How to properly and quickly fillet herring from bones and skin? How to easily peel herring from bones and skin for salad, fur coat, slicing? Cutting fresh and salted fish and herring into fillets step by step with photos

Ways to properly and quickly fillet herring without bones or skin.

Most modern housewives prefer to buy ready-made herring fillets and use it for preparing appetizers and savory salads. But as practice shows, it is precisely this type of filleted fish that is often of low quality.

For this reason, it will be better if you buy whole herring and remove the skin, fins and bones yourself. In this case, you will be able to more correctly assess the freshness and quality of the product, thanks to which you will definitely be able to prepare a delicious snack from it. We will talk about how to clean herring without unnecessary problems in our article.

How to properly, easily and quickly peel herring: advice from chefs and housewives

Cleaning herring: advice from chefs and housewives
If you think that cleaning herring yourself is very difficult, then you are deeply mistaken. If you show a little patience, you can quickly get high-quality fillets. All that is required of you for this is to prepare a cutting board, a sharp knife and a few paper towels.

Simple tips:

Take a cutting board and wrap it in plastic wrap or just put a few regular bags over it. This is necessary so that after filleting the fish your board remains clean.
Prepare a knife with a thin blade. If you realize that it has become a little dull, then be sure to sharpen it. If you don’t do this, you will end up tearing the fish fibers when cutting and this will not allow you to make a perfect fillet.
Be sure to have tweezers handy. You will use this to remove the thinnest and smallest bones from the fillet, located as close as possible to the herring ridge.
Also place several paper napkins and towels on the table on which you will cut the fish. You will need them to remove blood and intestinal films from the fillet.
It will be more convenient to peel the herring with your hands. In order to do this quickly, you will need to pry the skin in the area of the tail or head, and then gently pull it towards you. Be careful not to overdo the tension because the skin will tear and you will have to start the process all over again from the beginning.

Cleaning fresh and frozen herring from scales

Pre-defrost frozen herring by placing it on the top shelf of the refrigerator overnight. Be sure to place it in a bowl and do not take it out of the bag, otherwise the fish juice will leak onto the shelves and you will have to start cleaning the refrigerator, and the aroma of the fish will remind you of your mistake for a long time.

In general, the process of cleaning and cutting fresh and frozen fish is not much different from salted fish. Except for one thing - it must first be cleared of scales. But don’t let this upset you, herring scales fall off easily. It may happen that you buy fish almost “naked”. But if scales are still there, they need to be removed.

Proper cleaning of scales:

Rinse the fish under running cool water and dry with a paper towel.
Place it on the board with your head facing you.
Holding the tail with one hand, scrape from the tail to the head, using the blunt side of a knife or a special scraper.

To prevent the scales from scattering in different directions and staining the entire kitchen, some housewives clean them in water. To do this, place a bowl in the sink, put the fish in it and fill it with water so that the fish is completely covered. Clean underwater, only if the fish is completely immersed in water, the scales do not fly apart. Watch the video tutorial below to help you carefully remove scales from fish.

Video: how to clean fish from scales in water at home

Experienced fishermen remove scales without using any equipment, using their fingers. Using your thumbs, starting from the tail, pry up the scales and separate them from the skin. At the same time, the scales do not fly apart, and the skin remains clean and smooth.

I’ll share my secret for quickly cleaning fish from scales using only your fingers. Take, for example, a medium-sized crucian carp and put it in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, then take it out and, under running water, use your fingers against the “fur” to rip off the scales from the tail to the head. The advantage is that it is fast, and the kitchen at home remains free of flying scales.
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Video tutorial: how to peel fish scales with bare hands

How to properly cut fresh fish:

If the fish will be cooked whole, remove the gills. To do this, lift the gill shield, trim the gills at the attachment points and remove them. This is convenient to do with culinary scissors or simple scissors.
Use a knife or scissors to cut off all the fins.
Gut the fish.
If necessary, fillet it using one of the methods discussed above. Depending on the recipe, the skin is removed or left on.

