How to cut pike: into cutlets, fillets, minced meat

There are plenty of recipes for preparing different dishes from pike fillet - in batter, fried with potatoes in the oven, famous cutlets, casseroles using foil (for fishing and at home).
The question “How to fillet a pike?” for “experienced” housewives it will not be a disaster, but those who are doing this business for the first time will have to tinker. I’ll try to make the job easier and tell you how to fillet a pike quickly and accurately.

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Let’s not discuss and decide whose task it is to prepare the fish product for cooking. As a confirmed bachelor, I don’t have to throw the problem onto the shoulders of my beloved, and therefore I am sure that a man should be able to do everything. And catch a fish, build a house, make dumplings, salt caviar, make moonshine and congratulate the girls on the holiday.

Let me start by saying that pike produces three pieces of excellent fillet. Don’t rush to throw away the “spare parts” left over from cutting fish. This is not only the basis of the fish soup, but also independent dishes. For example, a pike head seasoned with garlic is a delight for a fish-eating gourmet.

So.

From scales

There are many quick ways to descale pike. Before you start cleaning pike from scales, you should pay attention to a number of simple rules.

How to properly clean fish from scales in a step-by-step description below:

You can clean both fresh and frozen fish. In the second option, before starting to remove the scales, you need to wait until the scales are completely defrosted.
To clean fish from scales, it is better to use two types of gloves at the same time: rubber and cotton. Some will prevent slipping, while others will protect your hands from damage.
Regular lemon juice will help get rid of the pungent river smell.
To make it easier to clean the scales, you can use the following methods:

soak the fish carcass in a bowl of warm water and vinegar;
Pour boiling water over the pike (this should be done gradually as you clean the fish).

Tip: in order for the fish to better retain its taste, do not remove the mucus before freezing. Gutting can only be done after defrosting.

If we talk directly about the stages of cleaning fish from scales, we should list the following:

The fish is thoroughly washed under cold running water.
All excess moisture and mucus residues are removed (you can use paper towels).
It is advisable to cut fish on an anti-slip or well-fixed board.
The kitchen table is covered with cling film. Dishes and other household items are put away. This will help protect against flakes.
To clean the carcass, you should use the sharpest knife (or a special scraper).
The fish is holding on to its tail. Remove scales from the tail to the head using prying movements. To prevent the fish from slipping, the tail is sprinkled with salt.
Manipulations with the knife are carried out at a slight angle. This will help the small scales not to fly apart.
You cannot hold a fish with your fingers in its mouth. Pike is a predatory fish. Sharp teeth can cause serious injury.

Cleaning with a Karcher

Often, the procedure for processing pike often causes difficulties, especially if the carcass is large and the scaly layer is hard. Using a Karcher, it is possible to clean a pike without difficulty if you master this technique. Using this, it is possible to quickly prepare the carcass for further processing.

Procedure:

You will need a board and a special device. Kärcher is a universal mini-wash made in Germany. With its use, it is possible to replace a regular knife and other devices that are usually used for this.
You need to transfer the carcass to the board. You can place several fish at once. Now you need to wash it under a cold stream. You should always start cleaning from the tail, slowly moving towards the head. It is possible to hold the fish tail with your foot so that the pike is not thrown away from the flow of water.
Pike is treated from the scaly layer using a strong jet, even when perch or pike perch are cleaned in this way. These types of fish are particularly difficult to clean using standard methods.
This procedure often takes up to 3 minutes. Afterwards you need to turn the carcass on the other side and repeat the procedure. After 10 minutes, it is possible to completely remove scales from the pike. It is important that the carcass is placed level.

Skin removal

After cleaning the scales and removing the entrails, an incision is made next to the gills. It should not reach the back of the carcass. After this, you can move on to the skinning process.

It is more convenient if this procedure is carried out with four hands. The first one holds the fish's head with a napkin (to prevent it from slipping). This can only be done in the correct (vertical) position. And the second one carefully lifts and removes the skin with the “stocking” down.

How to quickly cut a pike and remove the skin correctly? A step-by-step description of the process can be found below:

Near the incision (next to the gills), pry it off with a knife blade. You should lift it slightly.
By carefully lifting the skin, the stocking is pulled away from the tail.
The area near the fins is cut from the inside with scissors. This will help not damage the integrity of the skin.
Carry out a similar procedure in the area of the caudal fin.

If you are preparing a stuffed fish recipe using skin, you should first turn it back to its original position. You can also use the skin to form fish sausages. They can be fried in a frying pan.

If the skin is damaged, small holes can be sewn together using cotton threads. Before serving the finished dish, all strings are cut and removed.

There is no point in removing the layer of meat remaining on the skin. To avoid additional damage and thinning of the stocking.

Tip: to remove the skin from frozen fish, you can first pour warm water over the carcass. This will speed up the defrosting process.

