How to easily clean herring of bones: reveal all the secrets

Having decided to make a dish of salted herring, the hostess certainly wonders: how to clean herring. And this is quite logical - no one will like the crunch of bones in a snack of salted fish. By the way, there are a lot of recipes with salted herring. This is the famous herring under a fur coat, and forshmak, and fish rolls. So it's time to learn how to separate bones from meat and cook fish fillets in minutes.

Why clean herring with your own hands?

The recipe for any appetizer of salted fish is the first paragraph that advises you to clean it of bones or immediately recommends taking a ready-made fish fillet. And really, maybe it’s better to just go to the nearest store and buy a filet in oil or mayonnaise filling? Then learning to clean herring properly is not necessary! I opened the jar, cut the fish - and the bottom layer of herring under the fur coat is ready.

The option is not bad. But cooked fillet is still better. There are several reasons for this:

• Buying a whole fish, you can smell it and check for freshness "by the eyes."
• Unscrupulous manufacturers can use low-quality, and sometimes even “missing” fish for cooking fillet.
• It is believed that to remove the smallest seeds from fish, chemical compounds are used in which it is soaked. As a result of this treatment, the bones literally dissolve. Large manufacturers have repeatedly denied such information, confirming their words video fillet production process. However, unscrupulous manufacturers who do not value their own reputation may well use this method.
• Buying a whole salted herring will come out much cheaper than buying a ready-made fillet.

Five tips for brushing herring

1. Before you start cleaning the salty herring, prepare a sharp knife. If the kitchen knife is dull, it should be sharpened. This must be done, as a convenient knife of perfect sharpening is the first rule that allows you to quickly clean herring.
2. Often you have to clean the fish shortly before the guests arrive and there is simply no time to wash your hands after cleaning. And the smell of salted fish is very corrosive. To deliberately solve the problem of bad smell, put on plastic or thin rubber gloves so as not to get your hands dirty. To protect your clothing, be sure to wear an apron.
3. Despite the fact that each type of product should have its own cutting board, there is nothing pleasant about a board that smells of fish. Therefore, protect not only the hands, but also the cutting board from the smell and particles of fish fillet. Lay white paper or cling film on it with a thick layer. After completing the procedure of gutting the salt herring, the paper (film) can simply be removed from the board by wrapping the insides, bones and other waste into it, and discarded. The next step should be carried out on a new blank piece of paper. After cleaning the fish from the bones, discard the paper, and wipe the board with a sponge moistened with dishwashing detergent and rinse with warm water rather than wiping off the specific fishy “aroma”.
4. If the above measures did not help on your hands, fish amber remained on the cutting board, sprinkle them with lemon juice.
5. If the fillet is not used immediately, store it in the refrigerator wrapped in cling film.

Two ways to turn herring into fillets

Salty herring bought - it's time to learn how to clean herring. There are 2 ways to do this. The cardinal difference will be the moment of separation of bones from meat.In the first embodiment, the fillet is slowly and carefully separated by translating the thumb along the ridge, freed from the skin, and in the second embodiment, the ridge and costal bones are separated from the meat in one motion. The second option looks more impressive. It is usually used by professional chefs. Let's consider both options in more detail.

Herring preparation before direct bone separation will be the same for both options.

1. Wash herring under running water.
2. Cut off your head.
3. Cut the belly from the head to the tail.
4. Remove the lower fins (ventral and anal). After the fish is cut along the abdomen, they are easily taken.
5. Take offal from the cut abdomen. If the herring turned out to be a female, you can lay eggs in a separate plate. You can make delicious sandwiches with it, spread bread with butter and put salted caviar on top, freed from pause. The remaining offal, including milk (if caught by a male), must be discarded.
6. Gutted herring must be washed. Dark films should be carefully removed with a knife. After making sure that all the insides are removed, it is worth rinsing the fish again, and then proceed to the next step.
7. At the very bottom of the belly, on both sides of the gutted fish should be cut off a strip of meat. At this point there are small bones that cannot be extracted otherwise; they can only be cut together with meat.
8. Make an incision along the ridge from the head to the tail. Cut the dorsal fin along with the small bones at the point of attachment.
9. Pick up a skin with a knife and remove it from the carcass of a herring. Doing this is convenient from top to bottom.

Herring prepared. Now the most interesting thing is the separation of meat from bones. In the first option, you should do this:

1. Cut herring tail.
2. Take a herring in your right hand (left-handed people - in your left). Place your thumb on the ridge at the base, leading it under the meat, and begin to advance the finger towards the tail, moving the meat away from the skeleton. When the finger reaches the tail, completely remove the detachable portion of the fillet from the costal bones. The result should be half a clean fillet and half meat on the ridge and ribs.
3. Separate the meat in the same way from the ridge and costal bones from another part of the carcass.
4. If there are bones visible by the eye, usually there are not many - 3-4 long bones, no more, remove them.
5. The fish fillet is ready!

In the second option, which allows you to instantly get the fillet in one motion, you must do the following:

1. Grasp the fish tail with your hands: with one hand for one half, with the other for the other.
2. Make a circular motion with the fish in the direction “away from you” or “counterclockwise”, and when the herring approaches its initial position, tear it into 2 halves by pulling the tails in different directions.
3. The result is one half of a clean fillet, which remains to cut half of the tail. And the other half should take out the bones, holding the ridge, and also remove the rest of the tail.
4. If any bones still remain, remove them.
5. Salty herring fillet is ready!

Be sure to try to clean the herring with your own hands (or with the hands of your husband) and make sure that it is not as difficult as it seemed at the beginning. Do not save time on cleaning herring by buying preserves. In taste and quality, they lose to a large extent. The health and well-being of loved ones is much more expensive!

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