the skin from the top to the tail. It is convenient to use pliers for this.

It is not recommended to remove the skin before frying, otherwise the meat will be dry, but you need to remove the giblets and gills for flavor. ready-made dish not spoiled.

Advice! The top layer is removed quickly from fresh fish. The more time passes from the moment of catch, the more difficult it will be to process the fish product.

Little tricks

To make the cleaning process easier, many devices have been invented.

- Devices with waste collection containers;

Boards with clamp made of different materials allowing you to quickly clean and gut fish;

Special scissors for cutting fins, cutting the abdomen and getting rid of gills;
Bone saws;
Electric fish scalers;
Scraper knives.

Red perch is processed in the same way as river perch, but in order to clean sea perch without fear, you should first get rid of the fins - they are much sharper in the sea life.

To rid yourself of extra work, before cleaning, you need to decide for what purpose the fish will be used, and whether it needs to be done at all. It is not at all necessary to clean small perch: it can be used for broth for fish soup, which will still need to be strained after cooking. Sun-dried, smoked, grilled food is usually not cleaned before cooking.

Quickly handling a fish product with such a variety of devices is not a difficult task, especially if you practice more often. Having learned how to process it correctly and used your ingenuity, you can cook such a nutritious dish as much as you want, forgetting about the difficulties of cleaning and looking forward to a delicious lunch or dinner.

Fish loves where it is deeper, and man loves where the fish are... Who would refuse aromatic fish soup or fried fish! It’s a rare case when something tasty is also healthy. One of the types edible fish- river or sea perch. River fish, as a rule, ends up in a cauldron with fish soup, but its sea counterpart is more often fried in a frying pan. But before you eat the fish, you need to cook it. Let's figure out how to properly and, most importantly, quickly clean and cut up perch.

Why is perch so good?

Perch is easily recognized by its characteristic spiny fins on the back and bright red fins on its belly, and by the tiger-striped color of its scales. Perch is usually small in size and usually weighs no more than three kilograms. Exceptions are found in the sea bass ranks, where some individuals can reach fourteen kilograms. Due to its small size, perch has become prey for large fish, birds and, of course, humans.

River perch lives in fresh water bodies: rivers, flowing lakes. Marine - in coastal areas and rocky deep-sea areas of seas and oceans.

Perch meat is low-calorie and rich in vitamins and microelements:

B vitamins;
vitamin C;
vitamin E;
vitamin PP;
vitamin A;
vitamin D;
phosphorus;
iron;

River perch is a tasty fish and contains few bones. A marine variety of this fish taste qualities no worse, but there are much more bones in it.

Perch meat increases the level of salts in the body, so it is not recommended for people prone to gout and urolithiasis.

How to clean and cut up perch

Cleaning a perch is not the easiest task. The scales of this fish are dense, and the fins are spiny. For cutting you will need:

cutting board (there is a special board for cutting fish with a clothespin for the tail and grooves where blood and mucus collect);

scissors to remove fins and gills;

not too narrow and not too wide knife;
saw blade for sawing bones;
forceps for removing bones and skin.

Photo gallery: tools for cleaning and cutting fish

Scissors are convenient for removing fins and gills Forceps are indispensable for removing bones Knife file is used for sawing large bones Convenient cutting board, as the clothespin holds the fish by the tail

Cleaning the scales of the perch

Before removing the scales, remove the sharp dorsal fin using a knife or scissors. And then use one of the methods for cleaning perch:

Freeze fresh fish in the freezer before cleaning. Then the scales will come off easily;
the opposite way is to lower the carcass into boiling water for two minutes. The hard scales will become soft and easily removed;
with the help of salt. Rub the fish with salt overnight, and in the morning the scales will easily come off the skin.

The dorsal fin of sea bass contains poisonous glands, so it must be removed first. In this case, it is necessary to protect your hands. For example, you can wear construction gloves.

Getting rid of the skin

You don't need to skin the perch if you want to fry or bake it, because then the meat will lose its juices. But it is recommended to peel small perches before cooking. The skin is also removed when it is necessary to prepare fish fillets.

To remove the skin, you need to carry out a number of manipulations with the carcass:

Cut the head at the spine.
Make cuts at the top and bottom of the dorsal fin and pull it out.
Pick up the skin and pull it to the belly.
Pull the skin and head off the fish (the giblets will also come off).
Rinse the skinned carcass under running water.

We gut the perch

If there is no need to remove the skin, then the next cutting step will be gutting the fish. To remove the entrails, cut the belly from the tail to the gills and carefully clean it out. It is important not to touch or damage the gallbladder.

