How To Clean A Fish

Advantages and Disadvantages of Preparing Fish At Home

Let’s talk about why clean a fish. Most of the times we buy our fish from the fish monger.

And in general they are gutted, entrails cleaned and finely cut into different shapes and sizes, which is quite fine and common.

We also get the same services in big chain store as well where they have a fresh fish counter. But sometimes they don’t clean fish. So how do you cope with that? Will you not buy that delicious fish because you don’t know how to clean a fish at home.

My personal Dislikes

Sorry to say, but I cannot eat a fish which has scales still stuck on their skin. Being from Bangladesh, we traditionally cook in the Bengali style (Bengali Recipes) and that means the fish is sometimes cooked in a lot of sauce. In the cooking process, the fish could lose some of its scales and get mixed in the sauce.

Oooh! You can’t imagine the horrible feeling I get when I get one of those scales in my mouth. Yes I know I am one of those fussy people. So are you like me? May be not!

Sometimes, the fish monger will not clean the scales properly and I have to clean them at home myself again. It can be very difficult to clean scales when they are cut into pieces.

I prefer to clean the fish myself at home. I have learned to clean a fish when I was very young. Being the eldest son in the family, I had to do most of the laborious work.

Ha-ha! Just joking but yes it is true that I learned how to clean fish very young. If I may recall then it was around the age of 10 (I think). I loved being in the kitchen with my mom. Who would have thought a boy could have such a passion!

Some Fish Facts

The fish is very delicate and if not properly cleaned then it can produce bacteria. When we buy prepared fish from a fish monger, it is difficult to say when the fish was actually cleaned. More the fish is exposed to the outside environment, more it can get attracted to bacteria. A whole fish has fewer possibility of catching such bacteria.

There are a few advantages and disadvantages, but I love the do it yourself (DIY) style.

Advantages of Cleaning a Fish Yourself at Home

• There is a self satisfaction that every part of the fish is properly cleaned and prepared.
• It is cheaper to buy a whole fish and clean it yourself because the fish monger will add a service charge for cleaning and preparing your fish.See it for yourself. Compare the price of a whole fish untouched and a fillet or a steak of that same fish. You will be surprised. The price difference can be double.
• If it is a big fish you can cut it into different size, shapes (steaks or fillets) and also store it in the freezer.

Disadvantages of Cleaning a Fish Yourself at Home

• It can be very time consuming
• It can be a dirty work to do, messing up your lovely hands
• Don’t know how to do it
• Fishes have a smell many cannot support.

Are You Still With Me

So after reading this article, are you still with me. Would you like to take the risk and learn how to clean a fish? If you are courageous then click on the link below and let me show you how you can also enjoy and get pleasure from preparing the fish yourself.

How to clean fish