Cleaning and cutting carp is a simple process, although unpleasant. But once you've turned a "fresh catch" into a culinary delight that will delight your family, you won't have to worry about the scales, blood, and offal in the process of working on a dish of very healthy and incredibly tasty fish.

Features and value of carp

Carp is an artificially bred variety of fish, the progenitor of which is carp. The word "carp" came from the Greek language and is translated as a fruit. And for good reason: one female gives up to 1.5 million eggs. The Chinese were the first to breed domesticated carp. Historians believe that this fish began to be used as food as early as 1000 BC. e. Carp dishes became a favorite treat for Chinese emperors. Later, fish began to be bred in other countries of Asia and Europe.

Carp meat has great benefits for the body. It is very soft and sweet in taste. The fat content of fish muscle tissue is lower than that of lean beef, which is important for people on a low-fat diet, as well as for children and athletes. Carp is a source of many important nutrients, proteins and omega-3 fatty acids. These unsaturated acids have a positive effect on cardiac function and contribute to the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Another feature of carp is its easy digestibility, due to the special structure of muscle fibers.

It takes three or four years to grow carp in artificial reservoirs. Three-year-old individuals reach a weight of about 2 kg, and four-year-olds weigh more than 2.5 kg.

Carp is a domesticated form of carp

Carp varieties - gallery

Naked carp have absolutely no scales. A feature of the mirror carp is the location of large shiny scales along the back The body of the common carp is completely covered with medium-sized scales.

1. Fresh carp are easier to clean. If you buy fish from a store or market, try to get them from the aquarium. You can kill it with a strong blow to the head at a point slightly above eye level, or simply by cutting off the head (if you are not going to bake the whole carp). There is a more humane way to kill fish - put it in the freezer for an hour, and it will fall asleep.
2. If you do not have the opportunity to buy live fish, it is better to choose fresh chilled fish, since frozen fish loses a large amount of minerals when thawed. When buying fresh fish, choose a copy with a head. Only in this way can you be sure of its freshness.
3. Before buying, look into the eyes of the fish: in fresh ones, they should be bright, slightly moist and bulging.
4. Be sure to inspect the gills and look for one with clear, bright red gills.
5. The body of a fresh fish is quite elastic, without white coating and dried crusts, and the tail should hang freely from the palm of your hand.
6. When buying frozen carp, pay attention to its glaze. If the fish has been properly frozen and stored under all necessary conditions, the glaze on it should be even, without the presence of cracks. If the carp was frozen using dry freezing, then the carcass should be smooth and firm, without the presence of ice.

It is best to thaw frozen fish in room temperature water. To reduce the loss of minerals during thawing, add table salt to the water (7-10 g per 1 liter of water).

The eyes of fresh fish should be bulging and slightly moist, and the carcass should be elastic, without white bloom and dried crusts.

Cleaning and cutting carp

Currently, a huge number of recipes for cooking carp have been invented. It is baked with a side dish of vegetables, potatoes and cereals, as well as boiled with spices, stuffed in various ways and simply fried in vegetable oil until crispy. On the shelves of stores you can find gutted frozen fish, fillets and ready-made semi-finished products. But you will get the most benefit from fresh or live carp. Do not be afraid of the upcoming hassle with cutting fish. Having mastered a few simple rules, you can easily turn a live carp into a culinary masterpiece.

Most often on sale there is an ordinary and mirror carp. The latter is a little easier to clean, due to the fact that its scales are large and not very tightly pressed against each other. With an ordinary carp, you will have to tinker longer.

What you need to work

For proper and easy cleaning and cutting of fish, you will need tools:

• sharp knife for cutting fish;
• fish scissors;
• scraper for cleaning fish, you can use a spoon.

To facilitate the process of cleaning and cutting carp, purchase the necessary tools: a - a sharp knife, b - scissors, c - scrapers

You also need to prepare:

• a plastic bag or bucket for bones and other debris;
• thick paper or newspaper;
• work gloves.

