What is the best way to clean perch from scales in nature and at home – what modern devices to buy in order to simply and cleanly remove scales from fish. Perch lives almost everywhere in the European part of Russia and is a favorite object of fishing for many anglers. This fish leads a predatory lifestyle, but also feeds on aquatic invertebrates, so it can be caught both with artificial baits and natural ones – worm, maggot, live bait. Perch meat is tasty and healthy, there are few bones in it. The only drawback of the “striped robber” is the scales that cover his body with a dense shell. However, there are several ways to solve this problem.
Cleaning fresh perch at home
There are several answers to the question of how to clean river perch from scales quickly at home. They depend on the size of the fish and the available arsenal of improvised tools.
Cleaning fish scales with a fish scaler
The fish scaler is the most convenient tool for cleaning this fish. There are several modifications of this kitchen appliance and you can choose the most suitable for specific conditions. The fish scaler must meet the following requirements:
- easy to clean the scales;
- do not clog with scales too quickly;
- the scales should, if possible, linger inside or outside the fish scaler, and not scatter in all directions.
Attention! It is best to clean the perch in thick rubber household gloves. So it will not slip out of the hands, and the rays of the fins and the fish scaler will not hurt the skin of the hands. For greater convenience, it is advisable to cut the dorsal, pectoral and ventral fins with scissors before cleaning.
After the perch is cleaned of scales, it must be gutted, and then the carcass should be washed with cold water. We recommend buying a fish scaler with a built-in container and a knife for opening the belly of the fish. This option for cleaning perch and other fish at home is ideal – the kitchen is clean, the hands are whole, the fish is perfectly cleaned. For example, this one:
What other advantages do modern fish scalers have and how to buy a quality product:
Knife cleaning
It is quite difficult to scale a perch with a regular kitchen knife, but there are knives with a saw blade on the market that are much easier to clean.
With pre-boiling water
If a fresh perch is dipped in boiling water for a few seconds, the scales peel off much easier. True, the skin will not be so tasty when frying.
Healthy! So that the scales do not scatter around, the fish can be cleaned in a basin of water.
Removing the skin from the perch along with the scales
This method is used by many anglers when it is necessary to resolve the issue of how to quickly clean the perch from scales. It may not be cleaned at all. Usually this method is resorted to when you need to quickly process a lot of caught fish. It is best to skin perches weighing 200-400 grams. It is impractical to mess around with smaller ones, and it is more difficult to remove it from larger ones. This operation is done like this:
- Make transverse incisions behind the head in front of the dorsal fin.
- Make a longitudinal incision along the spine.
- Insert the thumb under the spine and remove the skin with a stocking.
As a result, the perch carcass remains in the hand, and the insides are removed along with the skin. In this case, caviar or milk remains inside the fish.
as possible is simple :
Cleaning ice cream perch at home
It often happens that the angler catches more fish than he can eat at once. Excess can be smoked or withered if conditions are right for this. Otherwise, the fish has to be frozen. In winter, a frozen catch is often brought home.
Interesting fact! Fish frozen while fishing does not lose its taste. If you clean it immediately after defrosting (required in the refrigerator, and not warm), it will not yield to the taste of freshly caught. Fish stored in the freezer for a long time becomes less tasty, unless vacuum freezing is used.
How to clean a perch from scales if it is frozen? The main thing here is to catch the moment when the fish thaws on the outside, but remains solid. In this rather short period, the scales from the predator are peeled off quite easily. Then, however, you will have to wait until the final defrosting, since gutting a frozen perch is not very pleasant, and you can’t fry it while it’s frozen.
Cleaning small perch at home
In many reservoirs, there are two populations of perch – coastal and conditionally deep. They lead different lifestyles and differ in their appearance. Coastal “sailors” usually have a runaway body shape. They rarely reach a weight of more than 100 grams. Deep perches can grow to gigantic size – the record specimen weighed more than five kilograms. But even a half-kilogram perch is considered a worthy trophy. Humpbacks are usually brightly colored and well-fed.
Important! The larger the perch, the more difficult it is to clean. Large fish from relatively small water bodies have a more powerful scaly shell than the same fish from large water bodies.
You can catch an incredible amount of small perch in some reservoirs. For example, at one of the St. Petersburg winter lure championships, the winner caught 600 fish with an average weight of 20 grams in six hours. If you think about how to clean the river perch from scales, if it is so small, then the only correct answer will come to mind – no way. You can cook fish soup from such fish, and it doesn’t even have to be gutted. Okushki do not give bitterness, like white fish. You can cook both double and triple rich fish soup, and give boiled fish to cats. 3 more ways to clean a perch quickly and without dirt – video instruction: https://youtu.be/EZ_TR-yduX8
Sea bass cleaning
The marine relative of the freshwater perch, although not very similar to it, in terms of scales is the exact same fish. The only difference is that few domestic fishermen manage to catch this fish and, accordingly, eat it fresh. Therefore, sea bass usually gets into the kitchen already ice cream.
Perch cleaning in the field
It is much more convenient to clean caught perches on the shore of a reservoir, primarily because you do not need to think about flying scales. Here you can also wash the fish. The waste remaining after cleaning should not be taken care of – birds and mammals will eat them.
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