How To Clean Tench At Home From Scales, Should It Be Done Before Cooking

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

How to properly clean fresh and frozen tench at home

Among the variety of river fish species, the culinary specialists pay special attention to the tench, which has excellent taste. It is low in calories and high quality protein combined with a range of beneficial amino acids. Before cooking fish, you should learn how to clean and gut it properly.

Content

• 1 What kind of fish - tench

• 2 Do I need to clean the tench and how to do it

  • 2.1 How to clean a tench - video
  • 2.2 How to get rid of the unpleasant odor of mud

• 3 How to gut a tench

  • 3.1 How to gut a fish without cutting the belly

    3.1.1 Method of gutting fish with wooden sticks without cutting the belly - video

• 4 Features of cleaning and cutting frozen tench

• 5 Plating thawed and fresh tench

  5.1 How to skin thawed or fresh fillets

What kind of fish is a tench

Freshwater fish, the only representative of the genus Tinca - tench - has a thick and massive body, covered with mucus, and elongated small scales, beautifully shimmering golden in the sun. The tench generally prefers to settle in coastal waters and can live in oxygen-poor waters. When exposed to air, it can change color, becoming covered with dark spots, like molting. The size of the fish rarely exceeds 50 cm, while the weight can reach 5-6 kg. Most often, a line weighing about 600 g becomes a trophy for an angler. The life span of a tench is 18 years, it is not a predatory one.

Since the fish has a special aroma, reminiscent of the smell of silt, freshly caught tench is soaked for some time in clean water before cooking. Spices and spices are added to the cooking process that can drown out this smell.

Tench is a tasty and healthy fish

Lines contain a large amount of vitamins, as well as copper, chromium, zinc, phosphorus, potassium, fluorine, sodium and manganese.

It is especially useful for people suffering from thyroid diseases and complaining of poor stomach function. Regular use of tench has a positive effect on the work of the heart and prevents the development of arrhythmias.

If you want to feast on the most delicious lines, give preference to buying or catching this fish in late April or early May.

And remember that during the spawning season (starts in mid or late May and lasts for a month), tench is completely unsuitable for human consumption.

A wide variety of dishes can be prepared from tench meat by subjecting it to the boiling, frying and baking process. In addition, linen is usually stuffed, stewed and pickled, as well as served as jellied meat.

During the spawning period, tench cannot be used for food.

Do I need to clean the tench and how to do it

Many housewives do not clean the tench from the scales, because during cooking it turns into an appetizing crust. But if you still decide to clean the fish, proceed as follows:

1. Take a tench and rinse it under running water to remove mucus.
2. Pick up a container of the right size and fill it with boiling water.
3. Dip the tench in boiling water for 20 seconds.
4. Then quickly transfer the fish to cold water.
5. Using the knife, turned with the blunt side to the line, scrape off the scales from it, moving in the direction from the tail to the head.

The procedure can be done differently.

1. Place the tench in the kitchen sink.
2. Wash it off the mucus.
3. Pour boiling water from a kettle on top of it.
4. Turn on cold water and rinse the fish to remove any coagulated mucus.
5. Clean with a knife as described above.

Council. Rub the tench with coarse salt so that the fish does not slip in your hands while working. It will also help remove mucus.

Instead of a knife, you can use a fine metal grater. And so that the fish scales do not scatter throughout the kitchen, it is advisable to clean it by immersing the fish in a container with water.

The tench can be cleaned with a knife or grater

If you need to clean the tench in the field, you can use coarse salt.

1. Take a piece of cloth, put the fish on it.

2. Sprinkle coarse salt on top.

   

   Coarse salt can be used to remove scales and mucus from the tench

3. Wrap the fish in a cloth and rub on all sides. You can also use paper instead of fabric.

How to clean a tench - video

How to get rid of the unpleasant odor of mud

Since the line is characterized by a special smell of dampness and mud, you have to get rid of it. To do this, you can use a solution of 2 tbsp. l. salt and 1 liter of water. The fish is thoroughly washed in it, and sprinkled with lemon juice before the cooking process.

It is interesting. Fish scales have a lot of pectin, so they can be used as a thickener in jellies. Scales and head collected after cleaning, with previously removed gills, wrap in cheesecloth, put in a saucepan with broth, intended for cooking jellied meat.

How to gut a tench

To gut fish you will need:

• cutting board;
• knife;
• plastic bag.

Operating procedure:

1. Place the fish on a cutting board.

2. With a gentle motion, drive the knife into the fish belly about 2 cm deep.

   

   When ripping open the abdomen, do not insert the knife too deep

3. Cut the abdomen going from the anus towards the head. Be careful not to touch the gallbladder. To do this, do not insert the knife too deeply.

