Cleaning a Whole Fish

Appears in
top 1000The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking
The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking

By Barbara Tropp

Published 1982

  • About
Many people assume that when a competent fishmonger has gutted, degilled, and scaled a fish, that’s all there is to it. Not so! If you have bought a fresh whole fish at the market, you must take some time and special care to clean it fully, and here’s how.

Begin with the inside of the fish. Look in the head region, and if you see any red remnants of gills then snip them free with scissors and discard them. Look next in the cavity and pull out any loose membranes, tissues, or bloody clots. If there is a smooth, rather tough membrane covering the backbone, either hiding it from view or clinging in a torn sheet to either side of it, then pull or cut it free. This is the air bladder, and it may have been left inflated or burst, but the job is to remove it, for if it bursts during cooking the fish may taste polluted. Once the backbone is exposed, clean it fully of any blood, using the tines of a fork to dislodge any stubborn clots.