Separation from bone

Before preparing a carcass for processing, the main bones should be properly removed. This will make it easier to shape good fillet pieces.

Below are the basic steps for removing bones from a pike carcass:

the prepared and cleaned fish carcass is thoroughly washed in cold water;
A long cut is made from the head (just below the gills) to the caudal fin. The blade should have a horizontal slope;
the first part of the carcass is set aside;
on the reverse side (with the remaining head, ridge, tail), the ridge in the middle part is picked up with a knife. The blade is drawn towards the tail. Then we head towards the head;
the carcass is cut at the head;
after these steps, two pieces of meat without the main bones remain. The head and ridge are then completely separated.

Tip: the remaining head and ridge can be used to prepare fish soup or fish jellied meat.

Preparing to cook

The basis of preparation is proper cutting, cleaning of bones, scales, and skins. Pike is prepared in various ways, which we will consider below.

Frying

To fry a pike, you need to cut the carcass into pieces about 5 cm in size. In a separate plate, mix flour and salt and pepper, in another, break a couple of eggs. You can lightly salt them. Heat a frying pan with a little oil. Each piece:

Roll on all sides in flour.
Dip completely into egg mixture.
Place in a frying pan and fry on both sides until golden brown.

To prepare pike soup, you need to throw potatoes, a whole onion and salt to taste into boiling water. When it is ready, it is the turn of fish and cereals (you can use rice, pearl barley, millet cereals). At the end you can add bay leaf and fresh dill.

Fish cutlets

Grind the pike fillet, add the egg, spices, onion, a couple of tbsp. spoons of flour, mix. The dough should look like pancakes. Fry in a small amount of oil.

Baking

One of the cooking options is baking in the oven. Cooking time is about 30 minutes. You can use foil if desired. The fish will turn out juicy, tasty and healthy.

Ingredients:

Pike – 1 carcass.
Hard cheese – 100 gr.
Spices to taste, salt.
Mayonnaise or vegetable oil.
Fresh tomato – 1-2 pieces (depending on size).

Preparation:

Cut the prepared carcass into 3 cm pieces. Place in a bowl.
Add salt, spices, oil (or mayonnaise) and mix. Leave for 30 minutes, let it marinate.
Place the finished pieces on a baking sheet or foil.
Place a tomato circle on top of each piece, brush lightly with mayonnaise and sprinkle with grated cheese.
Place in the oven until fully cooked.

Video recipe

The remaining backbone with a small amount of fish meat (after filleting) can be used to prepare fish soup.
When cutting pike you need to be careful because it has sharp teeth.
When purchasing, you should pay attention to the gills, smell, eyes (should not be cloudy), elasticity.

Pike is an excellent option for preparing tasty and healthy food at home. If you follow all the recommendations, cutting will not take much time. Bon appetit!

Fish is a healthy product, rich in fatty acids and microelements. Pike is considered one of the most delicious river fish; a particularly good dish is made from the pike pulp, for example, cutlets, but cooking the fish takes a lot of time: it needs to be cleaned, gutted and cut up. And if the first two points usually do not pose any difficulties even for inexperienced housewives, then you need to be able to cut a pike correctly.

How to cut a pike

Pike dishes are very popular: it is not only a tasty and nutritious river fish, but also a healthy dietary food product with a large amount of proteins, fatty acids and other healing substances. To fry pike, it is not necessary to cut it completely, that is, separate all the bones from the pulp, but the taste of this dish is inferior to the taste of pike cutlets and other chopped fish dishes.

For fillet

Cutting a carcass into a completely boneless fillet and removing every small bone is not always possible even for professionals with many years of experience.

The main stages of cutting a carcass into fillet pieces are described below.

The above has already described in detail how to separate the meat from the main bones. How to fillet a pike step by step:

one of the parts previously separated from the ridge is laid out on a cutting board;
The ribs are carefully separated, the fin is cut off;
A knife blade is inserted between the ribs with film and fillet, and the fillet part is slowly separated. The movements of the knife should be directed from the back to the belly;
the resulting fillet is placed skin side down;
Holding the piece with your fingers from the tail side, you should carefully cut the skin off the fillet. The knife blade should be angled slightly downward.

This fillet is good to fry in batter or bake on a bed of vegetables.

Tip: to make cutting a pike carcass easier, you can cut a large piece of fish into smaller ones. But you shouldn’t cut the skin all the way through.

The fastest option

If you plan to make roasts, cutlets, dumplings, pie filling from pike, or get layers of fillet for some recipe, you don’t need to save the skin.

In this case, it is simply removed along with the scales in a few minutes.

Before cleaning the pike for cutlets, you need to make an incision along the back and pry it with a knife. Place your index finger under it and, moving forward, separate it from the pulp. After this, the fillet is removed from the bones and washed well.

