How to gut a fish
Are you ready for this? I ask because I wasn’t! My big souvenir from Nunavut was – freshly caught Char (they don’t call it Arctic Char, that would be redundant) that was frozen for me to transport. Crazy!
This is likely the river where the fish came from:
It’s the whole fish, so I had my parents over to partake, along with some Nova Scotia apple wine and Manitoba cheese ribboned with aged wine. Great dinner, but first I had to prep the fish. These are the two sites I used as a tutorial (having never gotten a whole fish before, just fillets):
Canadian Living slide show: How to Gut a Fish »
eHow video series (10 part) from Expert Village with Bruce Marnie » It’s also available on YouTube, but as isolated videos. I did a search for his name + fish to find them all.
I also found out that you can’t not descale the fish (I was hoping to skip that step because it looks so messy hahahah). I found this on Yahoo! Answers:
The scales are inedible. They should be removed. If you dont have a descaler, use top part of the filet knife’s (the dull part) blade and scrape from tail to gill. This is the easiest way to descale. Restaurant chefs, ( I am one), dont serve fish with scales on it, and if they are, they are actually violating health codes. All fish should be descaled. To help eliminate some of the mess that occurs, descale over a layer foil, or over a clean plastic trash bag, cut partially, to cover your counter and so you have enough space for your fish. If you follow my instructions, descaling fish takes about 10 mins tops for both sides. Hope this helps.
Here’s the verdict: I did it! I had the video series in front of me and lots of plastic bags on the counter, a deboning knife, blue gloves so I didn’t feel grimy and moral support from Steve. I’m very glad I did not have to rip out the entrails. Not sure I’d do it again.