Getting ready to cook fresh perch

So, before us is a cleaned and gutted perch. Then it all depends on what kind of dish you are going to prepare from it.

Cutting fish soup

Some recipes suggest first boiling the perch in its scales, then removing it from the broth, removing the skin, removing the bones, and putting the finished meat back into the fish soup.

If you want to cook fish soup from fillet, you must first remove the skin from the fish along with the head, as described above, cut the carcass along the ridge into two parts and remove the bones, and then prepare pieces of the required size and cook broth from them.

Thrifty housewives advise not to throw away the heads left after cleaning, but to leave them for preparing other dishes, for example, fish soup.

Cutting for frying

For frying, it is better to cut the perch into steaks. There is no need to remove the skin - thanks to it, a crispy crust is obtained. Cut the gutted grouper, without head and fins, into pieces average size using a saw blade.

Cleaning and cutting frozen perch

We usually purchase sea bass frozen. If you plan to fry fish, then immediately start cleaning and cutting it, and for fish soup, first defrost the carcasses.

You need to defrost the perch gradually, preferably in cold water. To speed up the process, add a tablespoon of salt there.

Cleaning frozen perch is much easier than fresh.

First remove all the fins.
Make an incision near the head, along the belly and along the entire back.
Remove scales with a knife or scraper.
Use tongs to separate the skin and cut off the head.
Gut the fish.
If necessary, cut the finished carcass into fillets and remove bones.

Video: cutting frozen river perch

Fresh river or frozen sea bass - delicious and useful product. And don’t let the process of cleaning or cutting up a perch bother you anymore. A little patience and skill - and wonderful home-cooked dishes will delight you and your loved ones!

Fish is a unique and healthy product. Among the representatives of the aquatic environment, perch is deservedly noted. Dishes prepared from it can become the highlight of any table and pleasantly surprise family members and guests. To do this, you need to be able to properly clean scaled fish and know the easiest and fastest ways to gut and cut up perch.

The value of sea and river perch

Perch can be either river or sea. Freshwater fish meat has a unique chemical composition, normalizing blood sugar levels, improving the condition of mucous membranes and skin. It is a dietary product.

The meat of sea fish is orange-red in color. It is especially useful for people who are obese. Contains fatty acids that lower cholesterol levels, regulate metabolism, prevent endocrine disorders, and help prevent and treat nervous and cardiovascular diseases.

Easy cleaning of perch scales at home

This one is delicious and very healthy fish has a peculiarity - sharp and prickly fins, very small and dense scales. The process of cleaning a perch can be a difficult task for those who do not have experience and dexterity in this matter. To work you will need:

An easy way to clean fresh river fish

You can remove scales from perch using cutting board. To prevent the husks from scattering to the sides during the cleaning process and to avoid the need for additional cleaning of the room, we recommend cleaning the fish in a container with water. This could be a dishwasher or a large bowl or basin.

You can clean the perch by placing it in a tight bag, inside of which the scales will remain.

How to make it easier to remove scales using salt, boiling water, freezing

The process of cleaning a perch can be significantly accelerated if you use one of the following methods:

Please note that not all dishes require perch to be cleaned. If the fish will be dried or you plan to cook hot smoked perch, bake it on the grill or grill, then it is enough to rinse it thoroughly and salt it.

Video: traditional way to clean perch

How to remove scales along with skin

To prepare some fish dishes, perch is used without skin. The skin will come off easier if you dip the fish in boiling water or freeze it slightly.

Video: how to quickly descale a perch - skinning it

How to Clean Redfish

The cleaning process for sea bass is absolutely identical to the cleaning process for its freshwater counterpart. However, sea bass has one unpleasant feature - its sharp fins contain poisonous glands and wounds from injections on such fins are painful and for a long time don't heal.

Particular care must be taken when removing fins, and it is better to carry out this work with gloves.

To avoid a persistent fishy smell, grease your hands and board with lemon juice.

Gutting fish
Place the cleaned and washed fish on a cutting board or take it in your hand, belly up.
We make a longitudinal cut from the tail to the head, opening the belly of the fish.
Carefully remove the entrails, trying not to damage the gall bladder: its contents will give the meat an unpleasant bitterness.
If the bladder ruptures, sprinkle the place where the bile gets in with salt and scrape it with a knife. If desired, separate the milk or caviar for further preparation.

We remove the black film that covers the belly, otherwise the meat will taste bitter.

We wash the fish thoroughly.

