What has two eyes, a tail, and fins, looks intimidating to cook, and is extremely impressive to serve to your next dinner party guests? A whole fish, of course.
There’s something about bringing out a tray with a whole cooked fish on it that feels so impressive and sophisticated, but also like an extremely complex and difficult undertaking . However, baking a whole fish in the oven is quite simple and, overall, a fairly inexpensive culinary endeavor. Here’s how it’s done.
Prepare the fish
The most intimidating part of the whole process is preparing the fish for cooking. The good news is that you can ask your fishmonger to do everything for you. In fact, you should ask them. Make sure you let them know that you’d like the fish gutted and scaled. This means the body cavity, gills, and all scales will be removed.
Cutting fish yourself requires a flexible fish knife and knowledge of fish anatomy, so it’s best to ask your fishmonger to prepare the whole fish for you. If you’re unsure how much fish to buy, plan on about 1 pound of fish per person you’re serving.
Mark the fish
Once your fish is cleaned and gutted, it’s time to prepare everything for cooking. First, you’ll want to score both sides of the flesh with a knife. Three short, shallow cut marks on each side are sufficient.
These score marks help your fish cook more evenly and allow any seasonings or flavorings to penetrate the flesh better for a more pronounced flavor.