Fire It Up - Andrew Schloss [117]
It is important to stop cooking fish as soon as the connective tissue softens, but before it breaks. As fish muscle fibers heat and contract, water held in the cells is forced out. The moisture stays in the meat as long as the connective tissue stays intact. But if the connective tissue breaks, all of the juices run out and the fish immediately becomes dry. Our grilling directions always say to stop cooking when a fish looks opaque on the surface but is still filmy and moist in the center. At that point you are assured that the muscle fibers are cooked through, and the connective tissue has not yet broken.
In most cases fish should be cooked to an internal temperature of between 125 and 140°F. Some fish with a lot of connective tissue, like shark, needs to be cooked to the upper end of that range, because the collagen in the connective tissue will not gelatinize much before 140°F.
Fish skin is high in collagen. When fish is cooked with its skin on, that collagen melts into gelatin, giving the flesh a luscious mouthfeel. In addition the collagen, which is all protein, becomes brittle when exposed to direct flame. That’s why grilled fish skin is so deliciously crispy. If you have the option of keeping the skin on a fillet or steak, the grilled results will be far superior to one that has had the skin removed.
Fish bones are delicate and tend to dissolve more quickly than the harder bones of land animals. During grilling the bones of most fish won’t melt away, but they will dissolve slightly, releasing their flavor into the fish flesh. This is why fish grilled on the bone is much tastier than one that is boneless.
Compared to land animals most fish are low in fat, and the fat is far less saturated. The fat content of fish varies widely, ranging from practically none to about 25 percent. Fat content is somewhat dependent on the fish type, but it can be affected by diet and environment (deep-swimming and cold-water fish tend to have more fat).
Wild and Farmed Fish on the Grill
Farmed fish tend to be higher in fat and take longer to cook. Farmed salmon, for instance, will drip more fat into the fire, cause more flare-ups, and need a little more time over the heat than wild salmon. The farmed fish will also have a richer mouthfeel, if somewhat less complex taste overall. Wild fish, on the other hand, tends to have leaner, stronger muscles and may benefit from soaking in a brine or marinade before grilling to enhance juiciness. Either way, most fish species can be easily grilled if you use a hot grill grate and oil both the rack and the fish to prevent sticking. It also pays to pick up a wide fish spatula for easy turning or, better yet, a fish grilling basket so you can pick up the entire fish or fillet and flip it with a flick of the wrist.
WHOLE FISH, FILLETS, AND STEAKS
Once you have selected a fish, the fishmonger can butcher or dress it in several ways.
The standard ways of dressing fish are:
WHOLE DRESSED: Guts, scales, gills, and fins usually removed; head and tail still on. Good for stuffing. If the dressed fish is thicker than 2 inches, it is usually grilled over indirect heat; if thinner, direct heat usually works.
PAN DRESSED: Same thing as whole dressed except the head is removed. Grill the same way as whole dressed.
SPLIT: A whole dressed fish split lengthwise. The central skeleton can be removed or not. Unless the fish is very large, split fish are usually grilled over direct heat.
FILLETS: The large muscles running on either side of the central skeleton are lifted from the skeleton. Fish fillets are not necessarily boneless. Many fish have pin bones, a fine line of bones radiating at a right angle from the skeleton. When a fish is filleted, the pin bones remain and must be cut out or removed with pliers, usually by the cook. The pin bones on small fish (anchovies, sardines, herring) are so fine that they tend to dissolve during