The most delicious way to prevent fish from sticking to the grill

Baking the whole fish is a bit intimidating, but it shows an impressive grilling skill. Placing the fish on the grill and cooking it to flakes is not complicated, but there are many potential mistakes in this process that can make the fish griller a little sly. The delicate skin sticks to the grate and tears. If you don’t pay attention to the cooking time, the fish meat will dry out and no one likes dried fish. Wrapping the fish with a thin strip of center-cut bacon before grilling mitigates both of these potential disasters.

The method comes from grill experts and cookbook authors Elizabeth Carmel And via Ammalony Washington post, And it’s a great way to immerse yourself in the grilled world of whole fish. Bacon protects the fish and creates a barrier between the skin and the grate of the hot grill, adding a delicate smoky flavor. It also holds stuffing such as fresh herbs, lemon slices and sliced ​​ginger roots firmly in the fish. Best of all, no flipping is needed. Season the fish, stuff it, wrap it in bacon and cook with indirect heating until the bacon is crispy. This will take about 20 minutes.

You don’t have to worry about the bounce of expensive thick-sliced ​​bacon. Karmel recommends thin strips that will crunch faster and reduce the chance of overcooking the fish.

“I buy an Oscar Mayer center cut,” she said. Thin bacon should be left for about 20 minutes until it cools. That way, you don’t need a cumbersome toothpick to easily wrap the fish and keep it in place.Center cut is important I’m thin.. The greasy bacon shrinks during cooking, exposing the fish.

I bought fish at a local bougie grocery store. There was only thick and fairly greasy bacon in this shop. I didn’t want to go to the second store, so I decided to force it, and everything Carmel says about using bacon is true. My bacon shrank toward my head and wasn’t as crunchy as I expected, and it took me 30 minutes to crunch.

Still, despite the wrong choice of bacon, the hardened pork still did the job. The fish did not stick and came off the grill. Thanks to the water from the herbs and bacon, it was still moist after another 10 minutes on the grill.

The taste was as promised. It’s a little smoky, but it wasn’t bacon enough to overwhelm the trout. I could still taste the tarragon packed in the fish. Overall, it was a delicious and hassle-free trout. (In fact, it’s so easy that I was able to get rid of it after ingesting 1 1/2 of the food.)

Another bonus was that I was able to easily remove the skin and how clean the meat came off the bones. After eating the first side of the fish, I was able to lift its skeleton cleanly from the “bottom” side, leaving a perfect fillet.

I live in Oregon, so I used trout for this experiment. The squares here are pretty good. You can also use Bran Gino or Snapper. Find about 3/4 pounds or pounds of fish, as small ones will finish cooking long before the bacon becomes crunchy. Anything larger than that runs the risk of burning bacon. (The fish in your fish counter are probably already dressed-that is, they have been cleaned and have internal organs-but This guide If you are upset by your term, you can give you confidence in buying fish. )

The Washington Post recipe gives great results, but it’s a good idea to increase the amount of bacon per fish from four to five instead of six (get cheap, thin bacon). Another reason).

Grilled bacon-rolled fish

material:

• Whole fish, each weighing 3 / 4-1 lbs
• 5 thin center-cut bacon per fish
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper (I like white pepper)
• What you want to stuff in herbs, lemon slices, ginger roots, or fish

Lightly tap the fish with a paper towel to dry and polish the inside and outside with olive oil. Lightly season with salt and pepper and fill the cavity with your favorite filling. Layer some bacon and wrap each fish in bacon, starting near the head just behind Gil. It ends about 1 inch from the end of the tail.

create 2-zone heat setup Heat a bunch of coal in the chimney and stack them on one side of the grill to your charcoal grill. If you are using a 3-burner gas grill, cover all burners and turn on the height, then turn off the center burner and lower the other two to medium height. If the grill has only two burners, heat one burner to medium to high and leave the other off. Aim for a temperature of 400 ℉.

Place the fish in an indirect heating zone (on the side without hot coal or flames) and cook undisturbed until the bacon is crispy (about 20 minutes). Take it off the grill and take it out immediately.