Calories: Not specified
Cooking time: Not indicated

For many holidays, housewives serve delicious food on the table, but not everyone can quickly clean it correctly. It is important not only to clean the herring correctly, but also quickly without bones. Guests really don’t like it when herring is presented simply cut into pieces. Guests will have to try hard to remove the seeds, get all their hands dirty, and it’s not even a holiday when all the guests get dirty. So in this situation, if you decide to serve everyone’s favorite herring, then clean it and I will help you with this. I know a simple way to peel herring quickly and without bones.




- 1 lightly salted herring.

Tools:
- White paper,
- knife,
- scissors.

Recipe with photos step by step:

Cut off the head and tail from the herring. Usually no one eats the tail and there is practically no meat in it. There are also a lot of small bones, so it is better to cut off the tail. 2-3 cm of tail will not make a difference. It will only cause more hassle and hassle, and when you clean the tail of bones and peel, you will realize that there is not enough meat there.




Also use scissors to cut off all the fins. Of course, you can cut them with a knife, but you will have to make a good effort. You can also damage the fish with a knife, and with scissors you can easily cut off all unnecessary parts.




Use a knife to cut the belly from the side where the head was.




Now remove all the insides from the belly and wipe the fish with a napkin from the inside to clean everything properly. There should be no black veins or remains of intestines, they will be bitter, and the herring will spoil and become tasteless.






Make a cut with a knife on the ridge of the herring, where the head was. The incision is literally 1-1.5 cm.




Grab the edge of the peel and remove, or rather, pull it off the herring. Also pull off the skin on the other side of the herring in the same way. Of course, you will have to get your hands dirty, but you can wear gloves and then everything will be fine.




Now we grab the edges of the herring from the head and remove the fillet, slowly pulling it towards the tail. This way you will have a cleaned herring fillet in your hands. We also remove the second fillet from the herring, where the backbone with bones remains.




This makes two herring fillets, but the bones still need to be removed if there are small ones left. It is convenient to remove small seeds with tweezers. The fillet is almost ready.






The fillet is almost ready, all that remains is to cut it into slices and pieces.




Serve to the table, garnished with herbs and onions. Take either white or purple onions, they are more tender and not very spicy. When serving, the herring is traditionally sprinkled with aromatic vegetable oil. Can you cook herring like this?

Herring can rightfully be called “the most popular fish”, loved by both adults and children. It is affordable, so many can afford it. This lightly salted fish is used as a simple snack, and is also included in salad recipes, for example, for preparing the famous “fur coat” and appetizers.

Preparation for cutting

The most unpleasant thing about herring is cleaning, since for many it is a very difficult and painstaking task. In fact, if you know some tricks, you can clean the fish quickly and without much difficulty. Below are the most popular and effective cleaning methods that everyone can master.

To begin with, you need to choose the right and high-quality herring that will not disappoint in taste.

That is why it is better to buy a whole carcass, since it is easy to check how long it has been lying on the counter and whether the fish is worthy of ending up on your table. To choose the right herring, pay attention to the color of the gills.

In quality fish they are dark red, elastic and do not fall apart. Look into the fish's eyes, which should not be cloudy. Do not buy herring that is in spicy brines, as this is how sellers disguise spoiled fish.

Cleaning the herring is done using the following equipment: a cutting board, a sharp knife, tweezers for removing small bones, a plastic bag and napkins. It's best to have a separate board for cleaning the herring, but another option is to wrap it in several layers of cling film. Many people use newspaper to avoid staining the board, but this is a serious mistake, since the printing ink ends up on the fish and, consequently, in the stomach. To avoid an unpleasant fishy smell on your hands later, be sure to wear medical gloves. If the smell remains, use lemon juice. It will help remove the fishy flavor from the board as well.

How to clean herring in the traditional way?

The most common cleaning method involves several stages:

1. Place the fish on the prepared board and use a knife to separate the head and then the tail. Holding the herring by the top fin, carefully trim it;
2. By inserting a knife into the hole left after removing the head, cut the abdomen, which will allow you to easily remove the insides. Look, perhaps you got some milk or caviar, which many people eat on bread;
3. Place the fish on its side and cut strips about 0.5 cm wide first from one side and then from the other. This will remove the ventral fins and hard, inedible parts;
4. Remove the black film from the inside as it will taste bitter. Rinse the fish inside and out under running water;
5. Place the herring on the board with its back facing you and use your thumb to make an indentation where the top fin was located. Move to the top of the fish, dividing the carcass into two halves, and then do the same, moving down;
6. Place the herring on the board and pick up the skin. After this, grab the edge and quickly remove the skin in one motion. Do the same with the other half. The herring is cleaned, it remains to be cut into portions and served.

