Cleaning experts recommend neutralizing the odor before cooking by soaking fish in milk or a solution of lemon and water.
Soak fish in 1/4 cup vinegar, lemon juice or wine and water before cooking it for a sweet tender taste. Remove the fishy smell from your hands by washing with vinegar and water or salt and water. When baking whole fish, wrap it in well-oiled cheesecloth.
Before frying, you can soak your fish in a buttermilk marinade or an ice water marinade. The buttermilk will make your fish tender and add a tangy taste to it. While the ice water marinade is a great way to add flavor to large fish fries. You will have to over season the water to get maximum flavor.
Calculate the proportions for your brine on the basis of 100 ml salt to 1 liter of water. Place each piece of fish, weighing 150–180g, in this 10% brine for 15 to 20 minutes before frying. A whole side of fish can soak in the brine for an hour. One extra trick is to replace a small amount of the salt with sugar.
Cooking Fish
Try soaking fish in vinegar and water before cooking it. It will be sweeter, more tender and hold its shape better. When boiling or poaching fish, a tablespoon of vinegar added to the water will keep it from crumbling so easily.
Soaking fish in buttermilk is much the same as using milk, only more so. It's a bit tangier and more acidic, and it's even better at quelling unwanted flavors in your fish.
Apparently the “soaking the fish in milk” really does get rid of the fishy taste, restores the “fresh from the sea” freshness, and results in the fish being flakier and juicer.
To get rid of the smell of fish.
Soak the raw fish in 1 quart (1 liter) of water with 2 tablespoons of baking soda. Keep in refrigerator for an hour. Rinse and wipe the fish before cooking.
We've found an easy way to eliminate the smell: Soak the fish or the shellfish meat in milk for 20 minutes and then drain and pat dry. The casein in milk binds to the TMA, and when drained away, it takes the culprit that causes fishy odor with it. The result is seafood that's sweet smelling and clean-flavored.
If you soak fish in water and vinegar for about half an hour before cooking, the flesh will stay white; more importantly, if you add a little vinegar to a court bouillon, the fish will stay whole and firm.
Before cooking, soak the fish in milk for 20 minutes
In this scenario, the protein in the milk binds with the compounds that cause that fishy odor, in essence extracting if from the fish. What's left behind is sweet-smelling, brighter flesh with clean flavor. (Just make sure you pour that milk down the drain.
For a sashimi-like interior – Soak fish cut into half-inch cubes in citrus juice for 15 minutes. The fish will have an opaque, firm exterior with a raw, tender interior. For a more 'cooked' ceviche – Soak fish cut into half-inch cubes in citrus juice for approximately 20-30 minutes.
Since the acid will not cause the evaporation of any moisture, the fish won't be as prone to drying out. That said, it is possible to 'overcook' ceviche! If the proteins remain in the acid for too long, or if the acid is very acidic, the proteins will curdle and unfold too much.
At the very least, a cooked fish fillet will always benefit from a spritz of lemon or lime. If you briefly marinate that fillet in lemon or lime juice before cooking it, it becomes much more flavorful without tasting acidic.
Or, you could substitute the lemon juice with half as much white wine or white vinegar. Keep in mind that vinegar is best if used to substitute for a small amount of lemon juice, since too much will give your dish a strong vinegar taste.
Do you need to rinse fish after soaking in milk? There's no need to rinse off your fish once you've soaked it in milk!
As it does with meat, brining fish serves two purposes: One, it helps season the flesh, which improves flavor, and two, by partially dissolving muscle fibers to form a water-retaining gel, it helps prevent the protein from drying out.
Soaking fish in brine or water before cooking to remove any muddy taste is not necessary. We prefer never to wash or soak whole or filleted fish in water or any other solution (except a marinade) before cooking as it affects the texture, and ultimately, the flavour of the fish.
No you do not rinse the catfish off after soaking it. In fact, the buttermilk brine is part of the breading process. It will help the dry ingredients, such as the cornmeal, stick to the fish so it can fry.
Poaching your fish in milk will up your flavor, texture, and creaminess.