Whole fish convert!! You should try it too!

[Anonymous]

I quick quite a bit and love fish and seafood, but have never done anything too exotic—mostly bake fillets in the oven. Try different spices and flavors and have done some interesting stuff with that, but it's all just basically the same and I almost always wind up doing salmon or cod.

Then I was camping in WV about a month ago and took my son fishing—not much of a fisherman, but it's fun to hang out. We didn't catch anything and as my son was walking back empty-handed an old-timer was getting out of his boat with six rainbow trout—told my son he catches hundreds a year and can't eat these so gave them to us. I watched a few quick vids on how to clean a fish and it's pretty easy—I don't recommend it, but it can be done. I tried filleting a few (which I've done before wiht things I've caught) and it was a real pain and the fillets were ugly and wasteful. Gave up and just threw the other ones on the grill in some tinfoil, stuffed with lemons and rosemary.

OMG.
So good!
So easy!
Best fish I've ever made!

Today I went to Wegmans and they always have whole fish stacked on ice in front of the counter and I assumed it was for show, but I asked the clerk, she came around, let me pick out two snapper—two large snapper, total came to $31. Enough fish to feed six. Fresh. Shiny eyes, no smell. They were already cleaned, but she offered to scale them while I finished my shopping.

About to throw them on the grill.

Between the price and the superior taste of fresh whole fish, I"m never going to bother with filets or frozen again, especially if it's that easy for the fish counter to prepare them how I want it! Also allows me to eat more seasonally! They have a chalkboard with where the fish came from. Very pleased and disappointed I was so intimidated for so long.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the encouragement!
I've been intimidated but maybe will give it a try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the encouragement!
I've been intimidated but maybe will give it a try.

OP — I shop regularly at H-Mart and they always have lots of fish and a number system for how you'd like it prepared. I always feel intimdated about what I would do with them, but grill seems like an obvious answer. Searching for a good cookbook with some whole fish ideas—I presume you can bake though.

[Anonymous]

Josh Niland’s The Whole Fish Cookbook.
His Instagram is great too.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-whole-fish-cookbook-josh-niland/1130554005

[Anonymous]

Even the butt?

[Anonymous]

What about the bones?

[Anonymous]

Oh, the cheek meat.

[Anonymous]

Hard pass but glad you enjoyed it.

[Anonymous]

The bones is my concern as well. I'd love to eat more whole fish but I really really hate to deal with the bones!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The bones is my concern as well. I'd love to eat more whole fish but I really really hate to deal with the bones!

Well, after cooking and eating my yellowtail snapper, I WILL concede they were a little boney, but I think they also could've been cooked a little longer. With the trout, the meat just SLID right off the bones and I didn't get a single one in a single bit. So, different fish and cooking probably affects this, but it was not hard to avoid tonight—at least in the perfectly cooked sections, it just lifted right off with my fork.

I'm interested to check out the cookbook someone above mentioned because I presume there will be thoughts about certain fish and the preparation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bones is my concern as well. I'd love to eat more whole fish but I really really hate to deal with the bones!

Well, after cooking and eating my yellowtail snapper, I WILL concede they were a little boney, but I think they also could've been cooked a little longer. With the trout, the meat just SLID right off the bones and I didn't get a single one in a single bit. So, different fish and cooking probably affects this, but it was not hard to avoid tonight—at least in the perfectly cooked sections, it just lifted right off with my fork.

I'm interested to check out the cookbook someone above mentioned because I presume there will be thoughts about certain fish and the preparation.

Good feedback! When you ate the trout did you pull the bone out all at once? Or dish it up and everyone pulled their own bones out? I'd wager that the fattier fishes will have the bones come out easier, so that makes sense with the trout vs snapper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bones is my concern as well. I'd love to eat more whole fish but I really really hate to deal with the bones!

Well, after cooking and eating my yellowtail snapper, I WILL concede they were a little boney, but I think they also could've been cooked a little longer. With the trout, the meat just SLID right off the bones and I didn't get a single one in a single bit. So, different fish and cooking probably affects this, but it was not hard to avoid tonight—at least in the perfectly cooked sections, it just lifted right off with my fork.

I'm interested to check out the cookbook someone above mentioned because I presume there will be thoughts about certain fish and the preparation.

Good feedback! When you ate the trout did you pull the bone out all at once? Or dish it up and everyone pulled their own bones out? I'd wager that the fattier fishes will have the bones come out easier, so that makes sense with the trout vs snapper.

I wasn't sure what I was going to be dealing with and I have kids, so I was prepared to have to take it off the fish myself, so I poked at it with a fork and it literally fell off the trout. So I slid the fork under the meat and it came off in one smooth motion. Not as easy or pretty as putting a filet on the plate, but the taste (kids agreed) was so good. If I had thrown just a bit of wood for smoke on the grill it probably would've been insane. They were great looking trout and very fresh, of course, so that helped.

I tried something similar with the snapper, because, again, feeding a kid, and it didn't come off as smoothly, but my daughter got no bones. Some of the meat towards the center was not as perfectly cooked—probably could've kept it on the grill another minute—but most of it just slid off in large chunks for my wife. I just took a whole snapper on my plate and was pleased. Again, I think different fish and different meals would allow different etiquette. This was snapper that I had marinated for about an hour with olive oil, ginger, garlic, a bit of paprika, doused with lime juice and stuff the limes into the cavities of. Certain parts seemed less bony than others.

In college I worked at a restaurant in the mid-west that did whitefish fish boils (not as horrible as it sounds) and they used big chunks of bone-in fish, but I learned there that if you have a properly cooked fish and know what you're doing, the bones can come out very simply. (Notably I was a bartender, not a cook).

[Anonymous]

I think almost everyone eats whole fish unless you're a WASP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think almost everyone eats whole fish unless you're a WASP?

It's unavailable in DC groceries that are not Whole Foods or Wegmans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think almost everyone eats whole fish unless you're a WASP?

It's unavailable in DC groceries that are not Whole Foods or Wegmans.

Absolutely not true. Talk to your fishmonger. Only not available at places like Trader Joes and Aldi