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

Boiled fish is a fast dish by definition. You can boil the fish to eat it as a main dish with a side dish of rice, potatoes or vegetables. Although more often we are accustomed to eating boiled fish in the form of fish soup - fish soup, usually with the addition of potatoes.

Specific technologies for boiled fish: Boiled hake or cod, with Polish sauce Different sauces for boiled fish How to cook cod?

It is not forbidden to cook any fish, but experts recommend exclusively frying crucian carp, navaga, and smelt. But for sterlet, trout, burbot and ruff, cooking is the ideal cooking method.

How to cook fish: cooking principles

You can cook almost any fish, but it is better not to cook fish that is too small in this way. Boiled fish in one piece turns out to be especially tasty, as it turns out juicier and tastier.

Fillet or gutted fish are cut into portions at right angles. A transverse cut is made on the skin so that the pieces do not become deformed during the cooking process. Boil fillets and fish cut into pieces in a small amount of water. It is enough if the liquid only covers the fish.

Large fish are completely filled with cold, slightly salted water, so it will gradually warm up along with the liquid. If you are cooking smaller fish, pour hot water over it so that it cooks quickly.

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.

See also: Cooking pumpkin soup according to Belonika’s recipe

❌ 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.

Recommendations for boiling fish

It doesn’t matter whether you need to boil pink salmon or bream, you should always follow the basic rules for working with the component. Only in this case can you count on the fact that in the end everything will turn out tasty and healthy.

It is better not to salt the workpiece and water until the product is ready. Otherwise, the meat will turn out a little dry.
It is recommended to cook both river and sea fish in a pan without a lid, so you should not use a slow cooker or double boiler to prepare this product.
The water should not be allowed to boil or bubble strongly, as this can lead to deterioration in the texture of the meat and even destruction of pieces or the carcass.
Small fish are usually cooked whole, while large ones are cut into pieces. If this is not done, the component will not be welded evenly.
To save time and make the meat juicy, pieces of fish are placed in boiling water. You can’t do this with small carcasses; temperature changes can cause the skin to burst.
To boil the product tasty, you need to take a minimum amount of water. An abundance of liquid can greatly deteriorate the quality of the component, especially if you need to boil red fish.
If within a few minutes after the start of cooking the broth becomes cloudy, the product must be removed and the liquid drained. Re-place the component in fresh boiling water and continue processing.

It is necessary to take special care when boiling representatives of the sturgeon and catfish families. It is better to cut them into large pieces and use a minimum amount of seasonings and spices.

Fried capelin

For this delicious dish you need the following ingredients:

capelin - 1 kg;
lemon - 1 piece;
salt, pepper, vegetable oil to taste;
flour - 100-150 grams.

When the fish is small and frozen, it is recommended to cook it in a frying pan. To do this, wash it, dry it a little, and season with lemon juice. Then the flour is mixed with spices and seasoning, and the fish is rolled in it. Afterwards, place it on a greased baking sheet and place it in a preheated oven. The dish is prepared within 20 minutes.

This is just a small part of what can be prepared from frozen fish. If you follow the defrosting and cooking technology correctly, you will get delicious dishes with a pleasant aroma and excellent taste.

How long should you boil fish?

Each type of fish, as in the case of meat, requires an individual approach. If bream and sturgeon are cooked for equal periods of time, one of the products, and perhaps both, will be hopelessly spoiled. It is better to follow the recommendations of experts on how to properly cook fish, and not do questionable experiments with it:

Smelt. It should be cooked for no more than 5 minutes. By over-resting the component, there is a risk of getting very tough meat.
Pollock, mackerel, capelin and catfish reach the desired state in 8-12 minutes.
To boil pink salmon (and other red fish with a similar texture), trout or pike perch, you will have to spend up to a quarter of an hour.
Cod, herring, sterlet and flounder are cooked until cooked within 15-20 minutes. Bream and freshwater pike are processed a little longer.
Hake and salmon are boiled for at least 25-30 minutes. Carp, cut into small pieces, is cooked for the same amount. But a whole carp will cook for about 45 minutes.
Sturgeon takes the longest to cook. Even cut into portioned pieces, it will be ready within 1-2 hours, depending on the size of the pieces.

To determine whether the product is ready, you need to try to separate its fins from the carcass. If they come off easily, the component has reached the desired state.

The nuances of boiling fish

Of course, when boiling bream, mackerel or some delicious type of fish, there are specific features and recommendations, but there are general nuances for preparing a boiled product:

Products with a delicate, unexpressed taste are not recommended to be richly flavored with seasonings and spices. It is enough to put white roots (parsley, celery) into the broth and add salt to the finished dish.
But bream, carp or silver carp should be seasoned with pepper, bay leaf, carrots and onions. The already rich taste of meat will become more spicy and pronounced.
Fish that initially has an unpleasant odor can be saved with cucumber brine. Just add a little liquid to the broth during the cooking process.
If for some reason the finished product does not need to be served yet, it can be left in the broth, however, no more than half an hour.

