How to clean carp?

Each of us faced the problem of cleaning fresh fish. When a fish appears in the house, in our case it will be a freshwater-lake, grown in artificial reservoirs for industrial purposes, a very useful carp fish. There are several types of this delicious fish - from mirror carp, which has practically no scales, to ordinary freshwater carp, before which we encounter a problem, how to clean carp?

Carp is a special fish with small scales and requires delicate cleaning of the protective layer. We will now consider several options for cleaning carp.

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Where to begin?

Take the carp and wash it thoroughly under high pressure - this will give you the opportunity to completely wash away all the dirt and accumulated mucus from it.

If your carp is not bought at a market or in a store, but caught in a pond with some fishing tackle, then you still need to remove the bait from its mouth. Carp is not finicky fish and is caught not only on corn or peas, but also on worms and maggots. Accordingly, you are unlikely to like it if in a finished dish you find such a surprise.

To do this, you just need to substitute it with an open mouth under a large pressure of water, under the pressure of which everything unnecessary is washed off, or resort to using some kind of hook. Please note that this procedure is needed if you are going to cook the whole carp and not cut off his head.

After you washed off the dirt and cleaned the carp’s oral cavity from bait, you can proceed to the main stage of cleaning the carp.

Important! Even if you decide to cook carp without a head, in no case do not rush to cut off his head before cleaning, as during the cleaning process it will be inconvenient for you to hold it and the carcass will slip out.

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How to clean carp? - Quick and easy ways

The carp cleaning procedure is actually not very complicated, unlike predatory river and marine fish species. Consider several options for cleaning carp.

Option 1

To clean the carp, we need a cutting board and a sharp knife:

1. Pre-cleaned of dirt and mucus carp lay on a cutting board.
2. Since carp scales are small, they will scatter in different directions from cleaning. To avoid this, you can put the fish in a large container - a bucket, a basin, a sink, or put the carp in a plastic bag and clean it in the middle.
3. Starting from the tail, with short sharp movements, prying off the scales, we move to the head.
4. In order for the fish not to slide on the board, it is worthwhile to attach a little effort to the knife and, in order to avoid slipping it out of your hands, hold the carp by its gills.
5. First we completely clean one side from the tail to the head, then the other, and only after that go to the cutting of the abdominal cavity, after washing the carp from the scales, so that it does not fall into the middle of the fish.

Important! Very strongly do not press the knife to the fish, as you can damage the carcass itself. A rupture of the abdominal cavity is possible, which complicates its further cleaning.

Option 2

In order to clean the carp without resorting to using all sorts of improvised means in the form of basins, pots, it is enough to place it in boiled water for 45-60 seconds (depending on the size of the fish). Do not keep the carcass in the water longer than this time, otherwise - you will get it already cooked and you will not be able to cook your favorite dish from it.

Important! After the procedure, carp scales will become soft and docile for further machining. It will be easy for you to clean the scales, which will no longer scatter to the sides under a small pressure of water.

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Carp Abdominal Cleaning

We examined two options for cleaning carp from scales, and now let's move on to cutting the abdominal cavity of your fish. For this:

1. Again, lay the carcass on a cutting board, pre-lubricating it with lemon juice. Lemon juice will protect your board from the corrosive smell of fish. You can also say hands with juice or wear protective gloves.
2. Take a sharp knife and make two small transverse incisions - near the head and at the end of the abdominal cavity closer to the tail, and make a longitudinal large incision from head to tail ripping open the belly of the carcass.
3. Carefully remove the liver and gall bladder so that it does not tear. If you did not succeed in doing this carefully, rub the places where the bile got into with salt or cut them out.
4. Then remove all remaining entrails and rinse with water.

Important! So that the fish does not slip out of the hands, you need to rub with salt and periodically dip your fingers into the salt.

