How to remove small bones from herring. We clean the herring carefully and quickly: perfect boneless fillet

Experienced chefs have high culinary skills in perfectly cleaning herring, which cannot be said about young housewives who do not know how to approach it. This review will help you easily fillet herring without a single bone.
Recipe contents:

Herring is a delicious fish that is often present on everyday and holiday tables. This is a simple food that many people love. But the process of cutting herring itself is a problem for many. Let me immediately note that it’s still not possible to select absolutely all the seeds. The smallest and smallest ones will remain. However, when eating herring with pickled onions or in a salad, they will not be felt at all. Adding vinegar or mayonnaise will make the bones soft and invisible.

I recommend tasting the cut fillet. If the fish is too salty, you will need to soak it a little in water or milk. This procedure should not last more than 10 minutes. Otherwise, the herring will lose all its beneficial qualities, the liquid will swell greatly and the shelf life will be significantly reduced.

To cut herring, prepare the following kitchen equipment: cutting board, paper towel and sharp knife. Sometimes tweezers are required to remove the middle bones. Do not use newspapers for cutting - the fish will absorb many harmful substances that can harm your health.

Calorie content per 100 g - 217 kcal.
Number of servings - 1 herring
Cooking time - 15 minutes

Ingredients:

Herring - 1 pc.

How to clean herring:

1. Make a shallow cut along the back of the carcass up to the ridge. Cut off the small fins at the tail.

2. At the base of the head, use a knife to pry the film and pull it in the opposite direction. Do this carefully so as not to damage the skin of the herring. Remove the film from both sides.

3. Cut the belly from head to tail. Do this carefully so as not to damage the milk or caviar.

4. Remove all the insides. If there is milk or caviar, do not throw it away, they are also tasty. Put them in the refrigerator and continue working on the fish.

5. Cut off the head and tail from the carcass.

6. Helping yourself with a knife and fingers, slowly divide the herring into two fillets. Your spine will remain on one side.

7. Carefully remove the spine.

8. Cut off the bellies, approximately 5-7 mm on each side and cut off the upper fin. Remove all visible large and medium seeds. It is more convenient to do this with fingernails or tweezers.

9. Rinse the carcass under running water, removing the inner black film. Then dry the fillet with a paper towel so that it absorbs all the moisture.

Herring has been the most popular fish on our tables for many decades, both on holidays and on weekdays. It can be served in any form: sliced fillet with onions and butter, or in salads, for example, in the traditional “herring under a fur coat.” True, not everyone likes to cut herring; It is considered to be a difficult and painstaking task. We will tell you about several effective and simple ways to cut herring, and this task will no longer scare you.

Preparation for cutting

The color of the gills should be dark red. A darker color indicates that the herring is no longer fresh and unsuitable for food. Another sign of freshness is that the gills are elastic and do not fall apart.
The fish's eyes should not be cloudy or protruding from their sockets.

Also pay attention to the smell. There should not be any foreign impurities in it (for example, bitterness or rottenness). To avoid mistakes, buy only fresh or lightly salted herring. The more spicy the salt, the more likely it is that the manufacturer used it to hide unpleasant odors.

There should be no stains, cuts or holes on the covers of high-quality fresh or lightly salted herring. Once the integrity of the skin is damaged, oxidative processes occur inside the carcass, invisible from the outside, and the fish begins to quickly deteriorate.

It is better to buy whole herring carcasses to control its quality

So, the herring has been purchased, and you need to start cutting it. For this you will need:

cutting board;
sharp knife;
tweezers or tweezers for removing small bones;
plastic bags for waste.

It will be better if you have a separate board for cutting fresh or lightly salted herring. The fact is that this fish has a persistent and corrosive odor that is difficult to wash out of a wooden surface. You can place a sheet of cardboard, paper, or a thick napkin on the board (this makes it even more convenient to remove waste). But under no circumstances should you spread the newspaper! Printing ink will definitely end up in your stomach along with the herring, and this is harmful to the body.

It is also advisable to have a separate knife. It’s good if you have a set of knives, including a special cutting knife for fish.

If you have long nails, you can easily remove small bones from a cut carcass. Otherwise, arm yourself with tweezers or eyebrow tweezers.