The broth remaining after cooking the products can be strained several times until transparent, frozen and later used in making sauces. Just before pouring it into molds, you should add a little salt to the liquid.

With vegetables

It is fish with vegetables that has many variations in preparation. Everyone knows that boiled fish can be garnished with fresh vegetables. But few people know that you can make a delicious sauce from vegetables boiled with fish. To do this, after cooking the fish and vegetables together, transfer the fish to a separate bowl, and grind the vegetables with the remaining broth in a blender. In principle, the sauce is ready; if necessary, it is recommended to add a glass of milk to the vegetables and simmer everything for 8-10 minutes. Thanks to this, the sauce will acquire a creamy vegetable aroma.

How long to cook fish?

If you want to get the pristine taste of boiled fish (for example, mackerel, common pond carp, and even more so the noble sterlet it is very good), then keep in mind that a portioned piece of fish (150-250 g), as well as and several of these pieces in one saucepan, without much fuss, will be ready in 8-10 minutes. Regardless of whether you cook the fish in water or steam it.

A clear sign of completion of cooking is the easy separation of the bones from the pulp. If there are no bones, then after ten minutes of boiling you can still turn off the stove. The exception is if you cook a large fish whole: then readiness is checked by touch, by piercing the thickest place with a fork, or better yet, a toothpick.

For those who are used to checking cooking time by clock, here are a few guidelines:

Salmon, cut into pieces, is boiled. 25-30 minutes, the same amount for pike.
Cod, sterlet, flounder - 15-20 minutes.
Trout, pike perch, pink salmon - 10-15 minutes.
Mackerel and mentai - up to 10 minutes.
Large sturgeon - up to an hour

15-20 minutes of heat treatment is recommended for river fish of the carp family. These are ide, dace, chebak, roach, carp, bleak, gudgeon, rudd, asp, bream, silver bream, crucian carp, sabrefish. The entire family, except for the “domestic” mirror carp itself, whose health is regularly monitored by veterinarians, can be infected with the cat fluke larva, which does not die immediately even in boiling water. This parasite does not live in marine fish. Other living creatures that can inhabit the fish body die already in the fifth minute of boiling.

Procedure for cooking fish

To cook fish, it is gutted, cleaned of entrails and scales, gills are removed, cut into pieces and dipped in boiling water (to which salt and various seasonings are added in advance). The broth is brought to a boil again, and then the heat is reduced so that the liquid barely boils.

Why does fish need to be salted right away? Adding salt prevents the product from boiling too quickly. An exception to the rule about adding salt is when boiling sturgeon with dense flesh: this fish does not boil over, but can lose too many nutrients in salt water. Thus, when boiling sterlet and large sturgeon, they are salted at the end of the process.

The cleaning process can be avoided if you buy already gutted specimens or fillets. Many people prefer to cook the fish under the lid in a small amount of water, which covers the pieces of fish only halfway - simmer. If the taste of the fish itself is not very rich, it can be improved by boiling it in vegetable or even chicken broth, in milk or in water diluted in half with milk. To improve the taste, you can add carrots, parsley and celery roots, and onions to the water. An alternative option is to add a little cucumber pickle, a little dill or fresh sweet pepper to the water. Bay leaves and pepper are added only to fish whose natural smell is not liked by the cook.

Steaming retains more nutrients and flavor in the fish. For fillets, it is highly recommended, since the skin does not protect it from the aggressive external environment. If you have not yet purchased a double boiler, then you can take a regular saucepan, pour a little water into it (about a 5 cm layer), bring to a boil, put a colander on top, put fish in it, salted and sprinkled with your favorite spices, cover the colander with a lid and wait end of the process.

If the taste of boiled fish seems boring to you, and you don’t have enough enthusiasm for experimenting with broth and seasonings, this is ready to eat.

Checking the readiness of the fish:

You can check the readiness of large fish by pulling the fins; if they come off easily, the fish is ready. I check the small fish by piercing its flesh with a thin wooden stick; if the juice that flows out of the fish is clear, the fish is ready. You need to carefully monitor the preparation of fish; overcooked fish will crumble, lose its taste and be dry. The fish can be kept in the broth for no more than 40 minutes; then it loses its taste and becomes deformed. It is recommended to cook large fish whole in a large bowl so as not to spoil the appearance.

Properly cooked fish will delight you with its appearance and taste.

Storage rules

Boiled fish is one of those products that should only be stored in the refrigerator, but not for long. Allowable storage periods should not exceed 24 hours. The optimal storage place in the refrigerator is the top shelf, where there is still more cold than in other compartments.

The fact is that fish is a quickly perishable product, which, being in the refrigerator for more than a day, acquires bitterness and a specifically unpleasant odor. Such a dish should also not be placed in the freezer, as this will negatively affect its taste.

How long does it take to cook hake fish?