Step-by-step instructions for cleaning, gutting, cutting carp

1. Cover the table with thick paper or newspaper. The paper will absorb the liquid that the fish will release during cutting, and prevent contamination of the workplace. Some housewives prefer to clean and butcher the fish right in the sink, after closing the drain with a special silicone or metal mesh.
   

   

   Some housewives clean and butcher fish in the sink

2. Put on work gloves.
   

   

   To prevent the fish from slipping out of your hands, put on work gloves

3. If you don't need the fins for cooking, cut them off with kitchen scissors. This will help to avoid painful punctures during work.
4. Press the fish in the area of ​​​​the head or tail and with a scraper, and if it is not available with a knife or spoon, remove the scales first diagonally from the abdomen to the back, and only then from the tail to the head. The movements should be short, try to get under the scales, pushing them up. Don't worry if there are some scales left on the fish. Of course, it is tasteless, but it will not harm your health.
   

   

   Remove scales with a scraper

5. To remove the whole skin, from the side of the belly, cut it around the gills to the vertebral bone, break the bone upwards. Carefully remove the offal from the belly through the incision. Then draw the tip of the knife under the skin and begin to remove it with a stocking, separating the skin from the carcass with your fingers. When you get to the fins, cut them off from the inside with sharp scissors. Before reaching 1.5-2 cm to the caudal fin, cut the tail from the inside.
6. If skinning is not required, then make a shallow incision in the lower part of the carcass near the fin and cut it along the belly, stopping at the base of the head. Take out the insides, being careful not to crush the gallbladder, otherwise the meat of the fish will become bitter. If you failed to keep the gallbladder intact, and the bile spilled onto the carcass, immediately rub it from the inside with salt, and then rinse with cool water.
   

   

   Cut the carcass along the belly and remove the insides

7. Remove the brown film inside the abdomen and, depending on the method of preparation of the future dish, remove or leave the head. This part of the carp is considered very tasty, so it should be left. If you leave the head, take out the gills and eyes.

   

   Remove the head or remove the gills from it

8. If you want to get rid of numerous small bones, then remove the dorsal fin by pulling it from the tail to the head of the fish.
9. Rinse the fish thoroughly with running cool water from the inside and outside.

How to skin a whole carp - gallery

From the side of the abdomen, a transverse incision is made along the head to the vertebral bone After an incision is made under the skin, you can begin to remove the skin with a stocking The head of the carp must remain on the skin. To remove the skin entirely, the tail and fins of the carp are cut off with a sharp knife from the inside.

How to fillet fish

When cutting carp into fillets, you need to separate the meat from its inedible parts: skin, spine, bones. To do this, it is not necessary to first gut and clean the fish from scales.

1. With a sharp fillet knife, make an incision along the gills of the fish to the spine, but do not cut through it.

   

   To fillet carp, you need to make an incision along the gills of the fish

2. Using the sharp end of a knife, make an incision from the side of the dorsal fin along the vertebrae up towards the head. Lead him until he connects with the original one.

   

Carp in our country is a fairly common fish, it has been tried and loved by many, because it is a tasty and versatile fish, from which you can cook a lot of wonderful dishes. We will talk about how to cook carp and the most delicious dishes that can be made from it.

Carp has spread around the world from China, where it was bred artificially. That is, in nature, such a fish simply did not exist, and carp is an artificially bred breed of carp, brought from China to Europe in the 12th century. Today it lives in ponds and rivers around the world, and several breeds of it have been bred - scaly, mirror, framed, naked. It is not found only in the waters of South America, Madagascar and Australia.

It is very easy to buy fresh carp, as it is sold live - it tolerates transportation well even over long distances. However, not every housewife takes full advantage of this availability of this fish, and the reason for this is the most famous drawback of this fish - the abundance of small bones.

However, because of this, you should not refuse dishes from this fish - there are many ways and tricks on how to butcher carp quickly and without any problems. In addition, it is not only publicly available, but also inexpensive, has delicious juicy meat, slightly fatty, so a variety of fish dishes are prepared from it.

