In everyday cooking, handling fresh fish is often a love-hate affair. Especially in the face of the complicated work of scraping fish scales, it often feels time-consuming and laborious. But with the right methods and techniques, scraping fish scales can also be easy and make kitchen life more fun and efficient. Below, let's reveal the secrets of how to easily scrape off fish scales.
First of all, make sure that the worktop is clean and tidy, and have a special scale scraper or sharp kitchen knife, as well as a large basin or newspaper that can catch the scales. Placing the fish on the board and holding the fish body with your hand to keep it stable is the prerequisite for safe and efficient scaling.
Scraping from the tail of the fish in the direction of the head is a scientific method that follows the law of scale growth. Keep the scale scraper at an angle of about 30 degrees to the body of the fish, scrape it with moderate force and evenly downward, and do not use too much force to avoid injuring the fish. After each row of scales, rinse the knife face with water to reduce adhesion.
For areas that are difficult to clean, such as the tiny scales under the belly of the fish, a brush can be used to assist in removal. In addition, there are specially designed electric fish scale removers on the market, which can quickly and thoroughly scrape fish scales with just one button start, which greatly improves work efficiency.
After scraping off the scales, don't forget to check for any remaining scales near the gills and on the inside of the belly, and also pay attention to whether the inside of the fins is cleaned. After washing, rinse the fish repeatedly with clean water until the water is clear and free of scales.
Choose live fish for cooking, the scales are easier to scrape.
Before scraping the scales, you can put the fish in the refrigerator for a period of time, as the fish will become stiffer at low temperatures, and the scales will be easier to scrape off.
For some species that are particularly difficult to scrape, soak the fish in salted water for 10 minutes before scraping the scales, as the salt can help soften the scales and make the scraping process smoother.
Scraping fish scales is not as difficult as you think, as long as you master the right tools and techniques, you can easily complete this task, so that you can enjoy the food while experiencing the joy of cooking. From now on, you don't have to worry about scraping fish scales, but you can do it quickly in just a few minutes, and you can get into the more extensive cooking process.