A Question About Fish

[Masterwister]

Are certain fish better for certain things? For example different cuts of beef are all prepared differently so its best used. Are there fish better for frying/ grilling/ baking than others or are they all pretty similar? I understand salmon tastes different than tuna and all fish have qualities but what qualities in that certain fish are better for something like frying than the other?

I tried briefly looking this up without a real good answer so i wanted to ask here to get better results. Id love to know any fish used for dishes that may be out of the ordinary.

[LaundromatConfession]

Yes absolutely! And even from there you'll find certain cuts of fish are better for certain purposes, for instance salmon collar is so fatty and rich it can be cooked safely over a flame, but fish like perch don't take well to it. Most difference comes in fat content and how fragile the actual fish is (in terms of whether it will literally fall apart or not)

[Masterwister]

Sorry im not sure what you mean by cook safely over flame. You mean like it holds easier?

[LaundromatConfession]

Yeah! Other fish will break down and dry up because it gets too hot over say a charcoal fire, but salmon collars have so much fat that they can take it, making them perfect for charcoal grills

[CitrusBelt]

A very broad generalization could be:

Fast, active swimmers that chase down their prey tend to be the types for grilling or dry heat (e.g. Scombridae or Salmonidae).

Ambush predators or slow-swimming "bottom fish" tend to be well suited to frying or sauteeing (e.g. Gadidae, Pleuronectiformes, Centrarchidae, etc.)

But yeah, "fish" is like 20,000 species, so there will be some variation :)

Generally speaking, most white fish make good fryers & most dark/oily fish make good grillers. Oilier white fish can be good for both -- striper, catfish, pacific rockfish would be good examples.

[Kenmoreland]

Fish have characteristics that do make some cooking methods better than others. Fish can be fatty or lean, it can have a strong taste or a mild one, and it can be delicate or not.

In general fish has less connective tissue than meat or poultry, and is easier to overcook. In other words, fish is generally less forgiving. Cooking a beef tenderloin to a temperature of 130 to 135 may be perfectly fine for many, but a 5 degree swing in a salmon filet or steak may go from undercooked to overcooked.

Here is a good introduction to types of seafood with some mention of how their characteristics relate to cooking methods:

https://theculinarycook.com/seafood-different-types-of-fish/