How to cut a carp

Having bought live fish, do not refuse the offer to clean it, but it is better to gut it yourself at home:

• First you need to remove the dorsal fin, making shallow cuts on both sides of it along its entire length, then you need to pull the fin, wrapping it with a towel so as not to cut yourself, in the direction from the tail to the head;
• Next, from the head to the tail, make an incision on the abdomen, carefully remove the liver and gallbladder (if it is torn, rub the places where the bile got into with salt or cut them out);
• Remove the rest of the insides, gills and eyes of the fish, the film covering the vertebral bone must be cut along;
• Rinse it with cold running water and then cut the fish depending on the cooking method.

How to clean carp from scales

If it is not possible to clean the carp immediately in the store, then do not despair, you can easily do it yourself. Don't let the old-fashioned methods scare you when it was cleaned with an anti-scale knife and the whole kitchen was dirty. there is a simple proven way to clean carp from scales.

1. To do this, put the fish in a deep cup and pour boiling water for 30 seconds.
2. Pour out the hot water and put the fish under a stream of cold water so that it cools and does not boil from boiling water.
3. Further, the fish can not be taken out of a cup of cold water, and placing your hands in the water, run your fingers against the scales, it will easily separate.
4. If the fish is large and the scales are very thick, it is difficult to separate, then you can once again pour boiling water for 10-20 seconds, again under cold water. Now the scales will definitely move away with ease.
5. You can also help yourself to separate the scales with a knife, but do it carefully so as not to cut the already steamed skin of the fish.

And now for the most interesting:

How to butcher a carp and get rid of small bones?

In China, in the homeland of carp, its fillet, having been cleaned of large bones, is simply ground into minced meat, and during the cooking process, the ground small bones soften and partially dissolve.

If the fish is cooked whole, then even in this case it is possible to cope with small bones: for this, before frying, stewing or baking, as well as steaming, deep cuts are made on the carcass of the fish from the back along its entire length, and they are made crosswise - the more frequent cuts you make, the more small bones will be crushed and softened during the heat treatment.

In addition, this technique allows the fish meat to be better saturated with seasonings and spices and cook faster.

The next way to cut carp into fillets will also help get rid of small bones.

How to fillet carp

• cut off the head
• along the ridge, cut the fish in half lengthwise into two halves,
• cut off the backbone, fin and small bones adjacent to it,
• cut the costal bones neatly in one layer,
• feel for a groove with sharp bones in the fillet with your fingers, step back 5 mm from them to the left and cut the fillet to the skin, holding the knife at an angle of 45 degrees,
• do the same, stepping back from those bones 5mm to the right,
• tear a strip of bones from the skin,
• also remove small bones in the tail of the fish.

As you can see, if you are willing to take the time to carp carp and remove the bones, then it is quite possible to turn a fish from a bony into a tender fillet.

The best carp dishes

There are also special recipes for cooking carp, focused on the fact that this fish has a lot of small bones, one of the most famous among such carp dishes is Chinese.

Ingredients:

• 1 fish about 1.2 kg in weight,
• corn starch,
• vegetable oil,
• handful of pine nuts,
• fresh green peas

Sauce Ingredients:

• 6 tbsp. cold water and ketchup / tomato paste,
• 2-3 tbsp Sahara,
• 1-2 tbsp rice vinegar,
• 1 cm fresh ginger root
• 1 stalk leek white part,
• 1-2 tsp corn starch,
• salt.

How to cook Chinese carp in sweet and sour sauce

Clean and gut the carp, separate the head, separate the fillet from the backbone without removing the skin from it, also remove the costal bones, but do all this so that the fillet with the skin remains attached to the tail.

Lay one fillet skin side down on the work surface, make cuts across the fillet, holding the knife at an angle, cutting to the skin, but without damaging it - this is done in the direction from the head to the tail.

Bread the head and fillet in starch, fry them separately in deep fat, heated to 190 degrees, put on a paper towel and dry.

For the sauce, dilute the tomato paste with water, mix with vinegar, salt, sugar - it should turn out sweet and sour to taste.

Heat the vegetable oil, quickly fry the finely chopped leek and ginger, add the sauce, bring everything to a boil, add starch diluted in a ratio of 1 to 1 with water and thicken the sauce by pouring 2-3 tablespoons into it. oil left in the fryer.

