Cooking Fish : Everything You Need to Know For the Perfect Result

Let’s face it, fish is not exactly the easiest ingredient to work with. You have to make sure you pick it fresh, plan the best cooking method, know the recipe that highlights it, while dealing with the delicate nature of the fish. Cooking fish comes with experience and a lot of learning, so waste no time, and let’s get to everything you need to know about cooking fish for the best result. 

Getting Started : Picking Fresh Fish

When everyone wants to get the freshest fish of the bunch, here are some ways to pick them out:

• No strong fishy smell, fresh fish smell fresh. 
• From the appearance, the skin looks bright and shiny with intact scales. Avoid dry, dull or loose scales which mean it’s more than a few days old. 
• The eyes are clear and not cloudy. They also should look bulging, not sunken or flat.
• Check the gills and only pick the ones that are still damp, reddish and not sticky.
• The flesh is also important, which should be firm and elastic. Press to see if it bounces back.

It may not always be possible to check the fish yourself before buying, so make sure you only purchase from quality grocery such as Luxofood. As a premium food ingredients provider, we understand the importance of serving only the freshest meat, including fish and other seafood, poultry, and more. 

Before Cooking : Basic Preparation With Fish

A fish is ready to be cooked when you’re done with the basic preparation : removing the guts, gills and scales. You can always ask for the seller or your grocer to “dress” the fish for you aka all of the above. 

Fish storage is also a big part of maintaining its fresh quality. Here are some things to remember:

• Ask for a bag of ice to keep the fish cold, especially when you don’t live nearby. 
• Take the fish out of the bag, rinse it clean and let it dry. 
• After that, store your fish in a sealed bag, over a bowl of ice, in the coldest corner of your fridge.
• Cook your fish the day you buy it. It starts to break down pretty quickly.
• If you don’t plan to cook it right away, freeze it in a properly wrapped or packed way. 

Best Way To Cook Fish

Okay, now it comes down to the actual act of cooking the fish. What are the best ways to cook fish? The truth is, there are a lot of “ best ways” to cook fish, but the goal remains the same : keeping it tender, moist, and well-cooked. Here are some guidance to help you reach it: 

• Pan Frying : Choose fish with thin and flavorful skin, such as salmon or halibut
• Poaching : Lean fish like tilapia, snapper, or cod, as well as fatty fish, like salmon or trout. 
• Grilling : Choose fish with substantial meat and texture, such as swordfish, salmon and tuna. Thick fish makes a perfect grill. 
• Roasting : Works well with fillet or whole fish such as snapper or trout. 
• Deep- Frying : Works well with fillet such as tilapia, catfish or cod. 
• Steaming : Lean and flat fish that hold up well when steamed, such as tilapia, cod, or snapper.