Traditional way

Place the fish on a cutting board lined with paper or a napkin. Use a sharp knife to cut off the head.
Cut off the herring's head
After this, cut off the tail.
Then separate the tail
Take the herring by the upper fin. Carefully cut it off.
Cut off the dorsal fin
Place the herring carcass with its back facing you. Run the knife into the belly, and starting from the tail, carefully cut.
Cut the belly
Now you can easily remove the insides by helping yourself with a knife. There may be milt or caviar inside the carcass. Many people love these products: you can eat them simply with bread or prepare some original dish, for example, pate. In any case, thoroughly clean the milt and caviar from the intestines.
Remove the entrails using a knife to help you
Be sure to remove the lower fins from the herring's belly. To do this, lay the fish on its side and cut strips half a centimeter wide along the entire length of the abdomen. Cut from the inside, on both sides.
Remove the bottom fins
Clean the inside of the carcass from the black film. Rinse thoroughly under running cold water (not warm or hot!).
Rinse the herring with cold running water
Place the herring on a plate or board with its back facing you. Make an indentation with your left thumb where the fin was cut. Move with little effort to the top of the carcass, separating the skin, and then to the bottom, to the edge, strictly in the middle. The back will be divided into two neat halves.
Divide the back into two halves
Place the herring carcass with its back facing you again. Grab the edge of the skin from the side of the tail and gently pull it towards you so that it does not tear, but comes off completely.
Peel off the skin on one side
Repeat on the other side of the fish carcass.
Repeat on the other side

Ready! The herring is cleaned and you can serve it to the table.

Note! If you cut fresh and not salted herring in this way, make sure that it is completely defrosted. This makes it much easier to move away from the bones and “shed” the skin. But it is easier to cut off the head and tail of frozen herring.

Cleaning a carcass from bones in different ways

You can simply cut the peeled herring into pieces, place on a plate and serve as is. But it’s better to spend a little time and remove all the bones from the carcass. There are several simple methods that will make this easy and quick.

For fillet

Take the prepared carcass and begin to separate the ridge. Separate a little meat near the tail so that it is easy to grip. Grasp it and, holding the remaining part of the carcass on the plate with your free hand, gently pull upward with forward movements. The bones will gradually come out of the herring meat. The fresher the fish, the easier the bones will separate.
Turn the carcass over to the other side, placing it with the ridge up. Using the same movements, stretch the spine along with the bones.
Starting from the top, select the remaining bones and black membranes from the inside of the fillet, and so on to the tail.

This way you can prepare herring fillets for salads, especially for. All you have to do is cut the meat into suitable pieces.

You can also clean raw herring in the same way. True, this will be a little more difficult: salting slightly softens the meat and allows it to come off the bone more easily.

One-step cleaning

For this method, first prepare the carcass: remove the fins, skin and entrails.

Take the herring by the tail with both hands. Her side will be directed towards you. Tear the tail a little with your hands, spreading them slightly apart. Hold the herring very tightly, otherwise it will slip out of your fingers.

Holding the carcass in front of you with both hands, “flip” it towards you so that the herring describes a circle around its own tail.

Now cut the fish in one motion, quickly spreading your arms to the sides. If everything is done correctly, the back with the ridge will remain in one hand, and two stripes of the abdomen in the other. Now all that remains is to separate the back from the bones.

Herring fillets can be used for salads, for example, “Herring under a fur coat”

It’s better not to do this trick with fresh raw herring. It is unlikely that you will be able to remove the meat from the bones without damaging the fillet. But if you want to prepare fillets in this way for “herring under a fur coat” or other similar fish dishes, then this method is quite suitable; the meat will still need to be cut into small pieces.

Punching method

This method does not completely remove the bones from the fillet, but it is also quite simple.

Gut the fish, cut off the fins and remove the skin. Rinse thoroughly under running water. Then make an incision on the back of the carcass. Take it in your hands so that the fingers of your palm are inside the abdomen, and the thumb lies in the dorsal incision.
Squeeze your fingers and separate part of the fillet from the backbone using a pressing motion. Continue doing this until half of the fillet is completely separated. If you carry out the process carefully and carefully, most of the bones will remain on the ridge.
Do the same with the other half, but now hold the ridge with one hand, and make pressing movements with the other.

This method works well on fresh, well-thawed herring.

Another simple way

Place your thumb at the location of the dorsal fin, 2–3 cm deep. Carefully move it towards the tail, dividing the carcass of fresh or lightly salted herring in half.