How to quickly and correctly peel salted herring for slicing: photo

If your goal is a perfect fillet for slicing, then you need to clean the fish in the classic way and, if possible, do everything as carefully as possible.

So:

Initially, you will need to rinse the herring and blot its surface with a paper napkin. This must be done so that it does not slide on the surface of the cutting board.
When you are done with this stage, you can take the knife and proceed directly to cleaning the fish. To do this, place it on a board and cut off the head with a sharp knife. Next, make a neat cut along the ridge line and remove the upper fins in one motion. The lower fins can be cut off with ordinary kitchen scissors.
The next step is to cut the belly of the herring. If you love the caviar and milt of this fish, then try not to insert the knife very deep. Carefully pull apart the belly and gut all the insides. Also, do not forget to immediately remove all films with a paper napkin.

Use a knife to pry the skin in the scalp area and begin to remove it with a smooth movement. After the skin is removed, inspect the fish again and, if necessary, remove newly appeared dirt.
Next, use your fingers to press down on the cut made along the ridge and begin to carefully remove one half of the fillet from the bones. Set the separated fillet aside and do the same manipulation with the remaining part.
After the ridge is removed, you will need to arm yourself with tweezers and try to remove all the small bones as thoroughly as possible. The finished fillet will need to be cooled and only after that can it be cut into portioned pieces and served on the festive table.

Ways to beautifully cut fish fillets

There are many ways to cut herring. For a home lunch, this can be done simply in slices, but for a holiday table it’s worth trying.

You can cut it into slices both for serving on a plate and for snack sandwiches.

Canapes with herring

If you cut them at an angle, you get these cute diamond shapes.

Cutting into diamonds diversifies the presentation of herring

From thin slices cut diagonally, assemble a flower that will decorate the plate. To do this, place the slices one after another in a chain.

Arrange the cut slices in a chain

Roll the chain into a flower, place it on a plate, add snacks, and decorate.

A herring flower looks impressive on a festive table

The flower can also be assembled from fillet strips.

A flower made from thin strips of herring will decorate the dish

Thin strips can be rolled into rolls and served on sandwiches.

A fish fillet is made into a roll, then placed on pieces of bread.

You can make rolls from whole or half fillets, fasten them with a skewer, or serve them on a plate.

Small herring fillets can be served without slicing

Pieces of salted and smoked fish arranged in a herringbone pattern look good

From pieces of different fish you can assemble a plate for a festive table

Of course, salted and smoked herring are more familiar to us. But, like any other fish, herring can be prepared in different ways: frying, boiling, baking. And for this you will need fresh or frozen herring.

How to clean salted herring from bones on fillets for salad, fur coats: step by step with photos?

Step-by-step photo of cleaning herring
If you plan to use herring fillets to prepare a salad, then you can use the so-called pressing method for this. This method differs from the previous one in that you first have to get rid of the backbone of the fish and only then remove the skin from it.

So:

To begin, prepare a cutting board, a sharp knife, paper napkins and tweezers. When everything you need is laid out on the table, rinse the herring under running water and dry thoroughly.
Take a knife in your hands and cut off the head, tail and fins of the fish as carefully as possible. Cut open its belly and take out all the insides. If you see that there are a lot of films or remains of offal left inside the belly, be sure to rinse the fish under water again, and then dry everything with paper napkins.
Wrap the fish prepared in this way in cling film and tap it on the table or lightly beat it. This little trick will help ensure that even small bones can be easily separated from the fillet.
Place the track belly down and, pressing lightly on it, open it like a book. Press it down onto the table, then turn it over and gently remove the spine.
At the final stage, divide the workpiece into two separate fillets, remove the skin from them and remove all the bones using tweezers.

