How long to cook fish in a saucepan, double boiler and slow cooker

Principles of cooking fish

Almost all types of fish can be boiled. At the same time, it is still better to cook very small varieties in another way.

Let's look at how to cook fish correctly:

Aquatic life cooked whole tends to be especially juicy. Gutted or filleted fish is cut at an angle of 90° into portioned pieces. To prevent the pieces from falling apart during cooking, a small transverse cut is made on the skin. You need to cook the fish in a small amount of liquid. The best option is when it lightly covers the product. How long to cook fish is described below.
When cooking large fish, pour cold, slightly salted water over it so that it warms up at the same time as the liquid. Small or portioned fish are dipped in hot water to prevent them from boiling.
During the cooking process of the sea creature, bay leaves, peppercorns, salt, herbs and vegetables are added to the water. The onion must be cut into small cubes. The fish will acquire a special taste and aroma and will not become overcooked if you add a little lemon juice or table vinegar to the broth during cooking.
Fresh mushrooms, wine or lemon juice added during the cooking process perfectly enhance the taste. Do not allow the liquid to boil intensely. It is recommended to remove the fish only before serving. The remaining broth is not poured out; it is used to prepare various sauces. You can also boil fish by steaming, in a slow cooker or double boiler.

Soup with fish balls in tomato sauce

The deliciousness is unimaginable!

How many minutes to cook fish?

Fish does not require long-term cooking, otherwise it becomes dry, tough, and loses its visual appeal and benefits. There is no definite answer to the question posed; it all depends on its variety and size.

Let's consider how long to cook sea and freshwater fish:

smelt – 5 min.;
mackerel and pollock – 10 minutes;
whole carp – 45 minutes, in portions – 30 minutes;
capelin and catfish – 10 min.;
perch – 17 min.;
pangasius – 12 min.;
stellate sturgeon, sturgeon up to 0.5 kg – 60-70 min., cut into portions – 30 min.;
hake – 35 minutes;
trout, pink salmon, pike perch – 15 minutes;
salmon – 30 min.;
herring, sterlet, cod, flounder – 20 min.;
pike – 25 min.

Some tricks for boiling fish

To get a tasty dish, it is not enough to know how long to cook the fish. It is necessary to pay attention to some features of this process.

You need to salt the fish at the end of cooking to preserve its taste.
To prepare the main dish, the fish is poured with hot water at the rate of two liters per kilogram of product.
To ensure that large fish cooks evenly, it is recommended to cut it into pieces. And small carcasses are cooked whole.
Excess water degrades the taste of fish, as does intense boiling. The rule here is: the less, the better.
It is advisable to boil catfish and sturgeon fish in large pieces and cut into portions immediately before serving. These types are distinguished by the tenderness of their meat, so you don’t need to add a lot of spices and seasonings during the cooking process to preserve the natural taste.
Small fish should not be placed in boiling water. A sharp temperature change will cause the delicate skin to burst, resulting in the dish losing its appearance. Among other things, the broth will become cloudy. The carcass, cut into pieces, is dipped into hot water, and small fish - into boiling water, but the heat is immediately turned down.

Seasonings for cooking

If you have decided how many minutes to cook the fish, but don’t know what to add to the broth, read the information about seasonings:

If a dish is prepared from delicate fish with a weakly expressed taste, then a minimal set of seasonings is used. White roots and salt are best.
If, on the contrary, the fish has a rich taste (carp, silver carp), carrots, onions, bay leaves and black peppercorns are added during cooking.
If the fish is river and has a pungent odor, cucumber pickle will help eliminate it. It is poured into the broth.

Before serving the fish to the table, it is better not to remove it from the broth, but you should not leave it in it for more than half an hour. If the fish was prepared for two meals, then it is better to store it in a container, lightly watering it with broth.

If you plan to use fish broth in the future to prepare sauces, you should use a minimum of salt during cooking.

