How to clean carp: tips for housewives, preparing fish for cooking, interesting recipes for fish dishes. How to clean and butcher carp at home How to clean large carp from scales

Taste a freshly caught fish from a cauldron, appetizingly fragrant on the river bank, meet a beloved husband from a “quiet hunt”, quickly prepare a catch and treat the household - these moments could be even more pleasant if it were not for cleaning the fish from slippery scales. This adds a "fly in the ointment" to the enjoyment of river fish dishes.

We will not give up positions, and will try to optimize the objective reality. After all, dishes based on fish are healthy and tasty.

The basic rule for processing fish: clean from tail to head, with small sharp movements. First we clean the sides, then the belly of the carcass.

Preparing for cleaning

Cutting board.
Kitchen, large scissors.
Paper towels.
Sharp knife. If you are not a master, take a regular knife.
Scraper for cleaning small scales. This device is purchased at retail outlets.
A grater will also come in handy.

A difficult task is to remove adhering debris from the fish. This is grass, grains of sand, mud and more, so we wash the catch in cold water. If the water is running - great! If you have to wash the fish in the basin, change the water several times.

ADVICE! Do not cut off the head while cleaning. It will come in handy when removing scales. Cut it off when you begin to gut the carcass.

The method of liberation from scales and giblets depends on the type of fish. For some varieties, you need ingenuity when cleaning at home.

Quick and easy cleaning of the most popular river fish

Perch river and sea

First, cut off the fins with scissors, which can damage the skin of the hands. It's painful and unsafe.

Then dip the carcass in cold water, and clean against scales with a fork or knife. Grooves are obtained that raise the scales in some areas. Thus, they are easier to clean.

ADVICE! You can easily, quickly and safely remove the scales from the perch along with the skin.

Video tips

catfish

Catfish has smooth skin, but not in the carcass small bones. Removing the mucus covering it is the main task in preparation. Coarse salt will come to the rescue.

Ingredients

Servings: 4

catfish 1 PC
coarse salt 1 tsp

per serving

Calories: 143 kcal

Proteins: 16.8 g

Fats: 8.5 g

Carbohydrates: 0 g

8 min. Video recipe Print

Roll the catfish in salt.

Let's leave it for a minute.

We wipe the carcass (putting on a rubber glove beforehand) with a sponge or a clean rag.

With a knife (blunt side) scrape the skin to a light shade.

We wash off everything that is rubbed off. Then repeat at least once.

On " summer fishing» Salt can be replaced with ash.

Zander

Pike perch has a slimy surface, so we also use coarse salt.

We get rid of mud and mucus, wipe the carcass.
Cut the fins with a knife, capturing some meat.
We use boiling water to remove scales. We clean from the tail to the head, against the growth of scales. A metal grater cleans fine scales well. We attach the grater to the stick and, holding the handle, process the fish.
Now we remove the offal. We cut the skin of pike perch between the gills and bring the knife down to the tail, while holding the carcass by the gills.
We take out all the insides, not forgetting to remove the films. You can not remove the skin from pike perch.

ADVICE! Always clean the membranes inside any fish to avoid bitterness and an unpleasant taste in the finished dish.

Video guide

Tench

Tench has small, dense scales and mucus. To begin with, it washes away the mucus, then we dip it in boiling water and sharply shift it into cold water. Let's start cleaning the scales and entrails.

carp

Carp is the cleanest fish. We wash it in water, clean the scales with a knife. Gutted.

silver carp

Silver carp lends itself well to cleaning with a special tool (buy in a store or process with a grater). Keep the fish in the water if you do not want to collect the scales scattered around the house.

Cleaned, washed cold water. It's time to learn about some features when cleaning the insides.

CAREFULLY! There is a lot of bile in silver carp, so when cleaning, try to take out the offal carefully! If you damage the place of accumulation of fluid secreted by the liver, you can say goodbye to the plans for the "fish day" - the pulp will become bitter in taste.

Be sure to cut the gill plates from the head. From a semi-finished product (head of a silver carp), you can cook an ear or fry it.

Carp

Carp has large and dense scales, it is better to clean it in a bowl of cold water, moving against the growth of the scales. Places that are difficult to reach for processing can be doused with boiling water. Then the scales will soften and it will become easier to move away.