How to debone herring

If the fish will be used to prepare an appetizer or salad, or if you want to get separate clean pieces of fillet, then you need to remove the bones.

There are several ways to quickly cope with this task.

• Cleaning herring for fillet. Place the peeled carcass on a board and separate a small amount of meat near the tail so that you can handle it with your fingers. Hold the herring with one hand, and with the other, with forward movements, pull the meat, separated from the bones, up.

It is worth noting that the fresher the fish, the easier it will be to separate the meat from the bones.

To release the other half of the fillet, repeat the steps, pulling out the backbone. If bones remain, use tweezers, which can be used to remove them without much effort. All that remains is to cut the fillet into pieces.

• Cleaning herring in one motion. A prepared carcass, that is, cleared of fins and skin, can be quickly removed from the bones. Take the carcass in your hands by the tail with its side facing you. Turn it over, making a revolution, and then sharply spread your arms to the sides and separate the carcass in one motion.

If everything was done correctly, then in one hand there will be a ridge with a back, and in the second - two parts of the abdomen. All that remains is to separate the back from the bones and the fillet is considered ready for use. This cutting option is not suitable for raw herring.

• Punching method. Another way to peel salted herring, but it doesn’t completely remove the seeds. Gut the carcass, cut off the fins and remove the skin. After this, wash the herring and make an incision on the back. Hold the fish in your hands so that 4 fingers are inside and the thumb is on the dorsal cut.

The task is to squeeze your fingers, making squeezing movements, and thereby separate the meat from the ridge. First, in this way, separate one half of the fillet, and then the second. This cleaning option is ideal if the herring is fresh and well defrosted.

• A simple way to clean herring. The thumb should be placed in the prepared carcass, where the dorsal fin was located, approximately 2-3 cm deep. To clean properly, move your finger in the direction of the tail, which will separate the carcass into halves. When one part is separated, it remains to release the second half of the fillet. Using tweezers, remove the bones and use the resulting clean meat for its intended purpose.

Now you know how to properly clean herring at home. Use the options provided to find the most suitable option for you.

The question of how to properly clean herring arises for every housewife on the eve of big celebrations. And this is especially true on the eve of the New Year holidays.

It is quite difficult to imagine a feast without herring and dishes made from it. It can be served in absolutely different forms - as an independent snack, part of a sandwich, or included in a sandwich mass.

Of course, the most popular dish on all tables is the “fur coat”, under which the fish is hidden.

Herring has not lost its popularity for several decades, but surprisingly, not everyone knows how to serve it correctly and it is not even always possible to clean it correctly.

For each of the above mentioned dishes, it is cut differently. We'll discuss this further.

But the main feature that unites them all is that the herring must be pitted. Many housewives do not know this and serve fish unpeeled.

How not to make a mistake with your choice

Before you start cutting the fish, you need to purchase it. The success of the finished dish will depend on the quality of the product. The herring offered for sale comes in two types:

1. Pickled
2. Smoked

When choosing any of them, you should pay attention to the shelf life and general condition of the product. The first thing to consider is the gills.

In pickled herring, their condition can be determined by their color.

If they are dark red in color and do not crumble, this product is suitable for consumption, but if you find light crumbling organs under the gill capsules, you should not risk purchasing such herring.

In the case of smoked meat, it is difficult to determine the color, so pay attention to the condition of the boxes themselves. They should fit snugly.

If there is a significant visible gap at the place where they fit, you should doubt the quality of this product. Often, especially in the case of smoked herring, sellers offer the fish without a head.

It’s worth noting right away that this is an initially dubious purchase, since it is the main indicator of freshness. If you still intend to buy it, pay attention to the color - it should be uniform.

On the body, regardless of the method of preparation and processing, there should be no stains. Elasticity plays an important role.

If pressing with a finger does not leave a mark on the carcass, then there is a possibility that this product is of high quality.

Buying low-quality, expired fish can cause food poisoning and the entry of dangerous bacteria into the body, such as E. coli or botulism.

To buy quality products, do it in trusted places and pay attention to creating the right conditions for its storage.

If you are confident in the quality of the purchased products, you can start cutting them.

Preparing the tool

When cleaning herring, regardless of the purpose of its further use, we need to obtain high-quality fillets.

This variety differs from others in its structure. It has almost no small seeds. Therefore, getting a finished product from a whole fish will not be so difficult.

Before you begin to properly clean the herring, you need to prepare your tools.

The most common problem that housewives find difficult to deal with is how to rid the cutting board of its smell after cutting fish.

If you carefully prepare it before work, then such problems can be avoided.

One common technique for neutralizing fishy odor on a cutting board is to use lemon juice.

Just take a lemon and wipe the surface with it before you start working. But this method has two main disadvantages.