From hake

1 serving – 38.6 Kcal.

Protein – 2.8 g, fat – 1.1 g, carbohydrates – 4.4 g

Preparation/cooking time – 8/80 min.

What products will you need:

Hake fish – about 350 gr.;
One and a half liters of water;
Onions, potatoes – 2 pcs.;
50 gr. rice;
10 gr. any greenery;
Carrot;
Various spices - optional;
Oil for frying - a couple of tablespoons.

How to cook:

Preparation of almost any fish dish begins with preliminary cutting. Defrost, rinse thoroughly. There is nothing wrong with putting fish with its bones in a dish, but in this case, the question will subsequently arise of what to cook the broth from. And few people like to choose bones from soup from time to time while eating.
Removing the ridge is very simple as follows. Allow the hake to thaw just a little after being severely frozen. Then rinse it under running water. Carefully cut off the head immediately. Get rid of all the insides. Remove all scales. Using your hands, carefully separate the entire backbone from the meat. This is easy to do, but for convenience you can trim the fillet itself using a knife.
Cut the fish into pieces. The width of each should not be more than a couple of centimeters.
Prepare a container in which you will cook the fish soup. Fill it with water. Lower the ridge straight down there. If it is too big and does not fit, then simply cut it into two parts. Add carrots, onions, and spices to the container for a spicy aroma.
Be sure to cook over low heat so that the soup does not boil too much. Otherwise, it will not be transparent.
Add salt at the very beginning.
Remember that the foam needs to be removed. Literally a quarter of an hour is enough for the broth to acquire all the necessary aromas and acquire a golden hue.
Strain it using a regular sieve. This way you will get rid of all unwanted bones, vegetables, foam, husks.
Return all the broth to the pan.
Peel and cut potatoes and carrots into cubes.
Make a fry. To do this, use small pieces of onion and carrot, grated. Everything is fried in a frying pan. If you like pepper, you can add it for taste.
First, potatoes are added to the fish soup. It cooks for 8 minutes.
Next, rice is lowered into the broth. It can be long or round-grained. It won't make any significant difference in taste. Cook for another 6 minutes.
Then the main ingredient of the soup is added - pieces of hake.
Finally, add the roast with a bunch of herbs and cook for a quarter of an hour.
That's the whole secret of the perfect soup. Turn off the heat and let the soup sit for 10 minutes to absorb the flavors.

How to determine readiness?

Often the phrase “boil the fish until done” is written in recipes. How much it? Let's look at the answer to the question below.

An important point in cooking fish is to determine the readiness of the dish in time and remove it from the heat. If the carcass remains undercooked, this will not only spoil its taste, but also increase the risk of parasite infection. And, on the contrary, if the fish is overcooked, it loses its taste and acquires a loose appearance and texture.

To determine the readiness of the product, you can use a wooden stick or toothpick and make a puncture. If the skewer easily enters the flesh and a clear liquid comes out of it, then the fish is ready. When it is pierced with force, a cloudy liquid oozes out of it, which means the fish needs to be cooked.

If the fish is cooked whole, a sure way to determine its readiness is to try to separate the fin; on cooked fish it comes off easily.

Another option for determining readiness is based on external signs. For example. Experts say that the eyes of the finished fish turn white and protrude outward. The degree of readiness of the fillet during the cooking process is determined by the formation of light white flakes of coagulated protein between the muscles.

Boiling fish: classic recipe

To prepare boiled fish according to the traditional recipe you will need:

fillet of flounder or tilapia;
salt, black pepper;
vinegar or juice of half a lemon;
garlic;
bulb;
carrot.

Fish fillets are washed in running water. Place in a saucepan. Pour in cold water so that it covers the fish, add finely chopped onion and carrots, and place on medium heat. The broth should boil moderately, then add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 tbsp. spoon of lemon juice. Cooking time is calculated based on the weight of the fish, on average it is 5 minutes. for every 500 g. As soon as the fish is cooked, it is served to the table with a side dish of vegetables or rice.