Put the fish with the head on a plate, pour over the sauce, sprinkle with a pot and toasted nuts.

It also turns out very tasty carp with vegetables.

Ingredients:

• 1-2 fish
• 250 ml sour cream
• 100 g smoked bacon,
• 6-7 potato tubers,
• 3 bell peppers
• 2-3 tomatoes
• 3 bulbs
• red ground pepper,
• butter,
• flour,
• salt.

How to cook carp with vegetables in the oven

Cut the fillet with rib bones and skin into portions, stuff the fish with lard, grate with pepper and salt.

Cut the potatoes into slices, boil until half cooked, put in a frying pan, greased with oil, put fish pieces on top, then chopped tomatoes, onions and peppers.

Pour everything with melted butter and bake until tender in an oven preheated to 200-220 degrees, pouring sour cream mixed with flour at the end.

Carp with vegetables in the oven is ready. Bon Appetit.

It is very simple and tasty to cook carp in wine.

Ingredients:

• 200 ml red wine
• 500 g potatoes
• 1-2 bulbs
• 1 fish
• 1 garlic clove
• pepper,
• greenery,
• salt.

How to cook carp in wine

Peel the fish, rinse, cut into medium-sized pieces, grate with pepper and salt, roll in flour, fry on both sides until browned.

Finely chop the onion, chop the garlic, put to the fish, pour in a little water and wine, pepper, close the lid and simmer until cooked. Sprinkle with herbs when serving.

Royal fried carp

Ingredients:

• 700 g fish fillet,
• 3 glasses of milk
• 2 eggs,
• 4 tbsp vegetable oil,
• 2 tbsp. flour and breadcrumbs,
• salt.

How to cook fried carp

Rinse the fillet, cut it into portions, pour milk over it and leave for half an hour.

Salt the flour, roll the fillet pieces in it, dip them immediately in a beaten egg, bread in breadcrumbs. Fry the fillet on both sides until browned for 15 minutes.

It would seem that such a name is Royal fried carp, but in fact such a simple way of cooking.

However, with regard to this fish, this often happens - after all, it is really a very tasty fish that is difficult to spoil. By learning to cope with the main problem of carp - an abundance of bones, you can cook the most mouth-watering dishes from this wonderful fish.

• To prepare carp fillets with sauce or cutlets with fillets, the rib bones are cut off, but for cutlets, as well as rolls, you can prepare the carp differently - gutting without peeling the scales, cut off the fillets on both sides, removing the skin from the scales, and the remaining bones, heads, tails and fins are used to make broth (gills must be removed).
• The fish is cooked as a whole, and cut into pieces of 100 g in weight. If pieces of carp weigh more than 500 g, they should be placed in cold water, and smaller ones should be placed in boiling water. It is believed that carp cooked in large pieces is tastier and juicier than anything else.
• When cooking fish, the water should constantly boil slightly. It is boiled as a whole with a weight of 1-1.5 kg for 50-60 minutes, in pieces of 100-150 g until cooked, 15-20 minutes of cooking is enough.
• Small carp should be cooked whole, large - in pieces, it is believed that it turns out tastier if you fry the fish with the skin on.
• Tastier fried carp will turn out if, after cleaning and washing it, then cutting it, put it in 15-20 in salted and peppered milk, after that it is breaded in flour and fried - best of all in a cast-iron pan with plenty of oil until blush and, covering cover, bring to readiness.
• Fatty carp can be stuffed with leaner pike or zander.
• It goes very well with minced meat, best of all with pork, this combination is suitable for making cutlets and meatballs, the proportions of fish and minced meat are one to one.

Useful video: How to cook carp with herbs

Author of the article "How to cook carp"

Carp is a tasty, moderately oily freshwater fish. You can cook various dishes from it, especially tasty is the fish pie. Due to the fact that the scales of this fish are very close to the body, not every housewife knows how to clean carp correctly. Because of this, the kitchen space often requires thorough cleaning after carp cutting. But knowing some secrets can avoid such consequences. It must be cleaned fresh and in three stages: preparation, removal of scales, removal of the insides.