Take the free part of the fillet on the tail and pull it towards the head. When you have separated one half, proceed to the second. Place your finger under the spine and remove the tail portion of the fillet. Pull the spine, lifting it away from the fish. Now all you have to do is remove the bones from the fillet.

Video: quick cutting of herring

We have told you only about a few ways to clean herring from bones. Surely you have your own proven method that you constantly use. Please tell us about it in the comments. Bon appetit and comfort to your home!

The vegetables have been boiled, the mayonnaise has been bought, everyone is in anticipation of the signature “herring under a fur coat” salad, and only the salted herring lies alone on the table, showing no interest in what is happening. A knife is picked up, an attitude of slight confusion and a silent question in the eyes, which is repeated in a whisper on the lips - how to peel a herring?

Mom, my dear person, slowly enters the kitchen, rustling her slippers and sniffling her nose!

Mom is an honored catering worker, with a background in technical school, working as a waitress, cook, and pastry chef. Everyone respects her, sometimes you want to be like her.

She unceremoniously takes the knife from me, rolls up her sleeves like a proprietor and says:

- Look, now I’ll show you how to quickly remove the bones from a herring.

Having made a confident cut, the executioner cuts off the head. He turns around and grumpily goes to the sink, washes the knife and starts sharpening.

– The knife must be sharp, otherwise your work will turn into a nightmare.

Work continues. Sliding the knife smoothly from the place that just recently crowned the head, she makes a cut along the abdomen. From start to finish. He takes out all the insides, scrapes off the remains and throws them in the trash.

After such dirty work, the cutting area does not look the best. Mom starts doing a little cleaning. He washes the inside of the fish under the tap, removing the internal films that can be caught with your nails. After the saddle, it is taken to the cutting board.

Work continues. Holding the silver body of the herring with one hand, she makes another cut along the entire back. This is the beginning of the second stage.

With confident movements, using her thumb, she slightly lifts one half of the fish, thereby separating it from the ridge. The fillet is easy to manipulate.

There was one herring - now there are two halves. Now it's cleaning again. All small specks that were not visible before are removed.

Grabbing the edge of the ridge and lifting it slightly, she pulls it out of the herring and proceeds to search for the remaining bones.

Having striped along the edge of each half in the area where the belly used to be, cut off a small strip along the entire length and set it aside. This part does not look appetizing, so no questions arise here.

Turning part of the herring upside down, mom tries to grab the edge of the skin with her nails. This doesn't happen right away. Then the thin skin breaks, and all attempts start all over again. Finally, triumphantly stepping from foot to foot (she succeeded) slowly, centimeter by centimeter, she exposes the side of the herring, shiny with fat.

Mom throws the knife into the sink, then washes her hands for a long time, sniffing each time to see if there is any herring aroma left on them. He turns to face me, presses my nose as if it were a button and says: “Study, student!” This is how quickly a herring is cleaned.

Hi all! Today we will talk about how to cut herring from the bones.

There is nothing complicated in this whole procedure. If we imagine everything in the form of an algorithm, it will look something like this:

Defrosting
Removing fins
Removing the entrails
Removing the head
Flushing
Removing the top fillet with bones
Layering
Removal of the vertebral bone
Cutting rib fillets
Skin removal
Cutting into pieces

As you can see, the process is not quite complicated. The only thing is, since we clean fish, and even herring, a fishy smell remains on the cutting boards, knives and hands, which is not entirely pleasant.

To avoid this, put a plastic bag on the board. In addition, you need to take a knife with a thin blade; it will be easier for them to cut fish. As for the peel, it is easier to remove it by hand. This is best done starting from the tail. Having plucked it, pull it gently towards you, trying not to tear it.

Cutting herring step by step with photos

We start by placing the fish on the board and cutting off the fins, tail and head. The main thing is to cut it correctly. To do this, we will place the knife behind the large fin and make an oblique cut, getting under the gills. Cut to the middle. Then we turn the knife in the opposite direction and cut off the head from the side of the other gills.

You can, of course, do it in an easier way. We cut the belly of the herring along the entire body and take out the milk.

The main thing in this operation is not to damage the gallbladder. Otherwise, all the fish will be bitter. By the way, this must be taken into account when cutting any fish.

After this, cut off the head and tail using the usual straight motion.

You can then wrap the fish in film and tap it lightly on the table. This will help pull the bones out much easier.