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Final cleaning step

We only need to remove the unnecessary fish fins. We do it like this:

1. The upper fin is removed using two lateral longitudinal cuts.
2. Side fins can not be cut, but simply pulled out.
3. We remove the lower back fin in the same way as the upper one, only make deeper cuts, since the fin itself is deep in the tail of the fish and is the driving mechanism.

It remains only if the fish is cooked whole, cut with the knife gills and eyes. Here we looked at ways to clean carp. Now, if you have not yet figured out how to cook it, we offer some simple recipes so that you get a delicious dish for everyday home dinner or a festive table.

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Interesting recipes

There are many different recipes on how to cook carp and any other fish. You can find them in special cookbooks, on the Internet. Based on your own skills, imagination and the availability of free time, you can cook absolutely any of the dishes offered to you. In order to simplify your task not only of how to clean carp, but also to cook it, we have selected several options that are interesting in our opinion. We hope you decide to put them into practice.

Baked carp with vegetables

Baked fish with vegetables is not only delicious, but also a diet dish. And cooking it will not take much of your time and will not require significant cash costs, since most of the products you will most likely find in your refrigerator.

Products:

• 1 carp.
• 100 grams of smoked bacon.
• 250 ml of sour cream.
• 3-4 bell peppers.
• 7-8 pcs of potatoes.
• 3 onions.
• 3-4 tomatoes.
• 100 grams of butter.
• Red ground pepper.
• Flour.
• Salt.

Cooking method:

1. Cut the carp along the ribs into pieces and stuff the rib part with fat.
2. Rub with pepper and salt.
3. Cut the potatoes into small pieces and cook until cooked.
4. After - in a hot frying pan greased with oil, spread the potatoes and lay the fish on top. At the end - a layer of tomatoes, peppers and onions.
5. Pour all this with melted butter and bake in the oven at a temperature of 220-250 degrees until cooked, at the end pour plenty of flour with mixed flour and sour cream.

Carp Jell

Jellied is an amazingly delicate and beautiful dish, if cooked correctly. And to do this is very easy if you stick to the following recipe.

Products:

• Carp 0.6 kg
• 1 Lemon
• Onion-50 gr.
• Gelatin -20 gr.
• Parsley, celery.
• Black pepper - 5 peas.
• Clove-3 buds.
• Bay leaf - 1 pc.
• Fish broth - 0.5 l.
• Vinegar - 200 ml.
• Greens, salt.
  

Cooking method:

1. Slices of carp lay on a plate upside down, pour boiling vinegar.
2. Cut the roots of celery and parsley into small pieces.Cook with the addition of bay leaf and cloves over low heat for 10-15 minutes.
3. In the resulting broth, lower the carp, cook another 15-20 minutes.
4. Soak gelatin in cold water. When the grains become transparent, you need to drain the excess water and combine the gelatin with the broth.
5. Boil all this, strain, cool.
6. Separate the fish fillet from the bone, put in a mold.
7. Pour jelly, let cool, freeze.

Important! When serving, you can arrange the slices of lemon and herbs.

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Good to know about fish:

• Sea fish is rich in selenium, which contributes to the formation of antiviral cells and strengthens the immune system.
• For steaming fish, do not take the finished fillet. It has fewer nutrients, and during processing it breaks down into fibers.
• Trout is rich in vitamins A, E, B, D, amino acids. Its use prevents the formation of cholesterol plaques on the walls of blood vessels. Fish is also recommended for people with a nervous system disorder.
• Salmon meat contains rare docosahexaenoic acid, which the human body cannot synthesize on its own, therefore it must receive it from the outside. This acid helps improve memory.
• The meat of sea fish is especially recommended for people suffering from various types of ailments of the stomach and liver.
• The fish contains all the beneficial substances, minerals. It is difficult to find any other product in which such an amount would contain calcium, phosphorus, sulfur, magnesium, iron, iodine.
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We hope that from this article you received the necessary information on how to clean carp and cook it and were able to cope with the idea of ​​cooking without much hassle.