Video instruction

For processing all types of fish, it is desirable to have a special cutting board. To prevent the fishy smell from being absorbed into the canvas, put on a plastic bag or lay paper on it.
Handling should take place as soon as possible after the catch (or purchase). Pull out the fish giblets on the same day.
If the fish is dry, soak it for a few minutes in cool water. Then start processing.
Rinse fish thoroughly after handling. This will allow you to notice the flaws of cleaning - a small scale that has not come off in places, a film inside the abdomen.
When the fish is intended for smoking and drying, it is better to leave the scales.
Does the fish give off the aroma of river mud? Soak after cleaning for an hour in salt water, the problem will disappear.
You can use the freezer. Place the carcass for a day. Take it out, wait for the moment when the scales thaw, and inside the pulp is still frozen. You can clean it, the scales will come off perfectly.

So it's time to look in your notes for recipes for fish dishes. Now you will deal with any "river guest" caught in the net or on the hook, and then straight to the kitchen.

Carp is a very tasty and at the same time healthy fish. From it you can cook many dishes, both festive and everyday. There are several varieties of carp: mirror, Thai, Japanese and the most common freshwater. They can be baked, fried, salted, smoked, stewed and even boiled. Most often in cooking, ordinary carp and mirror are used.

Regardless of which dish is being prepared, carp should be properly cleaned beforehand, otherwise the final taste may be spoiled.

Any hostess at least once in her life faced such a question as how to clean carp. There is nothing super complicated in this process. Carp requires a gentle attitude towards itself, so you need to clean it according to all the rules. Fish scales tend to scatter throughout the kitchen, thereby increasing the need for subsequent cleaning. To prevent this from happening and not have to wash tables and floors for a long time, you must follow the instructions.

Carp features

Carp is an unpretentious fish and is caught with almost any bait. It can be attracted both by corn or peas, and by worms or maggots. Be sure to remove the bait from your mouth before cooking so that it does not end up in the finished dish.

To extract the bait, you need to open the carp's mouth and put it under a fairly large pressure of cold water. Thus, the water will wash away everything superfluous. If you can't get the bait, then you can use the hook.

Before you start cleaning the carp, you should rinse it and remove the remnants of the bait

If the dish will be cooked without a head, you can not waste time on this, but simply cut it off.

Choosing a carp cleaning tool

For cleaning fish, an ordinary sharp knife is mainly used. You can also purchase a special scraper designed for this process; it is a very convenient tool for inexperienced housewives.

Outside the home, improvised means are used. A do-it-yourself grater is suitable: for this, tin caps from beer are attached to a wooden board. You can also clean carp from scales with the help of a canned food can, in which holes are made at the bottom with nails.

Preparing for cleaning

If the carp is still alive, it must be killed, since it is not so convenient or humane to clean a live fish. You can either leave her outside for a while until she suffocates, or hit her on the head with a knife handle, and only after that you can start the process.

To make it easier to remove the scales, the carcass can be doused with boiling water

To begin with, the fish must be abundantly wetted so that the scales are soaked, and immediately proceed to the main process, since it will be quite difficult to clean dry fish. If the carcass is large, then the scales will be thick and rather difficult to clean. To facilitate the work, you can dip it for a few minutes in boiling water.

Carp cleaning

The main question that arises in the process of work: how to clean the carp so that the scales do not fly into different sides? The fish should be held by the tail during cleaning, while the head should look at the person who cleans it. There are also tips to make this process easier:

You can put the carcass in a bowl of cold water and clean it there. In this case, the scales will not scatter throughout the kitchen, but everything will remain in the water.
Not less than effective option- place the fish in a plastic bag and clean inside it. So all the waste will be in the bag.
To make the carcass easy to clean, it can be placed in the sink, doused with boiling water. It will not be superfluous to cover the table with a film, and a board with a newspaper. This will allow the fish not to slide on the surface, which will greatly facilitate cleaning.

You can clean carp simply in the washbasin

To the question of how to quickly clean a carp, there is useful advice. In order not to mess with the fish for a long time, you need to follow the instructions. The fish is cleaned strictly in the direction from tail to head. First, the scales are removed on one side, then on the other. Need to Special attention give the place where the abdomen is located. That's where it's the hardest to clean.

processing process

After the fish is scaled, it must be gutted. To do this, put the carcass on a cutting board covered with newspaper, belly up, and make a cut towards the tail from the head. Next, take out all the offal, including the bubble, along with the brown film. If there is caviar or milk in the carp, they can be taken out and cooked separately, or they can be left inside and baked in this form. When extracting the entrails, care must be taken not to damage the gallbladder. If this did happen, the fish will give off bitterness and it will be impossible to eat.

Cutting off the head or leaving it depends on what dish will be prepared from it, sometimes it is enough just to remove the gills and eyes. At the end of cleaning, rinse the fish from above and outside, and start cooking.