Useful tips

In addition to the basic methods of cleaning your favorite product, there are several simple techniques. Their use will make the cutting process as efficient and convenient as possible:

Before starting work, you need to make sure that the knife is sharp enough. A blunt instrument can damage the fibers and ruin the appearance of the fillet.
To prevent your hands from absorbing the herring aroma, it is better to work with rubber, polyethylene, vinyl or latex gloves. It is also advisable to wear an apron to avoid staining your clothes and cover the work surface with paper or cling film.
You need to use a separate cutting board for fish. To prevent the surface from absorbing an unpleasant odor, you can cover it with white paper or wrap it in cling film. At the end of cutting, the waste material must be removed, the offal and bones wrapped in it, and then discarded. The surface will remain almost unstained.
To clean the board after cleaning the fish, you need to wipe it with a sponge and detergent and rinse well under running water. If the smell still remains, treating your hands and board with lemon juice will help eliminate it.
To make the herring easier to clean, you should dip it in hot water or keep it in cold water with the addition of a few drops of vinegar.
You can remove excess salt from overly salted herring by soaking the fillet in strong tea.
A very successful brine for barrel herring is 0.5 liters of water, 1 tbsp. l. sugar and 1 tbsp. l. salt. Fish soaked for 24 hours in such a marinade will be lightly salted. To increase the degree of salting, you need to leave it for another 2-3 days.
To improve the taste of fish, use pickled onions, soaked for 2-3 hours in water with a small amount of vinegar (or citric acid) and sugar.
If you do not plan to use the fillet immediately after cutting, it is better to wrap it in cling film and put it in the refrigerator.
Herring prepared from scratch turns out delicious. To do this, you should buy fresh fish, cut it into portions, put it in a jar and fill it with water, to which vinegar, mayonnaise and onion have been added. After 12 hours, the herring becomes tender and its bones become soft.

Herring is tasty, healthy and popular in the domestic kitchen as an independent snack or a key ingredient in mincemeat, “fur coat”, fish rolls, herring caviar, etc. You should not be afraid of the process of cutting this fish. Knowing the basic techniques, even an inexperienced cook can cope with this task.

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How to debone herring fillet in one motion

Cutting herring in one motion
Those who want to clean the herring from the bones in one motion can use the method that we will introduce you to a little below. But remember, in order to get exactly the result that you expect, you must hold the fish’s tail very tightly.

In view of this, if you feel that it is starting to slip out, then simply cover each part of it with a paper towel and then fillet the fish.

Recommendations for deboning herring in one motion:

At the initial stage, it is necessary to carry out standard preparation of the carcass for cutting. This means you must gut it and remove the fins. At this stage, you can additionally dry the abdomen and remove any remaining intestinal films from it.
Make a cut on the tail of the herring no more than one centimeter deep, and then take it in your hands and begin to make somersault movements towards yourself. If you do everything correctly, the herring will describe circles around its tail.
In the next step, you must tear the fish into two parts in one sharp movement. As a result, you should be left with two boneless bellies and a loin with a ridge. It can be easily separated from the fillet by hand.
At the very end, all you have to do is remove the remaining small bones and you can cut the herring for a salad or snack.

How to quickly and correctly clean fresh herring from bones and fillet: photo

Cleaning fresh filleted herring
As you already understand, if desired, the herring can be very quickly cleaned of skin and bones. If you want to simplify this process as much as possible, then use the method described below.

In this case, you can get a beautiful boneless fillet in literally a matter of minutes. True, you must remember that it is easiest to clean the largest herring using this method.

So:

Take fresh herring, gut it and remove intestinal membranes.
Use kitchen scissors to remove the fins, and then use a knife to make a longitudinal cut along the ridge line
Next, stick your finger inside the fish and begin to carefully separate the fillet
Separate one half, set it aside and use the same movements to remove the bones from the other fillet.
Inspect the herring and, if necessary, remove small bones with tweezers

What kind of fish is this and how is it useful?