The cooking time for hake, in contrast to pollock, is a little longer, but the taste of boiled hake is no worse, and many people like it even better:

How long to cook hake in a saucepan? On average, in a pan, hake, cut into pieces (with bones or fillets), should be cooked for 30 minutes over low heat after the water has boiled in the pan.

Having found out how long to cook hake fish, we will now consider a simple, but at the same time popular way to boil hake in a pan at home.

How to cook hake in a pan?

According to the recipe for cooking hake, we will use a minimum of spices and additional ingredients:

If the hake was frozen, then defrost it at room temperature in advance.
We cut off the fins, remove all the entrails, thoroughly wash the carcasses in cold water, and then cut them into pieces.
Pour water into the pan so that after adding the fish, it completely covers it and bring to a boil over high heat.
In boiling water, add salt to taste, a few peas of black pepper and a whole peeled onion, then add the prepared fish.
After the water boils again, reduce the heat (the water should not boil too much) and cover the pan with a lid and cook the hake for 30 minutes until tender.
We take the boiled hake out of the pan and serve it with a side dish.

The simplest recipe

Boiled fish, which can be cooked in addition to steamed aromatic herbs, turns out not only tasty, but also quite healthy. The dish is suitable for those who adhere to the principles of proper nutrition, diet, and also monitor their health. This product can be prepared for lunch and dinner.

What ingredients will you need?

To make boiled fish at home, you need to purchase the following ingredients:

greens – 20 g;
lemon juice – 5 ml;
olive oil – 34 ml;
table salt and pepper - at your discretion;
red fish – 100 g.

The main product can be tuna, trout, salmon or salmon. It is permissible to use any greens that suit your taste.

Step-by-step cooking process

The detailed process of making aromatic fish with your own hands is shown in the following paragraphs:

The greens need to be washed, dried, and then placed in a double boiler.
Next, you need to add salt and pepper to the semi-finished fish product and send it to the greens.
Cook the ingredients for 25 minutes. until fully prepared.

For the sauce, mix lemon juice with olive oil.

Serving rules, decoration

When ready, you will initially need to place the greens on a plate. After that comes the fish. Top the delicacy with sauce.

How long does it take to cook fish for soup?

Experienced fishermen recognize fish soup, which consists only of fish, onions, carrots, herbs and salt. How to cook it? Everything is very simple. Of course, first you need to clean the fish. We rid it of the husks, entrails, head and tail. Now wash it well and use it in fairly large, portioned pieces. Then put the fish in cold, salted water. Bring to a boil. Cook sea fish for fish soup for 10-15 minutes, river fish for 15-20 minutes. The cooking time depends on the size of the pieces.

Then remove the fish from the broth and add chopped carrots, onions and herbs. And cook for another 2-3 minutes. Then we place portioned pieces of fish on plates and fill them with broth. Let's enjoy it. According to fishermen, this is real fish soup, and if you add potatoes and millet, you get fish soup.

How long to cook fish for double or triple fish soup?

A more complex option is a double or triple ear. We will need any fresh small fish. It must be cleaned, gutted, and it is best to put it in a gauze bag so that you do not have to strain the broth later. Now put all this in cold water and cook the fish soup for 1 hour.

If you are preparing double fish soup, then when the time is up, remove the gauze bag with seafood, and add prepared portions of good, large fish, onions, carrots and salt to the boiling broth. And, again, cook sea fish for fish soup for 10-15 minutes, river fish for 15-20. Pour into plates and sprinkle with fresh herbs.

If the fish soup is triple, then after you take out the first gauze bag, we repeat the procedure again, but with a larger fish. We also cook for 1 hour. After this, add portioned pieces, carrots, onions and salt. We do not change the cooking time. Serve in deep plates with herbs.

Cold water (the cheapest method)

But we will start with the simplest and most accessible method for those who are puzzled by the question of how to quickly soak salted fish. Water is what will help make the very salty fish more enjoyable and healthy. There is an opinion that you need to soak fish for exactly the same amount of time as it was salted. But, probably, rarely does anyone know the exact number of hours or days during which the fish remained in salt before coming to us for processing. Therefore, we use classical technology.

First of all, let's rinse our fish in cold water. Then put it in a suitable container and fill it with cold water. During the process, it is better if the dishes with the fish are in the refrigerator. It is necessary to change the water to fresh water every two hours. Do not neglect this small rule, then the fish will have a more pleasant taste. Salted fish is very heavy, which is why it will initially sit at the bottom of the bowl with cold liquid. After some time, when salt begins to come out of it, the fish will feel better and will rush to the surface. When the soaked fish floats to the surface, it means the process was successful.

However, there are times when you need to soak a lot of fish. In this case, a large tank and cold water from a well or pump will do (if the process takes place in conditions close to natural). The container must be installed in a cool place so that the sun's rays never find your fish stock. For five kilograms of salted fish, use ten liters of water. Change the water every two hours. And to lower its temperature, pour ice into the bowl with the fish.