from the cooking liquid. The seafood becomes soft and tender again. To save a fish or shellfish

that you overcooked with any dry cooking method, change the recipe, add liquid, and continue

cooking on a low heat it for 20 to 30 minutes. Slow, moist cooking—braising for stews or

simmering for soups—is a very good way to cook seafood. But when you sauté, grill, fry, broil,

steam, bake or poach, do it for the shortest time.

Why seafood is so quick to cook?

Seafood cooks quickly for two reasons. One is that the proportion of connective tissue,

the part that is chewy when not cooked long enough, is relatively small (only 3 percent of

seafood is connective tissue, as opposed to 15 percent of land animal meats). The small

percentage of connective tissues in seafood is the type that readily and quickly converts into soft

gelatin on heating. Another reason is that fish and shellfish muscle fibers are short and fast

coagulate into cooked meat. Meats from land animals have long fiber that are slower to soften.

Fish cooks so quickly that even a few extra minutes on the heat causes noticeable drying

out. It is very easy to overcook fish. Many cooks are afraid of serving fish half raw, so they err

on the overcooked side. To avoid the problem, use an instant-read thermometer. When the

internal temperature reaches 140°F (60°C), the fish is done. Let the temperature increase a few

more degrees to allow a margin of error for any possible inaccuracy in your thermometer.

However, it is difficult to measure temperature of a thin fillet. Insert the tip of the thermometer

horizontally into the center.

If you don't have a meat thermometer, here's an old method from the Canadian Fisheries

that works quite well. Measure the piece of fish at its thickest part. Cook 10 minutes for every

inch of thickness. For a thick 1½-inch (4-cm) steak, for example, the total cooking time is 15

minutes. This works no matter what the cooking method. Experienced fish cooks can judge

doneness by gently pressing the meat. It is done when it begins to spring back.

TASTINGS Raw fish or pickled fish?

Pickled herring and ceviche turn soft, even though uncooked, because the acid in

the marinade breaks down the fish muscle fibers. Pickling does the same to raw

fish as cooking does.

The cooking methods

Seafood cookery falls into two major groups:

1. Dry cooking:

grilling (barbecuing or broiling

sautéing

deep-frying

stir-frying

baking

2. Moist cooking:

braising

stewing

steaming

poaching (boiling)

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