Sterlet: How To Peel, Cut And Gut Fresh Or Frozen + Video

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

How to clean and butcher sterlet 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, since the tsarist times, the owner of healthy meat, as well as with a wonderful taste of meat - sterlet, has been deservedly noted. Even at the court of Peter I, a nursery was created for breeding sterlet, which was served exclusively to the royal table. From those times to the present, interest in this fish has not dried up. Dishes made from sterlet will become an excellent delicacy both on the festive and on the “daily” table, and they will also pleasantly surprise family members and guests. Therefore, it is very important to know how to properly clean this "valuable" fish and how to butcher it without difficulty.

Content

• 1 Features and nutritional value
• 2 How to properly clean at home

• 3 How to gut a sterlet

  • 3.1 Removing the sizzle through the tail
  • 3.2 Removal of the vizig of two cuts: at the head and tail

• 4 Cutting sterlet

  • 4.1 Cutting sterlet into fillets

    4.1.1 Video: how to clean fish of the sturgeon family

  • 4.2 Cleaning and cutting frozen fish

    4.2.1 Video: how to clean frozen sterlet

  • 4.3 Features of the preparation of sterlet for stuffing

Features and nutritional value

Sterlet is a commercial fish of the sturgeon genus. It is whimsical to its habitat and is a kind of indicator of the purity of the water: the sterlet does not live in polluted and oxygen-poor water.

Sterlet is a storehouse of fatty acids and amino acids, minerals and vitamins

The sterlet is easy to recognize by its long, thin nose, which protrudes strongly forward. It has a tough, sandpaper-like skin covered with bone shields - popularly called "bugs." The sterlet lacks vertebrae, and therefore bones. Cartilage is a replacement for vertebrae. A feature of the sterlet 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 sterlet's cartilaginous spine. When cutting fish, the vizigu must be removed, because within 3-4 hours after the death of the sterlet, it picks up poisons.

The sterlet, along with other sturgeon, is a storehouse of fatty acids and amino acids, minerals and vitamins, which has a positive effect on the human brain and heart, prevents atherosclerosis and vascular occlusion. Sterlet is recommended to use for people prone to depression, frequent stress and mental stress.

How to clean properly at home

If the sterlet that needs to be cleaned is alive, place it in the freezer for an hour - thereby "put it to sleep".

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 over the sterlet

2. Using a sharp knife, cut off the "bugs" on the back of the fish. Work with a knife away from you in order to avoid injury.

   

   Cut off the top "bugs"

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

   

   Removing side bugs

How to gut a sterlet

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.

   

   Cutting the belly

2. We remove the insides. If there is caviar, we put it separately for further salting - black caviar of all sturgeon fish 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.

   

   Removing the insides of the sterlet

3. We cut the head of the fish.

   

   We cut the head of the fish

4. We cut the tail of the fish, while cutting the cartilaginous spine.

   

   Cutting the tail of a fish

5. From the side of the incision at the head, we pry on the vizig. It is white and clearly visible, we carefully pull it out.

   

   Removing the sterlet vizig

Visigu can be removed in other ways. Below are alternative ways to delete a vizig. Maybe they will be more convenient for you.

Removing the sizzle through the tail

1. We cut the tail - inside the cartilaginous spine, the siege is clearly visible.

2. We pry on the vizig with a knife or a large needle.

   

   We poke a vizigu

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

Removal of the vizig of two incisions: at the head and tail

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

3. We carefully remove the vizig - try not to damage it, since it is the inner content of the vizig that is poisonous. In case of rupture, rinse the meat thoroughly with water.

   

   We carefully remove the vizigu

Butchering sterlet

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 cutting.

2. If we cook the whole sterlet, remove the gills. Otherwise, we cut off the head.

   

   We cut the fins using a sharp knife or culinary scissors

3. If necessary, cut the carcass into portions.

   

   We cut the carcass into portions

Fillet of sterlet

Sterlet fillets are used to prepare individual dishes.

1. Make longitudinal cuts along the cartilaginous ridge inside the carcass and remove the ridge.

   

   Removing the cartilaginous ridge

2. We cut the spread carcass into two parts.

   

   We cut the carcass into two parts

Video: how to clean fish of the sturgeon family

Cleaning and cutting frozen fish

In some cases, sterlet is cleaned and cut without defrosting, for example, for making sliced slices, but for someone this method of cleaning fish is simply the most convenient.

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

   

   Cut off the head of the sterlet

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.

   

   Skinning fish

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

   

   We cut the belly of the sterlet

6. We remove the insides and rinse the carcass.

   

   Removing the insides of the fish

7. We remove the vizig using one of the methods described above.

Video: how to clean frozen sterlet

Sterlet 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.

Features of preparing sterlet 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 from sterlet

4. When choosing a sterlet, pay attention to the outer cover: the presence of wounds and bruises indicate the danger of such fish, since damaged areas can be infectious foci.
5. When cleaning sterlet, use work gloves so as not to injure your hands on sharp thorns.
6. 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 sterlet, you can easily and quickly cope with this task. Let the exquisite dishes prepared from this royal fish delight you and your loved ones.