Fish stuffed whole

The real decoration of any festive table is, of course, stuffed fish - the pride of the hostess. There are a lot of recipes for stuffing both sea, river and lake fish, but they all require preliminary processing of fish carcass, and it is during the preparatory stage that many questions often arise. In this article we will tell and clearly demonstrate how to properly stuff the fish and how to prepare the uncleaned fish carcass for this process.

Stuffing fish

If you do not know what kind of fish it is better to stuff, then choose any you like, because for the stuffing the inhabitant of both fresh and salty reservoirs will perfectly suit. The most popular for the stuffing long since are considered: catfish, pike, sturgeon, salmon and carp, but in general there is no particular adherence to this principle, the main thing is that the fish should be fresh and tasty.

Stuff fish anything you like, from your favorite vegetables, to mixtures of herbs and nuts, and lay the stuffing either in the gutted abdomen or in the incision along the ridge (the ridge itself, respectively, before it is removed), however, everything in order.

How to cut fish for stuffing?

Basic stuffing of fish involves cleaning the carcass from the scales, fins and ridge, followed by the removal of fish pulp, or simply bones. Both cleaning options can be observed in the master class below.

1. So, let's start with the base - simple cleaning of fish from all excess in the form of viscera, scales and fins. For this operation, all we need is a knife and a pair of hands.
2. First, we clean the fish from the scales, sharply conducting a knife from the tail to the head of the fish (ie against the growth of scales).
3. Now we separate the gills, cutting the connecting cartilages, which fasten the gills to the head of the fish. Having made an incision - sharply pull a gill plate, and it easily will separate.
4. Next, we gut the fish, that is, we remove all the insides. Point the tip of the knife to the ventral fin and draw an incision directly to the lower jaw.
5. You can take the giblets with your fingers or with a knife, in one way or another, do the raking movements from the ridge to the cut abdomen.
6. This is how the gutted fish looks from the inside. All that's left to do is rinse the cavity, cut the fins and start to stuff it.
7. Stuffed fish without bones is gutted on a slightly different principle, although it is possible to separate the flesh from the bone in a gutted fish way above. How to do this is shown below. In a gutted fish, we cut the spine with scissors ...
8. ... and remove the costal bone with a knife.
9. If desired, stuff the fish with her own meat, mixing it with any ingredients. For such a recipe, it is convenient to remove the flesh with a spoon, so as not to break through the skin.
10. We trim the remains of the fins, again trying not to catch the skin.
11. Sew the fish skin, leaving a place for the stuffing near the head (10-15 cm will be enough.)
12. That's all, in the pocket you can pawn any stuffing, and then sew again with a thread. This way you will get a fish stuffed whole.