The skin side of the fish first?


The skin side of the fish first?
When it comes to cooking fresh fish, if it's filleted with its skin on and you're planning to pan-fry it in a little olive oil, for example, you might ask yourself the following question: Which side, skin or flesh, should come into contact with the pan first?
23 K 4.4/5 (19 reviews)
Grade this page:
Keywords for this post:FishCookingSkinFleshTip
Last modified on: February 13th 2021
For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend
The skin side of the fish first?
You will probably read here or there that it is always the skin side first, we always grill longer on that side, and first, because we often want to get a nice crispness, when the skin is eaten, for whiting or sea bass for example.

filet coté peau et chair



This is often true, and for thick filleted fish, salmon for example, it allows to remove it quite easily once its side is cooked.

saumon coté peau



But for some thin fish, it is not always interesting: the skin stretches brutally in contact with the pan, and deforms the fillet into a bow.
This is very pronounced for red mullet, for example. It doesn't change the taste of the fish, but it makes it look a little less appetizing.

But if you start with the flesh side, the skin will not reach the desired crispness, or else with the risk that the fish is a bit overcooked.

What to do?

Try to proceed in 2 times at least: Frying pan quite hot, put your fillet on the flesh side first, let cook 30 seconds, just to seize, turn over (skin side down this time), and cook the necessary time.
You will notice at this point that even if the skin is still tense, the flesh, just seized, is much better, and your fillet does not deform, or less.

coté peau et chair grillé



If necessary (fillet a little thick) finish with a third, short turn, on the flesh side, to finish browning well.

Another possible solution is to scarify the skin side over a few millimetres deep with a small, very sharp knife to prevent it from shrinking.


To sum up: For fine fish fillets whose skin is to be eaten, first cook the flesh side for 30 seconds, then cook the skin side normally.

Lasts posts
Cake moulds
Cake moulds
When we make a cake, or a cake of the same rectangular shape, we usually take out our usual mould and tell ourselves that the recipe is anyway "for a cake", but is it really that simple?
August 25th 20259255
Thinning out herbs
Thinning out herbs
If you need to add a long-stemmed herb (tarragon, mint, verbena, thyme, etc.) to a recipe, you'll probably only need the leaves and not the stem, so you'll need to remove the leaves. Leaf removal means keeping only the beautiful leaves, and eliminating the ugly stems and leaves, but how do you do...
August 8th 20251,2115
Add a bay leaf
Add a bay leaf
Bay leaf: small in size, but big in flavor. You'll find it in hundreds of recipes, and it's often added to cooking meat, in a sauce or broth, usually accompanied by other herbs or products. It's a staple of Provençal, Mediterranean and Oriental cuisine, but not the only one. Usually, in a...
July 31th 20251,3145
Parsley stems
Parsley stems
Parsley, whether curly or flat, is a delicious ingredient in many recipes, where it is used both raw and cooked. When used raw, in a salad for example, where it always provides, alone or with other herbs, a remarkable freshness, only the leaves are kept. And when used cooked?
July 28th 20251,400 13
A drizzle of olive oil
A drizzle of olive oil
Often in a recipe, you have to "baste" vegetables, for example, before sending them to the oven. What the author means by this is that you need to put oil on top of the vegetables to cook them in the oven. Typically, we just quickly drizzle oil over the vegetables, hoping not to miss any, but...
July 13th 20251,5835

Other pages you may also like
Thinning out herbs
Thinning out herbs
If you need to add a long-stemmed herb (tarragon, mint, verbena, thyme, etc.) to a recipe, you'll probably only need the leaves and not the stem, so you'll need to remove the leaves. Leaf removal means keeping only the beautiful leaves, and eliminating the ugly stems and leaves, but how do you do...
August 8th 20251,2115
A few tips for effective kneading at home
A few tips for effective kneading at home
When you have to knead dough for bread or some other recipe, you may well use a food processor or the type of machine known as a stand mixer. The best-known brands are Kenwood and KitchenAid. They are useful tools, but here are a few tips to help you get the best out of them.
June 23th 2021278 K 23.7
Maillard reactions
Maillard reactions
This subject cropped up recently in a discussion with my three charming nieces; do you know what Maillard reactions are? With a name like that, they could well be some principle in mechanics, but in fact the term applies to something much closer to all of us: it's what gives food more flavour...
January 28th 201535 K4
Steam for baking bread
Steam for baking bread
What does steam have to do with bread-making? This is not only a bakers' secret, it is something you might not think of at all: if you make bread and bake it like a cake, you will end up with bread, but pale and with a thick, hard crust – a long way from the golden-brown crusty loaf you had in...
June 16th 2021141 K4.5
What can I use for blind baking a pastry case?
What can I use for blind baking a pastry case?
When it comes to home-made desserts, tarts are always popular. They can be divided into two basic types: those cooked with their filling, such as an apricot and almond cream tart, and those where the filling is added after baking the pastry case, such as a strawberry tart or chocolate tart. For...
May 2nd 2017109 K4.5
Post a comment or question
Posted by:
I am not a leaving thing

Follow this page
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
I am not a leaving thing
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.

Back to top of page