Cutting sturgeon at home: practical recommendations

Many people are fond of fish and seafood. From sturgeon, a skillful hostess can cook truly royal dishes.

Who is sturgeon?

Sturgeon, as well as all known sterlet or beluga, belongs to the family of sturgeon freshwater fish. To buy such a delicacy, caught in natural habitats, is almost impossible. Industrial fishing of this fish is prohibited, since individuals reach maturity only at the age of 8, and the species was endangered. For sale, sturgeon is grown in specialized freshwater nurseries and sold in live form. When buying fish, do not pay attention to the fins, because they are always dark in color. The average weight of an adult sturgeon varies from 15 to 30 kg, but young individuals weighing about 3 kg are put up for sale.

Skin on the skin

Cutting sturgeon begins with its pre-freezing, for which the carcass should be put for a couple of hours in the refrigerator or about an hour in the freezer, but no more, otherwise you can freeze. Slightly frozen fish is much more convenient to cut and remove excess frozen blood.
After it is frozen, sturgeon cutting begins. To do this, we cut off the head together with the cephalic fins. It should be borne in mind that in raw fish there is a poisonous poison for the human body. Moreover, its intestine is the bearer of spore-forming sticks, so it is very important to learn how to clean the sturgeon correctly. Everyone can learn this.

After the head of the sturgeon is cut off, with a sharp knife along the entire body to the anal fin, gently rip open the belly and pull out the internals. We do this carefully, trying not to crush the gallbladder, since bile for humans is poisonous. With the presence of caviar, it is separated from the remaining entrails and washed with water.

If we talk about how to clean a sturgeon safely, it is better to do it with gloves, in order to avoid getting stab wounds. The sprouts along the body of the fish are easily cut with a conventional knife, as well as the dorsal ones, and it must be doused with boiling water to remove the plaques.

Clean scales, as with other fish, do not, the skin is also not removed, especially when cooking on an open fire. This is the end of the sturgeon cutting, now it is left to cook.

Viziga (tie)

Viziga, or vyaziga, is the dorsal chord (veins) passing through the vertebral cartilage of the fish. Cutting sturgeon differs from cleaning other fish in that it is mandatory to get a vizier out of it. If you do not immediately remove it, it begins to emit a poison. After heat treatment, it acquires a gelatinous state.

If you need to save a whole carcass, then in order to pull the vizier, make two notches - one along the head to the vertebral cartilage, and the second along the tail, the vertebra is broken. In the place of the fault, a white visigra will be visible, about 3 mm in diameter, and it must be slowly, so as not to tear, pull out. If the carcass will be cut into pieces, then the vizier pull is even easier - you need to cut off the head and tail, turn the carcass perpendicularly, and it will slip.

Head and fins

After cutting off the sturgeon's head together with the pectoral fins, it is necessary to remove the gills (gill membranes that are attached to the interstitial foramen but do not form a fold). From the head you can cook a delicious ear.

The easiest way to make soup from a sturgeon's head is to cut it in half, rinse it under running water, put it in a saucepan, pour boiling water, add salt, spices, pepper, carrots, a whole bulb and cook for 30 minutes (before the meat starts to move away from Head). The head needs to be pulled out, the broth must be filtered, to taste add potatoes, pearl barley, etc.

Sturgeon dishes

Ways of cooking sturgeon do not differ from cooking other types of fish. You can bake it in the oven, boil your ear or cook a shish kebab, fry in a skillet or grill, steamed or used as a filling for baking. And which of it turns out cutlets and lyulya-kebabs! Given the vivid taste, fat content and the lack of small bones, the fish becomes ideal for any dish.

One of the most delicious and beautiful dishes on the festive table has always been stuffed sturgeon. To do this, a whole carcass (with head and tail) must be cut, as indicated above, to pull the insides, making an incision from the anal fin towards the head. In the resulting niche fit any stuffing, for example, from potatoes, carrots and greens (the filling must necessarily be ready). The incision should be sewn with threads, the stalk of the sturgeon should be seasoned with salt, pepper, cover with spices or mayonnaise and bake in the oven for 30 minutes in foil. Then the foil should be removed and baked without it to get a ruddy crust.

Whichever way you cook sturgeon, the dish will certainly please with unsurpassed taste qualities of you and your loved ones.