ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Top and tail

Top and tail is a phrase that means to clean or prepare something by removing the top and bottom parts. Imagine you have a carrot. The top is the part where the green leaves grow from, and the bottom is the part where the root is. When you top and tail the carrot, you cut off the top and bottom parts so that you only have the part of the carrot that you want to eat left.

Another example is with a fish. The top is the head and the tail is the end of the fish. When you top and tail a fish, you cut off the head and the tail so that you can clean and prepare the rest of the fish to cook.

Overall, top and tail is a cleaning and preparation process that involves removing unwanted parts from something in order to make it ready for further preparation or consumption.