How to gut a fish
How to gut a fish
1. Set up a table outdoors. You won't want to clean the scales off your kitchen counter tops, sink, and walls when you are done. Try to find a table high enough to work comfortably on, that can be rinsed easily with a garden hose when you are finished. It's also a good idea to lay down some old newspaper so you can limit the damage.
2. Hold the fish by the head, and scrape the scales with a dull
knife, upside down spoon, or other suitable tool, from the tail
toward the gills. You should see scales flying off if you are using
adequate pressure. Keep the strokes of your "scaler" short and
quick, and work carefully around fins, they can prick or puncture
your skin.
3. Get all of the scales off around the pectoral and dorsal fins,
and up to the throat, or edge of the fish's gills.
4. Roll up and chuck away the newspaper. Rinse the fish, and put it down in where the newspaper where hopefully the table is relatively free of loose scales.
5. Invert the fish, so he/she is belly up. Small fish can be held in one hand, while the knife work is done with the other. Large fish will be held on their back on the table.
6. Locate the fish's anus, and cut this out in a "Vee" or notch shape. This is not absolutely necessary, but you have to ask if you want to eat "fish bum".
7. Insert your knife point into the cut where the anus was located, and draw the knife toward the head, splitting the fish to the base of the gills.
8. Spread the abdominal cavity with your fingers, and drag the entrails out.
9. Rinse the cavity out with a good stream of water from a garden hose, and wash the skin while you are at it.
10. Remove the head if you like. Trout are often cooked
with the "head on", but most fish heads are usually cut off behind
the gills.
