Cooking Fish Fundamentals

Good lesson - thank you.

Paul

I loved this lesson. Made me terribly hungry for fish. It's tomato risotto this evening, but next week...

ROUXBE is the best thing could happen to cooking on line.

One chef recommended proteins such as fish should be seared on one side only, flipped then finished off in the oven (the technique name escapes me). This is supposed to cook the fish/meat more evenly and retain its moisture. I've tried it and it seems to work but it is a bit tricky with fish especially. Of course you plate with the seared side up. Your thoughts please. Tony

This can certainly be done when cooking thicker pieces of fish. We cover this in Topic 4 in the lesson on Pan Frying Fish. Just make sure to check early and often so the fish doesn't overcook. Cheers!

I'm so glad to know that because of the protein structure of fish it doesn't need to rest after cooking like meat does. Based on how important it is to let meat rest, I would often let fish rest as well. We get to eat 5 minutes sooner tonight!

It would be great to see a supporting recipe that uses a whole fish.

It's nice to know that you can make cuts in the thicker parts so that it cooks evenly, but that is really all I know on the topic. I've always dealt with fillets, so I'm a bit at a loss when it comes to proper seasoning/cooking/serving an entire fish.

If there is an interest I can get recipes for hot and cold smoking of fish which a number of Les Marmitons members do on a regular basis. I was planning to make lox which I could video/photograph andpost.

Let me know.

Rouxbe! Thank you for continuous delivery of excellent product every time. I will repeat myself by saying Rouxbe is an ultimate cooking school format. I took this instructional lesson sometime ago and by repeating this lesson today have found something that I missed on my first visit. Try to recreate cooking instructional lesson in big cooking school with 20+ students in the same room and an arrogant (well not always) instructor.

I wish I could give a huge hug!

Tony, I would love to try my hand at making lox!

I cut a fish and my knife obtained a fishy smell (like sea water), even after washing it about 3 times with soap and water. The smell is only perceptible when the knife is close to the nose, but I don't know if this could contaminate others foods.

Help!

It won't contaminate other foods much, but rub the knife with a cut lemon - you'll probably use lemon anyways every time you cook fish.

I didn't see anything for cooking chilean sea bass. I vowed to never buy another piece as it is so expensive and difficult to cook. I tried to pan sear it but it turned out rubbery and nasty. any tips

Here at Rouxbe we try not to focus too much on a particular ingredient and how to cook it, e.g., sea bass. We are more about teaching one how to cook fish in general. I am not sure how you cooked your fish, what your heat was at, how fresh was the fish etc. etc. so it is hard for me to say what exactly you could have possibly done differently.

I would say that perhaps you might want to review the lessons in the Fish section again and try to see if perhaps you might be able to see if you did something that could have affected the end result. Other than that, I suppose I would need a bit more detail in order to give you a better answer. Hope this helps. Cheers!

Hello. I'm fairly new to Rouxbe. I may be missing it but is there a video that teaches you how to debone, fillet, and skin a whole fish? I am currently living in a country where most fish is sold whole and sometimes the fish mongers don't always fillet or remove the skin. It would be great to know how to do this better. I'd also be interested in some whole fish recipes. Thank you.

Congratulations on your wonderful videos. I noticed that in your fish frying lessons a wide variety of frying pans were used. I am trying to stay out of teflon pans when cooking fish but some professionals, like James Peterson, recommend nonstick pans (Fish&Shellfish p.75). Of course, I don't want to ruin the fish. Any thoughts?

Eventually in our Cooking School we will have lessons on fabricating fish (deboning, filleting, skinning, etc). In the meantime, there are a few tip videos that might interest you. Just search for "fish" in the search field at the top right of any page.

In terms of frying fish, please refer to the lessons on Pan Frying Fish and Pan Frying, as there is plenty of information in there. Both stainless-steel and non-stick can be used to cook fish - it just depends on the temperature you are using and the result you are looking for. Cheers!

What's the best way to serve a delicate fish with a sauce for a group when I can only cook one or two pieces of fish at a time? For example, sole meuniere or almondine for eight?

Quick answer is that this might not be the best dish for a group :-).

However, if you want to do it, you'll have to be really good at using more than one fry pan at once as this fish will not hold well and will dry out if not served right after cooking.