If necessary, in addition to the scales, you can get rid of other unnecessary components on the carcass

How to cut off fins

Upon completion of all the above procedures, it remains to get rid of unnecessary fins:

to extract the upper fin, it is necessary to make two cuts from both sides and cut out the fin itself;
fins, which are located on the sides, can simply be pulled out with your hands;
in order to get the lower fin at the base of the tail, it is necessary to make rather deep cuts on both sides and cut it out with a knife.

Only caught carp or bought fresh on the market is much easier to clean than frozen. Therefore, you do not need to postpone the cleaning process for later, but it is better to do it right away.

How to cut carp correctly - you will learn about this from the video:

Carp, or carp, is river fish, which is famous for the abundance of dense, but tasty meat and a special approach to bone processing. Before you clean carp, you need to familiarize yourself with a number of specific points. Despite the apparent density of scales and skin, these individuals need careful handling. If the fish was caught on your own, then if possible it should be cleaned right in nature. This will not affect the taste of the product in any way, but it will save you from a lot of trouble.

Features of compulsory training

There will not be many problems with carp cleaning if the process is properly organized and everything starts with preparation. First of all, you need to choose the right tool. The scales of the fish are large, they sit quite tightly. In order not to spend too much time removing them, it is better to arm yourself with a vegetable peeler or profile device. In extreme cases, you can get by with a fork, spoon, or the blunt side of a knife. A good result is the use of a homemade grater. We simply nail several metal threaded plugs to a wooden plank and put the workpiece on a comfortable handle.

Tip: If the fish is very large, its meat will be tough. To soften the product, after cleaning and gutting, it should be soaked for half an hour in very fresh and low-fat milk. Even in the case of small fish, this will not be superfluous.

In addition, the preparation process will include the following points:

All tools are transferred to the bathroom. This is the best place for cleaning carp, everything in the kitchen will be covered with scales.
The fish must be thoroughly moistened with cool water, it is very difficult to remove the dried scales.
We cut the fins in advance with scissors. They are quite sharp and in the process of processing they can get hurt.

If it is obvious that the scales are very close to the surface of the skin, the carp should be scalded with boiling water or dipped in hot water for 20-30 seconds. Just do not process the fish for too long, it will begin to cook.

We clean carp from scales

There are no specific recommendations for removing scales from carp surfaces. There are only a few wishes for the organization of the process, the observance of which will allow you to minimally stain everything around and reduce the time of the procedure:

The easiest way to clean the fish is to put it in a container of water. But you do not need to fill the bath for this, it is better to use a large basin. Large scales can clog the drain.

Tip: The gills and entrails of a carp are a breeding ground for bacteria. Fish should be cleaned immediately after purchase or catch, otherwise its taste will steadily deteriorate.

If the carcasses are small, they are cleaned inside a plastic bag. After manipulation, you will only need to discard the contents and rinse the blanks.
It is better to nail a large fish to a wooden base and pull strongly by the head. Then we clean, moving from the tail to the head.

During the manipulation, especially problematic areas are scalded with boiling water, and if the fish is slippery, they rub it with salt.

How to gut a carp?

After the fish managed to be cleaned of scales, it must be gutted. To do this, lay the carcass belly up and rip it open with a sharp knife, making a shallow cut from head to tail. We remove the insides, a dense brown film, cut out the gills or completely cut off the head. It remains only to thoroughly rinse the workpiece under cold running water and you can proceed to its heat treatment.

All the time before cooking, the fish should be kept in the refrigerator or cold water. Do not leave it at room temperature even for a few minutes, this can adversely affect the aroma and taste of the meat. Only thoroughly washed product, dried with paper towels, can be removed in the refrigerator.

Each of us has faced the problem of cleaning fresh fish. When fish appears in the house, in our case it will be freshwater-lake, grown in artificial reservoirs for industrial purposes, very useful carp fish. There are several types of this delicious fish - from the mirror carp, which has practically no scales, to the common freshwater carp, before cooking which we are faced with the problem of how to clean the carp?

Carp is a special fish, with small scales and requires delicate cleaning from the protective layer. We will now consider several options for how to clean carp.

Where to begin?

Take a carp and wash it thoroughly under high pressure of water - this will give you the opportunity to completely wash off all the dirt and accumulated mucus from it.

If your carp was not bought at the market or in a store, but was caught in a pond with some kind of fishing tackle, then you still need to remove the bait from its mouth. Carp is not picky fish and is caught not only on corn or peas, but also on worms and maggots. Accordingly, you are unlikely to like it if you find such a surprise in the finished dish.

