How to properly clean sterlet?

Few people are not familiar with the technology of cutting and cleaning most types of sea or river fish. But not everyone knows how to clean sterlet, since it belongs to the sturgeon, which differs from other fish in its body structure. This means that the methods of preparing it will also be slightly different. In fact, cutting sterlet is carried out in the same way as cleaning its closest relatives, which include sturgeon, bester, stellate sturgeon and beluga. What is the essence of this procedure and how do these fish differ from the rest?

Features of fish of the sturgeon family that influence the method of their preparation

Unlike other fish species, sturgeons do not have scales all over their bodies. But they have skin covered with a layer of mucus, as well as several spike-like keratinized formations located along the body on the back and sides. People call them “bugs”. Another feature of this type of fish is the absence of bones inside their body. Through their spine, consisting of cartilage, there is a kind of vein stretched, called a vizig, which must be removed when butchering.

Sterlet is a fish that is a delicacy. It is used to prepare the most delicious dishes. How healthy and tasty such food will be directly depends on compliance with certain rules of cleaning and cutting technology. When purchased, sterlet is usually still alive, so it needs to be placed in the freezer for a while.In this way it can be killed, and its insides in a frozen state will be easier to gut. Before cleaning, fish should be removed from the freezer and placed in water to partially defrost.

In order for sterlet to be used to prepare any dish, the following steps must be followed.

• Using a sharp knife, cut off the hard plates (“bugs”) on the body of the fish along with a strip of skin.
• Laying it on its back, cut the abdomen from the base of the head to the tail.
• Remove all the insides and remove blood clots from the spine, rinsing the cavity in which it all was located with water.
• Make two cuts in the spine near the head and tail and remove the vizig through the holes formed, gently pulling it by one end.
• After treating the fish carcass with boiling water, remove the skin.
• Remove the gills and rinse the cleaned sterlet in cold water.

Advice

When using a knife, cut away from you and so that the trajectory of the blade does not pass through the places where your hands are.

Some nuances of cleaning sturgeon

Although the sequence of work listed above does not seem complicated, before cleaning sturgeon or sterlet, you should consider a number of important points regarding cutting this type of fish.

1. Depending on the dish you are going to prepare, the head is either separated or left.
2. It is also not necessary to remove the skin, since it will fall away from the body during the cooking process.
3. If the fish is going to be fried, it is advisable to remove the vertebral cartilage from it.
4. When you remove the entrails, be careful not to burst the gall bladder, as the liquid leaking from it, spilling onto the meat, can ruin its taste.
5. Don't rush to throw away anything that comes off while cleaning the fish, as some of it may be used in other dishes.

Indeed, the last recommendation is quite justified. For example, there may be caviar inside the sterlet you purchased. You will, of course, remove it from there, but you are unlikely to want to throw it away. You just need to remove the shell and salt it, and after a while it can be used to prepare pates, casseroles or mincemeat. Milk can be used in a similar way if it ends up in some kind of fish.

Advice

Use the milk as quickly as possible, because if it sits out in the open air for a while, it will develop an unpleasant taste. This occurs due to the oxidation of fat, which this product is rich in.

If during the process of cutting the sterlet you removed cartilage from it, then they can also be used in the preparation of some dishes. But before that, they are boiled until they become soft. In cases where there is a lot of fat inside, be sure to separate it and rinse it. This healthy product is used as one of the ingredients for fish cutlets. Even cut strips of skin with “bugs” can be useful in cooking. They make a good broth, which is used to prepare jellied fish or fish soup.

We should also talk about the benefits of viziga extracted from the spine of a fish. This rope-like internal organ of sturgeon has also found its way into the culinary arts. But a natural question arises: why did it have to be pulled out when cutting fish? The fact is that only the outer shell of the viziga is edible.And what it is filled with inside cannot be eaten at all, since this substance can cause poisoning, so preparing any dish from sterlet or other fish of the sturgeon family without first removing the vizier is very dangerous. But when the viziga is cleared of its internal contents and washed with water, it can be used to make a filling for pies. It also keeps well in dried form, which allows you to use it much later, when you have already forgotten what the sterlet from which you extracted it tasted like.