We cut up the pike for further preparation

Useful properties of pike

Pike is a freshwater fish from the pike family. It grows up to 150 cm in length, its weight is from 2 to 35 kg. It is valued for its satiety and low calorie content. It is best to choose fish weighing 2–2.5 kg for the table, as its meat is tender and juicy. The most popular dish is stuffed pike.

This fish has many beneficial properties.

1. It has low calorie content: 100 g of meat contains only 84 calories and up to 3% fat.
2. Is a natural antiseptic. Natural antiseptics are much healthier than chemical ones, as they help cope with various infectious diseases and strengthen the immune system.
3. Contains many vitamins, macro- and microelements.

Pike is a healthy and tasty fish that is available to everyone

Content of vitamins, macro- and microelements in 100 g of pike meat - table

Very tasty, juicy fish cutlets - step by step recipe

Not everyone undertakes to prepare cutlets from fish such as pike, because it is a little dry. But if you strictly follow the recipe below, you will get a juicy product.

Ingredients:

• Fillet – 450 gr.;
• Lard – 100 gr.;
• Loaf – 150 gr.;
• Cabbage – 80 gr;
• Boiled milk – 100 ml;
• Onion – 1 pc.;
• Egg – 1 pc.;
• Seasonings – 2 pinches;
• Breadcrumbs – 150 gr.;
• Vegetable oil - for frying;
• Cilantro – 5 branches;
• Salt - to taste.

Method for preparing pike cutlets:

1. Cut the crust off the bread, cut the crumb into squares and pour warm milk over it. Let it sit, but in the meantime you need to prepare the minced fish
2. Grind the fish using a meat grinder with a large grid. Next, add pre-finely chopped onion, cabbage and lard. Then bread. Grind the resulting mass one more time
3. Add any seasonings to taste, chopped cilantro, pre-beaten egg and a little salt. Mix thoroughly with cutlery.
4. Form cutlets from minced fish and roll in breading.
5. After this, carefully place in a hot frying pan with vegetable oil and fry for 5 minutes on each side.
6. When serving, garnish with cilantro sprigs.

How to cook pike cutlets - video recipe.

How to easily clean a pike using boiling water and lemon - useful tips

To reduce the time spent cleaning fish and do everything quickly and easily, use these helpful tips.

1. Cleaning live pike is faster and more convenient. A frozen carcass must be cleaned immediately after the scales have thawed.
2. It is comfortable to work with rubber gloves and put on cotton gloves on top. This way, the risk of damage will be minimized, and the pike itself will not slide.
3. The knife must be sharpened well.
4. If the fish has a characteristic river smell, you can wipe it with lemon juice.
5. To speed up the process, the pike must be scalded with boiling water. You can also put it in a bowl and fill it with warm water and vinegar.

Stages of removing fillets from pike

I’ll tell you frankly that the options found on the Internet with getting rid of scales and gutting before cutting into fillets do not seem suitable to me. Of course, when the skin goes into business, which does not happen so often, then the work is useful. In other cases, inconveniences arise - the dangling peritoneum constantly tries to tuck in, making cutting meat from bones less convenient.

But these are my preferences. If it doesn’t bother you, then from the beginning use the method given in the video, and then the one suggested by me. After the experiment, be sure to share your conclusion in the comments.

Go. To fillet pike:

• Place the pike on its belly on a cutting board and make an incision behind the back of the head until it meets the spine.

• Without stopping the movement (I warned that the knife must be sharp), we turn the blade parallel to the ridge and cut off the entire part to the tail.

After cutting, you can set aside the back part of the fillet or immediately remove the skin from it.

To do this, take pliers, grab a section of the skin with them and wind the knife blade. Using a hand with pliers, we pull it slightly towards ourselves, and with a knife, making the opposite movement, we carefully cut off the fillet flesh.

• Without the top section, the fish carcass takes on the following appearance.

• After cutting the ridge, the spine and the beginning of the costal bones are exposed. Using a knife, carefully make successive cuts along the spine from head to tail, gradually separating the skin with meat from the bones.

We work carefully so as not to cut ourselves or puncture the insides.

Do it on one side, turn it over and repeat on the other.

