Grilling Fish

[Reason?]

Anybody knows why is it that the fish skin sometimes sticks to the grill ? Is it the fish or the temperature is not hot enough? The whole fish is a mess!


Also, saw a cooking programme where the fish is dusted with flour and then fried for 1-2 minutes and then placed in the oven to bake.


Can I cover the pan with aluminium foil for the baking ? What should the temperature be and how long would it take ? Lazy to clean the oven and thought covering with foil will do away with it.

[john dory]

  It's tricky. Barramundi skin typically browns to a beautiful crisp for me, but I do have trouble with salmon. The key is to ensure your pan is properly heated, that you pat the skin dry and give the skin time to brown and release BEFOREtrying to flip it. If you have it in a marinade which contains sugar, it may be best to grill it on a well oiled piece of foil. Be sure the fish is brought back up to room temp if you have had it in the fridge. Add just enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Start on medium high. Too high and you wll just char it. Also make sure the fish is perfectly flat in the pan. If that doesn't work, dredge the fish in a bit of seasoned flour. A lot of ways to add flavour there (dill, basil etc)

[shaker...]

I recently saw this tip on one of the cooking shows on TV.  After you heat your pan & oil in the pan, place your dried fish (as suggested by PP) in the pan and IMMEDIATELY shake the pan back and forth a few times to move the fish around; and then you leave it to brown.  This helps to prevent the skin from sticking.  I tried it with salmon and snapper and it works!

[Baking paper]

Is often the best thing to put the fish on.  Even salmon does not stick to it.

[aluminum foil]

I always put the salmon on aluminum foil when I put it on the grill. But you seem to be talking about cooking in a pan on the stove, so I'm not sure.

[Easy]

There are a couple of steps to making sure your fish doesn't stick.

1. Get the grill heated completely.

2. crumble up some aluminum foil and and make a little scrubber and rub it across your grill to knock off the big stuff.

3. get an onion or something and cut it in half and rub it all over the grill from edge to edge repeatedly. You could use a carrot or an apple or anything 'solid'...but not a potato or anything with starch in it. (You may need some tongs to do this or you can just do it by hand just dont burn yourself)

Don't let your onion just sit there, move it around... you will see that it is going to look kind of gross when you are done... but you have lifted lots of the impurities from the metal.

4. If you have any non stick spray use it on your grill at this point, or you can put cooking oil on a few crumpled up paper towels and then rub that across your grill as well.

5. The trick of moving your fish back and forth slightly immediately upon contact with the grill is a must. Definitely do that for sure, even after you follow the above mentioned steps.

If all else fails cook something else on the grill first while you are heating it up. Anything you can throw away afterwards... It can be some cheapo piece of meat or some bacon to lunch meat or anything...even vegetables....

The reason behind all this is metal is a very porus surface....

Think of the metal as a sponge....when it is dry if you put something wet on it your sponge will automatically soak it up...right?

Well thats what happens when you put moist meat/fish on a dry grill...and hence the sticking. Once it is soaked up with oil or minute fat particles or something similar... then and only then can you put stuff on it and it won't stick.

The process to 'moisten' the grill must be done at temperature.

[let me add...]

Let me add a couple things about metal...odds are you are cooking on the stuff from time to time so it helps with all kinds of cooking....so here goes....

With a grill in particular it depends on how you care for the grill and how often you use it (but the same thing rings true for most metal pans as well).

If its an outdoor charcoal grill odds are it just sits around until you use it occassionally. The same rings true for any metal pan...of course I am exempting non stick pans here...

If you heat the grill or pan until it is very hot (IE red hot) or maybe not even that hot, but still too hot, you will burn off the 'moisture' in the metal that gets imbedded in the pores of the metal... those minute oil particles are what keep your food from sticking... and yes those fats and oil do burn and sometimes rather easily.

Excess heat can cause you to have to re season your pan or grill or whatever.

Also if you use detergent to clean with it will wipe out those oil molecules in a heartbeat.

If you just let the metal pan/grill sit around (especially outside or even in your cupboard) those molecules are very perishable and they will do just that...eventually they will perish until they are no longer useful and you have to put them back in there somehow.

[I have to say too...]

I forgot one thing... the reason why fish sticks more...you asked WHY ... well mainly it is a much more delicate meat and when it sticks you end up with a mess....it is more obvious that it stuck... but there is more than that even...

With a chunk of beef or pork...you can pry that baby off there and no real harm is done. Its a lot tougher....but even then beef or pork can stick pretty bad if your grill isnt prepared...

Also, and mainly, the fish tends to have A LOT more oil contained in it than beef or some other meat...and its not just that it has more oil alone... it has more 'light' oils in it that cause the fish to stick really easily if the pan or grill isnt seasoned right...

A slab of fat from a pig or a cow is big heavy oils...if you look at different oils each one has a smoke point... olive oil will burn at temp X and peanut oil will burn at temperature Y...same rings true for the fats off of fish vs say pork or beef...fat off of fish is light and whispy and could even evaporate off its so light...So when you release that oil on hot dry metal the metal goes into super suction mode...and you end up with a mess.

[2 things]

I always put the salmon on aluminum foil when I put it on the grill. But you seem to be talking about cooking in a pan on the stove, so I'm not sure.

Oh, I am actually talking about grilling in the first part and using a pan in the second part.