To cook pollock soup, you need to take:

1 kg of fish;
6 pcs. potatoes;
2 pcs. medium sized carrots;
1 onion;
bay leaf, parsley root, allspice, herbs;
salt.

Prepare according to instructions:

The fish is cut and the giblets, fins, head and tail are removed.
Place the broth on medium heat to simmer; when boiling, add salt, onion, pepper, and bay leaf. Cook for about 15 minutes.
The potatoes are washed and cut into cubes.
Wash the carrots and parsley root and chop into strips.
Fresh greens are finely chopped.
Take the fish, onion, bay leaf out of the pan, and strain the broth.
Add potatoes and cook for seven minutes. Then add carrots, parsley root, fish, disassembled into pieces.
Cook for about 20 minutes, add salt if necessary.

You can also add cereals, such as rice or wheat, to the soup.

Beneficial and harmful properties of fish broth

✅ Useful

Compensates for the lack of nutrients during diets.
It has a low calorie content (on average about 50 kcal per 100 g).
Contains useful substances such as folic acid, magnesium, polyunsaturated fats, iodine.
Rich in vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B6, B9, B12, C, D, E, PP.
Normalizes the functioning of the gallbladder and digestive system.
Speeds up metabolism.

It is recommended to include broth from cod fillet or other nutritious fish into the diet of children aged 8 months and older (in the absence of allergies) at least once a week. You should simply cook it by adding the fish to salted water.

Thanks to the rich content of vitamins and microelements that are beneficial for the child’s body, this dish will be an excellent addition to the child’s diet.

❌ Harmful

The ability to cause an allergic reaction.
The ability of fish, when exposed to unfavorable natural conditions, to accumulate salts of harmful metals and toxic substances.
Contraindications for people with liver, kidney and cardiovascular diseases.

The surest way to choose good, fresh fish is to buy live fish. If this is not possible, you should choose by smell. Freshly caught fish is distinguished by a barely perceptible sweetish smell or its complete absence.

Steaming fish: recipe

To prepare aromatic and juicy steamed fish you will need:

fillet of any fish - 700 g;
soy sauce - 2 tbsp. spoons;
several green onions;
ginger root;
olive oil.

Instructions:

Fish fillets are washed under running water. Blot with a paper towel. Then put it in a container in which the fish will be cooked.
Half the green onions are chopped into 3 cm pieces. The ginger root is peeled and cut into several thin slices. Onion and ginger are placed on top of the fish fillet. Place the container in a double boiler and cook the fish until done. How long does it take to cook fish? Above was information about the time, which depends on the type of fish.
The remaining half of the onion is finely chopped. Grate the ginger root on a fine grater; you will need about 1 teaspoon. Pour a little olive oil into the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes. fry the onion with ginger, add soy sauce and simmer for a couple of minutes over low heat.
Place the boiled fish on a plate and sprinkle with ginger dressing. Serve the dish with vegetable salad, potatoes or rice.

Rice cereal dish

The fish soup contains:

Water in the amount of 600 ml.
Approximately 100 g of pollock.
One small potato.
A tablespoon of rice cereal.
Small carrot.
A quarter of an onion.

To prepare soup with fish and rice, you need to place water in a saucepan and put the vessel on the fire. Fifteen minutes after the liquid boils, pollock is placed in it. While the product is cooking, you need to peel and rinse the vegetables. Chop the onion, grate the carrots. Potatoes are divided into square pieces. Pollock is removed from the broth. Place cereals, carrots, and onions in it. Bring vegetables to a boil. Cook for 10 minutes. Place potato pieces into a bowl. Cook the dish for another 7 minutes. When the vegetables are cooked, peeled, cut and chopped pollock should be placed in the soup. Add a small spoon of sunflower oil. Then the dish can be poured into plates.