Firstly, I want to use lemon for more useful purposes, for example, add it to tea. And the acid from its juice, which can feed the finished product, is not always appropriate.

Therefore, you can use a simpler technique and wrap the board with several layers of cling film or parchment paper.

You will also need a knife. It should have a very sharp blade, which will allow you to quickly and easily get rid of fins and other unnecessary elements.

Having prepared all the necessary tools, we get to work. It consists of two stages:

1. Cleaning the entrails
2. Bone Extraction

This work can be carried out using several methods. But before you start, take advice from experts. Before cutting, take another whole fish by the head and hit it several times on the table surface. Then the bones will separate better.

Getting rid of the entrails

The most common method of cleaning herring involves the following algorithm:

1. Place the fish on a cutting surface.
2. Holding it by the body, cut off the head and tail.
3. Cut out the lower and upper fins with the tip of a knife.
4. Insert the tip of the knife from the side of the neck inward and cut the abdomen.
5. Use your fingers to pick out the innards.
6. Open the fish and use a knife to remove the black film, which can become a source of bitterness.
7. Using this method, do not deepen the knife too much so as not to damage the internal organs, in particular the gallbladder, which may subsequently negatively affect the taste.

The second one may seem more difficult, but in fact it gives the opportunity to get better results. It provides for the following actions:

1. Place the herring on a cutting board.
2. Holding her by the body, make a section on the neck so that the tip of the knife cuts the cervical vertebrae.
3. Next, we make shallow cuts to cut off the head from the body, but not separate the insides from it.
4. We make a section at the end of the abdomen.
5. We separate the head, behind which the insides should come out.
6. We cut the belly and remove the black film with a knife.
7. Such actions will reduce the risk of damage to internal organs, which, as mentioned above, can significantly worsen the taste.

The seized entrails are classified as waste. But if you come across a female and find caviar inside, you can also make an excellent snack from it. Butter the bread. Peel the caviar from the film, removing the grains themselves, and place them on the sandwich.

Removing the bones

To extract bones, each housewife has her own secrets. Let's look at a few of the most popular ones.

To clean herring from bones step by step, follow these steps in the first way:

1. Place the prepared fish on the board.
2. In the lower part of the abdomen from the neck to the tail, cut strips of meat approximately half a centimeter wide; they contain small bones that cannot be removed.
3. Make a cut along the ridge to the depth of the ribs so as not to damage them.
4. Make cuts along the tail.
5. With your hands, grab the top of the half and pull in the direction of the growth of the abdomen.
6. Turn over and do the same with the other half.
7. Don't forget to remove the skin from each half. To do this, cut it at the neck, grab the edge with your hand and pull it towards the tail.

The second method is called extrusion. Using it you need to perform the following algorithm:

1. Make a cut at the bottom of the tail.
2. Open the fish along the belly like a book and place the inside on a cutting board.
3. Use your hand to press it along the spine, pushing the vertebrae out of the meat.
4. Grasp the ridge separated from the meat and pull it from the neck to the tail.
5. Don't forget to get rid of the skin. To do this, make cuts where the ridge passed and remove the fillet with your hand.

A big mistake housewives make is using meat with the skin. This is how rolls with Korean carrots, seaweed or other fillings are prepared from incompletely cut products.

They certainly turn out tasty, but they are not served in the most convenient way.

Since guests, instead of eating the snack, need to disassemble it and get rid of the skin themselves.

If you cook them from pure meat, it will be more tasty and convenient to serve as a snack.

Let's consider what else can be prepared from peeled herring

Most popular serving methods

• Herring is served on the table as an independent appetizer. To do this, the prepared fillet is cut into pieces about 2 cm wide and placed on a plate overlapping each other, creating a pigtail effect. To enhance the taste, sprinkle chopped pickled onions on top.
• Today it is difficult to imagine a festive table without a “fur coat”. Each housewife has her own secrets of preparing it. In recent years, a common life hack has been to design it in the form of a roll. Or you can decorate the finished salad with a mesh of carrots, creating the effect of scales.
• We have already mentioned fillet rolls above. You can also use it to decorate sandwiches. But in this case, it is better to use not just fillet, but to prepare mincemeat from it. Cut one part into small cubes measuring 0.5 by 0.5 cm, and pass the second through a meat grinder with the addition of boiled eggs, baked apple and butter. Mix all this with chopped pieces and you get an excellent mass for sandwiches. Its taste is especially good with black bread.

This is not a complete list of ways to serve such a popular product.

By using this product wisely, you can surprise your household and guests with new and delicious holiday dishes every time.

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

Often at the table many people refuse herring, despite its merits and taste. The reason for this is the abundance of bones in fish. But having chosen for yourself an acceptable way to clean the herring quickly and easily, you will be able to enjoy it more often and not be in quiet horror before preparing the “Herring under a fur coat” salad.

