Fish gadgets and spices

What is the difference between fish cutlery and regular knives and forks? What tools should you use to make fish preparation even easier? 

First – preparing

It is a good idea to have a set of professional tools for preparing the fish: a scraper for removing scales, decent, steel tweezers for pulling out the bones and, above all, a flexible filleting knife with an extended, slender blade..

To make it easier to hold the fish in place, choose a special fish-holding board with a tail-holding clamp and a non-slip surface.

Second – seasoning

Depending on how much we are willing to experiment, we can choose the spices ourselves or bet on a ready mix for fish. Among the proven herbs we should mention garlic (universal addition), rosemary (recommended for stewing and roasting), basil (suitable for delicate fish), thyme (good for fish soups) or dill (classic combination with lemon and pepper).

Third – cooking

You can find many tools in stores that make it easy to prepare tasty fish. Among the most useful are:

• oval pan – thanks to its elongated shape we can fry the whole fish without worrying that the tail will stick out of the pan;
• holder for baking stuffed fish or steaming – you can be sure that the stuffing and marinade will not leak out;
• grate for grilling or roasting – the fish can be squeezed between the two grids, making it much more convenient to turn the fish.

Fourth - eating

In Poland we are used to eating fish with ordinary cutlery.However, using special knives can make eating fish much easier, especially when it is cooked in one piece.

Fish knives are used not for slicing but for dividing meat and separating skin and bones from it. They are therefore characterized by a flat, blunt, rounded shape with a sharp tip. This allows them to slide easily between skin and meat and helps to separate the bones.

Meanwhile, a fish fork is not very different from its standard counterpart - it is a bit smaller, and its tines converge in the middle. The differences in shape have no practical justification; instead, they help us follow the rules of savoir vivre, so that we know which fork to reach for with which dish.