Scaling and gutting round fish

The preparation of round fish before cooking belongs to the foundations of the classical French kitchen, where the poissonnier was responsible for receiving, cleaning and trimming the catch before it reached the stove. Jacques Pépin sets the method out in Complete Techniques as a sequence of plain, repeatable motions: scale, trim the fins, open the belly, remove the viscera and gills, and rinse. It is carried by every French fishmonger and every brigade, and it precedes the dishes of the sea, from the whole fish baked in salt to the fish poached in court-bouillon.

A round fish is one with a cylindrical body and an eye on each side of the head, such as the sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax), the sea bream (Sparus aurata), the trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) or the mackerel (Scomber scombrus). Scaling removes the overlapping scales with the back of a knife or a scaler, worked from tail towards head against the lie of the scales. Gutting follows: the belly is slit from the vent to the gills, the viscera drawn out, the gills cut away at their attachment, and the cavity rinsed under cold water to clear any trace of blood along the backbone. The fish may then be kept whole, with the head and tail left on, or taken on to filleting.

A cleaned whole round fish is served with sauces and accompaniments that respect its delicacy: beurre blanc, sauce hollandaise, a beurre noisette, or a simple oil and lemon, with steamed or boiled potatoes and fennel. A dry white wine of high acidity, such as a Muscadet sur lie or a Chablis, suits it, because the acidity cuts the fat of the flesh and the sauce while the restrained flavour of the wine leaves the fish unmasked. The thoroughness of the cleaning matters to every one of these pairings, since a trace of blood or gut gives a bitterness that no sauce corrects.