How to easily cut perch, including fillets
Please remember that the fins are removed before cleaning.

If we cook the perch whole, then remove the gills with a knife and cut off the tail. If you need portioned pieces, then we also cut off the head.

Cut a large carcass into portions. If the fish is large and you do not plan to cook it whole, then the carcass needs to be cut into pieces Many

culinary recipes
suggest the use of perch fillet. To do this, the meat should be separated from the bones.
We make an incision along the head.
Insert the knife into the cut and use short movements to separate the flesh, sliding along the bone.
Cut off the rib bones.

Separate the fillet from the skin.

We repeat the procedure on the other side.

Video: filleting perch
How to clean frozen fish
We hold the fish under the belly, using a towel to protect our hands from freezing and getting pricked by the fins.
Using a knife, we cut off the fin with a slight grip on the back from the tail towards the head.
We cut off the lower fins with a slight grip on the belly, while simultaneously ripping open the belly.
We cut the tail not all the way through the bone, and by pulling it we remove the skin on one side.
We remove the skin from the other side, picking it up with a knife at the cut site.
We remove the insides.

Perch belongs to the fish of the perch family, which have sharp fins on the upper and lower parts of the body, and small scales that sit firmly on the body. Typically, the weight of freshwater perch ranges from 900 g to 1.3 kg, but larger specimens are also found. It lives in fresh water bodies, rivers and seas.

This is a very tasty fish that can be steamed, boiled, fried and salted. And in general, there are many recipes for preparing perch dishes. But a logical question immediately arises: is it necessary to clean the perch? Definitely yes. Unfortunately, as already mentioned, the scales of this fish are tightly held to the body, and the fins are very sharp, so you will have a difficult task. We will still risk giving some advice and tell you how to quickly clean the scales of a perch.

How to clean fresh river perch?

Fresh perch is a little easier to clean than old perch. First, we cut off all the fins with scissors so as not to prick ourselves. Then we cut off the head. We arm ourselves with a knife and fork and start cleaning. Before starting work, we put on gloves, as the fish slides. We press the tail to the cutting board, use a fork or knife to pry up the scales and remove. It is more convenient to clean not from the tail to the head, but from the abdomen to the back. The downside of this method is that there are scales all over the kitchen, and it’s a bit difficult. But there is more quick way how to easily clean a perch: after you have cut off all the fins and separated the head, put the carcasses in the freezer for a while. When they are slightly frozen, we take them out and lift the skin with a knife and easily remove it along with the scales, like a stocking. And the kitchen is tidy and there is no trash. This method is good if you are cutting fish for minced meat or salting. This method is not suitable for frying and baking. How, then, to properly clean a perch? Craftsmen suggest this method. We nail iron caps from beer bottles to a simple but convenient wooden stick, as shown in the figure. It is not necessary to use so many stoppers; 1-2 caps are enough. Or another device: cut off a panel from an old vegetable grater and nail it to wooden block. With such devices, fish is cleaned easily and quickly. It’s true that it’s better to do this outside, because the scales fly in all directions. And in general, the product market now offers a wide range of universal fish cleaners, which have a pocket for collecting scales. When purchasing, pay attention to the quality of the product and the thickness of the metal so that it does not break or bend.

What is the best way to clean sea bass?

In principle the same. True, sea bass is a prickly fish and has poisonous glands on its fins, and if you prick yourself on them, the wound will hurt greatly and take a long time to heal. Therefore, be sure to wear gloves and cut off the fins. In addition to this, here are a few tips:

Before you start cleaning the fish, dip it in boiling water for a few seconds. The main thing is not to overdo it, otherwise the skin will come off along with the scales.
You can also sprinkle the fish with coarse rock salt overnight. In the morning you can quickly and easily remove it with a knife.
If you are going to smoke perch, there is no need to clean it at all.

How to clean small perch?

In winter, small perch are most often caught. The fish is, of course, tasty, but it’s a bit of a hassle. It is better to clean it immediately and remove the scales along with the skin. To do this, we make two cuts along the upper fin, from head to tail. In this case, the knife must be very sharp. In this way, cutting one fish takes several minutes. True, you won’t get a crispy crust when frying, but we will enjoy the tender meat of the perch.

The perches are gutted from the belly side, making an incision from the head to the anal fin. After this, we take out the insides and wash them abdominal cavity. Then we make cuts on both sides of the dorsal fin and pull it out. The carcass is ready.

We hope that these simple tips on how to clean perch will help and make it easier to prepare wonderful and delicious dishes from this fish.