We open the gutted fish, pushing both halves apart and take out the ridge.

And finally, cut the fish into two halves and use tweezers to remove all the small bones.

How to quickly peel herring

Using this method, you can separate the fish from the bones a little faster.

To do this, also pre-prepare the carcass: clean it, separate the fins, head and tail.

Now use a knife to make a cut along the ridge. We put our finger into this cut and begin to carefully separate the fillet. Having separated it, put it aside, and remove the bones from the other half. After this, we once again inspect for the presence of small seeds and also remove them with tweezers.

Small bones are often located deep and difficult to see. To do this, carefully probe all the fillets with your fingers and remove any bones found. As soon as your fingers stop probing these bones, you can finish this procedure.

Many people enjoy simple food, for example, ordinary lightly salted herring with potatoes and onions - delicious; my family also really loves this simple dish. But the process of cutting herring is a problem. So how to fillet a herring so that there are no bones? I’ll say right away that it’s not realistic to select all the bones, but we can try to remove the majority. Only the smallest bones will remain, which you cannot feel, especially if you cook the herring with the addition of vinegar, the vinegar will make the bones soft and invisible.

I always buy lightly salted herring, so I never soak it before cutting, and this is not recommended. The fish loses its beneficial qualities, swells from the liquid in which it was soaked, the shelf life, even in the refrigerator, is sharply reduced - only a day. Therefore, I will not give advice on soaking herring; if necessary, you can easily find it yourself.

When cutting lightly salted herring, use a cutting board or paper towels; by the way, this is even more convenient - after finishing cutting, carefully wrap them and throw them away. I’m more accustomed to using a cutting board to clean the herring. Do not take newspapers for cutting - the fish will absorb a huge amount of harmful substances. Why endanger your health for the sake of some imaginary convenience? So, how to cut a herring - step by step photos...

What do you need to cut a herring?
lightly salted herring
cutting board
sharp knife
tweezers
waste bags

How to clean herring step by step photo

Cut off the head and tail

1. Place lightly salted herring on a cutting board, cut off the head, then the tail.

Clean the herring from the insides

2. Using a cutting board, cut off the upper fin, inserting a knife into the belly of the fish to the tail, cutting through it, trying not to damage the insides, there may be caviar or milt there, now you can easily free the lightly salted herring from the insides. Inside there is often either caviar or milt; caviar and milt can be prepared as a separate dish, or served together with cooked fish. Put the milk and caviar in the refrigerator. Step by step photo.

Cut off the fins of the fish and wash

3. Cut off the fins from the belly on a cutting board, remove the black film, rinse the fish under running cold water, place on a paper towel and let it drain. Step by step photo.

Removing the skin

4. With effort, but carefully, we divide the back into two parts, tearing the skin. You can, of course, cut it with a knife, but this way we will maintain the integrity of the parts of the back - they will be more neat. Grab the skin of the fish, remove it from one side; if the skin breaks, it’s okay, then from the other side. Step by step photo.

We take out the ridge of lightly salted herring

5. Holding the herring by the tail, grab the edge of the flesh and gently pull it up, holding part of the fish with the ridge on the plate with the other hand. Do not pull sharply so that the bones have time to pull themselves up behind the spine. For the rest of the lightly salted herring, we repeat the process of removing bones. Step by step photo.

Removing small bones

6. You need to select the bones that remain. First we pull out all the large bones, then carefully select the small ones. It is more convenient to do this with fingernails or tweezers. Step by step photo.

Ready fillet of lightly salted herring

7. After cutting the fish, we have fillets available, from which you can prepare many different delicious dishes. Now we know how to cut a herring, but how to cook a herring?

For example, we take a cutting board, cut the fillet into pieces, put it beautifully on a plate, pour it with vegetable oil, add a little vinegar if you like, decorate it with onions and herbs if possible - serve it on the table, a dish with beautifully decorated lightly salted herring looks great on a holiday table.

Caviar can also be served as a separate dish, beautifully decorated

How to cook herring

If you boil the potatoes and chop the onion with the fillet, a complete simple dish is ready. You can prepare an elegant layered salad - herring under a fur coat.

We still have milk and caviar - we will use the milk and caviar to prepare several dishes to choose from, for example, a pate of milk and salted herring caviar, or canapés with milk.

Finally, a few photos from the Internet - how to cook herring and serve the dish beautifully