Knife for cleaning fish from scales

Fish is a valuable product for diet and baby food. If it is bought with a whole carcass, its preparation begins with such a difficult and time-consuming process as removing the scales. It can be facilitated with a special tool. How to choose a knife for cleaning fish from scales and how to replace it will be discussed in the material below.

Special knife for cleaning fish from scales: description

The main problem that you have to face when processing fish with an ordinary knife is the scales flying around in all directions. A special kitchen gadget - a scraper for fish scales - helps to avoid this trouble.

There are various modifications to this tool. It can be trite simple, resembling a children's plastic scoop with a serrated edge, which raises and removes scales. And it can be a more complex design with a container for collecting scales.

Monitoring reviews showed that the most successful fish scaler is considered to be a fixture with a plastic handle, a steel scraper and a lockable container.

Using it is very simple:

• Close the lid of the container.
• Holding the fish scaler by the handle, rub the carcass of the fish with a blade.

Detachable scales fall into the container, which is released as it is filled. The blades of such devices are fixed so that they can rub the fish against the growth of scales, and in its direction.

Some models of such fish scrapers are equipped with an optional gutting knife. But practice shows that using this bonus is not too convenient - the knife is poorly fixed.

What else can you clean fish?

Scraper knives are not the only accessories with which you can get rid of fish scales.For cleaning fish, a number of other devices are used - purchased or home-made.

Hand tools

The following tools will help free the carcass from the scales:

• Fish scaler with movable teeth, reminiscent of a massage brush. Long-life, easily copes with scales of all types of fish, except large perch. It does not allow the scales to fly apart, so that cleaning can be done in a normal sink.
• Four-sided grater. For cleaning, the side with large holes is used. Scales get inside the grater and do not fly apart.
• Spoon or fork. Suitable for cleaning fish with small, easily detachable scales. It is enough to rub it with the metal handle of a fork or spoon.
• Homemade fish scaler from beer caps. To make it, they take a wooden plank of a suitable size and several iron beer caps are nailed to it with their teeth up.
• Peeler. Useful for cleaning small fish with soft scales. It is more convenient to use a peeler with a blade located along the handle.

Some types of fish, for example, burbot, catfish, eel, lamprey, small herring and smelt can be easily cleaned without tools, rubbing the carcass with coarse salt.

Electric household fish scaler

If you have to clean fish often, it makes sense to think about purchasing an electric fish scaler. The usual household version of this device works from the network, but there are models on batteries or those that can be powered from a car cigarette lighter.

Of all the devices, electric fish scalers are the most convenient. Scales do not fly apart due to protective screens. Some models have closed containers.

Responses of the owners of these devices show that the following fish cleaners have the best price-quality ratio:

The big advantage of electric fish scalers is the low risk of damage to the skin and pulp of the fish during processing.

Methods for cleaning fish with a regular knife

You can get rid of scales without fish cleaners, if you know how to choose a knife for fish. Ideally, it is better to have a special shker knife. A good tool allows you to clean and cut fish in a couple of minutes with a certain skill.

The blade of the shker knife should not be too long. As a rule, 15 cm is enough. In width it is either equal to the width of the handle, or slightly wider than it.

If there are no special knives, you can use ordinary chopping. To remove the scales, they are used in two ways - with the blade forward or the reverse side.

Blade forward is the classic way to clean fish.

Step by step, this process looks like this:

• Kitchen scissors cut fins.
• The fish is placed on a cutting board wrapped in cling film. If there is a board with a clip, you can press the tail fin with it.
• A board with fish is placed in a sink filled with water. Location - tail to yourself.
• Holding the carcass by the caudal fin, they clean the scales with a knife, moving from tail to head. Scales thus fall into the water and scatter less on the sides.
• The cleaned fish is washed with water and prepared for gutting.

To make the fish glide less during cleaning, it is lightly sprinkled with coarse salt.

Cleaning with the back of the knife does not technologically differ from the method with a blade forward, but is more suitable for those who do not have enough experience.This method allows you to reduce the risk of cuts to the skin of the fish.

Clean complex fish: perch

There are some types of fish, remove the scales, which are not easy. These include, for example, perch. It is especially difficult to clean large perches - their scales are so dense that they resemble armor.

Clean small perches with a relatively loose fit of the scales as follows:

• Cut fins with kitchen scissors.
• Fix the carcass on a cutting board as described above.
• After setting the board in the sink, scald the perch with boiling water. It is important not to pour boiling water for too long so that the skin does not come off.
• To clean fish from scales with one of the suitable devices.

Large perches are cleaned the same way, but sometimes salt is additionally used. There is a little trick: if you put the carcass at night in coarse salt, then the next day the scales will be removed almost effortlessly. In some cases, they do not spend time on this and simply remove the skin along with the scales when consumed.

It is important to know that the fresher the fish, the easier it is to clean.

A carcass with dried skin cleans worse than wet skin.

Ways to gut the fish

Often, fish carcasses are already purchased without entrails - they are removed on fishing vessels in order to extend the shelf life of the product. If the fish is caught on its own, gut it should be immediately after cleaning from the scales.

Gutting fish, the body of which has a rounded section, is produced according to the following scheme:

• Place the carcass on a cutting board with your tail to you and press your hand against the table.
• Insert the tip of the cutting knife into the anus and open the abdomen to the head.
• Remove the insides. If necessary, make a shallow incision along the spine from the inside and scrape the opened cavity a little.
• If the fish is cooked without a head, it is cut off.
• If the fish cooks with the head, take out the gills. To do this, they are poked with a finger from the inside and removed outside.

The technology of gutting fish with a flat body (e.g. flounder) is slightly different:

• The carcass is placed on a cutting board with your head to yourself and pressed with your hand to the table.
• A V-shaped incision is made around the head.
• They put the knife aside, take the fish head with his hand and pull it towards himself, while twisting. The head is then separated from the body along with the insides.
• The opened internal cavity is thoroughly washed under a stream of water, washing off the remains of blood.

Further actions depend on how the fish will be cooked. If you plan to fillet a carcass, you must use a sirloin knife. Slicing into steaks is done with a conventional chopping knife.

To clean and cut the fish was easy and quick, it is important to have in the kitchen the whole set of necessary knives and appliances: a fish cleaner or a shker knife, a good cutting and loin knife. The work of removing the scales and primary evisceration is best done with gloves in order to avoid cuts and injections with sharp fins of the fish.