Fish cleaning

[Jollygoodfellow]

So l don't know much about fish but Joy bought 2 in the supermarket yesterday. Anyway l said what are we waiting for and her reply is they are cleaning them. 

Anyway when l was a kid and went fishing I'm sure we would but the fish and remove the insides but when l went to cook the fish there were no cut down the middle so l cut it open to remove what was there but there was nothing there to remove? 

So where did the guts go and why wasn't it cut open? 

[Snowy79]

Open the gills and grabbing both sides of the gills pull. The stomach and internals are all linked and will pull out. 

[Eddie1]

57 minutes ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

when l was a kid and went fishing I'm sure we would but the fish

But the fish?  Like a headbutt?   Must be an Australian thing?  

[Jollygoodfellow]

2 hours ago, Eddie1 said:

But the fish?  Like a headbutt?   Must be an Australian thing?  

Iol, gut the fish l meant 

[Jake]

Nope, I ain't gonna do it.  I am tempted to discuss the other "fish" but no way, Jose.

Good boy ako.........

[sonjack2847]

I have seen them cleaning it by putting a finger up the butt hole and pulling out the guts. I still prefer to slit it open and wash the insides as well.

[manofthecoldland]

18 hours ago, Snowy79 said:

Open the gills and grabbing both sides of the gills pull. The stomach and internals are all linked and will pull out. 

When they want to prepare it in the round they use a culinary scissors, snip the belly slightly just ahead of the anal opening to detach the intestinal tract aft and then clip up around the gills connective tissue and  cartilage so the whole can be eviscerated from the front, leaving the belly meat uncut. 

Sometimes one of the organs breaks and spills fluids though when removing the guts. Also if its a larger fish, you're leaving the blood line near the spine intact (kidney or ventral aorta I think). Maybe its not a big issue on smaller fish, or since they're grilling it all.... they don't care since they're just picking up the cooked flesh off the skeleton.

Some fish fillet knives have a spoon on the rear of the haft to scoop clean the blood line when belly cut cleaning your fish.  Or you can just make a slice along it and run your thumb along the underside of the spine to remove it.  I used to just do that when prepping my two of three dozen chum salmon and arctic char for the freezer from my subsistence net for our winter fish. I liked to rinse them in the ocean to clean out the cavity of any gut spillage, and later again with fresh water when I got home before double wrapping in freezer paper. Of course you'd run the blade over the outside skin first to remove the slime and any external parasites before opening them for cleaning.

Many different ways to do it depending on the fish and how you're going to cook and eat them.  On lots of larger fish, filleting them is preferred.  

  '

[graham59]

Now I don't feel so good.