How to clean perches quickly and easily

How to quickly remove scales from a perch, so as not to bleed your hands with needle-sharp fins and litter the entire kitchen with scales? This is not an easy task, but you can still handle it successfully if you have some skill.

Is it worth cleaning this fish?

To prepare some dishes, the perch actually does not need to be cleaned. And this applies not only to dried fish. To prepare hot smoked perch, it is not at all necessary to remove its tough scales and entrails; just rinse it well and rub it with salt. The result is incredibly tasty and juicy meat. You can do the same if you are going to bake the fish on the grill or on the grill.

It is not at all necessary to clean small perch if they are used for the first laying in a double ear. You still need to strain the broth and throw away this entire batch of fish. Interestingly, the soup turns out much tastier in this case. But the gills and giblets should still be removed. But in this case, you can gut and wash the fish very quickly.

In the north, fishermen cook fish soup from unpeeled and ungutted perches, and they claim that only such fish soup is tasty. But not every resident of the middle zone will risk eating such a dish.

How to clean river perch easier

If this fish is supposed to be fried in a frying pan or boiled, then it will have to be cleaned.

It has long been noted that recently caught river perch is much easier to clean. But not all families have fishermen.Therefore, fish is usually bought at the market or in a store. And every time the question arises: how to clean a perch quickly enough so as not to litter the entire kitchen with small scales and not injure your hands with sharp thorns?

This can be done if you know some small everyday tricks:

• To make it easier to hold the fish, you can wear work gloves on your hands. This is done only during cleaning; gutting fish with gloves is inconvenient.
• Firmly press the perch's tail to the cutting board and pull firmly (until it crunches) by the head. After this procedure, it will be much easier to rid the fish of scales.
• Before cleaning, we cut off the fins with sharp scissors; this will save your hands from painful punctures.
• To make the scales easy to remove, the perch should be cleaned alternately diagonally from the belly to the back, and only then from the tail to the head (as is usually done with other fish). In this case, the fish must be held by the tail and cleaned with the tip of a sharp and durable knife or a special device.
• If time is of the essence, then to make the work easier, you can use the “grandmother’s method” - cover the fish with salt and leave it overnight. By morning, the scales and skin will soften somewhat, and the perches can be quickly cleaned.
• If you put fresh fish in the freezer for a while, it will be easier to clean.
• You can quickly clean a perch by pouring boiling water over it or dipping it into boiling water for a few moments while holding it by the tail. This method is somewhat risky, since if the fish is left in hot water for a little while, the scales will be removed along with the skin.
• ​To easily and quickly clean fish, it is better to use special devices. “Cleaners” of various designs are sold in hardware stores.Some craftsmen make them themselves from beer bottle caps or old kitchen graters. For perches, it is better to purchase devices with a container for collecting scales.
• Scales will not scatter throughout the room if you clean the fish by completely immersing it in a container of water or under a spray of water. Some housewives adapt to cleaning perch by putting their hands and fish in a plastic bag.

We clean together with the skin

In order to cook minced meat or pieces of fish in batter, you do not need skin. In this case, the question is: how to clean a perch? - can be solved very simply. It is freed from scales along with the skin. The skin can be easily removed from fresh fish using a stocking. This is done as follows:

1. Make cuts along the dorsal fin on both sides;
2. Pull out the dorsal fin;
3. Make an incision in the skin near the head;
4. Pull the skin starting from the upper back to the tail. For convenience, you can use pliers;
5. Remove the head and gut the carcass.

With some skill, you can quickly clean several kilograms of river perch without dirtying your kitchen.

But this work can also be made easier. The skin will be removed much easier if you dip the perches in boiling water for a few seconds, holding them by the tail. The fish can also be easily peeled if you first freeze it a little and, after removing it from the refrigerator, immediately remove the skin.

When separating the fillets, do not throw away the heads, fins and ridges of the perches. They can be used for boiling in the first batch for double fish soup or preparing broth for fish soup.

Features of cleaning sea bass

The basic methods for removing scales from sea bass are no different from cleaning river bass.It can also be doused with boiling water or dipped in hot water, or covered with coarse salt overnight. Then it will be easier to clean this fish.

But sea bass has one unpleasant feature: the sharp spines on its fins are equipped with poisonous glands. Such injections do not heal for a long time and are very painful. Therefore, before you start cleaning, you should put on gloves and cut off the fin with sharp scissors.

Care should be taken when gutting fish. It is undesirable to damage the gallbladder, as bile gives the fish an unpleasant bitter taste. But if this happens, there is no need to panic. The place where bile gets on the meat (it is immediately visible by its yellowish tint) should be sprinkled generously with salt and immediately scraped off thoroughly with a knife along with a thin layer of meat.

The perch's belly is covered inside with black films that need to be cleaned off. They also give the finished fish a bitter taste.

By following these simple tips and acquiring certain skills, you can quickly cope with cleaning perches without spending too much effort. And cooking this delicious fish will not be a burden.