• At the end, we separate the skin from the fillet from the carcass from the head side, and at the tail part we simply cut the spine. If it is inconvenient to continue the cutting stage, separate the resulting flaps of skin and meat from each other.
• The head with the remains is moved to a separate container for further action.
• We proceed with the pieces of skin as with the backbone part, using pliers and a knife, or simply holding the skin with our hand.

• I believe that you managed to cut the pike and the three promised pieces of fillet are on the cutting board.

What do we do next? We take pliers or tongs in our hands and, reminiscent of the work of a jeweler, remove the remains of those very “forks”, if required.

I noticed that when we prepare fish for cutlets, after passing through the meat grinder, the bones are not felt at all.

For frying, it’s still better to save yourself from, you know, periodic spitting on a napkin.

The second method of cutting pike

Another method is much faster - you do not need to first gut the pike and separate the skin from it. Clean it and immediately start cutting along the ridge, as in the first method. When one strip of flesh is cut from the pike, the remaining part will contain not only the ridge, but also the entire contents - now all this needs to be separated from the pulp. All that remains is to separate the fillet from the skin, always from the tail side, while conveniently holding the skin with a fork.

Some experienced fishermen advise using tongs when separating the skin - hook them onto the edge of the skin and pull it off

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.

Delicious recipe! Baking a bird from dough

How to quickly cut a pike photo

How to quickly cut a pike , I think, is necessary for those who do not want to buy this fish because they do not know the technology of cutting fish and it seems to them a very complicated procedure. But in fact it is very simple. Pike is one of the few fish that is found in almost all rivers of our country, and even in fresh seas. Yes, and it catches well. Especially in winter. In addition, pike meat has a low calorie content - only 84 kcal per 100 grams of weight and can be used in dietary nutrition due to its low fat content. But before you cook the pike, you need to cut it. Forward!

We have already published pike recipes on our website. But this is the first time we’ll tell you how to quickly cut a pike.

2Cutting pike - where to start

Wash the fish well under cold water to remove river mucus. Fill the sink with water or pour water into a large bowl. Place the fish there. Scald it with boiling water and dry it a little. Your next steps are as follows:

• Place the fish on the board at an angle and grab it by the tail. You can hold the tail in one hand over the sink or any utensil, and work with the other. Sprinkle the tail with salt first, this will prevent the fish from slipping out of your hands.
• Remove the scales with a grater or knife, moving from the tail to the head.
• Cut off the fins with a knife or scissors.
• Place the pike with its head facing you. Make a piercing near the head and cut the incision line to the tail. Make a shallow puncture, otherwise you will damage the internal organs of the fish and stain the abdominal cavity with the entrails.
• Carefully remove the giblets and cut off the gills with a knife. From large pike, you can use its liver separately for dishes. Carefully separate it from the gallbladder. Remove the air bubble with blood clots as the last thing, the clots are located under the bubble. This is a white film located along the ridge.
• Cut the cartilage that lies between the fish's belly and head.
• Wash the pike well inside and out.

The first method of cutting pike

There are several ways to cut pike; each housewife or cook also has her own secrets of this labor-intensive process. First, you need to rinse the pike in cold water, removing mucus and debris, and then clean it of scales using a sharp knife. To prevent the scales from scattering in different directions, you need to hold the fish at a slight angle.

You can place newspapers or a plastic bag under the board - this makes it easier to collect the scales later

Then the tail, dorsal and anal fins of the fish are cut off, while holding the knife against the direction of the scales. Then gut the pike - by piercing the skin near the head, run the knife all the way to the tail and pull out the entire contents of the belly from the resulting cut. You can save the milk or game to cook later. Now you can cut off the pelvic fins. Cut off the head and tail - they can be used to prepare other dishes. Now all that remains is to remove the skin from the fish; in pike it is elastic, dense, and comes off easily. Then, with a strong movement of the knife, cut the pike in half along the ridge, you will get a strip of fish flesh with a row of bones on the upper dorsal part. Using a knife at a sharp angle, cut off the part with the bones. There will be a few bones left on the pulp - large bones can be removed later, and small bones will be finely chopped when preparing minced meat and will not interfere. The second strip of fillet must be turned over with the ridge up and the ridge cut off.