The Picture Guide to Fish Gutting...

While you can always ask the guy at the fish counter to descale and gut a whole fish for you, sometimes you might have to do it yourself. For instance, if you buy those packaged frozen whole fish, they may or may not have been descaled and gutted beforehand. So you'll have to do it at home. Here's an easy to follow picture guide showing you the process of descaling and gutting a whole fish. It really isn't that hard of a process, it can just be a wee bit messy (and smelly) to do!

Step 1. Cut the fins - watch out, they're pointy!

Step 2. Cut the belly of the fish with scissors - starting from the back end fins towards the gills. When you cut, try to keep your scissors pointing upwards to prevent cutting the fish innards (spilling fish innards makes the fish bitter in that part). After cutting, reach into the opening and try to pull out all the innards in one shot.

Step 3. Descale the fish with a knife or with a special "descaling" tool. Note that while descaling fish, it's very likely that you'll have scales going all over the place. To reduce the amount of flying scales, you might try descaling at a slow pace and work on small areas at a time. 

Step 4. Take out the gills. Usually, you can tell if fish is fresh by looking at their gills - bright red or bright pink means they are fresh. At least, that's the general rule of thumb I've been told and now follow.

Step Five. In the end, after descaling and gutting the fish, you can sprinkle some salt all around the fish, inside and out, give it a good rub and then rinse the fish with cold water. This is something my grandma and mom do when they prepare fish, or even other meats like a whole chicken. Not quite sure why they did it, but they always said they were giving their fish or chicken a bath! So I guess salt helps with the cleansing of the meat?

Your whole fish is now ready to be cooked. Depending on the type of fish you have, you can either steam, fry, bake or grill your fish. For me, I steam whole sea bass, flounder and sometimes tilapia with scallions and ginger. I top it with a layer of fried ginger and scallions, oil, and soy sauce.  

Preparing a Whole fish

If this is your first time to process a whole raw fish at home, don't panic. It's quite easy, and you don't even have to read this before you can figure it out yourself. However, my dad does have some secret tips that might be helpful, so I put them in Bonus Tips. Good luck!

You will need a pair of strong sharp cooking scissors and a small knife.

1. Cut off all the fins and tails.
2. Descale. Move your knife from the tail towards the head in short strokes. The scales should come off easily as you do this.
3. Cut the belly open from the ***, and take out intestines.
4. Lift both gill covers and cut the gills out.

Bonus Tips:

There are mainly three things you can do to prevent your home prepared whole fish tastes bitter:
1. Try not breaking intestines when you take them out.
2. If you see a thin layer of black tissue stuck on the meat inside the fish belly, remove them completely.
3. Leave no gills.

There you go. Isn't that easy? And I tell you, a whole fish tastes much better than the packed slices. In some parts of China, fish head is considered a delicacy and one that is reserved for guests. So, next time when you go to China and see a dish called "blabla fish head" in the menu, don't be surprised. Try it, it's delicious. You know what I like the most? Fish brain, oh yeah...