If you cook fish at home, chances are you've had the unpleasant experience of bringing home a piece of seafood that turned out to be — well, a little more odiferous than expected. America's Test Kitchen has a quick tip for removing the chemical compound responsible for the odor, leaving you with refreshed seafood ready to be cooked.
"Fishy" odors begin to develop in fish immediately after they are caught and killed, as bacteria on the surface break down the compound trimethylamine oxide into stinky trimethylamine. As long as the flesh is still firm and the skin is shiny rather than slimy, this fish is still fine to cook and eat. (Obviously, if your seafood smells overpoweringly of ammonia, or is mushy, slimy or otherwise questionable, discard it.)
America's Test Kitchen recommends soaking the fish in milk for 20 minutes and patting it dry to remove any fishy odors. The casein in the milk binds to the trimethylamine, so the offending compound is drained away with the milk. See the technique in action in the video above.
Have you ever tried this?
Related: Smart Tip: Crisp Up Fish Skin Instead of Pushing It Aside
(Image: Gregory Gerber/Shutterstock)
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Have not tried this, but soaking in cooking sake has a similar effect.
isn't fishy smell an indicator that it's not very fresh and you shouldn't eat it?
I have used this technique and it works beautifully.
will this work for canned sardines?
I used this on a very fresh whole snapper last week. While there wasn't much of a smell to remove, the quick soak resulted in the most moist, wonderful fish I've ever cooked!
We use this down south for things like sunnies and cat fish, but we use butter milk. It takes the mud flavor out.
Any tips for getting rid of the smell in the room after you cook? I'd love to cook salmon more, but the smell is just so overpowering.
Tried this milk trick once and found out Ms. Fishy was plain rotten. Only Mr. Hefty could sooth her ailments....
We use this technique at the Jersey shore for bluefish. It works very well.