Preparing fresh fish

Carp lives in fresh water bodies, most often this fish comes to the table from the store or as a fisherman's catch. If he was caught on bait, then the latter must be removed from the throat, this can be done by directing a jet of water there, which will wash away all the excess. And also from the head you need to remove the gills, in which bacteria begin to multiply first of all. All this is necessary if the preparation requires the presence of a head, otherwise it can simply be cut off later.

The carcass must be thoroughly washed from silt and a slimy coating that protects the scales. To do this, simply rinse the carp under running water. And also you should first cut off the fins so that they do not interfere when it comes time to clean the carp from scales. They can get hurt easily.

Removing scales

At this stage, it is most difficult to clean carp, so it is imperative to know how to properly clean the fish from scales. It is best to use a special fish cleaning tool for this. They have sharp notches that freely separate even the tightest scales. Such devices are sold in stores or can be made independently.

During cleaning, the scales scatter in different directions. To avoid this, housewives recommend cleaning in a basin of water so that the scales remain in it. Or place the fish inside the bag and put your hands there to clean inside, so all the cleaning will remain there.

Advice! To make it easier and effortless to separate the scales from the fish, it must be placed in boiling water. The time required to achieve the desired effect is no more than 1 minute, otherwise the carp will cook.

Scales from large fresh carps can be removed with a knife. To do this, put the fish on a cutting board and, pressing down the tail with sharp movements, clean the carcass. But it is in this case that the hostess gets a situation when, after she has cleaned the carp, she needs to generalize the kitchen. Therefore, the above measures should be taken.

We cut the carcass

After making sure that both sides of the carcass are thoroughly cleaned, you can start cutting it. To do this, you need to put it on a cutting board and cut the abdominal cavity. From there, the insides should be carefully removed so as not to damage the gallbladder, otherwise it will spoil the taste of the meat.

And it is also important to remove the dark film that covers the abdominal cavity from the inside. Cut off the head. After that, the fish should be thoroughly rinsed under running water. If the dish requires it, you can separate the fillet from the bone. To do this, you need to make incisions parallel to the spine, up to the ribs without damaging them. Then run a knife under the ribs to remove the pulp from them. After that, cut the fillet from the tail.

Now this process will not cause difficulties for anyone. And everyone can enjoy this delicious lake fish.

How to clean carp properly? What dishes can be prepared from it? and got the best answer

Answer from White Mouse[guru]
If he is alive, I will give him a bale of hammers for cue balls ...
Then in the same package, as if inside it, on the table, I clean it with a special fish scaler. The package perfectly protects from the husk not flying around and the fish lies comfortably on the table. I gut it, cut off the fins, tail, remove the eyes, gills and my fish
I just love fried carp! For me, this is the most delicious fish dish. It is a carp, and a big one.
It must be cut into horizontal strips. If the carp is very large. halve each slice again, salt, roll in flour and fry in a hot frying pan with oil over medium heat. If you fry on a small one, you get a more "stewed" fish. And if on average, with a ruddy and crispy crust.
Do not cover with a lid. mmmmmm...))
Source: Personal experience and personal taste

Answer from Lis[guru]
Just like any other fish. It is more convenient to clean it like this: Take water into the sink, lower the carp under water and clean it. So the scales do not scatter. Well, gut it. It is delicious to cook in the oven, smeared with spices and sour cream or mayonnaise.

Answer from Elena[guru]
whole in foil and in the oven, stuffed with onions, tomatoes (possible with rice)

Answer from Natalia Khomenko[guru]
Cooking stuffed carp is, however, a laborious process, but it turns out such a yummy!

