Agree, quite often you have to see how customers choose already cut herring in the store just because they do not want to cut it themselves. Of course, the largest and most selected herring is most often sold uncut, but not everyone knows how to properly and quickly cut this fish. Meanwhile, you can cut a herring literally in 10-15 minutes, and this process may seem complicated only to those who have never cut a fish on their own.
- First, you need to put the herring on a cutting board (you can put a layer of paper between the board and the fish, then cleaning the board after cutting will be much faster). First, with a sharp knife, you need to make an even incision on the abdomen, but not strictly in the center, but one centimeter about the center line. The second cut is made near the head - parallel to the herring gills. Try to make this cut so that it separates the front fin along with the head of the fish.
- Through the incision made, caviar should be removed from the abdomen of the fish, if it is of interest to you. Putting it aside, we remove all the giblets from the abdomen. In order to properly clean the fish inside, it is necessary to make a second incision on the abdomen, and also cut off and discard the lowest, bony part of the fish - it is still unsuitable for eating, since it consists mainly of bones and fat.
- We remove the insides of the fish, fins, head. The peeled herring carcass must be rinsed under cold running water, while getting rid of the thin black films lining the inside of the fish belly.
- Now you need to cut the herring into pieces. To do this, you need to carefully remove the upper fin with small bones attached to it, and also cut the skin along the back and remove it. The same operation is done on the lower half of the fish - you should remove the fin, which is located next to the tail. When removing the skin from the herring, pull it towards the tail, and cut off the tail along with the skin.
- Since herring usually contains quite a lot of bones, it is necessary to divide the fish into two halves - the lower and the upper, and in the process of their separation, almost all large bones usually remain on the skeleton and in the upper half of the fish. As a result, you will get two strips of fillet from the belly and the back of the fish, while still sitting on the spine. You will have to separate the herring meat from the spine with your hands and a knife. Usually, the meat is separated from the bones quite easily, to remove the smallest and thinnest bones stuck in the meat, you can use ordinary tweezers. The finished fillet can be marinated, or you can serve it simply cut into pieces.
