13 valuable Points to Remember to Cooking fish
Cooking Fish is an art.
Points to Remember Cooking fish is as easy as cooking other ingredients. However, to generate the best fish dishes, there are some points to consider: Smart Fish Selection. Freshness is undoubtedly determined by the delicacy of the fish dishes you cook.
That is why; when you buy your fish, you need to invest your time more only to pick the freshest fish to bring it home. Generally, the fresh fish can be checked as follow:
- Fresh fish has moist but firm flesh. They have an elastic texture that should bounce back once you press them. The old ones serve inelastic, soft, and grey flesh.
- The fish’s skin should be wet and shiny without any cracks on it. The skin of old fish usually has cracked and started to lose its scales.
- Fresh whole fish should perform bright and bulging eyes. The old ones usually show cloudy eyes, sunken into the head.
- The gills of the fresh whole fish will look bright red or pink. Usually, the fresh gills will be moist as well as the fish fins. Meanwhile, the old gills and fins will be dry and covered with sticky slime
- . The fresh fish will have a mild scent. Any fish that has a solid fishy aroma should not be chosen.
- Fish fillet or fish steak, which is usually sold frozen, has to be firm but moist without any drying issues around the edges.
- Frozen fish should be packaged well, clean, and undamaged. It has to show a solidity frozen condition that does not indicate signs of being thawed and refrozen.
- When you need frozen fish, it is better to buy it from recommended sellers. They can guarantee where the fish is caught and how they handle it. Proper Fish Storage Sometimes, you do not directly cook the fish you bought. For any reason, some people prefer buying double or triple portions at once as a stock. Fresh fish, frozen fish, canned fish, and many other processed fish should be stored properly. Below are several guidelines on how to keep the fish.
- Go home as soon as possible after you bought frozen fish and quickly transfer them to the freezer.
- Wash and clean the fresh fish you bought, then divide them into small portions. Place each piece in a sealed bag or a container with a lid and store them in the freezer at 0°F. Take only the part you need and thaw it in the refrigerator or defrost it in a microwave oven.
- Never take the frozen fish out of the freezer and return it to the freezer because you cancel cooking. The refrozen fish will not have the same quality as the previous ones.
- Vacuum-packed fish, smoked fish, or pickled fish should always be stored in the refrigerator.
- Always transfer the leftover canned fish to a container with a lid and store it in the refrigerator. Use it for a maximum of a week.