Choosing and Cooking Fresh Fish
Skin: Should be firm and elastic. Skin should be shiny and color not faded. The skin should spring back when a finger pressure is exerted.
Eyes: Bright, clear and somewhat bulging. Stale fish eyes are usually cloudy and sunken.
Scales: Tight to skin, not falling off. Bright and shiny.
Gills: No slime, reddish pink and clean looking; not grey.
Odor: Not overly strong. Fish should never smell fishy. The smell is from a chemical compound called trimethylamine. It is produced from the deterioration and breakdown of the fish.
- Supermarkets can offer up to 200 varieties of fish, some may be fresh.
- Cooking fish, you should be more concerned with retaining flavor than tenderness as with meats. Fish is naturally tender.
- When purchasing live lobsters there should be movement in the legs.
- Squid, shark and snails rate among the highest foods Americans dislike the most.
- The size of shrimp will not affect their quality. They should be tender and firm if cooked properly.
- Mussels, clams and oysters should be alive when purchased. Gaping shells should close when tapped. Discard dead ones.
- Minnows will stay alive longer if you add six to eight drops of iodine to the water they are transported in.
- If you wash your hand in cold water before handling fish, your hands will not smell fishy.
- To eliminate the fishy odor from a pan, try placing a small amount of vinegar in the pan before washing.
- Cooked crab shells should be bright red in color (not orange) and have little or no odor. They should always be displayed on a bed of ice.
- Frozen fish can be skinned easier than fresh ones.
- Aquaculture is fast becoming a major protein food industry in the United States.
- The best eating fish and the safest are: Aquaculture raised Trout and Catfish, Halibut, Turbot, Skipjack,Sole and Pollack.
- A small amount of grated onion added to the butter when cooking fish will add an excellent bit of flavor.
- If you are planning on a fish barbecue, use the high-fat fish; they will not dry out as fast and will be juicer and more tasty.
- Most fresh fish and shellfish are never inspected; make sure you are dealing with a quality fish market.
- Never keep a shellfish in fresh water; it will kill them very quickly.
- Try not to thaw frozen fish completely before cooking or it may make them very dry and mushy.
- To eliminate the canned taste of shrimp, try soaking them for 10 to 15 minutes in a mixture of 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 1 teaspoon of sherry.
- Lemon juice rubbed on fish before cooking will enhance the flavor and help maintain a good color.
- The flavor of canned shrimp can be greatly improved if you soak the can in ice water for at least one hour before opening.
- To de-vein shrimp, hold the shrimp under a slow stream of cold water and run the tip of an ice pick down the back of the shrimp. This will clean the shrimp and leave it whole.
- When frying fish, sprinkle the bottom of the pan with a small amount of salt or use unsalted butter and the fish will not stick to the pan. Salted butter does not work as well.
- A small amount of grated onion added to the butter when cooking fish will add an excellent bit of flavor.
- When making clam chowder, add the chopped clams during the last 15 minutes of cooking to avoid them from becoming mushy and tough.
- When cooking fish wrapped in tin foil, add a sprig of dill and a lemon slice for a great taste treat.
- When cooking shellfish, a heavily salted water will draw the sea salt out.
- To make scaling a fish easier, try rubbing vinegar on the scales first.
- When baking fish, try wrinkling up the tin foil before you wrap the fish. This will cause the fish to brown better and it will not stick to the foil.
- Avoid making tough shrimp by first cooling the shrimp under very cold water for one to two minutes, then place them in a deep pot (not over the heat) with a small amount of salt, then cover them with rapidly boiling water, tightly covered. Large shrimp take approximately five to seven minutes, average size are done in about four minutes.
- Shark is an excellent eating fish; young shark are best.
- The best tuna is labeled white and is albacore. Three other types are sold, namely light, dark and blended. The darker the tuna, the stronger the flavor and usually the oilier. These are mostly Skipjack and Bluefin.
See also:
How to Clean a Frozen Fish
Seafood and Fish Facts
Market Forms of Fish
Good Eats: Fish
Beneficial Byte: Fish
Healthy Fish and Seafood Recipes
Fish Facts
Fish: Know Your Limits