To do this, you just need to substitute it with your mouth open under a large pressure of water, under the pressure of which all unnecessary will be washed off, or resort to the help of some kind of hook. Please note that this procedure is needed if you cook the whole carp and do not cut off its head.

After you have washed off the dirt and cleaned the mouth of the carp from the bait, you can proceed to the main stage of cleaning the carp.

Important! Even if you decide to cook carp without a head, in no case rush to cut off his head before cleaning, as during the cleaning process it will be inconvenient for you to hold it and the carcass will slip out.

How to clean carp? - Quick and easy ways

The cleaning procedure for carp is actually not very complicated, unlike predatory river and marine fish species. Consider several options for how to clean carp.

Option 1

To clean the carp, we need a cutting board and a sharp knife:

We lay the carp, previously cleaned of dirt and mucus, on a cutting board.
Since carp have small scales, it will scatter in different directions from cleaning. To avoid this, you can place the fish in a large container - a bucket, basin, sink, or put the carp in a plastic bag and clean in the middle.
Starting from the tail, with short sharp movements, prying off the scales, we move towards the head.
In order for the fish not to slide on the board, it is worth giving a little effort to the knife and in order to prevent it from slipping out of your hands, hold the carp by the gills.
First, we completely clean one side from tail to head, then the other, and only after that proceed to cutting the abdominal cavity, after washing the carp from scales so that it does not get into the middle of the fish.

Important! You should not press the knife to the fish very strongly, as you can damage the carcass itself. A rupture of the abdominal cavity is possible, which makes it difficult to further clean it.

Option 2

In order to clean the carp without resorting to all sorts of improvised means in the form of basins, pots, it is enough to place it in boiled water for 45-60 seconds (depending on the size of the fish). Do not keep the carcass in the water longer than this time, otherwise you will get it already cooked and you will not be able to cook your favorite dish from it.

Important! After the procedure, carp scales will become soft and obedient for further mechanical processing. It will be easy for you to clean the scales, which will no longer scatter to the sides under a small pressure of water.

Cleaning the abdominal cavity of a carp

We looked at two options for how to clean a carp from scales, and now we will move on to butchering the abdominal cavity of your fish. For this:

Again, lay the carcass on a cutting board, after lubricating it with lemon juice. Lemon juice will protect your board from the corrosive smell of fish. You can also say hands with juice or wear protective gloves.
Take a sharp knife and make two small transverse incisions - near the head and at the end of the abdominal cavity closer to the tail, and make a large longitudinal incision from head to tail, ripping open the belly of the carcass.
Carefully remove the liver and gallbladder so that it does not tear. If you failed to do this carefully, rub the places where the bile got into with salt or cut them out.
Then remove any remaining entrails and rinse with water.

Important! So that the fish does not slip out of your hands, you need to rub the scales with salt and periodically dip your fingers in salt.

Last step of cleaning

We just need to remove the unnecessary fish fins. We do it like this:

The upper fin is removed using two lateral longitudinal incisions.
The side fins can not be cut, but simply pulled out.
We remove the rear lower fin in the same way as the upper one, only make deeper cuts, since the fin itself is deep in the tail of the fish and is the driving mechanism.

It remains only if the whole fish is cooked, cut out the gills and eyes with a knife. Here we looked at ways to clean carp. Now, if you have not yet figured out how to cook it, we offer a few simple recipes so that you can tasty dish for everyday home dinner or holiday table.

There are many different recipes for how to cook carp and any other fish. You can find them in special cookbooks, on the Internet. Based on your own skills, imagination and free time, you can cook absolutely any of the dishes offered to you. To simplify your task of not only how to clean carp, but also cook it, we have selected several options that are interesting in our opinion. We hope you decide to put them into practice.

Baked carp with vegetables

Baked fish with vegetables is not only delicious, but also diet dish. Yes, and cooking it will not take much of your time and will not require significant cash costs, since you will most likely find most of the products in your refrigerator.

Products:

1 carp
100 grams of smoked lard.
250 ml sour cream.
3-4 bell peppers.
7-8 potatoes.
3 bulbs.
3-4 tomatoes.
100 grams of butter.
Red ground pepper.
Flour.
Salt.

Cooking method:

Cut the carp along the ribs into pieces and stuff the rib part with lard.
Rub with pepper and salt.
Cut the potatoes into small pieces and cook until half cooked.
After - on a hot frying pan, greased with oil, spread the potatoes and lay the fish on top. At the end - a layer of tomatoes, peppers and onions.
Pour all this with melted butter and bake in the oven at a temperature of 220-250 degrees until cooked, at the end pouring abundantly with mixed flour and sour cream.