What adds to the challenge with sole or other flat fish, is that it takes up a lot of surface area in the pan.

I would suggest using salmon, arctic char, sable fish or another oily fish - review topic 2 from this lesson. Or you could use a leaner type of fish like halibut and cut thicker pieces that you could batch start (sear in a pan) and then transfer them all to the oven at the same time to finish cooking and serve as soon as they are done.

Hope this helps.

Hello! Does steaming provide a good result for a unskinned scaleless fish (eg catfish)? Would the skin be nice to be eaten? I'm thinking about this fish served with a thai yellow curry sauce. Thanks!

Before I answer, I am curious to know if you have watched the lessons on Steaming? There are is quite a bit of information in those lessons that you might find very helpful.

As for your question about "would the skin be nice to eat?" If you are steaming the fish, I would say, it will be very soft and for me I would not like that but you might. Try it and see what you think. Cheers!

Hi, Dawn. I had watched the lessons on steaming (and I did again now) and, although I learnt many usefull things, it didn't find the answer to my question. Maybe I'll try it. Thank you.

Hi, Dawn. I forgot to say that I did find in the lessons information about steaming fish. My question was specificaly about the skin - mainly of a scaleless fish. This was not clear in my words because I split the question in two. I checked my "Thailand: The Beautiful Cookbook" and found many recipes using steamed whole fish. I tell you after I try. Thanks. I'm enjoying and improving a lot.

Yes, the steamed skin was not so nice. It was a thick skin from a scaleless fish so it's texture was too noticeable - and even more because the steam unstuck the skin from the flesh. I had already tryied a stewed fish like that but the flesh was firmer and had the skin still attached, so the texture was fine. Thanks.

I'm having a bit of problem with cooking fish and I was hoping someone can help me with it. I often catch alot of fish and clean them and cook them myself so they are very fresh which is great. The problem I'm having is that sometimes when I'm pan frying fish the flesh seems way too tough , it's too tough that it's even hard to cut by knife ! I tried using a thermometer but the temperature seems to go beyond 140 and the fish is still too tough. So my question is : are all types of fish supposed to become tender when cooked ? or does some of them need a special treatment like braising for example.

Just a bit more information is needed to try and get to the bottom of this. What type of fish are you referring to? Once caught, how are you handling/storing the fish? And how soon after catching it do you clean it and cook it? Some types of fish do need to be cooked to higher temperatures but not sure if you are cooking these types. Cheers!

The fish I'm having trouble with is a type of snapper called bohar snapper, the ones I usually use are big about 3-4 kilos. After catching the fish I let it die then I gut it and scale it and then store it on ice in the fridge till rigor mortis passes ( sometimes it takes a day or more on bigger fishes) after that and only after that I fillet the fish and cook. You guys were very helpful before in suggesting that I score the skin so that it doesn't curl as much and it did help alot but the flesh is still tough.

Sounds like you are handling the fish properly after catching it. I don't have experience with this type of fish, however, certain fish such as Monk fish are very good braised just like a piece of meat. Maybe this is the case for this type of snapper?? I would try cuting it in pieces, dredge it in flour, saute the pieces in butter and oil, add some onions and capers as well as a tomato sauce and let it simmer away until the meat is tender. Finish the sauce with some chopped parsley. I used to cook Monk fish that way and it was delicious. Sorry, I cannot help more, but give this a try. Cheers!

Thanks Christophe I will give it a try.

Everyday you learn a new thing. The problem I was having with my snapper seems to be a problem with many types of snappers, they actually have a name for it "tough fish syndrome"or tfs and I'm not making this up. TFS is when two fishes of the same type cook differently they still don't know the reason for it or how to solve it yet.

I must confess I've never attempted to cook fish as too many things could go wrong. I'm going to try however but my question is about the temperature to start at. Your video shows a beautifully browned surface so would I need to get the pan to be hot enough to do the water ball test for example in order to achieve that and then reduce the heat to cook at the 120-ish mark? Or should I use the lower temperature from the beginning and allow the fact the fish is likely to be in the pan for longer to get to the crust? Thanks in advance.

You may want to check out the lesson called "How to Pan Fry Fish". Be sure to watch topic 4 in particular as this is where we talk about pan temperature. Good luck and don't worry about "too many things going wrong". Remember it's all about being prepared and then practicing until you get a true feel for it. Cheers!