How to Clean Sardines

How to Clean Sardines Japanese Style

Sardines are full of nutrients and flavor, but just how to clean them?

To Be Continued: Iwashi Ryori
We are continuing our series on iwashi ryori and ‘cleaning sardines’ precedes an amazing recipe; get ready for ‘sardine meatballs’!

Small Fish
Cooking small fish is still not very common in my homeland, but here in Japan they are ubiquitous and tasty. There are a myriad ways to enjoy sardines and Miwa (AKA Paku) gives us a demo on how to clean them, or most any other kind of small fish.

How to Clean Sardines
As mentioned in a previous article on iwashi ryori (sardine cuisine), sardines are a ‘weak’ fish and they deteriorate quickly. Only the freshest should be used for sushi or sashimi. The bellies are extremely fragile and it is best to just cut the belly out with one cut and pull the innards out. Sardines may have a few scales on them, just run the knife over the skin to remove them as necessary. (That wasn’t necessary for us.)

Cleaning Sardines

Notice the sardine on the bottom, the dark spot on the belly is a tear.

Rinse and check for scales

In Japan, sardines are usually quite small and scales are not an issue. The sardine species and size in your region may vary, so give them a looking over.

Removing the Entrails

Cut off the head

Cut off the head and pull away with your knife

Cut the belly to remove entrails

Pull entrails out with belly

Remove entrails

Make sure that you cut out the anus and intestinal remnants. (Miwa missed on this one.)

Removing the Bones
Next comes removing the bones. The rib bones are so thin that they are easily chewed. The backbone is fine left in for deep fried preparations, but if sauteing, simmering, etc you will want to pull it out, and it comes out easily with a light tug.

Splitting the sardine

Run your thumb along the backbone and separate…

Splitting the sardine

…all the way to the tail.

Voilà!

That was easy! Now for the other half.

Cut the skin around the backbone just before the tail

The tail is a handle!

Pulling out the backbone

Gently pull the backbone out via the tail while holding down with your other hand.

Note: The backbone can be fried to make hone senbei, literally ‘bone cracker’. This is actually very tasty and goes great with beer.

Optional Step: Removing the Skin
It depends on what sardine dish you are making but you will probably want to remove the skin. It’s easy.

Peeling the skin away

Start at the head end, on the top of the sardine (back) and peel the meat away from the skin. The end result will produce two fillets.

Peeling the skin away

Peel the skin away from the second fillet.

Ready to be Iwashi Ryori!

Be sure to catch our next installment of iwashi ryori!