Cooking Fish - What Do I Do With the Skin?

Cafe Society
1

I’ve been cooking fish more often recently because I’ve found I like it when it’s made right, it’s good for you, and my kids will eat it. Just did a beer-batter-fried tilapia with red pepper relish and it was a big hit.

But, today when I bought the fish, I got tilapia instead of perch because the perch still had the skin on. I’ve bought skin-on fish before, and if I broil or steam it, it’s easy to get the skin off once it’s cooked. But I wanted to fry it, and you can’t batter and fry fish with the skin on and then expect to get the skin off without ruining the dish. I’ve tried cutting the skin off with a very sharp boning knife and I usually end up wasting about half the thickness of the filet.

Can the skin be left on certain fish? Seems like the skin is where all the “fishy oils” that people don’t like are concentrated. The texture doesn’t look all that appealing either. Maybe everyone eats the skin and I’m just picky, or an idiot. Enlighten me!

2

Most fish, the skin is the fishiest tasting part. Unless I’m gonna char it to a crisp, I usually take the skin off. You just lay it down skinside down, hold the thin end with like a towel or something for friction, and slice parallel to the cutting board with a thin, sharp knife. Inevitably you’ll miss a little meat, but practice will improve your ratio of skin to meat left on the board.

3

Googling “skin a fish” gets lots of hits, including videos.

4

What lissener said - get yourself a good flexible filet knife - skin side to the cutting board and push the knife away from you - you’ll find the angle that works for you and you’ll de-skin it quickly.

start at the tail and work torward where the head used to be- that way what little fish you leave behind should be minimal.