The following culinary tools are used to clean herring from bones: a sharp knife, kitchen scissors and a cutting board. Below are step-by-step technologies for different options for cleaning fish from bones that will help any housewife cope with the task.

Classic cleaning method

This is a proven way to get beautiful and neat herring fillets. To do this, it will be enough to use a sharp knife and a cutting board.

Preparing the carcass and cleaning it is carried out as follows:

1. Cut the spine at the base of the fish's head. Gently and slowly pull your head towards you. It will easily separate from the carcass and most of the entrails will follow it.
2. Using a sharp knife, rip open the belly and remove the milk or eggs with caviar.
3. Using the same knife, scrape off the black film and entrails that could not be pulled out along with the head.
4. Next, remove the fins (ventral, anal and spinal). Cut off the tail.
5. Make a longitudinal cut along the ridge almost to the bones, cutting through the skin and meat. Carefully remove the skin so as not to damage the fillet.
6. Turning the carcass with its belly towards you, feel the ridge and, without sudden movements, separate it first from one part of the fillet, and then from the other.
7. Inspect the two resulting halves of the herring fillet and, if there are bones left in it, remove them.

A simple method from Grandma Emma

A former school teacher, and now a famous Russian-speaking culinary blogger from Germany, advises deboning herring in this way:

1. Using kitchen scissors, cut off the head and tail of the fish. Make a longitudinal cut along the back and cut off the belly.
2. Remove all the insides and remove the skin from head to tail.
3. Moving along the ridge, separate the meat from the bones using your thumbs. If bones remain, they can be removed using tweezers. The herring fillet is ready.

Simple and fast way using a plastic bag

It often happens that the fillet just doesn’t want to separate from the bones. In this case, a method using a regular plastic bag will come to the rescue.

The flow of work in this case will be as follows:

1. Make a longitudinal cut along the belly of the herring. Gut all the insides, remove dark films from the inner walls of the abdomen.
2. Place the fish in a bag and pound it with the wide side of a kitchen knife. Beat without fanaticism, but it should not be simple pats.
3. Remove the herring from the bag. Cut off the head and tail, remove all fins and easily separate the backbone and bones from the meat.
4. Lastly, remove the skin, so the fillet will retain a more accurate shape.

Removing the fillet from the tail

In previous methods, the fillet was not separated from the bones, but the bones were pulled away from the meat, but perhaps it will be easier for someone to do it the other way around.

In this case you need:

1. Prepare the herring carcass. It should be left without entrails, fins, head and skin. It's better to leave the tail. Rinse the carcass under running water and dry with paper towels.
2. Place the prepared herring on a cutting board. At the base of the tail, use a knife to cut and separate a small piece of fillet.
3. Then, with one hand, press the backbone by the tail against the board, and with the other hand, pull the meat away from the bones until the fillet is completely removed.
4. Repeat the same procedure with the other half of the fillet.

Punching method

This cleaning method does not require a knife or scissors. The entire process of separating bones is done by hand. But pressing has a disadvantage: a lot of bones will remain in the meat. They will then need to be removed with tweezers or your hands.

How to clean herring by pressing:

1. Rinse the gutted herring without entrails, fins and skin in running water.
2. Take the carcass in your hand so that your thumb is on top of the back and all the rest are inside. Next, squeezing your fingers and using squeezing movements, separate the meat from the bones. First one half, and then the other. The fresher the fish, the easier it will be to clean it.

How to clean herring from bones in one motion?

Does it seem like something fantastic to receive salted herring fillets with absolutely no bones at lightning speed? But this is not as difficult as it seems at first glance, although it will require some sleight of hand and dexterity.

Before making this same movement, you need to gut the fish, cut off the fins, separate the head from the carcass and remove the skin.

If everything was done correctly, then in one hand there will be half a clean fillet with a small piece of the caudal fin, and in the other hand there will be a fillet with bones. You need to cut off the rest of the tail from the first half, and separate the ridge with bones from the second.

This quick method has one drawback - there is a high probability of getting an unattractive, perhaps even torn fillet. If aesthetics are not important, for example, the fish will be used in a salad, then this method can be safely used.

How to get rid of small bones?

After you managed to quickly clean the herring, the question still remains open: what to do with the small bones? As a rule, there are no small bones in purchased fillets. They are soaked and dissolved during the process of salting and ripening with citric acid.

When buying a whole salted fish, all the bones are safe and sound, so after removing the backbone and large bones, you should deal with the small ones so that no tiny bone ends up across the throat.

Regular tweezers will help remove small bones from meat fibers. It is important to remember that in the area of ​​the ridge the bones are very deep. Therefore, visible bones are removed first, and after that everything that can be felt with your fingers.