You can also cut the fish lengthwise into two layers. Remove the backbone and trim the flesh from the rib bones and skin.

For cutlets

Every good housewife knows a large number of recipes for signature cutlets: steamed, in the oven, for frying in a frying pan. Juicy minced pike cutlets are no exception.

To make the dish truly tasty and tender, you need to follow the meat preparation technology. How to quickly cut pike into cutlets is described below:

the head is cut off from the carcass;
an incision is made along the ridge. Carefully reach to the very ribs. When making an incision, do not touch small bones and the ridge;
use a raised knife to trim the loin;
the fin is cut off, small bones are removed;
the skin is removed at the last stage. To do this, use a sharp blade to separate the skin from the meat. The knife should be held at a slight angle;
The prepared fillet is cut into smaller pieces and sent to a meat grinder or blender for grinding. Or you can make the minced meat by hand.

Tip: to remove very small seeds, it is convenient to use tweezers.

The fastest option

If you plan to make roasts, cutlets, dumplings, pie filling from pike, or get layers of fillet for some recipe, you don’t need to save the skin.

In this case, it is simply removed along with the scales in a few minutes.

You can also cut the fish lengthwise into two layers. Remove the backbone and trim the flesh from the rib bones and skin.

Processing frozen carcass

If it is not possible to purchase fresh fish, but you really want fried fish, you can use fresh frozen fish.

Before you start cleaning the pike, you should pour warm water over the carcass. This will help defrost only the top layer (before the skin).

The basic steps for cutting frozen fish are almost the same as fresh fish. But there are still some distinctive nuances:

the tail and fins must be cut off with a very sharp knife;
as in fresh, cuts are made near the gill bone to the ridge;
the carcass is cut along the belly and ridge;
the skin is picked up by a sharp object and pulled towards the tail from the head;
the head is cut off;
You need to gut it carefully, without damaging the internal organs.

Advice: when cutting pike and removing the entrails, the integrity of the gallbladder must not be damaged. Otherwise, the meat may acquire a specific smell and bitter taste.

Gutting

It is not difficult to gut a carcass if you follow some recommendations:

Cut off the fins.
Then cut out the cartilage located between the abdomen and gills.
Make a cut in the belly from the head to the bottom. If the cut is deep, you can cut into the bile and stain the abdomen with it.
Then you will need to remove the giblets, slowly cutting them off.
Now you just need to remove the gills and finally remove the air bubble.
Before proceeding further, you need to rinse the pike again.

Yandex pictures

This cutting option is used if it was planned to boil or fry the pike.

How to remove small seeds

The most difficult part of cutting pike is removing the bones. If everything is clear with large main bones, then what about small and barely noticeable ones?

To remove small bones in fish more thoroughly, you can resort to two options:

To remove the seeds, you can use forceps, pliers or tweezers.
Using a sharp knife, cut out the bone along with the meat. To do this, you need to determine the location of the thymus bones. On the sirloin (with skin), a line with this bone is determined, and a knife is used to draw a line along the carcass on both sides. This is done to the entire depth of the bones. The fish skin should not be touched. The result is a strip of meat with thin bones.

Tip: the removed strip can be scrolled several times in a meat grinder. Make minced meat for fish cutlets or meatballs.

Removing mucus

How to completely get rid of mucus? You need to follow a number of simple steps:

washed thoroughly with water (you can use a special washing brush);
the fish is immersed for 30-40 minutes in a bowl of water;
rinse thoroughly with water again;
gutting should be done very carefully to avoid damage to the gallbladder.
cleared of scales.

Tip: for greater efficiency in getting rid of mucus, you can rinse the carcass under warm or hot water.

Preparation

To make the dish quick and easy to prepare, it is important to properly prepare the pike. The processing is as follows.

Get rid of the smell of mud.
Remove the bones.

Cutting up a carcass is a dirty task and few housewives do it willingly. But the desire to get a tasty and healthy dish will force you to sacrifice a manicure. Knowing how to cut it correctly, everything will end quickly. We will need:

Convenient knife.
Cutting board.
Running water.
Paper towels.
Bowl or other suitable container.

Useful properties of pike meat

Positive properties include:

there are no contraindications to eating pike meat (it is allowed to be consumed even with special diets or chronic diseases);
Pike meat is dietary. It contains only 85 Kcal per 100 g of meat. Pike is low in fat;
the meat contains natural antiseptic substances that strengthen the immune system and protect against infections (pike meat dishes are recommended to be consumed as a preventive measure against colds);
Pike meat is a storehouse of useful microelements and vitamins. It is saturated with phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, fluorine, manganese, iodine, iron, vitamins B, C, A, E and others;
The World Dietetic Association recommends that overweight people include this type of fish in their diet.
Such meat is rich in healthy protein, which is absorbed by the body much better than animal meat.