Herring is a sea fish. It lives in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and in most lightly salted seas. The herring family consists of more than 60 species of fish; in our country the most famous are Atlantic, Norwegian, Ivasi, as well as herring and sprat, also related to herring.

Herring is found in almost all lightly salted seas

The beneficial properties of herring can hardly be overestimated. The fish is very fatty, and these are the healthiest, unsaturated fats, the so-called Omega 3. The protein content in herring meat is such that 250 grams of fish satisfy the daily requirement of the human body. On the contrary, there are few carbohydrates.

Calorie content depends on the type of herring, on average it is 240 kcal.

In addition, herring meat is rich in vitamins B, PP, E, D, A and microelements: potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, iodine and others.

The omega 3 content makes herring beneficial for the heart and blood vessels, fights “bad” cholesterol without reducing the amount of “good” cholesterol, and reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes. Vitamin D is good for bones and kidneys, especially important for pregnant women. Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant, vitamin A improves vision. And these are just some of the beneficial properties of herring.

Herring has no contraindications. Yet this product contains a highly allergenic protein. People with food allergies, especially allergies to seafood, should avoid herring. There are restrictions on the consumption of salted and smoked fish. A large amount of salt is harmful for hypertensive patients and those suffering from kidney disease. Smoked meats should be eaten with caution if you have diseases of the gastrointestinal tract or liver. In this case, it is better to bake or steam the fish.

But before cooking it needs to be cleaned and gutted. Let's look at how to do this correctly using the example of salted herring. It is sold without scales.

How to get rid of small bones in herring?

Removing small bones from herring
A large number of people refuse to eat herring due to the presence of small bones in it. But if you don’t buy ready-made fillets, but try to make them yourself, you can easily get rid of the bones. If you fillet pickled or salted herring, then you will need to arm yourself with ordinary tweezers and gradually remove all the bones from the fibers.

But keep in mind that in the ridge area the bones are located quite deep and for this reason they sometimes cannot be seen with the eyes. In view of this, it will be better if you first remove all visible bones, and then begin to carefully probe the fillet with your fingertips and remove whatever you find. This procedure should be completed only after your fingers stop finding the bones. If you remove bones from frozen fish, you will first need to peel and fillet it, and then literally put it in lightly salted water for 15 minutes.

After this time, the fish will need to be removed from the brine, rinsed, and then easily removed all the bones using tweezers. And finally, we want to tell you about a radical, but very fast method of removing small bones. In order to get rid of them in one movement, you will need to take and carefully draw a longitudinal line along the top of the fillet with a knife (its width should be approximately 5 mm). By doing this, you will immediately remove all the bones and you will not have to waste time searching for them with your hands and removing them with tweezers.

Which herring to buy: fillet or cut it yourself?

Recommendations for choosing herring
If you want to make your own herring fillet, then you need to choose the right fish for this. If you decide to save money and buy low-quality herring, then it is unlikely to produce a perfect fillet. Therefore, when choosing this product at the market, store or supermarket, first of all pay attention to its smell.

You don't even have to pick it up to do this. You can simply get as close as possible to the counter where the herring is lying and take a deep breath. If it is spoiled, you will feel a rather specific and unpleasant smell that will smell like rot. Fresh and properly stored herring will have a distinct marine smell. Once you are sure that the fish smells right, try to feel it, paying special attention to the belly.

If you feel that it is too soft, then most likely you have a stale product that has been defrosted many times. Also be sure to look at the color of the herring’s gills. If they are dark red and elastic, then you can safely make a purchase. And finally, look at the eyes. If they are cloudy, this indicates that the seller is offering you a completely damaged product.

How to cut herring at a factory: video

Above, we have already introduced you to simple homemade methods for turning a herring carcass into a perfect fillet. And as you probably already understood, this task is within the power of any person, even those who have never cooked anything in their life.

But finally, we decided to show you that fillet made on an industrial scale can also be of high quality and tasty. To do this, we bring to your attention a video from which you will learn how this delicious fish is cut in large production facilities.