Answer from JTV[guru]
You will need:
- Sharp knife
- board.
1
Rinse the fish thoroughly under running cold water to get rid of debris and mucus.
2
Lay the fish on the board. Holding firmly with your left hand, slowly scrape off the scales with a sharp knife in the direction from tail to head. In this case, the knife must be held in such a way that the angle of inclination is small, otherwise the scales will scatter in all directions. Do the same with the other side of the carp.
3
Now you need to open the belly. To do this, pierce the skin near the head with a sharp knife and lead to the anus. Carefully remove all the insides from the belly of the carp so as not to damage the gallbladder. Otherwise, the fish will have an unpleasant bitter taste. Remove the black film that runs inside the peritoneum.
4
Rinse the fish thoroughly under cold water to remove any remaining slime and scales.
5
If the carp is small, it can be cooked whole. In this case, you do not need to cut off the head and fins, you just need to get rid of the gills. If the carp is large enough, cut off the head, tail and fins, cut into portions. Now you can proceed directly to the preparation of fish.
Helpful Hints:
* In order to make the fish easier to clean, take the carp by the tail and lower it into boiling water for one minute, the fish will be cleaned very easily and quickly.
* So that the fish does not slip out of your hands when cleaning, rub it with salt beforehand.
* When cleaning the scales, try not to put much pressure on the belly of the fish, this is fraught with rupture of the gallbladder.
* In order for the scales not to fly in different directions when cleaning the carp, it is better to clean it under a stream of cold water.
stewed carp
Ingredients:
500 g carp fillet
1 glass of white table wine
100 g butter
half a lemon
1 st. l. flour
bay leaf, salt, ground pepper
Cooking
Salt, pepper and put a large piece of carp fillet in a small saucepan, in which 50 g of butter and wine are poured. Simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes, after which pour off the broth for the sauce. Season the broth with flour, add the rest of the butter to it and boil. Cut the fish into pieces and put on a dish, pour the sauce on top. Garnish with lemon slices and parsley. Garnish serve boiled corn on the cob" or other boiled vegetables.

Carp with vegetables
Ingredients:
500 g carp fillet
4 fresh tomatoes
1-2 small eggplants
2 pcs. onion
1 st. l. flour
1 bunch of parsley and a bunch of dill
salt pepper
Cooking
Sprinkle the fillet cut into pieces with salt, pepper, breaded in flour and fry in a pan. Separately fry the chopped tomatoes, eggplant, onion and herbs. Put the fish and vegetables in a saucepan, pour in 1 glass of fish broth and simmer over low heat for 15-20 minutes. Put the finished product on a dish. Serve boiled potatoes, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower as a side dish.

Carp with champignons
Ingredients:
700 g carp fillet
3 sweet peppers
300 g champignons
2 tomatoes
3 garlic cloves
2 tbsp. l. flour
2 tbsp. l. sunflower oil
salt pepper
Cooking
Sprinkle the fillet cut into pieces to taste with salt and pepper, breaded in flour and fry in sunflower oil. Separately, fry the chopped mushrooms with onions. Pour half a liter of salted fish broth into a small saucepan, cut sweet peppers and tomatoes into it and bring to a boil. Then put the fried pieces of fish in a saucepan, add grated garlic and simmer over low heat until tender. Put the pieces of fish on a dish and pour over the mushroom sauce in which they were stewed. Serve crumbled rice as a side dish.

Answer from Kisunya)[guru]
knife against scales from the tail
only then rip open the stomach
I bake in the oven. but carp is better) they have the same scales

Answer from JulymaNN[guru]
carp is the most bony fish in the world - and the bones are arranged randomly
when you eat such a fish you won’t relax, bones appear out of nowhere ...
take better sea bass or dorado ...

Answer from Mikhail Reshetnyak[guru]
Let's start from the beginning, it is better to take a large fish (larger bones) when buying, pay attention to the condition of the scales. it should be bright and firmly held if there are no scales in places, do not take it, you can also look at the condition of the Carp's abdomen, wash it, remove the scales, cut the abdomen and remove the intestines, if there is caviar and milk, separate and do not throw it away cut off the head (remove the gills) remove the tail, fins and cut off the tail, then remove the fillet with a sharp knife, take your time here carefully. so the head, tail and skeleton, and if there were caviar with milk, this is a set for fish soup (can be stored for 2-3 days) With this cutting of one fish, two dishes A with fillets. whatever you want, I recommend you grate with spices, give 30 mi for impregnation and in a frying pan, fried, and when the fish is ready, squeeze half a lemon and cover with a lid for 2-3 minutes, you can bake with vegetables (onion, tomato)