How To Clean A Sturgeon Correctly And Cut It At Home + Video

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

How to properly clean a sturgeon and butcher a carcass at home

Fish is a valuable and unique product used to prepare dishes from different cuisines of the world. Among the representatives of the aquatic environment, the owner of healthy meat with excellent taste is deservedly noted - sturgeon. Dishes made from sturgeon will become a highlight of any table, pleasantly surprise family members and guests. In most cases, it is not cleaned, and it will not be difficult to butcher this king-fish.

Features and value of sturgeon

The sturgeon is one of the oldest fish on the planet, inhabited in the aquatic environment even in the days of the dinosaurs. The sturgeon is rightfully considered the king-fish, its tasty and tender meat is a storehouse of fatty and amino acids, minerals and vitamins, which has a positive effect on the human brain and cardiac activity, and ensures the prevention of atherosclerosis.

tasty and healthy fish

The sturgeon has a tough, sandpaper-like skin covered with bone shields - popularly called "bugs". The sturgeon has no vertebrae, and therefore no bones. Cartilage is a replacement for vertebrae. A feature of the sturgeon is the presence of a chord, which is more often called a viziga. It is a white vein running along the entire length of the sturgeon cartilaginous spine. When cutting fish, the vizigu must be removed, because within 3-4 hours after the death of the sturgeon, it picks up poisons.

When cleaning and cutting sturgeon, separate rules must be observed.

How to clean sturgeon

Before cleaning, ice-cream sturgeon is left to thaw in air at room temperature, and if the fish that needs to be cleaned is live, place it in the freezer for an hour - thereby "put to sleep" it.

1. We place the fish in a container of a suitable size and pour boiling water over it - we remove the mucus covering the skin, and also speed up and facilitate the cleaning process.

   

   Pour boiling water

2. Using a sharp knife, cut off the "bugs" on the back of the fish.

   

   Cut off the top "bugs"

3. We clean off the "bugs" located on the sides of the fish like a scaly cover in an ordinary fish - from the tail towards the head.

   

   Removing side bugs

Carcass evisceration

1. We put the carcass with its back on a cutting board and with a knife make a longitudinal cut on the belly from head to tail.

2. We remove the insides. If there is caviar, we put it separately for further salting - black sturgeon caviar is recognized as a delicacy all over the world. Try not to damage the gallbladder - if its contents get on the meat, it will taste bitter. In case of rupture of the bladder, sprinkle the bile site with salt and scrape with a knife.

   

   Removing the insides

3. We remove blood clots from the vertebral cartilage by thoroughly rinsing the inside of the carcass with water.
4. We make two cuts at the head and tail of the fish inside the carcass on the vertebral cartilage.

5. Gently pull out the vizig - it is white and clearly visible. At the same time, try not to damage it, since it is the inner content of the vizigi that is poisonous. In case of rupture, rinse the meat thoroughly with water.

   

   Removing the vizig

Visigu can be removed in another way without damaging the carcass:

• cut the tail - inside the cartilaginous spine, the screech is clearly visible;

• pry on the vizig with a knife or a large needle;

  

  We poke a vizigu

• smoothly pull out the vizig - for the convenience of performing the procedure, you can use the pliers.

  

  Removing the vizig

When to cut sturgeon into layers

1. We cut off the fins using a sharp knife or culinary scissors. The movement of the knife should be away from you to avoid cuts.
2. If we cook the whole sturgeon, remove the gills. Otherwise, we cut off the head.
3. If necessary, we plaster the carcass - we put it on a cutting board with its back up and from the head we cut it in the longitudinal direction into halves, called links. The line of incision during plastification should pass strictly in the middle of the fatty layer of the vertebral cartilage, if this rule is not followed, the shape of the links will be incorrect and unnecessary waste will appear. We cut each link into the required number of portioned pieces.

Many successful fishermen and housewives shoot a video, showing clearly that kadom can handle sturgeon at home. Here is one of them.

How to clean a sturgeon - video

In some cases, the sturgeon is cleaned and butchered without frosting, for example, for making sliced bread, but for someone this method of cleaning fish is simply the most convenient.

Cleaning a frozen carcass

1. We cut off the head, if in the future it will be used for cooking, we remove the gills.

   

   Cut off the head

2. We hold the carcass by the tail and rest it against the cutting surface with the cut point.

   

   We push the carcass with a cut into the cutting surface

3. Cut off the upper thorns by grabbing a small strip of leather.

   

   Cut off the upper thorns

4. We cut the skin at the tail and in strips remove it from top to bottom around the entire carcass.

   

   Peeled carcass

5. We make a longitudinal incision on the belly of the carcass.

   

   Ripping open the belly

6. We remove the insides and rinse the carcass.
7. We remove the vizig using one of the methods described above.

Video: how to clean frozen sturgeon fish

Sturgeon for cooking can be used with or without skin. If the fish is baked whole, then for the aesthetics of the look, the skin and head are not removed. If you decide to stuff the sturgeon, you need to properly prepare the ingredients.

Features of preparing fish for stuffing

It is important to preserve the integrity of the skin, including the dorsal part, therefore we do not cut the bugs.

1. We place the carcass in boiling water for 3-4 minutes - the skin will begin to brighten and shrink, as it were.
2. We squeeze each "bug" a little and turn it around the axis - they can be easily removed.

3. We cut the skin along the head and smoothly remove it with a "stocking" towards the tail.

   

   Removing the skin

And finally, a few tips:

• When choosing a sturgeon, pay attention to the outer cover - the presence of wounds and bruises indicate the danger of such fish, since the damaged areas can be infectious foci.
• When cleaning the sturgeon, use work gloves in order not to injure your hands on sharp thorns.
• You can use salt to remove mucus from the surface of the fish - rub the skin with salt and rinse the carcass with water.

Following the rules for cleaning and cutting sturgeon, you can easily and quickly cope with this task. Let the exquisite dishes prepared from this royal fish delight you and your loved ones.