Jellied carp

Aspic is an amazingly tender and beautiful dish, if cooked correctly. And to do this is very easy if you follow the following recipe.

Products:

Cooking method:

Put the pieces of carp on a plate skin side up, pour boiling vinegar.
Cut the celery and parsley roots into small pieces. Cook with the addition of bay leaf and cloves over low heat for 10-15 minutes.
Lower the carp into the resulting broth, cook for another 15-20 minutes.
Soak gelatin in cold water. When the grains become transparent, you need to drain the excess water and combine the gelatin with the broth.
Boil it all, strain, cool.
Separate the fish fillet from the bone, put in a mold.
Pour over jelly, let cool, freeze.

Important! When serving, you can decorate with lemon slices and herbs.

Good to know about fish:

We hope that from this article you received the necessary information on how to clean and cook carp and were able to cope with the idea of \u200b\u200bcooking without much hassle.

Carp is an artificially bred breed of fish, in nature the closest relative of carp is carp. China is considered the birthplace of carp, where Chinese emperors liked to eat dishes from this fish. Over time, carp came to Europe, where it is currently bred on an industrial scale and is very much appreciated in cooking. To make the dish tasty, carp must be properly cleaned and cut.

Carp - a large and useful fish

Carp meat is very useful, as it contains a wide variety of minerals, vitamins and other substances necessary for the normal functioning of the human body. The presence of iodine in meat improves blood composition, normalizes metabolism, and prevents endocrine disorders. The high content of phosphorus has a beneficial effect on the functioning of brain cells. The meat of this fish contains antioxidants that preserve our youth and protect the cells of the body from the negative effects of free radicals. The use of carp is recommended for people who watch their weight - the meat is well absorbed by the body, gives saturation without extra calories.

We clean fresh carp at home

Carp, whether it is a large mirror carp, which is covered with a small amount of scales, or a regular freshwater carp, covered with small scales, requires cleaning before cooking. For this procedure, a regular knife is suitable. If you do not have the necessary skills, take a knife that is not very sharp. To avoid injury, you can use a spoon or fork. To clean the fish, metal scrapers are also used, which can be bought at the store or a vegetable peeler with a longitudinal blade - the work will go easier and faster with it.

How to Clean Live Fish Quickly and Cleanly

Before cleaning, the carp must be thoroughly rinsed with cold water to remove mucus and dirt. If the mucus is not washed off, the fish will slide on the surface - the cleaning process will be difficult.

If the carp will be cooked without the head, do not cut it off before cleaning, because it is convenient to hold the fish by it while doing the work.

You can also clean the carp on the kitchen table, but in this case the scales will fly around, then you will have to clean it for a long time. To prevent this from happening, it is recommended to clean the carp from scales in water - directly in the sink or in a dish of a suitable size. You can put the carp in a tight bag and clean inside the bag, then the scales will remain there.

You need to clean the fish in the direction from tail to head, holding it by the tail.

Before cleaning, we place the washed carp in a suitable container and pour boiling water on both sides - the scales will soften and it will be easy to clean.
We put the carp with its head towards us, hold it by the tail and, in the direction from tail to head, clean the fish on both sides with a knife or a scraper.
Wash the carp well.

How to clean the carcass from scales using the method of "removing chain mail"

For this cleaning method, you will need a sharp knife with a thin and long blade.

We introduce a knife from the side of the tail between the skin and scales.
The knife for removing scales in this way should be thin and sharp.
We cut the scales, gradually moving the knife forward. It is advisable not to immediately cut through the scales - it stretches and the knife does not damage the skin.
We cut near the head the place of attachment of the scales to the bone - it turns out "chain mail".
We repeat the process on the other side.

How to cut a carp

After the carp is scaled, it must be properly butchered. The process includes the removal of entrails, gills, fins, and the preparation of fillets.

How to properly gut

How to cut this fish

Video: cutting carp into fillets without gutting

Before cutting into carp fillets, it is also necessary to wash and clean from scales, but you can not gut it.

Cleaning and cutting frozen fish

Frozen fish must be thawed before cleaning and cutting. To preserve as many useful substances as possible, the fish is placed in water with the addition of salt at the rate of one teaspoon for each kilogram of the defrosted product. For the rest, it is necessary to act in the same way as with live fish.

As you can see, the process of cleaning and cutting carp is not so complicated. Let the dishes prepared from this delicious and useful fish, decorate your table both on weekdays and on holidays.