Many countries have their own national dishes, but a rare dish has the status of a “city” delicacy, and in St. Petersburg, smelt is traditionally such. This small but very tasty fish gave the townspeople a real gastronomic feast. However, in order to taste the fragrant smelt, you need to cook it, and before that, peel it. Moreover, there are three ways to clean smelt.
It is necessary
- - a small sharp knife or scissors,
- - board,
- - running water.
Instructions
Step 1
The first way to clean the smelt is if you prefer to fry the whole fish. Then you only need to clean it from excess scales. Take the fish by the tail, place it under a gentle stream of water. With a movement from the tail to the head, draw along the scales with a knife. The knife must be held at a slight angle to the body of the fish, so you remove a lot of scales and then you can use the smelt for frying. Scales from fish must be removed during subsequent cleaning methods, that is, this is a mandatory procedure.
Step 2
The second method is to remove the insides of the fish, but so that the head of the smelt remains with it. Scale the smelt using the method indicated in step 1. Take a knife and make an incision from the side of the abdomen in the direction from the tail to the base of the head. From the resulting cut, carefully remove the insides of the fish and rinse the abdomen under running water. Pay attention to small entrails that may go unnoticed inside the fish - rinse very thoroughly. If there is caviar or milk inside the smelt, then after washing the fish, they can be shoved back into the abdomen or fried separately.
Step 3
The third way to clean smelt is to remove the viscera along with the head. In this case, it is much more expedient to use scissors - this method is most effective, since using scissors allows you to leave caviar or milk inside the fish during cleaning, while all excess is removed. Remove excess scales from the smelt. Take a pair of scissors and make an incision in the back of the ridge, cutting through the bone. The head should be held only by the pectoral fins. Tear off the head and with it pull out all the intestines and other excess fragments. Rinse the smelt under running water and the fish is ready to cook.