4. Holding the tench with one hand, take out the insides with the other.

   

   It is advisable to place the extracted insides in a plastic bag, and then discard

5. Remove the black plaque from the inside of the abdomen.

6. Cut off the fins, if necessary, remove the gills or the whole fish head.

   

   Removal of gills is recommended when it is necessary to store fish or when using fish heads for cooking broth

7. Put all waste in a plastic bag and throw it in the trash can.

If you do touch the gallbladder during evisceration, you must carefully cut out the area where the bile has spilled. Then rub the fish generously with salt, then rinse it thoroughly in running water.

How to gut a fish without cutting the belly

If the tench is intended for a festive table, you can remove its insides without cutting the belly. This gutting option can be used for both frozen and fresh fish, when preparing it for frying and baking as a whole. The tench can also be cut into round pieces.

1. Make neat incisions in the flesh along the edges of the operculums, all the way to the spine.
2. Sever your spine.
3. Separate the head from the tench along with all the entrails attached to it.
4. Chop off the tail and cut off the fins.
5. Rinse out the line.

A method of gutting fish using wooden sticks without cutting the belly - video

Features of cleaning and cutting frozen tench

Usually, the line is prepared immediately without freezing. If you still have to work with frozen fish, then if thawed improperly, it can lose a number of its beneficial properties.

Before cleaning, you must properly defrost the tench.

Tench should be thawed exclusively in cold water with a 2: 1 ratio of liquid to fish weight. It takes about four hours for large fish to completely thaw, and no more than two hours for small fish. To prevent the loss of valuable substances, it is enough to put the tench in salted water. In this case, for 1 kg of linen, you will need 2-3 liters of water and 15 g of salt.

When defrosting fillets, you can do without water. It is enough to spread the pieces on the table, cover with cling film and leave to thaw completely at room temperature. Thanks to the film, the amount of evaporated moisture will be reduced, which will have a beneficial effect on the taste of the defrosted product. When working with frozen fillets, you should be aware that it does not need special hygienic processing. Before cooking, trim away any spoiled edges, remove any dirt and rinse thoroughly.

Do not re-freeze the thawed tench, as the fish will lose its taste due to the loss of juice. In addition, it is advisable not to beat off or squeeze the thawed tench.

When defrosting fish, use only cold water.

It is recommended that the tench be not completely thawed to facilitate handling.

• If you plan to cook the fish whole or in portions, you can leave the scales on before frying.
• If the scales need to be removed, you should use a knife, grater or special devices that make it easy to get rid of them. After cleaning is completed, the fins must be removed by trimming them on both sides and tearing them off the carcass in the direction from the tail to the head.

Before preparing the soup, the tench can be cut into large cross pieces. If you plan to fry it, we recommend slicing the fish at a 45 ° C angle. Then salt and pepper the pieces and send them to the refrigerator for 5 minutes. This will make the fish juicy.

Lin, cut into large cross pieces, suitable for making soups

Plating thawed and fresh tench

If you have to prepare a large tench, after eviscerating it, you can make plating or filing. This procedure is carried out in the same way for different types of fish:

1. Place a completely peeled tench on a cutting board with its tail on your left.

2. Press the carcass against the table with your left hand and make an incision under the pectoral fin to the vertebral bone with your right hand using a sharp knife.

   

   Milling is carried out in the same way for different types of fish

3. Holding the tench with your left hand, cut the fillets off the spine.

   

   When milling fish, work with a knife as carefully as possible.

4. Turn the fish over to the other side and repeat the operation.

5. Then cut off the fish bones from the fillets.

   

   The skin and remaining bones are removed from the fillet separated from the spine

How to remove skin from thawed or fresh fillets

If you want to cook cutlets or dumplings from tench, remove the skin from the fillet. In this case, the scales do not need to be removed.

1. With your left hand, hold the tail of the line.
2. Use your right hand to trim the fillet with a sharp knife, pressing it firmly against the table surface, separating the meat from the skin.
3. Place the fish fillet with the ribs on top.
4. Holding the rib bones with your left palm, cut the bones with your right hand, while holding the knife obliquely so that its blade looks to your left.
5. Do the same for the second fillet.

When removing skin from fillets, it is advisable to use a sharp knife, while acting as carefully as possible

Waste left over from tench - fins, skin, bones - can be used to make broths. However, before the cooking process, it is necessary to remove the gills from the fish heads.

Using the methods described, you can easily clean and properly cut the tench before preparing a variety of dishes. Proper cleaning of the tench, taking into account some important nuances, will avoid disappointments when tasting already cooked fish. And the different cutting methods will ensure your meals are presented in a great way.